Where does the return come from?
A certificate is a bank savings product that pays a return under its terms, and your original money stays in pounds. Gold pays you nothing while you hold it; your gain or loss comes entirely from its price changing. A share is a stake in a company; it can earn you dividends if the company pays them, and gain or lose with its market price.
The kind of uncertainty differs
With a fixed-rate certificate, you know upfront the nominal return you will receive if you hold it under its terms; what is unknown is how much those pounds will buy by then. With a variable-rate certificate, the return itself changes with the benchmark it is linked to, such as the central bank's rate. With gold and stocks, the number of pounds itself is unknown. So the comparison is not "which is riskier" but "which kind of uncertainty can you live with, and for how long". Actual risk also depends on how much you put in and whether you might need the money suddenly.
Example: EGP 100,000 for one year
Real return is roughly (ending value ÷ starting value) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. That formula lets you compare all three on one yardstick: purchasing power, not the number of pounds.
Compare with numbers
The gold versus certificates page shows both side by side over different periods.
Check yourself
1. A certificate turned 100,000 into 115,000 and inflation was 15%. What happened to your purchasing power, roughly?
2. Where does gold's return come from?
Summary
- A certificate pays per the bank's terms, gold returns only through price, and a stock through price and dividends.
- The uncertainty differs: purchasing power in a fixed-rate certificate, the number of pounds itself in gold and stocks.
- Compare all three by real return after inflation, not by the number of pounds.