CRISIS SITUATIONS IN THE WORLD AND THEIR IMPACT ON STOCK MARKET INVESTMENTS

The paper examines the behavior of investors in times of economic crises when investing in the S & P 500 Index, gold and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The results of the descriptive analysis show that the decision-making of investors in times of economic crises is reflected in the development of the S & P 500 Index by a decrease in average annual prices, the opposite is the case with gold, where there is a significant increase in the market price in times of crisis. This means that investors in crisis situations consider gold to protect their capital. An analysis of the tightness of the relationship between the S & P 500 Index and the price of gold based on monthly data by Pearson correlation confirmed a moderate inverse relationship. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has seen a massive increase in market value during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the shift of business to the online world. As in the case of gold, from the perspective of investors, this cryptocurrency was seen as a way of protecting their investments and, in addition, the possibility of maintaining solvency even in a period of restrictions. Bitcoin and other virtual financial instruments seem to be a suitable alternative to gold investments in the 21st century during the crisis.