The paper is devoted to one of the kinds of alternative investments. Precious metals futures and their risk-return profile in comparison to such stock index futures as Dow Jones and S&P are analyzed. Usually alternative investments are thought to be long-term ones. The author checks if they may be also helpful in a shorter period of time. The following research question is verified: do investments in precious metals let realize more attractive risk-return profiles than in stock indexes in the medium period of time (two years)? The study was conducted with data from January 2015 to December 2016 and daily rates of return were applied.

alternative investments, precious metals, gold, silver, risk, return.