Comparing Investments
VizWealth makes it easy to put two or more investments side by side and have a data-driven conversation with your clients — rather than relying on headlines or gut feel.
Example: Gold and Silver vs. the S&P 500
A common client question is whether gold or silver belongs in a portfolio. Here is how to walk through it in VizWealth.
1. Enter the tickers
In the ticker box, type the symbols you want to compare — for example GLD and SPY. Select Max for the date range to use all available historical data.
2. Align the charts
Click Align Charts so both investments share the same start and end dates. This ensures you are comparing returns over identical time periods, not just price levels.
3. Read the numbers
With charts aligned you can immediately see the average annualised returns side by side:
| Investment | Avg. annual return (to 2022) |
|---|---|
| GLD (Gold) | ~7.7–7.8% |
| SPY (S&P 500) | ~10% |
Gold had a significant run-up in recent years — up 63% in one year and 26% the year before — but U.S. equities have outperformed over the full history.
4. Zoom in on specific periods
Click and drag on the chart to zoom into any time window. This is useful for illustrating episodes like the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, where gold spiked sharply and then reverted.
5. The reversion-to-the-mean conversation
VizWealth gives you the data to raise the reversion-to-the-mean question directly with clients: after an extended run, does it make sense to chase a fear trade? The long-run chart makes the case visually — gold and silver have both underperformed income-producing equities over time.
On silver (SLV): The chart shows roughly 15 years of flat performance followed by a sharp spike. The story for silver is even more extreme than gold.
Key takeaway for client conversations
Gold and silver are fear trades — they do not produce income and historically underperform a diversified equity portfolio over long horizons. VizWealth lets you show this with actual return data rather than opinion, which makes the conversation more credible and easier for clients to accept.