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Is there one safe-haven for various turbulences? The evidence from gold, Bitcoin and Ether

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  • Będowska-Sójka, Barbara
  • Kliber, Agata

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the safe-haven properties of gold and two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether. Safe havens are the financial assets that allow investors to protect their portfolios within the market turmoil. The research sample covers five years and includes several downturns on the financial markets, starting from the Chinese stock market turbulences in 2015/2016 and ending up with the recent pandemic outbreak in 2020. We find that only gold used to be a strong safe-haven against the stock market indices. Yet, this property evaporated during the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. Occasionally, cryptocurrencies could have been considered weak safe-havens against the examined instruments. Ether acted more often as a weak safe-haven against DAX or S&P500, while Bitcoin played this role against FTSE250, STOXX600 and S&P500.

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  • Będowska-Sójka, Barbara & Kliber, Agata, 2021. "Is there one safe-haven for various turbulences? The evidence from gold, Bitcoin and Ether," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:56:y:2021:i:c:s1062940821000243
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2021.101390
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Liquidity; Volatility; Bitcoin; Ether; Cryptocurrencies; Gold; Stock market; Stochastic volatility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics

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