Gold is accumulated for a myriad of reasons, including to
hedge volatile stock markets, to offset fluctuating commodities prices, and as a safe haven against falling home prices.
Not exact matches
In today's
volatile environment, it's a good idea to consider building
hedges to existing
stock and credit allocations with the help of bonds that are more sensitive to interest rates.
Hedge funds designed to protect against falling and
volatile markets have made a strong pitch to investors: Trust us with your money, and we'll make lots of it for you when years of relatively smooth, positive
stock returns inevitably end.
While these funds can be a great
hedge against inflation, they can also be much more
volatile than most
stock funds.
Complementing traditional investments, Ross points out that real estate is less
volatile (unlike
stocks, it's not marked to market every day); provides diversification with a favorable balance of risk versus return; is favorably taxed via capital gains tax treatment and interest deductibility; generates returns similar to the
stock market and «often more»; provides principal protection; a
hedge against inflation and a pension - like «monthly coupon.»
In today's
volatile environment, it's a good idea to consider building
hedges to existing
stock and credit allocations with the help of bonds that are more sensitive to interest rates.
The only time I would think about a currancy
hedge for a
stock in a foreign country would be if the foreign country's currancy was really
volatile, such as Turkey or Iceland.
If an individual small cap
stock is too
volatile to
hedge affordably, an investor could
hedge with the Russell 2000, a small cap index, instead.
As long as some portion of an investor's portfolio is in foreign
stocks, evidence suggests that those
stocks should not be currency -
hedged for three reasons: (1) Currency unhedged portfolios are not much more
volatile than currency -
hedged ones (and less
volatile for US markets) and (2) Currency
hedging appears to add about 1 % extra cost and (3) Some currency unhedged positions reduce overall portfolio volatility.