Gold keeps trading up to new record high prices. Bitcoin, while struggling to break out above recent record levels above $100,000, continues to find more mainstream adoption. But both the classic market safe-haven and its more risky new crypto rival are doing something other than just move up and to the right on the chart for investors: within some exchange-traded funds, they are also generating income.
Investors want exposure to alternative assets that do not move in lockstep with stocks and bonds. That comes at a time when stocks are also at record prices, and returns are concentrated in a handful of mega-cap tech stocks that now represents roughly 40% of the S&P 500. Bonds, meanwhile, have traded with greater volatility than their historical role in a classic 60-40 portfolio would suggest, and that has left investors less comfortable with fixed-income as a traditional component of portfolio diversification strategy.
Even with less…
