Gold as a Crisis Asset
War, inflation, Fed cycles - since 1971.
About this page
Gold has no earnings, no yield and no management team, which is exactly why it behaves differently from everything else in a portfolio. This page charts how it has actually performed through wars, inflation shocks and Federal Reserve rate cycles, rather than through the stories usually told about it.
The useful question is not whether gold is good or bad, but when it has helped. Look at what it did while inflation was accelerating, what it did once the Fed began cutting, and what a small allocation would have done to an ordinary stock and bond portfolio across full decades.
Is gold really an inflation hedge?
Over very long periods it has broadly kept pace with prices, but the year-to-year relationship is loose. Most of its work has come during the onset of inflation shocks and during crises of confidence, not steadily.
How much gold should a portfolio hold?
That is a personal call, and these charts exist to make the trade-off concrete rather than to answer it. Test a specific weight in the portfolio backtester and watch what it does to the worst year, not just the average.