Any way to approch speculative investments (e.g. bullion, IPOs, etc.)?

[panda]

DELETED

[VirginiaBob]

All of the below is my personal opinions so take with a grain of salt:

1.  Don't buy metals - historical returns are around 3-4% with too much volitilaty (risk).  If you still want to buy metals, buy metals funds instead, such as VGPMX, but I'd even avoid that.
2.  IPO's - I tend to wait until things flush out until I buy a stock.  Buying the frenzy is not my style. 
3.  Stock in smaller and midsize companies - good approach with buying the ETF's.
4.  For speculative investments, I like trying things like P2P loan investing (Lending club, prosper), and have considered real estate crowdfunding (but haven't pulled the trigger) with play money.
5.  Max for all speculative investments - 2% of total portfolio.

[Thegoblinchief]

Run.

[hodedofome]

I am an active trader on the side. You can make money in just about any industry if you know what you are doing and work really hard at it. If you know the car market really well, you can flip cars and make a decent living. One guy on this site was raising Talons in Europe and selling them for big $$$.

Most hobbies cost money, they don't make money. You'll have to get into the right mindset and really understand your edge and how you'll make money out of it. It has to be very businesslike. If it's not, you're just playing around and you should never expect it to be a money-making venture for you.