Alternative investment choices - Gold and Art

With the Indian Stocks and the Global markets getting hammered down I more reports about alternatives to equities and bonds. More prominent among them are the investments in Gold and Art. Gold is in fact hogging the limelight for the past few weeks due to its sky rocketing price. I don't have much idea about Art and I am not interested in it at this point and I also think investing in Art will need more skill and knowledge than investing in Gold.

Gold interested me because of the fact that its prices are inversely proportional to that of equities. This provides a very good balance in the portfolio (GOSH!! I am beginning to talk like an expert, For a moment I forgot that I am just a novice). Having said that I will not enter into Gold at this moment, the prices are way too high. I might miss out on opportunities to make some money here but I want to protect the downside. Gold was below 300$ in 1999 and now its over 1000$ and surely these prices will come down at some point. I will wait for that time. I hope it doesn't take too long.

Wine is another investment one can look at. Again you need skill and knowledge to buy the right ones.

For the moment though I am sticking to equities. I am not buying at this moment. Its more of a wait and watch.

RK