Hi Sam, why is Gold a relevant component of All Weather Portfolio? Is this under consideration for Endowus portfolio in the near future?

We have tried to build a core portfolio comprised of equities and fixed income for Singapore based investors. Gold and also Commodities are also included as a diversifying asset class but if you had an equal weight to both, they would have significantly underperformed both equities and bonds. I am not going to comment on other portfolio strategies and how that has done in recent years, but I do not feel that it is absolutely necessary to have a successful investment outcome. Gold may be considered but you need to know why you are buying it for what purpose. Is it an anti-USD bet, or is it a bet on the systemic decline of the US, or is it just a short term trade because of QE. Gold is always an anti-USD trade and has a negative correlation to USD. So it should be seen more like a currency bet and as with all other currencies, it is a satellite position but not a core asset allocation in my mind with zero yield on that asset. We may give access to gold investments and introduce new solutions that has allocation to gold at in the future but it will never be a part of the core asset allocation at Endowus. ​​​