Sadly, I still don't understand what this means. Is gold a better (as in safer) investment now and in the next year, in your opinion?
nooooooooooooooo .. a portfolio that uses a combination of assets is safer than any one of the assets on its own .
taken by themselves , equities , gold and long term treasuries are the most volatile assets .
but combined in a portfolio the yin and yang effect turns the volatility in to something way less . somethings go up , some things go down so they temper each other .
but the assets have to be very specific that are matched .
only four tend to work together well
broad based equity funds like the s&p 500 or total market
gold like gld or iau
long term treasuries like tlt
short term treasuries like shy , bil shv .
each one responds very strongly to the 4 major outcomes we can have .
recession
depression
prosperity
high inflation .
like clock work any recession or depression involving a slow down and falling rates will have long term treasuries soar , short term treasuries do well too as they can rebalance and buy assets on the cheap .
stocks and maybe bonds will do well in prosperity if inflation is low .
a weak dollar or high inflaton from the printing press will have gold do well .
so there is never a time you are exposed to devastation from an economic event .