It’s hard not to love stocks right now. The Dow Jones Industrial Average just conquered another high, breaking through the 22,000 level for the first time, and it is now sitting on a year-to-date gain of more than 11%.
Tech stocks have led the Nasdaq Composite sharply higher, and it’s up more than 18% since the start of 2017.
That’s far better than London’s FTSE, which is up only 3%, or the German DAX, which is up less than 6% on the year.
The American market keeps marching higher, making stocks attractive.
But investors are still buying up gold. The yellow metal is up roughly 9.7% this year, not far behind stocks.
I’ve had a lot of people write in and ask why it’s important to own gold. It’s like insurance, simple as that.
No one really knows what the outcome will be as America, and indeed the rest of the world, faces up to the challenge of repairing and reviving a troubled economic landscape.
Gold offers an alternative — a way to diversify your wealth.
The real question is, what’s a safe, secure, cost-efficient way to own precious metals?
A Critical Hedge for Your Assets
Adding gold to a portfolio frequently presents investors with a frustrating conundrum. The knee-jerk reaction is to simply snap up shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) such as the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD), but the ETF comes with an annual expense ratio of 0.4% that is eating into your returns.
The market has enjoyed a stellar run over the past several years, regularly tagging new highs. But as every investor knows, the market never heads in a straight line. Regardless of whether it happens next week, next month or next year, stocks will once again suffer a pullback that will significantly eat into your profits.
Historically, gold has served as a hedge against market turmoil, providing investors with gains while stocks are trapped in the red.
Diversifying your portfolio today with gold will keep you prepared when the next correction happens.
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