wealth preservation
Gold bullion and other precious metals including silver, platinum and palladium bullion are foundation assets 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, precious metals 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 and other precious metals 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:
safe haven
Precious metals provide the ultimate safe haven. They offer a strong defense against inflation, financial crises and the fiat (paper) currency destruction we are seeing around the world as governments erode purchasing power through currency debasement. In the last decade, the Canadian and US dollars, Euro, Pound and Yen have all have all lost more than 70 percent of their purchasing power against gold. This trend will continue until fiscal and monetary discipline is restored, and there is nothing on the horizon to indicate that will happen any time soon
Portfolio diversification
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 precious metals prices 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.
Inflation hedge
Market cycles come and go, but over the long term, gold historically has retained its purchasing power. Gold’s value, in terms of the real goods and services that it can buy, has remained remarkably stable forcenturies. 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.
CURRENCY HEDGE
Gold and silver bullion 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.
Risk management
Gold and silver are 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, silver and other precious metals also helps tomanage risk more effectively by protecting against infrequent or unlikely but consequential negative events, often referred to as tail risks.
Demand and supply
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 precious metals 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.