What is a store of value?

Gold, cryptocurrencies and cash have all been argumented for as protection against inflation and market crashes. Simon Brown busts this myth.

- Simon Brown

One of the defenses of holding gold in the long term has been that it acts as a store of value – in essence it protects against inflation. There is an old market adage that claims an ounce of gold can always get you a decent suit from Savile Row in London. This may have been true at certain times over the last 100 years or so, but it is nonsense.

Gold was above $800 an ounce in 1980 and then traded down to around $250 by the turn of the millennium 20 years later. Thus, there was no chance the price of a Savile Row suit dropped by more than half over that period.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are often called a store of value, but the recent rally and subsequent collapse put paid to that theory.