Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment. Investors generally buy gold as a hedge or safe haven against any economic, political, social or currency-based crises. These crises include investment market declines, burgeoning national debt, currency failure, inflation, war and social unrest. Investors also buy gold early in a bull market and sell it before a bear market begins, in an attempt to gain financially. Since April 2001 the gold price has more than tripled in value against the US dollar, prompting speculation that the long secular bear market (or the Great Commodities Depression) has ended and a bull market has returned. A World Gold Council report released on February 18, 2009 showed physical gold demand rose sharply in the second half of 2008. Identifiable investment demand for gold, which includes ETFs (exchange-traded funds), bars, and coins, was up 64 percent in 2008 over the year before. In the last century, major economic crises (such as the Great Depression, World War II, the first and second oil crisis) lowered the Dow/Gold ratio, an indicator of how bad a recession is and whether the outlook is deteriorating or improving, to a value well below 4. The ratio fell on February 18, 2009 to below 8. During these difficult times, many investors tried to preserve their assets by investing in precious metals, most notably gold and silver.

The most popular investment vehicle for gold has been the GLD ETF. Other Gold ETF’s are listed below:

IAU – iShares COMEX Gold Trust ETF
SLV – iShares Silver Trust ETF
SIVR – ETFS Physical Silver Shares ETF
DGL – PowerShares DB Gold Fund ETF
GLD – StreetTracks Gold Shares ETF
DBS – PowerShares DB Silver Fund ETF
DBP – PowerShares DB Precious Metals Fund ETF
DBB – PowerShares DB Base Metals Fund ETF
GDX – the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF
GDXJ – Market Vectors Gold Miners Junior ETF
XME – the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF
GLL – the UltraShort Gold ProShares ETF
PSAU – the PowerShares Global Gold & Precious Metals ETF
UGL – the ProShares Ultra Gold ETF
AGQ – the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF
ZSL – the ProShares UltraShort Silver ETF
HUZ – Horizons BetaPro COMEX Silver ETF
HUG – Horizons BetaPro COMEX Gold ETF
SOGL – the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF

Popularity: 15% [?]