Anthony Allen Anderson from GSI Exchange Talks Crypto, Precious Metals and Entrepreneurship

Anthony Allen Anderson is Senior Partner of GSI Exchange, an industry-leading coin and precious metals company specializing in the wholesale and direct trading of precious metals bullion and coins, and establishing physical gold and silver IRAs for clients.

A visionary leader in the precious metals industry, Anthony has contributed to GSI Exchange’s outsized growth and profitability since the company’s inception in 2014–averaging a three-year growth factor of over 3,800%.

Anthony came to the helm at GSI Exchange as a financial industry veteran, working with Peter McKenna at Investors Business Daily, the late Russell Sands of Turtle Trader fame, and a number of top financial traders including Jon Najarian, Don Fishback, and Chuck Hughes (among others), where he gained in-depth and hands-on experience in the futures, options, and foreign exchange markets.

GSI Exchange marked a much-needed transition for both Anthony and the precious metals industry as a whole, as GSI Exchange, under Anthony’s leadership, quickly differentiated itself within the industry, providing customers with a cutting-edge suite of competitive products, comprehensive market information, and outstanding service.

GSI Exchange’s entry into the market began with Anthony’s efforts toward accumulating one of the largest networks of metals suppliers in the industry, a database that quickly surpassed those of other competing firms.

Not only does this wide network enable the company to have a much wider selection of products to bring to market, but it also allows GSI Exchange to operate in a manner that differentiates itself from the “one-size-fits-all” approach that Anthony sees as a major weakness among competing firms.

GSI Exchange’s focus on limited strike bullion and coins from a wide supplier database allows the company to provide customers with the highest quality silver, gold, palladium and platinum coins at prices far more favorable than its industry peers.

 We recently had the opportunity to speak to Anthony Allen Anderson from GSI Exchange and learn a little about his approach to managing one of the largest and most successful coin, bullion, and precious metals dealers in the United States, and why now, more than ever, may be the best time to invest in gold and silver.

What are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

I think the first key, is to surround yourself with a great team and people you can trust.  As a business owner, it is easy to think you can do everything yourself.  But you can’t.  You need people to delegate work to so you can focus on higher value business development.

You also need to surround yourself with people that can do things better than you – whether that is sales, marketing, advertising, financial management and not let your ego get in the way….

Always try and work with A players and the results will follow.

What is the biggest mistake you see others making in the precious metals industry?

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making in business is seeking short-term profit over long-term growth.  In the precious metals industry, we are in a relationship-based business.  We measure our client relationships over years and decades.  Many of our competitors think first about closing a sale, we think about building value.  We grow our business from referrals from existing clients and new sales to existing clients, it is always better (and cheaper) than trying to win new business from scratch.

How has cryptocurrency impacted the precious metals market?  Will this trend continue?

In investment terms, a safe haven should be a place of relative safety when times are tough. Traditionally, safe haven assets have been physical assets, such as gold and silver, the US dollar and the Swiss Franc.

More recently, Bitcoin, and other intangible assets, have been entering this discussion.

Gold is a real and tangible asset, similar to currencies but unlike stocks, government bonds, virtual currencies and other financial products. Gold is also durable with an effectively infinite longevity and is different from any other asset.

These are the aspects that give gold and precious metals its position as a safe haven, and they are precisely what cryptocurrencies are missing.  When it comes to intangible assets the issue is whether this same kind of safety can be provided by something that is not real and tangible. In other words, could Bitcoin provide similar relative safety as gold? The answer is no.

In a crisis, behavioral scientists have observed that people – regardless of age or geography — maintain a desire to hold real and tangible assets.

Very few companies traded on the US stock exchange, for example, are older than 50 years. By comparison, gold has existed for thousands of years and any gold coin or gold bar will most likely outlive any company and their stocks and bonds.

So if you have the choice of physically holding gold coins and bars or buying a financial claim on gold in the form of an ETF or gold mining stock, only the former is providing you with the benefits of a safe haven.

Gold is highly divisible, able to be manufactured and purchased from as little as a few grams right up to 12.5 kg gold bars. The main reason for not holding physical gold is the cost of storage, but there are intermediaries which can safely and securely store physical assets.

I think there is a place for cryptocurrency in one’s financial allocations, however it is highly volatile and not suitable for many investors.  Precious metals have proven to be remarkably resilient during times of financial stress and are an outstanding hedge against inflation and government spending that is devaluing currency.  I am not convinced cryptocurrency has the history or credibility to prove its ability to do

How did the Coronavirus Crash of March 2020 impact your business?

It was eerily similar to what happened in 2007-2008 when there was widespread fear and panic in the market.  We saw a systemic shock that triggers global stock markets to fall precipitously over days or weeks and people looked to safe haven assets to protect their investments and retirement savings.

It’s in this situation that tangible assets really come into their own. Your real and tangible assets – your gold coins and bars – will still be there and accessible. Trading in them can’t be halted by a company or an exchange, they can’t easily be seized or cancelled by a desperate spendthrift government, and they don’t rely on a third party being able to meet its own financial obligations first.

Over the past two years we have seen tremendous growth and consumer interest in precious metals. We’ve been through periods of extreme volatility before and our clients have come to trust our judgment and advice in a crisis, so it is another reason why working with an experienced team is invaluable.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic sparked fear and panic around the globe, Gold reinforced its reputation as a safe haven during uncertain times returning 24.6% – significantly outperforming the S&P 500, emerging markets, treasuries and corporate debt.

We increased our investment services team by 50% as a result of a surge in client demand for gold-backed IRAs and bullion. In addition to experienced investment and retirement professionals, we also added tax attorneys and legal experts to assist clients with tax-advantaged estate and retirement planning and we upgraded technology to streamline the client approval and account opening process.

We also moved our headquarters from California to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida in 2020 to better serve its clients and continue our rapid national expansion.

Why precious metals now?  What are the tailwinds you see for gold and silver over the next 3-5 years?

Rising interest rates, rising inflation, runaway spending out of Washington D.C. increasing an already unsustainable budget deficit, an accommodative Fed, and a weakening dollar are key factors that will support gold prices for a very long time.

During uncertain economic times, gold should be part of any well-diversified investment strategy. With a history of acting as a hedge against inflation and a declining dollar, clients are increasingly seeking exposure to precious metals with many proactively holding these assets in tax-advantaged retirement accounts.