Carolinian
TUG Member
Compare precious metals with stocks and crypto since the first of the year. Precious metals is the winner. Real estate depends a lot in the local maeket you are in. We have residential rental properties and the market we are in is hot, with both significant increases in property values and rents.
From the experts I read, many of the Comex speculators on paper gold and silver have shifted to crypto and they are welcome to it, and their getting out of the Comex is a positive for gold and silver. Paper gold and silver involves speculators buying contracts, either long or short, with 4% down and the rest on margin. When someone wants to manipulate the gold and silver markets, it is almost always done in the paper gold and silver speculators markets by doing something to spook speculators. The most common day to do that is Sunday, which is a thinly traded market so such moves can have more impact. Most paper gold markets have moved into compliance with the Basel III standards which makes it harder to manipulate gold prices through the paper markets, with the Comex in NY waiting until the end to come into compliance this July. Basel III does not apply to silver, making it easier to manipulate through the paper makets.
As the speculators are falling away, the market is being driven now mostly by central bank buying, which has been setting records over the last three years. There is also an increase in the use of gold by investors for hedging, and, at least in Europe in institutional buying.
As to crypto, I personally have zero interest in buying air. I agree with the leading investors who have called it "rat poison" and a "digital Ponzi scheme".