Gold, S&P 500, T-Bills, CPI and Oil from 1967
How has gold performed in the 42 years since 1967 when it last traded at a fixed price of $35 in the US?
Let’s look at it versus the total return of the S&P 500, the total return of 1-yr T-Bills, West Texas Intermediate Crude and the Urban Consumers All Items Consumer Price Index?
The chart shows the performance of each item indexed to 100 as of 1967.
Gold has had its ups and downs, as have oil and stocks. How well you would have done holding it, of course, depends on when you would have acquired and sold it.
Gold generally rose from 1967 to the late 1970’s, then generally declined until about the time of the Dot.com bust and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City, and has subsequently been rising aggressively. Oil began rising aggressivly at about the same time, but lost its momentum and declined with the 2008 economic crash. US stocks are still ahead of gold over the entire 4+ decade period.
Clearly, there were times when gold was a better holding than stocks, and there were times when stocks were better holdings than gold. That’s where asset allocation practices come into play to enhance total portfolio return.
SPY and IVV are proxies for the S&P 500. GLD and IAU are proxies for gold.
Compliance Disclosure: We own GLD and SPY in some managed accounts. We do not own other mentioned securities. We are a fee-only investment advisor, and are compensated only by our clients. We do not sell securities, and do not receive any form of revenue or incentive from any source other than directly from clients. We are not affiliated with any securities dealer, any fund, any fund sponsor or any company issuer of any security.
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