Why the deputy CEO of StashAway says chasing gold now is a mistake

Gold, for all its mythology, behaves with far less romance than most investors would like to admit. It does not reward urgency. It does not move in clean arcs. And yet, in moments when markets begin to fray at the edges, it returns — stubbornly — to the centre of the conversation.

For Nandini Joshi, deputy CEO of StashAway, that recurrence has less to do with nostalgia and more to do with structure. “There is a clear case for holding gold today,” she says. “Historically, it has performed well when uncertainty is high — during periods of geopolitical tension, market volatility, or inflation. That’s very much the environment we’re in now.”

What sits beneath it, however, is less visible and far more consequential. “Central banks have been buying gold amid growing concerns about the sustainability of US government debt,” she explains. “This creates steady demand for gold — not a temporary trend, but one that signals a larger role for gold in portfolios going forward.” 

Still, spectacle tends to dominate the conversation. “Gold prices rose over 60 per cent last year — its strongest performance in nearly half a century,” Joshi notes, acknowledging the kind of momentum that draws attention quickly and distorts behaviour just as fast. But she does not linger. “Markets don’t move in straight lines, and strong rallies are often followed by corrections.”

It is here that her tone sharpens. “Where it often goes wrong is when people treat gold as a short-term trade,” she says. “Without a clear view of why gold is in your portfolio, those pullbacks can be hard to sit through. That’s when people panic, exit, and miss the very value gold was meant to deliver.”

When gold moves

Access, meanwhile, has undergone its own quiet transformation. “Traditionally, investing in gold meant buying physical bars, coins, or jewellery,” Joshi says. “That instinct hasn’t gone away; we still saw queues outside gold shops in Singapore this year.” But the behaviour surrounding it has evolved. “More investors are choosing to build their exposure to gold digitally, through ETFs.”

The scale of that shift is difficult to ignore. “In 2025, ETF investments were the largest driver of demand for gold, growing by over 800 tonnes,” she notes. “In contrast, demand for bars and coins rose by 16 per cent, or about 185 tonnes.”

The reasoning, in her telling, is pragmatic. “Gold ETFs charge as low as 0.10 per cent p.a., with no lock-ins, minimums, or withdrawal fees,” she says. “You can set a precise allocation, invest any amount, and adjust your exposure if needed — without the logistics and cost of storing and insuring physical gold.” The language strips away any lingering romanticism. Gold becomes a line item. A decision. A position.

Still, the mythology of stability persists, often untested until volatility returns. “Gold is the go-to safe haven asset,” Joshi says. “But as we’ve seen this year, it’s not immune to short-term price swings.” She points to recent movements — from record highs above $5,400 down to around $4,700 — moments that unsettle those expecting consistency.

History, however, offers a different lens. “Gold fell around 25 per cent during the 2008 financial crisis before rallying to new highs,” she says. “In 2022, aggressive rate hikes pushed prices down by 15 per cent before they recovered again.” The pattern does not contradict gold’s role. It clarifies it. “In both cases, the drawdowns were temporary. More importantly, gold continued to do its job as a hedge during those periods of volatility.”

A shift in portfolio logic

That function — quiet, persistent, often misunderstood — becomes sharper in the context of a changing financial system. “For a long time, investors built portfolios around equities and bonds, with bonds expected to provide stability during downturns,” Joshi says. “That relationship broke down in 2022.” What followed was less a correction than a recalibration. “Since then, the case for gold as a diversifier alongside bonds has strengthened further.”

At StashAway, that recalibration has already taken form. “Gold has been a part of our portfolios since our launch in 2017, and we incorporated it into our structural allocation in 2024,” she says. The results, she notes, have been tangible. “In 2025, gold contributed between 1.7 and 5.8 percentage points to returns… serving a dual role of generating returns and providing protection against market uncertainty.”

The implications unfold without spectacle. Gold does not announce its relevance. It accumulates it — through cycles of doubt, correction, and return. And in Joshi’s telling, its role feels less like a resurgence and more like a quiet correction of how portfolios understand risk, time, and patience.

Photography: Lawrence Teo
Art direction: Ashruddin Sani
Stylist: Dolphin Yeo
Hair & makeup: Angel Gwee, using Tom Ford and Davines