{"id":353453,"date":"2026-07-07T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/investing\/gold-bitcoin-spacex-and-the-dangers-of-market-chameleons\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:46:19","slug":"gold-bitcoin-spacex-and-the-dangers-of-market-chameleons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=353453","title":{"rendered":"Gold, bitcoin, SpaceX and the dangers of market chameleons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>This article was first published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/investing\/investment-ideas\/article-gold-bitcoin-spacex-market-chameleons-investors\/\">Globe and Mail<\/a> on July 3 2026. It is being republished with permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>By Tom Bradley<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What do gold, bitcoin and Elon Musk have in common? They\u2019re all chameleons.<\/p>\n<p>Merriam-Webster describes chameleon as, \u201cA person who often changes their beliefs or behaviour in order to please others or to succeed.\u201d In the investment context, a chameleon is something or someone who can easily shift their story to fit the theme of the day. They offer something to investors one day and something else the next, without missing a beat. Here are some of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gold<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The shiny metal is a longstanding chameleon. Depending on the economic and market landscape, gold can be an inflation hedge, reserve currency, insurance against a financial crisis, or hedge against a weak U.S. dollar. It\u2019s an investment for all seasons.<\/p>\n<p>The variety of narratives around gold gives enthusiasts all the reasons they need. For them, gold is always a buy, whether it\u2019s trading at US$2,000 or $5,000.<\/p>\n<p>For occasional gold investors who use it for diversification, or simply to ride an uptrend, there\u2019s always a rationale. Regarding the latter, I like how Joe Wiggins put it in a post about gold in his <a href=\"https:\/\/behaviouralinvestment.com\/2025\/10\/14\/gold-is-the-ultimate-belief-asset\/\">Behavioural Investment blog<\/a>: \u201cPrice moves come first and then the narratives to justify it second.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bitcoin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gold doesn\u2019t have anything on digital gold. Bitcoin, which carries this label, comes with the same list of potential reasons to own it, but there are many more.<\/p>\n<p>Early in its history, owning bitcoin was anti-establishment. Decentralized finance was the way to break free from the tyranny of established financial institutions. This applies less today, as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream and reliant on traditional institutional buyers, but people still tell me that it\u2019s the future of finance.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the scarcity factor. A maximum number of 21 million coins can be created.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enterprise Elon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk is one of the greatest engineers of our time. He\u2019s built amazing businesses and in doing so, has shaken mature, established industries to their core. His ability to get things done is unparalleled, going from zero to producing two million cars a year, and from brainstorming with a group of rocket scientists to building the leading space transportation and satellite communications business.<\/p>\n<p>But to get his two public companies, Tesla and SpaceX, up to a capitalization of US$3.4-trillion, he\u2019s needed more juice. The companies have relatively short track records and don\u2019t generate enormous profits like other trillion-dollar companies such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>The booster juice is the credibility, trust, and in some cases, idolization, that comes from Musk\u2019s record of innovation and wealth creation. It has allowed him to open one additional factory, a narrative factory, from which flows a world of possibilities, each more mindboggling than the last. The pitch to investors for the public offering of SpaceX was nothing short of science fiction.<\/p>\n<p>Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oaktreecapital.com\/insights\/memo\/is-it-a-bubble\">captures<\/a> the power of Musk\u2019s prophecies in a memo discussing AI: \u201c&#8230; history can impose limits on awe regarding the present and imagination regarding the future. In the absence of history, on the other hand, all things seem possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike most other investments, gold and bitcoin don\u2019t produce cash flow that can be valued, and neither will Enterprise Elon for the foreseeable future. Therefore, their prices don\u2019t move around on dividend increases or changes to earnings forecasts, but rather investor mood swings. They\u2019re driven by investors\u2019 willingness to take risks and seek excitement.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, they fit well into the momentum-obsessed market that we\u2019re currently experiencing. When they\u2019re on a roll, valuation metrics don\u2019t get in the way. The sky, or should I say universe, is the limit.<\/p>\n<p>Like other investments, however, investors need to be clear on why they hold gold, bitcoin, and even SpaceX and Tesla. Are they hedging against the excesses of the financial system or trying to capture the market for personal robots, interplanetary data centres, and driverless taxis?<\/p>\n<p>Articulating the reasons for ownership allows the right questions to be asked. How is it doing against the objective? Are the reasons for owning it still in place? The answers to these questions are particularly important when prices are going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n<p>Chameleons can be successful investments. Investors just need to make sure they\u2019re the ones controlling the narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Bradley is a portfolio manager with Purpose Investments, co-founder of Steadyhand Investment Management, a member of the Investment Hall of Fame and a champion of timeless investment principles.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on July 3 2026. It is being republished with permission.\u00a0 By Tom Bradley What do gold, bitcoin and Elon Musk have in common? They\u2019re all chameleons. Merriam-Webster describes chameleon as, \u201cA person who often changes their beliefs or behaviour in order to please others or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[12920,174503,20390,674,11209,19902],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-353453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-investing","tag-bitcoin","tag-chameleons","tag-dangers","tag-gold","tag-market","tag-spacex"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gold, bitcoin, SpaceX and the dangers of market chameleons - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=353453\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gold, bitcoin, SpaceX and the dangers of market chameleons - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on July 3 2026. It is being republished with permission.\u00a0 By Tom Bradley What do gold, bitcoin and Elon Musk have in common? They\u2019re all chameleons. 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