xchange-traded funds pioneer Graham Tuckwell has to stop and think when the conversation about his own portfolio turns to gold. “I’m not sure there would be anybody else in the world with a bigger exposure to gold as a percentage of their assets,” he muses.

Tuckwell, who is estimated to be worth $559 million, made his fortune off the back of the precious metal after masterminding and setting up the world’s first exchange-traded fund tracking the gold price. That was 13 years ago, and even though his London-based ETF Securities Group has expanded to provide a range of exchange-traded products, gold still accounts for $12 billion of its $21 billion asset base.