The writer is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Investors who had recently jumped on the gold bandwagon learned a painful lesson on Tuesday when prices posted their largest one-day fall in 12 years. It’s a lesson they should remember for when the broader equity market cycle eventually turns: gold’s diversification benefits rarely come without some bumps along the way.
While this week’s sell-off is unlikely to change the more structural reasons investors have been adding gold to portfolios, that doesn’t mean a repeat won’t happen. Indeed, history shows a consistent pattern in which gold prices fall alongside stocks before decoupling and usually heading higher. Those who want the benefits of portfolio diversification through gold need patience.