Investing in stocks is perhaps the more practical choice for short-terms investors seeking to maximize their returns in immediately rather than continue to wait until there is more risk involved in the investment and factors such as domestic and international economics, politics, and social challenges arise that turn the investment into a potential loss in returns for the investor According to the chart, if the state of the economy is in boom, there is a twenty-five percent return on stocks, versus a negative thirty-percent return on gold. Up until the market reaches no growth, is when we begin to see a decline in return investments on stocks as negative fourteen-percent, which is quite less than gold’s return in the boom state (negative thirty-percent): “Investors who bought gold in the past four years and didn’t sell it are carrying losses, while those who purchased stocks are likely sitting on lofty gains” .
Gold is also an economic uncertainty, and with the gold standard no longer used in the United States as the scale to which currency oftentimes hinged on, it is no longer a stable source of currency. Though gold has been shown to have a good return over the course of a certain period of time, especially when the market is in a no-growth phase, and it also costs money to keep and store gold in various facilities, and with zero-interest on the return it becomes more burdensome than alluring: “Gold’s allure tends to wane when interest rates are rising because the precious metal doesn’t earn interest and costs money to store”
Considering these many factors that influence the value of gold or shares in the stock market, it’s safe to say that I would rather invest in the stock market, even with its constant change in the loss/gain of points of stocks and the idea of losing money is going to be more likely than gaining in the short-term. Although, long-term stock investments, depending on the popularity and impact of the stock, have been known to profit, gold has a greater chance of only returning investments in the long-term, with a greater percentage too, though short-term they’re a bust for investments.
- Shumsky, Tatyana. “Gold vs. Stocks: The 10-Year Winner Is…” Wall Street Journal (2014): 1. Article. 11 November 2016.
