Gold and Silver Performance and Portfolio Strategies
Gold outperformed in 2025, with analysts pointing to a portfolio mix of 40% gold and 60% US equities as the year’s best strategy, a shift from 2020 and 2015 when bonds led. Gold and silver have tended to track one another because both are used as hedges against inflation and currency devaluation. Even so, their risk profiles diverge: silver’s price swings are typically sharper, rising faster in periods of strong precious-metals demand and falling harder when the sector weakens. This pattern was evident in 2005–2011, 2014, 2020 and 2025, when silver showed wider moves than gold in both rallies and drawdowns.
Long-Term Trends and Inflation Adjustments
Over a 100-year horizon, gold’s rise has been steadier, though it spiked in the 1970s after President Nixon ended the gold standard, which coincided with US dollar weakness and higher dollar-denominated gold prices. On an inflation-adjusted basis, gold has reached all-time highs. Silver has also trended upwards long term, but with less stability, and it has yet to regain its inflation-adjusted peak: it equated to $150 in 1980, versus $121.67 per ounce on 29 January 2026, leaving it below that real-terms record.
