The honest record

Gold has a long record. Some of it is very good and some of it is not. Anyone who shows you only the good part is selling something.

The good decades

• In the 1970s gold rose from $35 an ounce, when the United States stopped swapping dollars for gold in 1971, to about $850 at its peak in January 1980.
• From 2001 to 2011 it rose from under $300 to over $1,900.
• From 2019 it climbed from about $1,300 to above $4,000 by late 2025.

The hard stretches

• After 1980 gold fell for about two decades, down to about $250 in 1999. Someone who bought at the 1980 peak waited 28 years to get their dollars back, and longer still once inflation is counted.
• From 2011 to 2015 gold fell about 45%, then took until 2020 to pass its old high.

Against other investments

Over many long periods, a broad stock market fund that reinvests its dividends has grown more than gold. Gold has tended to do best at different times: high inflation, currency crises and market panics. That is why many people treat it as a complement to other savings rather than a replacement.

What this means for you

• The start date changes everything. A result that looks amazing from one date can look poor from another.
• Look at the worst falls, not just the final number.
• Past results are not a guide to the future.

Here is gold against savings in your currency over ten years. The full calculator also shows the worst falls and how often gold came out ahead across every start date since 2008.