The article considers the issues of the value of invested capital, methods of its measurement and its growth mechanisms. The author draws attention to relationship between the value of capital and the paradigm of economics, which ultimately indicates the existence of connections between the effectiveness of investment and the philosophy of economics. The main purpose of the article is to identify abnormalities in the valuation of assets by investors due to their incorrect or incomplete understanding of the value growth mechanism, the effects of which may assume significance on a macroeconomic scale.

In this article, gold is analyzed from an investment perspective as an asset that allows you to increase your wealth. The analysis is twofold. First, it is about examining to what extent changes in gold prices in the world markets translate into changes in the prices of shares of companies that extract gold. Second, it was checked whether there is a financial leverage effect, which in this case means that changes in the price of shares of gold mining companies are greater than changes in the price of gold itself. Methodically, the Sharpe model was used and two basic parameters of the model were estimated, i.e. the intercept (alpha), and the beta coefficient as a measure of systematic risk, for the gold market and the equity market of gold mining companies and ET Fs based on these companies.
The research carried out in accordance with the logic of the Sharpe model shows that the obtained value of the alpha parameter for the stock market was positive, while for the gold market it was negative. At the same time, higher levels of this parameter are beneficial to the investor, which means that an advantage of the stock market over the gold market exists. In turn, the estimated beta for the stock market is much lower than for the gold market. The systematic risk level for stocks is 0.45, and for the gold market it is 1.98, which is a significant difference. The stocks of gold mining companies can be classified as defensive against the stock market (the rate of return of the gold mine stock is insensitive to market movements) and aggressive against the gold market (the rate of return of the gold mine shares reacts more strongly than the movement in the price of gold).

The paper deals with the issue of financial efficiency, measured by the arithmetic rate of return, of indirect financial investments in the area of strategic raw materials (hard coal, copper, crude oil). Two forms of indirect investments were analyzed: shares of natural resources companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and futures contracts for strategic commodities: hard coal, copper and crude oil.

The time of the analysis is the first 6 months of 2019 and 2020. The year 2019 was regarded as an analysis of the period of economic growth, and the year 2020 was the analysis of the period of economic crisis. The comparisons were made in two dimensions. Firstly, it whether indirect commodity investments show the characteristics of efficiency resilience to the time of the economic crisis was checked (by comparing the achieved rates of return in the two analyzed periods). Secondly, which of the analyzed forms of investment (stocks, contracts) gives better investment results during economic growth and economic crisis was compared.

As it was shown in the paper, indirect commodity investments do not show an above-average rate of return neither during economic growth nor economic crisis. The achieved rates of return on shares compared to changes in the WIG20 index in the analyzed first half of 2019 were negative. Only one company showed a positive and significantly higher than the market rate of return. Very similar results were achieved by the analyzed companies in 2020.

On the other hand, the analysis of prices and rates of return on commodity futures contracts showed that in the period of economic growth it is effective to take a long position on crude oil contracts and a short position on hard coal contracts. In a period of economic crisis, the opposite position is profitable due to the observed growth in hard coal prices and a significant drop in crude oil prices.

The answers to the research questions posed in the paper do not provide indications for recommending indirect forms of investment in commodities as an alternative to analogous forms of other sectors of the economy. The analysis shows that the impact of the economic situation on the efficiency of commodity investment is most noticeable for crude oil, and the least (among the analyzed commodities) for indirect copper-based investments.

The choice of financing sources made by coal mining companies reflects a number of macro- and microeconomic factors. The paper attempts to present only those that play the most important role in mining companies’ market activities. The structure of sources of financing mining companies’ operations is presented by computing the share of equity in liabilities and shareholders’ equity, the golden balance sheet rule showing the degree of financing of non-current assets through shareholders’ equity and the silver balance sheet rule which shows the ratio of long-term capital to non-current assets. Only a few mining companies can satisfy those two rules as they finance their economic activity through equity and short-term liabilities. Mining companies are not indebted. Their caution in incurring long- -term debt results from the implementation of high volatility of financial results, which are prone to the effects of the economic situation. The basic determinants of the choice of financing sources include the structure of assets, the rate of return on assets and companies’ ability to service debt. The high capital intensity of the mining sector is reflected in the large share of non-current assets in total assets, which in some mining companies exceeds 80% of total assets. The rates of return on assets vary widely and are influenced by fluctuations in coal prices at different phases of the market situation. They also have a significant impact on companies’ ability to service debt. Empirical research conducted by the author revealed that the structure of financing sources in Polish coal mining companies is like that of global mining corporations, as are the economic relations shaping this structure.