What do you think of palladium?

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

So I'm thinking it may be a good idea to hedge my market bets with some physical assets.

Looking around, by all rights palladium shouldn't be much less than platinum. It's almost as rare and almost as useful in industrial operations. It's also the material that has the highest hydrogen uptake out there. So if fuel cells ever become big this is the material that will store the hydrogen without turning the car into a high pressure bomb.

Currently it's about $200 an ounce but a few years ago when Russia used their 50% wold production capability to slow supply it was over $1000 an ounce.

Any thoughts?

 

[calmloki]

Never cared for Richard Boone. Paladin (Have Gun, Will Travel)

 

[harley]

I saw the Dead there (the NY one) back in the 70s. It was a great show. The tape was a classic! And the commodity was going for a bit less than $200/oz. But that was a long time ago.

 

[Grep]

Platinum is now so expensive that, over the last decade or so, period fine-art photographic printers have resorted to using palladium. Though a vastly more expensive and tricky substitute for silver, it allows soft and subtle tonal gradiations in a print.

Unfortunately, you have to have a negative that is the same size as the print you want, as you typically use a direct "contact print" technique, with the sun or a very intense ultraviolet light source to expose the emulsion.

It's a challenging technique that has few adherents, though they are very dedicated.

As an aside, one of the easiest and least expensive alternative photographic printing technologies is the cyanotype process, commonly called "blueprinting" (no, it's not just for drawings). When done well, it is strikingly-rich looking.

Photography is a very expensive hobby, but some might say it's cheaper than speculating in metals.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Just as I ask my gold bug friends,

How big a dividend does it pay?