Gold vs. Bitcoin: Which Will Outperform?
Zacks Investment Research | Jan 09, 2014 01:26PM ET
Gold prices experienced a pretty rough 2013, with the yellow metal plunging more than 25% on the year. This marked the first time in more than a decade that gold produced a calendar year loss, and it has led some to think that the glory days of the precious metal are over.
The New Kid
Yet, while gold struggled, a newcomer to the ‘safe haven’ market stole the show in 2013, bitcoins. This new type of currency—which is ‘mined’ by supercomputers—has attracted a huge following.
The currency is out-of-reach from inflating-prone central banks, and since there are only a finite number of bitcoins available, worries over devaluations are non-existent. Thanks to these features, bitcoins became extremely popular last year, while the performance of bitcoins didn’t hurt its popularity either.
After all, bitcoins started the year trading around $14 for each bitcoin, and soon spiked to over $238 by the start of the second quarter. And following a big drop in April and May, bitcoins took off, finishing the year around the $800 mark, representing a huge gain for investors.
2014 Outlook
So far in 2014, gold, as represented by ETFs like
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