Ron Paul really likes gold. And silver. And hard assets of almost any kind. But equities, not so much. Street Authority took an up-close look at the former presidential candidate’s portfolio recently, and he has an astonishing 64 percent of it in gold and silver miners. Twenty-one percent of his portfolio is in real estate, while 15 percent of it is in cash.
The remaining 1 percent is allocated to stocks, although his bets are on the short side.
Ron Paul worries about the economy
Any investor who has just read this portfolio allocation is probably scratching his or her head. Why on earth would anyone put so much in one sector of the market? For Paul, it’s simple. He has said in the past that he’s worried about the strength of the U.S. dollar because it isn’t backed by a physical asset. Also it’s been devaluing steadily since 2001 thanks to increasing deficits in domestic trade.
Paul is also worried about massive inflation, and gold is generally a safe bet against inflation, although many would point out that it’s strange to invest in gold miners rather than the precious metal itself through exchange-traded funds.
A look at the stocks in Ron Paul’s portfolio
Paul has a total of 15 different gold and silver miner stocks in his portfolio. The stock he owns with the largest market cap is G Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE:GG), and that’s followed by Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX). Paul also owns Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM), Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) and Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE:KGC) (TSE:K).
Michael Vodicka of Street Authority said that while he doesn’t agree with Ron Paul’s decision to put such a large chunk of his portfolio in gold and silver mining stocks, he does like Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) and Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW) “for most portfolios.” He also notes that the majority of gold mining stocks “have sharply underperformed gold prices” over the last two years. The result was “big losses” for those who chose to invest in gold miners rather than spot prices or bullion through exchange-traded funds.
