As for the pricing results for the first six months of this year, the picture is relatively mixed.
While some commodities - especially those from the energy sector - have achieved more appreciation than gold, many international stock indices have suffered huge losses. Due to Russia's all-out war against Ukraine, European and tech stocks suffered particularly large losses in price, and the reversal in interest rates and the associated increase in the cost of financing had a negative impact on investor sentiment.
In principle, with regard to volatility analysis, one can say the following: on the one hand, high volatility indicates high potential risks of loss, but on the other hand, it also means attractive above-average profit opportunities.
Thus, the current market situation suggests that buying gold can be classified as less risky than investing in most other asset classes, even though many equity indices are noticeably highly diversified. At least that's the conclusion that can be drawn from comparing the historical 100-day volatility of ten different forms of investment.
At the same time, it will be interesting to compare the pricing of gold with the world's main digital cryptocurrency - bitcoin, which was called "digital gold" by many media last year. The fact is that bitcoin lost more than 44% of its value in the first half of 2022 and thus lost heavily to gold.
And if we consider the volatility of both forms of investment, then the "good old gold" has more arguments in its favor. Bitcoin's historical 100-day volatility of over 74% is more than four times that of gold. In all likelihood, digital currency has made many more people millionaires and billionaires in recent years than gold.
However, the essence of gold is not so much to make a person rich as quickly as possible; its main advantage is the preservation of the purchasing power of fiat currencies.