Physical gold and silver have been stellar performers over the past two decades even beating the S&P 500. And in fact, gold hit a new all-time high in February 2025 of $2,974 U.S. an ounce. Gold has also been much less volatile than the stock markets. Investors shouldn’t overindulge in any one investment, and that includes gold, silver, platinum or any other precious metals. But precious metals—with their steady long-term performance, low level of volatility, defensive characteristics when markets fall—can add to portfolio diversification Notably, gold producers and miners have underperformed physical gold over the past two decades or so, but this may change as cost pressures for producers ease, and they start to reward their investors with better dividends and more share buybacks. Gold acts as a defensive asset During major market corrections over the past four decades, gold has performed well when equities and most other asset classes sustained large losses (see table below). We highlight three recent episodes (the Dotcom bust, the global…