Bloomberg/Denitsa Tsekova and Erik Schatzker/7-27-2022
“An increasingly popular sales pitch on Wall Street goes like this: If you’ve insured your home against some disaster, or even a total loss, shouldn’t you do the same for your investment portfolio? In the case of a house or apartment, the danger would be fire, flooding, or perhaps a devastating storm. In the financial markets, it might be a sudden spike in volatility and a rapid decline in prices that wipes out months if not years of gains.”
USAGOLD note: Though we agree with the sentiment expressed in that snippet, we also believe that the approach needs to be simple, direct, i.e. easily understood. The investors plunking down their money need to know and understand exactly what they are getting into. “This kind of insurance,” says Bloomberg, “requires a constant and expensive series of complex options bets.” There are no mysteries with gold. You buy it, stick it away, and it is likely to do what it has always done: Provide portfolio insurance at a minimal cost without a great deal of complexity.
