Abstract
The tradition in gold is that it serves as a safe haven in times of financial and geopolitical crisis. The latest trend is the Gold Exchange Traded Fund (Gold ETFs) as an alternative investment vehicle which follows the physical gold prices, however, it is differentiated by the liquidity, transparency and convenience of investing. The paper compares the performance, risk-return profile and market efficiency of physical gold, and Gold ETFs, in both the stable and crisis periods between the period 2021 and 2023. The two periods are analysed, pre-crisis period (2021-2022) and the period of geopolitical crisis (2022-2025) connected with the war in Russia and Ukraine. This paper evaluates the validity of gold ETFs to the price of physical gold and characteristics of a safe haven in the times of geopolitical uncertainty, using risk-adjusted performance ratios of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and correlation and regression analysis based on an Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). The result of this research will offer information to the investors, regulators and other financial institutions on the hedging ability and efficiency of Gold ETFs over time or whether the property of safe haven does actually anticipate higher returns.