Gold investors are worried about record high valuations in the S&P 500, despite the fact that gold stocks have shown a negative correlation to the general equities since 2011. The reason for this fear? 2008.The market crash of 2008 did not just hurt the S&P, it hurt real estate and gold equities. The sell off was brutal. So was 2008 an isolated incident or does a crash in general equities always spell doom for gold and gold stocks?

We examined five previous bear markets starting in 1973 in the S&P and looked at the performance of gold and gold stocks.