> The gold market seems split at the moment: while the price is falling, meaning there are more sellers than buyers, everything I read on Twitter is that physical gold is nearly unobtainable – many banks and refiners have run out of inventory. Apparently there has been a surge in retail demand for gold coins and bars at the same time as the price has been falling.

Remember: if you “own” gold in some portfolio, you don't really own gold, you own an IOU for gold and you have zero guarantee to get your money back if things go bad. And while fiat money is backed by states, there is nobody to back your fiat gold.

(The same reasoning applies if you own bitcoin or any crypto on coinbase or any other exchange).