The shiny metal, commonly known as a safe haven against inflation, is looking dull.
Gold GC F is 23% off from its peak in March and 10% down year-to-date.
In our series, What to do in a bear market, we asked the experts to tell us if there is value to holding gold in this environment.
Why hasn't gold performed better this year?
With major central banks around the world tightening their policies, this has helped to send bond yields to multi-year highs. The strengthening of the US dollar has weighed heavily on nearly all major buck-denominated assets, including gold. He said that would-be buyers earning in foreign currency are having to pay more and that they are discouraged to invest in gold.
Should investors hold gold in their portfolios, and if so, how much?
This is where fund managers and strategists differ from each other.
Jay Hatfield, portfolio manager of the InfraCap Equity Income Fund ICAP ETF, told Yahoo Finance that we don't recommend a fixed allocation to gold unless investors want to speculate on currency rates or have a short-term bull thesis that could cause gold to appreciate.
Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at the U.S. bank wealth management, generally recommends little to no permanent gold or metals exposure for portfolios given the price volatility and no consistent income stream. Investors may consider very modest exposures if they are particularly concerned about the U.S. dollar reversing, which could cause inflation pressures to increase and support gold prices, said Haworth.
Although every investor's situation is unique, we believe that a 3 -- 5% allocation to gold products would seem adequate sized to capture the benefits of holding gold as an asset class, said Imaru Casanova, deputy portfolio manager senior gold analyst at VanEck.
Mohit Bajaj of WallachBech Capital told Yahoo Finance he's a big proponent of allocating across the board in all kinds of asset classes. Anywhere from 5 -- 10% should be more than sufficient. Some experts bring up safety and storage concerns when it comes to physical gold and paper gold investments that cover gold ETFs.
Louis Navellier, the founder and chief investment officer of Navellier Associates tells Yahoo Finance he doesn't recommend physical gold, but he does say that there is a big markup on coins, so Credit Suisse bars are typically sold with a smaller markup. As for ETFs, Navellier says that I do not recommend gold ETFs, because I do not like to pay the ETF spreads. But Bajaj of WallachBech recommends the SPDR Gold Shares GLD if you want to get access to gold without having to physically buy the metal. The GraniteShares Gold Trust BAR is another one that we've seen a lot of strong demand for, said Bajaj.
He said that it is only like $16 or $17 from a price standpoint, so for those who are novice investors who want to put their foot into the space, they can get that without having to expend as much capital.