Andy Schectman

Founder & CEO, Miles Franklin

The window to buy physical gold and silver at these prices may be closing faster than most realise.

Background

Andy Schectman co-founded Miles Franklin Precious Metals with David Schectman in 1989 and is chief executive of what is now one of the largest retail precious metals dealers in the United States. He has built the company from a small Minneapolis operation into a nationally recognised dealership and has spent over three decades educating retail investors about physical precious metals. He is a frequent guest on financial media platforms and has cultivated a large following through a combination of accessible market commentary and his deep operational knowledge of the physical metals market — premiums, supply chains, minting, and delivery logistics.

Schectman's commentary has become increasingly focused on geopolitical and monetary system themes over the past decade, particularly de-dollarisation trends, BRICS coordination, and central bank gold accumulation. He regularly reports on physical supply conditions from his operational vantage point as a large dealer, providing useful real-time colour on premiums, availability, and retail demand trends that financial commentators without industry access cannot offer.

Investment Thesis

Schectman's thesis has evolved from a primarily monetary debasement argument toward a structural geopolitical case for gold. He argues that the dollar's reserve currency status is being actively challenged by a BRICS-led coalition seeking to create alternative payment and settlement systems that reduce dependence on the dollar and US-controlled financial infrastructure (SWIFT, correspondent banking). In this framework, the central bank gold buying wave of 2022–2024 is not a cyclical phenomenon but a structural reorientation of global monetary reserves — one that retail investors in Western countries are largely unprepared for.

He also emphasises the physical scarcity argument — that demand for physical gold and silver from central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and retail investors is structurally exceeding mine supply, and that paper markets (futures, ETFs) have historically been used to suppress price discovery relative to what a purely physical market would produce. When the disconnection between paper and physical eventually resolves, he argues, the price adjustment will be abrupt and significant.

Like Zang, Schectman prioritises physical possession over paper gold claims, arguing that the systemic scenarios in which gold is most valuable are precisely the scenarios in which paper claims would be dishonoured.

Critiques & Limitations

Schectman's commercial position as a precious metals dealer creates the same conflict-of-interest concern that applies to all dealer-commentators — his revenue depends on customers buying physical metals, which is precisely what he recommends. His de-dollarisation timeline has consistently proved more aggressive than actual developments warrant, and the BRICS monetary transition he describes as imminent has not materialised in the form he suggests. Investors should treat his supply-side market intelligence (premiums, availability, dealer conditions) as genuinely valuable primary data, while applying more scrutiny to his macro predictions, which are not distinguishable from his commercial interests.

Notable Calls