Weekly Update 1 Dec 2023

National currencies fell, but other asset classes were mixed. Coffee was the best performing asset, gaining 6.2%, followed by gold stocks, up 5.7%. The largest losses were in crude oil, down 4.1%, and the Euro, off 2.7%. Silver gained 3.8% while Ethereum fell 2.6%. The US Dollar finished the week down 2.2%, but long term bonds rose 1.3%.

Over the last five years, cryptocurrency investing has been the best way, by far, to grow your wealth as measured in gold. Ethereum has returned 10 to 1 and Bitcoin has returned 5 to 1. Even a basket of smaller cryptos has returned more than 2 to 1. Outside of crypto, coffee and silver have risen 7.3% and 5.2% respectively. The S&P 500 and the gold stock index have about broken even, and everything else is down hard. Holding any major government currency or bonds has lost 40-50%. Major stock markets are down 15-30%.

I think an excellent defensive portfolio could be constructed with a large gold "cash" balance, some of which can be earning interest through Monetary Metals, along with some silver and platinum, and a small allocation to cryptocurrencies to provide growth. Such a portfolio would have very limited downside, very little counterparty risk, and could see substantial appreciation, measured in gold, over a 4-5 year time horizon.