Gold (XAU) and Copper (XCU) compared side by side. Over the past 90 days, XCU is ahead by 12.2 percentage points (XAU -6.8% against XCU +5.4%). Their daily returns move loosely together (correlation 0.53 across 273 shared trading days). Both have run at a similar volatility, around 33% annualised.
| Period | XAU | XCU | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | +0.13% | -2.26% | XAU |
| 30 days | +3.62% | -1.74% | XAU |
| 90 days | -6.79% | +5.40% | XCU |
| Metric | XAU | XCU |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -25.1% | -13.5% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | -0.24 | 0.17 |
Relative strength over 90 days: XCU outperformed XAU by 11.6% — measured on the XAU/XCU ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.