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The main aim of this work is to study the motives behind gold investment with a special focus on gold´s store of value, safe haven, hedging and portfolio diversification properties. The research question is why these properties do not always hold in different time regimes, geographical locations and socio-economical systems. In order to meet this objective, a literature overview of each property of gold is presented. Overall, the findings suggest that gold has always served as a store of value and always acted as a portfolio diversifier. However, gold´s property to act as a safe haven, an inflation and currency hedge did not hold at all times and in all countries.

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Joanna Chmielinska, born in 1985 in Warsaw, Poland, studied International Business Administration at the University of Vienna in Austria from 2008 till 2015 when she graduated with a major in Corporate Finance.

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