As trade war fears are reduced, there has been a massive valve release in safe -
haven assets over the last 24 hours; Gold and Treasuries have also been buried.
There's been some suggestion that bitcoin could replace gold as a safe
haven asset over time, especially at the fringe of the market (i.e. the more technologically savvy individuals).
Not exact matches
Over in the markets, the price of gold is falling in Asian trade, as investors move away from the safe -
haven asset.
Gold prices have seen a steady decline since a 2011 peak as the bull market stretched on and riskier
asset classes found favor
over safe
havens.
The uptrend in the Yen and gold, the main safe -
haven assets is also something to watch, as apart from the global leaders, everything seems to be rolling
over, or best case going nowhere.
Whilst this inverse relationship is not perfect, it does have a distinct theoretical advantage
over simply watching the USD versus gold relationship as sometimes both US dollars and gold can be in demand as safe
haven assets.
Post-Fed rate increase and halfway through the first month of 2016, Treasuries prices have increased, as some investors have moved toward safe
haven assets in response to concerns
over dangers in the U.S. economic recovery, which have been brought on by possible credit problems in energy and commodity companies due to the low price of oil.
These
assets are contrasted with an
asset like gold, which can serve as a safe
haven against risks like inflation, but does not generate any income and therefore can not grow significantly in real value
over any long run time frame.
Having just given a talk
over the weekend to the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), I agreed with this person that real estate certainly can be considered a
haven of sorts, assuming it's one part of a broadly diversified portfolio of financial
assets.
For those reasons, I prefer to look
over the longer - term (e.g. weekly as above) behavior of the safe
haven asset candidates during market drawdowns rather than the very short - term reactions.