Gold Maintains Role in Diversified Portfolios, Experts Caution Against Speculative Trading

Global Wealth Summit 2026: Experts Warn of Gold Market Misconceptions

At the recent Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit 2026, held on March 14, industry experts cautioned investors against making simplistic conclusions about gold's role in portfolios. Speaking at a panel titled "The title of Gold, Silver and All that Glitters: Safe Haven or Serious Growth Play?", Kalpen Parekh, MD and CEO of DSP Mutual Fund, emphasized the need for a nuanced approach to investing in gold.

Gold's Long-Term Performance Parekh highlighted that gold has existed as an asset class for 2,000 years and may continue to do so for another 2,000 years. However, when analyzing long-term data over 20, 30, or 50 years, the picture changes. On a five-year rolling basis, gold has outperformed equities only 25% of the time in India and 35% of the time globally.

Debunking Common Myths Parekh also debunked the common claim that gold is a hedge against inflation. According to him, gold performs well only 40% of the time in inflationary periods, while it does not perform well around 60% of the time.

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Changing Investor Behavior The panel also discussed how investor behavior around gold appears to be changing. Swarup Mohanty, Vice Chairman and CEO of Mirae Asset Investment Managers, noted that gold buying in India has traditionally been driven by culture rather than price movements. However, the entry of institutional investors and financial products may alter this long-standing culture.

Recent Trends and Concerns Data trends indicate that the recent rise in interest in precious metals is caused by investors moving away from equities after a strong stock market performance. Vaibhav Porwal, co-founder of wealth-tech platform Dezerv, warned that investors are reacting to recent price moves rather than focusing on long-term fundamentals.

Disciplined Asset Allocation Experts agreed that disciplined asset allocation is much more important than attempting to time the market. Kalpen Parekh suggested that gold should be used primarily as a portfolio diversifier rather than a growth engine, allocating around 5 to 10% to gold can work as a hedge against geopolitical or political uncertainty.