Palladium (XPD) and Gold (XAU) compared side by side. Over the past 90 days, XAU is ahead by 22.1 percentage points (XPD -26.3% against XAU -4.2%). Their daily returns move closely together (correlation 0.65 across 279 shared trading days). XPD has been the more volatile of the two, at 66% annualised against XAU's 34%.
XPDXAU
0.65over 279 shared trading days
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.
| Metric | XPD | XAU |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -57.1% | -26.7% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | -0.56 | -0.17 |
Relative strength over 90 days: XAU outperformed XPD by 23.1% — measured on the XPD/XAU ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.