a b s t r a c tWe evaluate the role of gold and other precious metals relative to volatility (Volatility Index (VIX)) as a hedge (negatively correlated with stocks) and safe haven (negatively correlated with stocks in extreme stock market declines) using data from the US stock market. Using daily data from November 1995 to November 2010, we find that gold, unlike other precious metals, serves as a hedge and a weak safe haven for US stock market. However, we find that VIX serves as a very strong hedge and a strong safe haven during our sample period. We also find that in periods of extremely low or high volatility, gold does not have a negative correlation with the US stock market. Our results show that VIX is a superior hedging tool and serves as a better safe haven than gold during our sample period. We highlight the practical significance of our results for financial market participants by conducting a portfolio analysis. (M. Hood), farooq.malik@zu.ac.ae (F. Malik). 1 Tel.: +1 512 2453195. 2 Whaley, the creator of VIX, even suggests that part of the purpose of VIX is to serve as a hedge to stock investing (Whaley, 2009) 1058-3300/$see front matter

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Purpose -Tiger Woods suffered minor injuries and major scrutiny into his personal life due to a suspicious car crash. Previous research suggests that his sponsors would be expected to suffer a significant negative shock. The purpose of this paper is to determine if there was such a shock and to clarify the role that the estimation and event windows have on measuring its significance. Design/methodology/approach -The event study methodology is used for Tiger's core sports related sponsors: Electronic Arts (Tiger Woods PGA TOUR), Nike (Nike Golf), and Pepsi (Gatorade) and his sponsors that are unrelated to sports: AT&T, Accenture, and Procter & Gamble. Findings -The sponsors did not suffer a statistically significant negative cumulative abnormal return. Even under liberal standards and for any event or estimation window that was considered. However, the event windows and estimation windows greatly affected the test statistics. Originality/value -Tiger Woods' situation is, perhaps, the perfect case study for many papers that have found a negative stock market reaction to a scandal. Yet, there sponsor's stocks did not have a significantly negative response under any condition studied. Also, the estimation window is found to have a very large impact on the test statistics.