Gold provided positive returns in global FX terms during most major 60/40 portfolio drawdown periods over the past 120 years. This confirms gold’s role as a portfolio hedge against the simultaneous failure of both equity and bond markets — which tends to occur during inflationary crises, wars, and geopolitical disruptions. Gold is NOT an inflation hedge in the simple sense — it specifically hedges monetary system stress (currency debasement, war, credit collapse). During deflationary deleveraging without monetary stress, gold’s performance is mixed.