Silver Takes Home The Gold When It Comes To Medals, But Not ETFs

We know who took home medals at the Olympics, but did exchange traded funds (ETFs) come out a winner?

The final tally for U.S. medals is 36 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze. Not bad!

Sorry Michael Phelps, but those gold medals aren’t solid gold: the last ones that were were awarded in 1912. If they were made of solid gold, they’d weigh four pounds and be worth about $50,000. Instead, they are covered with six grams of gold, according to specifications. Both the gold and silver medals are made of 92.5% silver. Bronze medals are mostly copper.

The medals are designed for each Olympic Games by the host city’s organizing committee.

Despite the fact that the medals aren’t as pure as their name implies, they aren’t worthless: gold is worth about $570; silver is worth about $403 and bronze is worth about $11.

One winner in the Olympics might have been mining giant BHP Billiton, which had a big role in the Olympics and the Paralympics, as they provided the raw materials for the medals, the International Olympic Committee reports.

There are several ways to get access to metals (medals, however, are only for the most elite of us - unless hoisting a pint is classified as a sport), including through futures, mining companies or countries in which mining is a major industry:

• PowerShares DB Base Metals (DBB): up 3.2% year-to-date; holds 46.4% copper; down 0.4% during the Olympics
• SPDR Gold Shares (GLD): down 1.7% year-to-date; down 5.8% during the Olympics
• iShares Silver Trust (SLV): down 9.8% year-to-date; down 17.5% during the Olympics;
• iShares MSCI Australia (EWA): down 19.1% year-to-date; BHP Billiton is 16.8%

Someone who’s very pleased with their performance at the Olympics is NBC. A survey found that 76% of people stayed up late to watch the games, while more than half said they had sacrificed sleep. The games surpassed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to capture more viewers than any other event in U.S. television history, reports David Bauder for the Associated Press. Michael Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals didn’t hurt.

NBC’s parent company, GE (GE), could find itself with a gold medal of its own.

• Vanguard Industrials (VIS): down 8.7% year-to-date; 21.3% of holdings
• PowerShares FTSE RAFI Industrials (PRFN): down 8% year-to-date; 15.4% of holdings
• iShares Dow Jones US Industrial (IYJ): down 8.1% year-to-date; 14.9% of holdings

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