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The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize three different points: How safe haven properties of precious metals (gold, silver, platinum and palladium) differentiate in two recent major crises such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic? How safe haven properties of precious metals change by the severity and the duration of shocks? and whether precious metals have hedge properties or not in normal conditions against different stock markets.

To analyze the time-varying behavior of precious metals with respect to stock market returns, the authors used the rolling window approach. After obtaining the time-varying beta series that way, the authors regressed the beta series on different severities of stock market shocks.

The findings show that the number of safe haven precious metals increases in the COVID-19 pandemic period compared to the GFC. Furthermore, the number of safe haven precious metals increases as the severity of shocks increases and the duration of them extended. Finally, in the absence of an extreme market condition, only gold has strong hedge asset properties.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that examines the safe haven and hedge properties of all tradable precious metals against seven major stock markets. Besides this, it presents a comparative analysis for the safe haven properties of precious metals in terms of two major crises.

This study aims to compare investors of major conventional currencies and Bitcoin (BTC) investors by using the value at risk (VaR) method common risk measure.

The paper used a risk analysis named as VaR. The analysis has various computations that Historical Simulation and Monte Carlo Simulation methods were used for this paper.

Findings of the analysis are assessed in two different aspects of singular currency risk and portfolios built. First, BTC is found to be significantly risky with respect to the major currencies; and it is six times riskier than the singular most risky currency. Second, in terms of inclusion of BTC into a portfolio, which equally weights all currencies, it elevates overall portfolio risk by 98 per cent.

In spite of the remarkable risk level, it could be considered that investors are desirous of making an investment on BTC could mitigate their overall exposed risk relatively by building a portfolio.

The paper questions the risk level of Bitcoin, which is a digital currency. BTC, a matter of debate in the contemporary period, is seen as a digital currency free from control or supervision of a regulatory board. With the comparison of major currencies and BTC shows that how could be risky of a financial instrument without regulations. However, there is some advice for investors who would like to invest digital currencies despite the risk level in this study.