Typically the billionaires are ahead of the curve, making their investments before the market recognizes the trend, and increasing their wealth while everyone else wonders what happened. High net worth individuals and other savvy investors realize that owning gold is one of the best ways to manage systemic risk. However, in this case both Druckenmiller and Paulson have the right idea but the wrong execution. Instead of acquiring physical bullion stored on an allocated basis, these billionaires chose proxies of gold in the form of ETFs. Their investments in ETFs may ultimately negate the very reason for investing in gold in the first place. Only physical gold provides true diversification outside of the financial system. Physical gold is immune from counterparty risk or liquidity constraints. Investing in gold proxies may work under normal conditions for short-term trades and hedging strategies, but will be subject to the same systemic risks that financial assets will incur. The time when you need the protection of gold the most is the time when these proxies are most likely to fail and not provide the portfolio protection of bullion owned directly.