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Is Bitcoin a better safe-haven investment than gold and commodities?

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  • Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain
  • Bouri, Elie
  • Roubaud, David
  • Kristoufek, Ladislav
  • Lucey, Brian

Abstract

This paper addresses the timely question of whether Bitcoin exhibits a safe-haven property for stock market investments during extreme market conditions and whether such a property is similar to or different from that of gold and the general commodity index. We propose a new definition of a weak and strong safe-haven within a bivariate cross-quantilogram approach. This definition considers the lowest tails of both the safe-haven asset and the stock index. Our sample period spans from 19 July 2010 until 22 February 2018 and focuses on several stock market indices, including those of the US, China, and other developed and emerging economies. Our main results show that, at best, each of Bitcoin, gold, and the commodity index can be considered as a weak safe-haven asset in some cases. Rolling-window predictability analyses generally confirm those results and reveal that the safe-haven roles of Bitcoin, gold, and commodities are time-varying and differ across the stock market indices under study.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Bouri, Elie & Roubaud, David & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Lucey, Brian, 2019. "Is Bitcoin a better safe-haven investment than gold and commodities?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 322-330.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:63:y:2019:i:c:p:322-330
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2019.01.002
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Gold; Commodities; Stock indices; Safe-haven; Quantile; Cross-quantilogram;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

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