Physical Palladium: An ETF Superstar From the Start
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Trader Mark submits:
In January, the first physical ETFs for both Palladium (PALL) and Platinum (PPLT) were introduced. Both ETFS have proven popular with investors, with the ETFS Physical Palladium ETF garnering in excess of $250M in assets, and the ETFS Physical Platinum ETF over $500M. Performance has also been very good, but frankly all asset classes are moving en masse, so it is hard to really tell what is gaining for individual story reasons and what is gaining from "rising tides lift all boats" reasons. That said, the performance in Palladium, especially of late (up nearly 25% in less than a month), has been quite awe inspiring.
While platinum is similar to silver in that it has industrial use as well as a potential "store of value," palladium is a pure industrial play similar to copper. (Both palladium and platinum are used heavily in the auto industry.) Since there is not a copper ETF, it appears the new palladium ETF would be a convenient way to benefit from the wave of economic optimism, without company-specific risk (such as buying Freeport McMoran & Gold (FCX)).
