Gold sold off today because of redemptions from funds that own it and it was reported that some were selling it on concerns that the government may confiscate it like they did during the Great Depression.
I am a financial planner and to me maybe holding physical gold has a place in a portfolio but even then I don't believe in it. It doesn't have a cash flow , earnings or dividend that you can monitor and it is completely illiquid. It is just an arbitrary price in time. Even with this crazy market I would buy Verizon even with the possibility for further loss in principal in the near term. It's a company that has a higher than average dividend of 4.5% vs a little over 1% for a 30 year treasury with the capability of increasing over time. We likely are in a very low interest rate environment for quite a while with almost no upside for treasuries if you buy them today. You get paid to wait while the stock market recovers. This is not a solicitation just an example of what I look for my clients.