By Kevin Wood, CFP™, 2nd February 2026
Every so often, markets offer us a perfect teaching moment.
Gold at $5,000 an ounce is one of them.
It feels dramatic.
It feels urgent.
It feels like something important must be happening.
Nick Murray put it beautifully: gold has “slipped the surly bonds of earth and ascended into some kind of alternate universe.” And he’s right. When assets start behaving like this, they’re usually telling us more about human emotion than economic reality.
Here’s the grounding fact that matters.
Back in January 1980, gold traded around $800 an ounce.
Over the same period, the S&P 500 was quietly doing what it always does: compounding.
Fast-forward to today.
That $800 of gold is now worth about $5,000
That same $800 invested in the S&P 500, left alone and allowed to compound, is worth around $150,000
Same starting point.
Wildly different outcomes.
So what’s going on?
Gold thrives when fear is fashionable.
It offers:
Emotional comfort
A sense of control
The illusion of safety in uncertain times
And when uncertainty is everywhere, that can feel irresistible.
But comfort is expensive.
Buying gold at extreme prices is rarely about returns. It’s about relief. Relief from headlines. Relief from volatility. Relief from the feeling that “something bad might happen”.
The trouble is, markets have a long memory — and emotions have a terrible track record.
As Murray dryly suggests, those buying gold at these levels may well find themselves behind the inflation eight-ball for the next 20 to 40 years. Not because gold is evil. But because assets bought for comfort are rarely bought at good prices.
What actually works
At Oak Four, we don’t do predictions. And for good reason.
What we do believe in is:
Ownership of productive businesses
Time in the market, not timing the market
Letting compounding do the heavy lifting
Staying disciplined when the world feels chaotic
Markets reward patience.
They punish panic.
And they absolutely demolish behaviour driven by headlines.
The irony?
The very uncertainty that pushes people toward gold is the same uncertainty that creates long-term opportunity in equities — for those who stay invested.
The bottom line
Gold at $5,000 makes for great conversation.
Long-term compounding builds real wealth.
Our job isn’t to chase what feels safe today.
It’s to position you to win over decades.
And history — relentlessly, boringly, beautifully — keeps backing that approach.
If you ever feel the pull of the “alternate universe”, that’s not a failure. It’s human. Just talk to us first. Perspective is often the most valuable asset of all.