The gold market is one corner of the market where things are especially not always as they appear to be. The main bullion banks like JPM have an extraordinarily large impact, and central banks. The relative "strength" of the dollar is a major key, note the quote marks. Real interest rates on the 10 year US treasury note tend to be directly correlated, at least over the medium term. For now at least. There are those like Rickards and others with connections who believe gold is destined to become a key part of a new monetary system after an implosioin. We will see... in any case, it is always instructive to look at gold's price in various other currencies, note in the chart below how different the gold price looks when priced in Yen. It has held up pretty well. Look at both the one and five year charts: https://www.usagold.com/gold-charts-in-various-currencies-and-timelines/
If you look at from mid 2020 on Yen and Euro are the only two that have held up. Others are either range-bound or down. So cherry-picking is not my idea of finding a strong market. As for the coming implosion that and the end of times are .... "out there" IMO.
The correct answer is no, congratulations!! As a retail piker, my holdings do not meet deliverable requirements. But futures and/or options do allow, at a minimum, to indirectly "protect" physical holdings from adverse movement. Don't be a schmuck.