By the World Gold Council
(The links in this article go to WGC pages. This story is from here »)
Gold is a foundation asset within any long term savings or investment portfolio. For centuries, particularly during times of financial stress and the resulting 'flight to quality', investors have sought to protect their capital in assets that offer safer stores of value.
A potent wealth preserver, gold’s stability remains as compelling as ever for today’s investor.
As one of the few financial assets that do not rely on an issuer's promise to pay, gold offers refuge from widespread default risk. It offers investors insurance against extreme movements in the value of other asset classes.
A number of compelling reasons underpin the widespread renewal of interest in gold as an asset class:
Most investment portfolios primarily hold traditional financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Diversifying your portfolio can offer added protection against fluctuations in the value of any single asset or group of assets. Risk factors that may affect the gold price are quite different in nature from those that affect other assets. Statistically, portfolios containing gold are generally more robust and less volatile than those that do not.
Market cycles come and go, but over the long term, gold retains its purchasing power. Gold’s value, in terms of the real goods and services that it can buy, has remained remarkably stable for centuries. In contrast, the purchasing power of many currencies has generally declined, due for the most part to the rising price of goods and services. Hence investors often rely on gold to counter the effects of inflation and currency fluctuations.
Gold is employed as a hedge against fluctuations in currencies, particularly the US dollar. If the world’s main trading currency appreciates, the dollar gold price generally falls. On the other hand, a fall in the dollar relative to the other main currencies produces a rise in the gold price. For this reason, gold has consistently proved to be one of the most effective assets in protecting against dollar weakness.
Gold is significantly less volatile than most commodities and many equity indices. It tends to behave more like a currency. Assets with low volatility will help to reduce overall risk in your portfolio, adding a beneficial effect on expected returns. Gold also helps to manage risk more effectively by protecting against infrequent or unlikely but consequential negative events, often referred to as “tail risks”.
The price of gold tracks the shifting balance of supply and demand. Long lead times in gold mining mean production of gold is relatively inelastic, regardless of increases in demand. That’s why the rally in the gold price since 2001 has not engendered a meaningful increase in gold production levels.
Demand for gold has shown sustained growth recently, due at least in part to rising income levels in key markets. These supply and demand factors have laid foundations for gold’s most positive outlook in over a quarter of a century.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comparative pricing
You can find our independent comparative pricing for bullion, coins, and used 'scrap' in both US dollars and New Zealand dollars which are updated on a daily basis here »
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to our weekly precious metails email, enter your email address here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.