Hard Assets are investments with intrinsic value such as oil, natural gas, gold, silver, farmland, natural colored diamonds and commercial real estate. Typically hard assets are an excellent inflation hedge.[1][2] In general, commodities/hard assets are negatively correlated to both stocks and bonds. In other words, when stocks and bonds decline, commodities tend to appreciate.[3][4] In addition, during periods of high inflation/negative real interest rates equities and bonds do poorly (see 20% total return over 11 years from 1970 to 1981 for the S&P 500 [5] v. 1,100% increase in oil prices[6] and 550% increase in western Canada farmland prices during same period)[7][8] while commodity/hard assets appreciate in value.