May | 2022 | iMarketSignals

We tested nine asset classes which are supposed to provide protection against inflation according to an Investopedia article. The test period was from January 2005 to May 2022.
Investopedia provides no definition for inflationary environment, but this analysis uses the 6-month moving average of the inflation rate and the University of Michigan: Inflation Expectation© series to define it.
For this investigation we consider separately the inflationary periods which fall within the Risk-on and Risk-off phases for equities, as defined by the iM-Multi-Model Market Timer.
From the asset classes listed by Investopedia only the Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) provided some inflation protection relative to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).
Better inflation protection is provided by energy sector ETFs XLE and PXE, but energy sector funds were not among the asset classes listed in the Investopedia article.