Gold, black gold, and farmland: should they all be part of your investment portfolio?

Can traditional investors improve financial performance by adding a farmland real estate investment trust (F-REIT), gold and oil to their investment portfolios? This study shows that for the period 1972–2011, financial performance was significantly improved with the addition of F-REIT, gold and oil to a portfolio of traditional investments of T-bills, bonds, stocks and REITs. A Canadian F-REIT is considered relatively low risk, enters the efficient portfolios at low to medium risk levels and adds the most financial improvement to medium risk portfolios. Gold and Oil are higher risk assets with no dividend yield but because of their low correlations with other assets, they are able to reduce portfolio risk and add significant financial improvement in all portfolios