Diamonds as an investment
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Diamonds were largely inaccessible to investors until the recent advent of regulated commodities, due to a lack of
price discovery In economics and finance, the price discovery process (also called price discovery mechanism) is the process of determining the price of an asset in the marketplace through the interactions of buyers and sellers. Overview Price discovery is diff ...
and transparency. The characteristics of individual diamonds, especially the carat weight,
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
and
clarity Clarity may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Clarity, a magic spell in the online game ''EverQuest'' * Clarity, a fictional drug from the film ''Minority Report'' Music Albums * ''Clarity'' (Jimmy Eat World album) * ...
, have significant impact on values, but transactions were always private. With the standardized commodity as an underlying asset, several market traded
financial instruments Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...
have been announced.


Diamond Standard Commodities

Diamond Standard is the producer of an exchange traded, regulated
diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
commodity. Equivalent to a standard gold bar for the diamond market, the diamond coin and bar enable investors to access an estimated $1.2 trillion asset class for the first time. Futures contracts are in development by CFTC-licensees, and an investment trust launched in 2022. The commodity makes diamonds accessible to fund managers because the commodity is marked-to-market daily. The coin and bar are physical, and each contains a standardized set of diamonds, graded and certified by the
GIA ''Gia'' is a 1998 American biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Elizabeth M ...
. The diamonds are acquired using an automated market-making and statistical sampling process. The geological details of the diamonds is stored on a public blockchain.


Market Prices

Diamond prices are influenced by global trends. The largest markets are USA (about half), China and India. Since 2008, larger diamonds have appreciated better than smaller ones.


Price fluctuations

Polished diamond prices vary widely depending on a diamond's carat,
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
,
clarity Clarity may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Clarity, a magic spell in the online game ''EverQuest'' * Clarity, a fictional drug from the film ''Minority Report'' Music Albums * ''Clarity'' (Jimmy Eat World album) * ...
and
cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...
, sometimes referred to as the 4 Cs. In contrast to
precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. ...
s, there is no universal world price per gram for diamonds. The industry refers to price guides. Rough diamond prices have historically been impacted by the mining companies controlling supply, most notably De Beers. However, after the dismantling of the De Beers cartel in 2001, the industry is now more fragmented resulting in a higher percentage of diamond sales taking place in the form of auctions and other forms of open-market sales.


Financial feasibility


Synthetic diamonds

Since the 1950s, techniques can produce gem-quality diamonds of essentially any desired chemistry in sizes up to about 1cm. Although some manufacturers do label their synthetic diamonds with serial numbers there is no guarantee that a given diamond is not man made, although sometimes an unnatural chemical composition or pattern of flaws may suggest a diamond is synthetic. It is much cheaper to produce diamonds through artificial synthesis than to mine them, although currently the cost of synthesis is still significant. The inability to guarantee that a diamond is naturally occurring could undermine the premium price still currently charged over synthetic diamonds. However, new technological advances have allowed some independent gem labs such as GIA (Gemological Institute of America) to issue a specific Synthetic Diamond Grading Report which identifies a diamond as laboratory-grown and laser inscribes it with "laboratory grown".


