| Areté Quarterly Q3 25 |
Business update
One of the more noticeable phenomena of the investment environment over the last few weeks is the scene of analysts and journalists tripping all over themselves trying to explain the rise in the price of gold.
Normally I wouldn’t really care. The more others feel compelled to tout their ignorance, the better for Areté most of the time. In this case, however, there is a teaching opportunity so I will take it.
The story of gold, insofar as it’s an incredibly useful diversifying asset, isn’t an incredibly complicated one or one that is especially hard to find. You do have to look a little bit though, as it’s not one that is normally told in the headlines of financial journals or investment books. It is more common to learn about gold in the “History” section.
Likewise, it’s not super-hard to incorporate exposure to gold into an investment portfolio. There are plenty of publicly-traded vehicles that facilitate that activity.
So, this is the conundrum: Despite having ample evidence of the utility of having gold exposure in a portfolio and ample vehicles by which to accomplish that, the investment advisory industry is still woefully under-invested in gold. Why?
One reason is that advisors themselves don’t understand the case for gold. Others feel gold is risky. Still others don’t see the profit opportunities for themselves. Others are worried about career risk, i.e., the possibility they may get fired if they don’t match the performance of key indexes. There are plenty of others.
What you will find is that none of the reasons on that list has anything to do with ensuring the best outcomes for clients. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons I founded Areté: I thought there was a lot of good investment knowledge and insight that wasn’t making its way into client portfolios and helping to improve outcomes. So I decided to try my own way.
The story of gold highlights many of the shortcomings of the advisory business writ large as well as the special strengths that Areté brings to the table with its All-Terrain strategy. If you are interested, I’d love to have a chat about how Areté can help!
If you have any questions about what I do or just want to learn more about the All-Terrain strategy, please reach me at [email protected]. I look forward to it!
Thanks for your support!
David Robertson, CFA
CEO and founder, Areté Asset Management
One of the more noticeable phenomena of the investment environment over the last few weeks is the scene of analysts and journalists tripping all over themselves trying to explain the rise in the price of gold.
Normally I wouldn’t really care. The more others feel compelled to tout their ignorance, the better for Areté most of the time. In this case, however, there is a teaching opportunity so I will take it.
The story of gold, insofar as it’s an incredibly useful diversifying asset, isn’t an incredibly complicated one or one that is especially hard to find. You do have to look a little bit though, as it’s not one that is normally told in the headlines of financial journals or investment books. It is more common to learn about gold in the “History” section.
Likewise, it’s not super-hard to incorporate exposure to gold into an investment portfolio. There are plenty of publicly-traded vehicles that facilitate that activity.
So, this is the conundrum: Despite having ample evidence of the utility of having gold exposure in a portfolio and ample vehicles by which to accomplish that, the investment advisory industry is still woefully under-invested in gold. Why?
One reason is that advisors themselves don’t understand the case for gold. Others feel gold is risky. Still others don’t see the profit opportunities for themselves. Others are worried about career risk, i.e., the possibility they may get fired if they don’t match the performance of key indexes. There are plenty of others.
What you will find is that none of the reasons on that list has anything to do with ensuring the best outcomes for clients. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons I founded Areté: I thought there was a lot of good investment knowledge and insight that wasn’t making its way into client portfolios and helping to improve outcomes. So I decided to try my own way.
The story of gold highlights many of the shortcomings of the advisory business writ large as well as the special strengths that Areté brings to the table with its All-Terrain strategy. If you are interested, I’d love to have a chat about how Areté can help!
If you have any questions about what I do or just want to learn more about the All-Terrain strategy, please reach me at [email protected]. I look forward to it!
Thanks for your support!
David Robertson, CFA
CEO and founder, Areté Asset Management
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