You earn the award today. Congratulations.
You can't live life based on what ifs and assumptions. Nobody was talking about gold being a hedge against inflation, OP didn't ask if gold is a good hedge against inflation, nor did I say it is. The way his question was asked, it clearly is a for profit investment (the safest in history), not a fight against cotton farms. Don't steer the topic somewhere else, create a new one if you need help.
You don't know if you're buying it at ATH, if you do you might as well start reading palms down the street. Supply and demand. Gold is always in high demand. It's not a speculative asset, nor can you print 10 billion tons out of thin air. It's a fixed supply that keeps going down.
Since you like what ifs and clowning around, what if you bought gold in 2004? What if you sold the top?
You say most bot traders you know got crushed and assume I got crushed too, at least read my posts, don't skim through them. Algo trader? Forest druid? Bruh, you keep adding stuff.
I present to you the perfect example, one of the largest trading firms in crypto sells 4 million NEAR on the 8th of April.
At that same date the top was marked:
As for my losses, -3000% on LUNA. I longed SUSHI at 9 dollars, kept adding until it liquidated me at 4, -584%. I bought UNI at the top last year. Longed AXS at 130, got liquidated, went from +6 digits to -6 digits.