Polished diamonds

There are several factors contributing to low liquidity of diamonds. One of the main factors is the lack of terminal market. Most commodities have terminal markets, and some form of commodities exchange,
clearing house Clearing house or Clearinghouse may refer to: Banking and finance * Clearing house (finance) * Automated clearing house * ACH Network, an electronic network for financial transactions in the U.S. * Bankers' clearing house * Cheque clearing * Cl ...
, and central storage facilities. Until recently this did not exist for diamonds. Diamonds are also subject to
value added tax A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the end ...
in the UK and EU, and
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
in most other developed countries, therefore reducing their effectiveness as an investment medium. While most diamonds are sold through retail stores at high margin, investment diamonds are usually sold at auctions or privately. Diamonds in larger sizes are rare, and their price is dependent on the individual features of the diamond. Fashion and marketing aspects can also cause fluctuations in price. This makes it difficult to establish a uniform and readily understood pricing system.
Martin Rapaport Martin Rapaport is chairman of the Rapaport Group, founder of the Rapaport Diamond Report and the RapNet online diamond trading network. Rapaport has been called a "maverick" within the diamond industry for standardizing and publishing diamond pr ...
produces the
Rapaport Diamond Report The Rapaport Price List, informally known as the Rap List or Rap Sheet, is the diamond industry standard for the pricing of diamonds. History The first Rapaport Price List was produced by Martin Rapaport, the Rapaport Diamonds Group founder, in 19 ...
, which lists prices for polished diamonds. The Rapaport Diamond Report is relatively expensive to subscribe to and, as such, is not readily available to consumers and investors. Each week, there are matrices of diamond prices for various shapes of brilliant cut diamonds, by colour and clarity within size bands. The price matrix for brilliant cuts alone exceeds 1,400 entries, and even this is achieved only by grouping some grades together. There are considerable price shifts near the edges of the size bands, so a stone may list at $5,500 per carat = $2,695, while a stone of similar quality lists at $7,500 per carat = $3,750. This difference seems surprising, but in reality stones near the top of a size band (or rarer fancy coloured varieties) tend to be uprated slightly. Some of the price jumps are related to marketing and consumer expectations. For example, a buyer expecting a diamond solitaire engagement ring may be unwilling to accept a diamond. There are numerous diamond grading laboratories, with each offering investors, consumers and dealers similar diamond-grading and verification services, including the
Gemological Institute of America The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is a nonprofit institute based in Carlsbad, California. It is dedicated to research and education in the field of gemology and the jewelry arts. Founded in 1931, GIA's mission is to protect buyers and se ...
(GIA) and the CIBJO (Confédération Internationale de la Bijouterie, Joaillerie et Orfèvrerie), also known as the World Jewellery Confederation. If the standards set by such organisations are called into question, ramifications are felt throughout the diamond industry. In 2005, the GIA was sued by a dealer who had supplied diamonds to the
Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), an ...
after the accuracy of GIA-issued certificates was questioned. As a result of a subsequent investigation, four GIA employees were fired for breach of the GIA's ethical codes. The GIA also claims to have changed some of its procedures to prevent such occurrences from happening again. The non-linear pricing of different sizes (weights) of diamonds means that it is not realistic to exchange, for example, two quarter-carats (50 mg) for one half-carat (100 mg). With commodities such as gold, it is clear that one 20-gram bar is worth the same as two 10-gram bars, assuming the same purity. In most terminal markets, there needs to be a readily available standard quality, or limited number of qualities, available in sufficient quantity to be tradeable. This is a major factor which affects liquidity. The many variables in diamond quality makes commodity-like pricing difficult, especially with rarer stones that merit special handling above standard-issue diamonds. The investment parameter of diamonds is their high value per unit weight, which makes them easy to store and transport. A high-quality diamond weighing as little as 2 or 3 grams could be worth as much as 100 kilos of gold. This extremely condensed value and portability does bestow diamonds as a form of emergency funding. People and populations displaced by war or extreme upheaval have used this portable asset successfully. In 2009 an exchange was launched by DODAQ to trade categories of polished diamonds. The DODAQ exchange is intended to be a terminal market for round, polished, certified diamonds (the most liquid part of the market) and hosts its centralised storage facility in a Freezone. The exchange is an attempt to overcome the traditional investment barriers of sales tax and low liquidity on the resale market. In 2012 DODAQ nv and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre joined forces to create DIAMDAX. It is the first online diamond exchange to report the actual transaction price. The exchange provides its users with a fully automated trading platform and acts as counter party to both buyer and seller, offering anonymity to its users. Rare "fancy colored diamonds" such as yellows, pinks, blues and greens have proved to be a secure investment over the five years preceding 2012. This is based on the principles of supply and demand as well as new economies entering the market. Rio Tinto has announced that they intend to close the
Argyle Mine Argyle is an archaic spelling of Argyll, a county in western Scotland. Argyle may refer to: Places Australia * Argyle, Victoria * Argyle County, New South Wales **Electoral district of Argyle, a former electoral district for the Legislative ...
in Western Australia in 2016–2018 which will impact the dwindling supply. In its Global Diamond Report 2014, Bain & Co reports that demand for investment diamonds accounts for less than 5% of the total value of polished diamonds. It also reports that diamond prices have benefited from 1.6x lower volatility than gold. Characteristics of investment-grade polished diamonds are highest color (D, E, F) and clarity (IF, VVS1, VVS2), weights ranging from 1 to 10 carats, triple-EX grading (Excellent Cut, Excellent Polish, Excellent Symmetry), and no fluorescence.


