On the surface, owning gold as an "investment" is a terrible idea. The yellow metal does not do anything, produce anything, or provide any sort of economic value other than its ability to be traded for other goods.
Herein lies the issue I have with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin being touted as an "excellent investment" - buying a completely unproductive asset with the expectation of a gain is akin to trading exchange rate risk, a very risky proposition.
Another issue I have with cryptocurrencies relates to the fact that those with everything to gain from the rising price of Bitcoin have found a way to continue to drive up prices (a very small percentage of owners own the vast majority of the digital currency, allowing for outright manipulation), whereas gold is much more stable and generally rises in line with inflation and cost of production over time (albeit with variance on the upside and downside depending on a number of factors).
While I tend to agree with most financial experts on the idea that buying productive assets that allow for the compounding of wealth over time is a much better idea than having a portion of one's wealth sitting in a vault doing absolutely nothing (and incurring storage charges, which sometimes aren't cheap), having a portion of one's wealth sitting on the sidelines in anticipation of a market downturn may not be such a bad idea at this point in time, seeing how valuations appear to have gotten ahead of fundamentals.
Invest wisely, my friends.
