December 30, 2025
Stonks vs Rocks
S&P500 Priced in Gold
Stocks vs Gold: Is the ‘recovery’ just a shiny illusion
TLDR: A blog prices the S&P 500 in gold and says the dollar-fueled rally is an illusion, with stocks down about 85% from 1999 in gold terms. Commenters split: gold fans cheer, index investors say dividends beat gold, while confused readers ask for silver charts and plain-English explanations
A niche blog, PricedInGold.com, lit up the comment section by claiming the S&P 500 peaked in 1999 at 168 grams of gold and has since cratered to around 20–25 grams — an 85% drop when priced in gold. Translation: your “stonks go up” might just be dollar go down. Cue drama. One commenter sighed, “Economic stagnation for over a decade? Aligns with the vibes,” while another asked, “Wait… does this mean the dollar fell as much as the stock market rose?” Meanwhile, the index crowd stormed in swinging: “Totally misleading — with dividends reinvested, the S&P crushes gold,” even dropping a whopper stat that $10,000 in 1950 could be worth over $3.8M today.
The post also flexes a gold-adjusted CAPE (a 10-year average earnings metric) to say stocks look historically cheap in gold terms. That set off a full-on stonks vs rocks cage match. Gold fans cheered the idea of tracking “real value” in gold; stock believers fired back that gold has no dividends and called this apples vs shiny oranges. Side quests: requests for a silver chart, and confusion about compounding (aka earnings snowballing over time). Jokes flew: “Boomer metal vs Zoomer memes,” “diamond hands meet wedding bands.” It’s messy, hilarious, and very internet — exactly how money fights should be
Key Points
- •The S&P 500 priced in gold peaked in 1999 at 168 grams and fell to 20–25 grams, an 85% decline.
- •From March 2009 to July 2011, S&P 500 levels in gold were flat, then dropped to about 15% below 2009 lows, before ending 2011 up 9.4% from those lows but down 10.4% for the year.
- •In Q1 2012, the S&P 500 rose ~6% in gold terms, 16% above the 2009 low, but remained ~50% below the 2008 high.
- •Long-term (1880–2012Q1) average and median S&P 500 prices in gold are 29.4 grams and 14.8 grams, respectively; recent levels around 25 grams align with this range.
- •Gold-deflated Shiller PE10 averages 16.5 (median 15); as of March 2012, PE10 is 9.2, between the all-time low (2.1 in Jan 1980) and high (66 in Jul 1999).