Edouard Dradin
18 Mar 2026
Gold rush: panic move or opportunity not to miss?
Gold has soared by 75% in a year, breaking record highs. While often viewed as a safe haven, its long-term performance trails equities and its volatility is significant. Inflation fears, central bank buying and geopolitical tensions are fuelling the rally, but easy access through ETFs is also driving speculation. Rather than chasing momentum, diversified index investing may remain the more rational long-term strategy.
Gold keeps smashing record after record. Its spectacular rise leaves investors facing a familiar dilemma: is it time to take profits, still possible to get on board, or wiser to stay away and risk missing a historic rally?
2025–2026, the new golden age
4 March 2025. Donald Trump has just returned to the White House and delivers his State of the Union address. He promises Americans a new golden age.
One year later, that promise seems to have materialised, at least in financial markets. Between March 2025 and March 2026, the price of gold continued to push into uncharted territory. In twelve months alone, it rose by 75%.
What is gold actually for?
Unlike most financial assets, gold generates no dividends, no rent and no income.
Jewellery and industrial demand, which together represented close to 40% of global gold consumption in 2025, hardly justify the scale of the current rally.
Yet gold’s appeal has always gone beyond its practical uses. For centuries it has served as both a store of value and a means of payment. Entire monetary systems once revolved around the gold standard. Central banks accumulated the metal to underpin their currencies and facilitate international trade.
Even today, gold retains its aura as the ultimate safe haven. It does not depend on a government or a company, cannot go bankrupt and has preserved its perceived value across centuries and across continents.
Is gold really a strong long-term investment?
History tells a more nuanced story.
According to the 2026 UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbook, gold has delivered a real annualised return of 1,3% since 1900. By comparison, global equities have returned between 6% and 7% per year over the same period.
In other words, gold has rarely been a reliable engine of long-term portfolio growth. Its strength tends to emerge during moments of stress. During eight of the eleven major corrections in the S&P 500 since 1971, gold prices rose.
This weak correlation with equity markets gives gold a useful diversification role, though not without a cost. Its volatility is roughly 40% higher than that of US equities.
It is precisely this volatility that is now on full display.
Why is gold surging now?
The current surge in gold prices reflects a powerful mix of forces.
The memory of the recent inflation shock remains fresh. Traditionally, gold has been seen as a hedge against inflation.
Central banks are also playing a decisive role. Keen to reduce their dependence on the US dollar as the dominant reserve currency, many have been steadily increasing their gold holdings. Meanwhile geopolitical tensions, particularly the return of war to the European continent, have reinforced the appeal of tangible assets.
Poland offers a striking illustration. The country’s central bank, neighbouring war-torn Ukraine, has raised its gold reserves to 700 tonnes. That puts it ahead of the European Central Bank and among the ten largest holders of gold worldwide.
Are gold ETFs the new safe haven?
Retail investors have also joined the rush. In a climate marked by uncertainty and declining trust in institutions, many are seeking reassurance in the oldest store of value of all.
This modern gold rush looks very different from the one that gripped California in the nineteenth century. No shovel, sieve or vault is required. Anyone can now gain exposure to gold in seconds through a gold backed ETF.
The result is a paradox. The ultimate safe haven increasingly behaves like a speculative asset, complete with the volatility that implies.
Safe haven or speculative asset?
Corentin Scavée, Head of Wealth Management at Easyvest, is cautious.
“Gold no longer behaves like a safe haven but rather like a speculative asset whose value has become disconnected from fundamentals. This kind of frenzy should encourage investors to remain cautious.”
Once such momentum takes hold, predicting the peak becomes almost impossible. Recent history shows how quickly the tide can turn. At the end of January, gold and especially silver experienced a sharp correction that wiped out their gains for the month, a reminder of the volatility inherent in precious metals.
Does gold have a place in your portfolio?
Gold can still have a role in a diversified portfolio aimed at building and preserving wealth over the long term.
What rarely belongs in such a portfolio, however, are investment decisions driven by emotion. Fear of missing out or excessive confidence are among the costliest behavioural biases for investors.
The index investing approach recommended by Easyvest offers a simple way to gain exposure to the global economy. Gold exposure comes indirectly through publicly listed mining companies that extract gold and other precious metals.
When gold prices surge, their extraction costs tend to remain relatively stable while the value of the metal rises sharply. As a result, the profitability of these mining companies increases significantly. A diversified Easyvest portfolio therefore also benefits indirectly from rising gold prices.
Index investing as a compass
Markets will never be free from shocks, corrections or unexpected opportunities.
Maintaining broad exposure to the global market across all regions and sectors remains one of the most rational long-term strategies. It helps investors avoid emotional biases that can cloud judgement, while capturing the natural growth of global markets over time.
To assess how this strategy could impact your capital, run a simulation and get in touch with our Wealth Managers.