Barron's on gold's limited value in a portfolio

Our top tip on how gold behaves is this: It doesn't.  People do the behaving, and they are appallingly unreliable.  Use bonds as a stock market hedge.  If they don't work, fall back to patience.  For inflation protection, think of assets that are a better match than gold for the goods and services that you buy every week.  A diversified commodities fund has precious metals but also industrial ones, along with energy and grains.  Treasury-inflation-protected securities are explicitly linked to the consumer price index, which measures inflation for a theoretical individual whose buying patterns differ from your own, but are close enough.  Own a house.

~ Jack Hough, "Stash Some Gold in Your Portfolio - But Not Too Much," Barron's, April 26, 2025