Never had I seen a sudden interest in masses of metal, shiny yellow and gray ones to be exact, and in the shape of coins and bars. I was taken aback by social media videos of long queues at bullion shops where in my previous visits, there was not much of a huge crowd then. And this phenomenon not only happens in Singapore, but elsewhere lines are forming, even at gold jewellery retail outlets.
Recent news had reported gold returns had surpassed the S&P500’s for the last 20 years, with an average annualised return of 10.9% versus 10.5%, and a total return of 690.8% versus 632.1%1. This could be explained with an exponential climb of gold prices between 2023 and now, specifically from the first quarter of this year.
Silver also took the limelight recently, surpassing the last high back in March 2011. Within the space of just six months since April 2025, it had risen close to 60%, mimicking the steep climb experienced by gold. This is likely the result of a perfect convergence of silver being gold’s spillover substitute and its usefulness as a raw industrial material in (after many degrees) of driving artificial intelligence (AI) growth.
Frankly, being FOMO (fear of missing out) on gold and silver is a bit of an oxymoron; such FOMO-ness on these precious metals usually occurs when the markets (and skies) are falling. Yet, we are seeing boomtown events in equities particularly on AI, and on real estate due to the faster-than-expected interest rate drops. Furthermore, a weakening US dollar (which is seen as inversely correlated with gold), interest rate cuts, and the dedollarisation plus central bank gold buying, had given the suggestion of further price strengthening, not to mention of the finite supply unlike fiat currency.
After taking into consideration of the above, the next question logically would be: is it too late to enter gold and silver? It depends.
The Bedokian Portfolio espoused between five and ten percent into commodities, which included gold and silver in the make-up. Hence, if one had started including these commodities in an investment portfolio in the first place, then it is only a matter of rebalancing by averaging up the holdings, whether through physical or paper (exchange traded funds or ETFs, gold/silver saving accounts, etc.).
However, if one wants to go into gold and/or silver for the first time, taking the first step is the most important, for it is a way to have one’s toehold into the commodities asset class, and from there average up or down depending on his/her rebalancing period and/or set entry price levels.
There is no way to tell how high (or how low) gold and silver would go, so therefore in the meantime, let us enjoy the ride.
Disclosure
The Bedokian is vested in physical gold and silver, and in a silver ETF.
1 – Comparing S&P 500 and Gold: Building resilient Singapore portfolio in 2025. StashAway. 8 Oct 2025. https://www.stashaway.sg/r/snp500-gold-assets-comparison (accessed 17 Oct 2025)
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