The idea that you can make money buying and selling gold may seem a strange one, but often you will never see the actual gold. It is common to trade on paper using gold as the medium.

This works because the price of gold is a fluid property. It rises and falls in response to many factors, and this is how it is possible to make money buying and selling gold.

Buying and selling gold can be performed offline or online. It is easier in many ways to do it online, and that is how most people trade gold these days. There are plenty of places online where you can trade spot gold.

Trading spot gold involves the US dollar. The way it works is like this: you need to take a long or short position on gold, which means you decide whether the price of gold will go up or go down. You are trying to profit from the price difference of gold when the price moves. At the same time you do this, you also adopt the exact opposite stance on the US dollar.

There are strong similarities between trading spot gold and trading currency pairs. Of course, you can lose money doing this just as easily as you can make money. For this reason the many places online that let you trade spot gold usually also let you trade Forex, or foreign exchange, and they will let you practice on a virtual platform with virtual money.

The great thing about being able to trade virtually is the simple and obvious fact that you can't possibly lose a single penny. You can win one either, but you can learn a lot with the only expense being your time.

You can also make money buying and selling gold through actually buying and selling real gold. Don't think of large gold bars here; think more of old jewelry, scrap gold in other words.

You could start with your friends and family. Ask them if they have any old gold, perhaps broken items, they are willing to sell to you. You will need to research how to price the gold so that you can offer them a reasonable price they will be likely to accept.

You could expand from there and use your local newspaper to advertise that you are willing to buy old and broken gold jewelry pieces. Phrase the ad so that those reading it will feel that they can earn money through selling you their old gold and you will likely have a better response.

You next need to locate a gold refinery, preferably one close to you. Some refineries will do business by mail, however. You next need to request a gold kit from the refinery. They will send you one, which will comprise of a prepaid, insured and very secure envelope that you should use to send you old and broken pieces of gold to them.

You will have to fill in the form that comes as part of the gold kit. Be sure that you fill in everything properly as mistakes will only cause delays. Post the gold and the form to the refinery from your local post office. It will take around a week to 10 days for them to get back to you with a check for the gold. Some refineries may agree to make a direct bank transfer, which may be more convenient for you.