Despite the lure of the shiny metal, statistics show that gold has outperformed returns from equities over a 5 year period only once in the past 3 decades. Hence, while gold should have a well deserved place in the long term portfolio for its inflation hedging properties, one cannot deny the importance of equities, which depending upon one's risk appetite must be a much larger proportion.

Data source: HDFC Mutual Fund sOURCE:EQUITYMASTER