Polki (unfaceted) diamonds

Old diamond jewellery in India, specially from the Mughal period, uses unfaceted diamonds. Mughal style jewellery has become popular in India recently featuring uncut diamonds termed "Polki" (which originally referred to a style of cleaving diamonds). The diamonds used in modern polki jewellery are low grade and do not have much investment value, even though polki jewellery can be expensive. The diamonds are backed by silver foil to allow light to reflect. The
Kundan Kundan, meaning pure gold, is a traditional form of Indian gemstone jewellery involving a gem set with a gold foil between the stones and its mount, usually for elaborate necklaces and other jewellery. History Origins of Kundan jewelleries i ...
jewellery in India uses the same style, but it uses glass instead of diamonds.


Funds

In June 2012, Finanz Konzept AG launched the worldwide first actively managed physical diamond fund, which invests in natural physical polished diamonds and coloured diamonds. In November 2012, PureFunds launched an Exchange Traded Fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange that invests in companies engaged in the diamond industry, rather than invest in physical diamonds. The fund ceased trading on January 23, 2014.


Mining companies

Mining companies produce and sell rough diamonds. Given the very high expense of operating a diamond mine, many diamond mining companies are public and/or owned by governments. The largest diamond company in the world is Alrosa, which surpassed
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
in carat production in 2008. De Beers is privately owned by Anglo American (85%) and the
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
government (15%), so its shares are not traded on the stock market. The Oppenheimer family had previously owned a 40% stake in De Beers, but this was sold to Anglo American in 2011.
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...
and
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
are the next largest producers, but diamond mining is a small part of their commodity portfolio.


Recycled diamonds

Diamond, because of its
hardness In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardness; for example hard ...
, is one of the few
gemstone A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
s that has a recycled
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...
. Recycled diamonds are diamonds that have been polished and set into jewelry, then removed and possibly re-cut before sale back into the diamond industry. This sector accounts for 5%–10% of market supply. Many jewelers typically offer to repurchase diamonds at a 15–20% discount relative to their selling price. Whether it is releasing capital to re-invest in more liquid stock, or generating greater margin on re-purchased diamond jewelry, repurchasing diamonds is part of an ongoing strategy for many members of the jewelry industry. In 2012, Tacy Ltd. stated that it expected $1 billion worth of recycled diamonds to be put back into the market. In 2013, its estimation was $1.2 billion.


The market

Diamonds of a certain size, generally half a carat and above, are traded and processed by the industry individually. Each has unique attributes and a corresponding unique market place. Diamonds of this size, whether recycled or not, have a similar market price. It is impossible to tell the difference between a recycled one-carat diamond (as long as it is undamaged) and a "freshly mined" one-carat diamond with the same characteristics, and the market does not differentiate between them. Diamonds of smaller sizes are traded in parcels of similar stones, called 'melee', after the French word for mix. Generally diamonds of exactly similar size, cut, shape, color and clarity are used in a single piece of diamond
jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...
. If not, the stones would not match and the piece would not sell. Small recycled diamonds are treated differently from large individual stones. A single small diamond has limited value by itself. It is only of use if it can be matched with other similar diamonds, reset into jewelry and sold to a customer, thereby creating value. Small recycled diamonds need to be sorted, have their cut modified and resold to manufacturers in large parcels to allow them to pick matching stones to set in jewelry.


See also

* Alternative investment *
Gold as an investment Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a way of diversifying risk, especially through the use of futures contracts and derivatives. The gold market is subject to speculation and ...
*
Inflation hedge An inflation hedge is an investment intended to protect the investor against (hedge) a decrease in the purchasing power of money (inflation). There is no investment known to be a successful hedge in all inflationary environments, just as there is n ...
*
List of diamonds Diamonds become famous typically for some combination of their size, color and quality. Diamonds occur naturally in many different colors, so the largest diamond of a particular color may not be large in absolute terms, but it may still be consid ...
*
Palladium as an investment Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...
*
Platinum as an investment Platinum as an investment has a much shorter history in the financial sector than gold or silver, which were known to ancient civilizations. Experts posit that platinum is about 15–20 times scarcer than gold, on the basis of annual mine producti ...
*
Silver as an investment Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical co ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


PriceScope Diamond Price Chart
1 Aug 2012 update.
Different Types of Uncut Diamond Polki
Diamond Commodities used as an investment