As an investment, it's a poor investment. As a hedge, it's also mostly a poor hedge. I admit there are exceptional situations that it might work, but they are few and far between. Even in an apocalyptic scenario that most people promote gold in, where the power grid has gone out and we have gone back to the stone age, people will want food, clothes, weapons, cigarettes, things they can use etc. They won't want a shiny metal that mostly just sits under their bed...