The end of the end of bonds in asset allocation ?

Since the end of the Bretton Woods system and the abolition of the gold standard, equities, bonds, and gold have all outperformed inflation. Recently, however, gold has made a significant comeback compared to bonds over the past four years. This has led to the perception that investors would have been better off holding gold instead of bonds in their portfolios. But this conclusion is premature. Gold has been far more volatile than US government bonds, experiencing two decades of stagnation in the late seventies and another decade after the financial crisis. At ECP, we include some gold ETFs in our global asset allocation, but we are not prepared to declare the end of bonds in balanced portfolios. Please contact us for more information.