gold bubble

Gold was out when the seventies ended, but the loss of confidence in paper money has sent it soaring once more. Investors who missed the metal's recent rise should not despair: There's still plenty time to get in on the action. Here's how.

With gold trading at around $1,600 an ounce, this most precious of metals seems to many like a smart investment. And if you have a television, you've doubtless seen ads encouraging you to buy physical gold. But think twice: Owning bullion can be more trouble than it's worth, and alternatives exist.

With gold prices recently hitting the $1,500 mark, consumers and businesses are looking for an opportunity to score. "We see everything from rings, teeth, jewelry, pins and lighters," one gold buyer said. "Everyone has a little gold somewhere." Should you join in? Check out these five tips.

For the past two years, the relationship between the dollar, stocks and gold was strong. When the dollar dropped, stocks and gold rose, and vice versa, nearly all the time. But since New Year's Day, that link has completely vanished, which is terrible news for the gold bugs.

Some are convinced the precious metal will keep rising, others that it's tracing out a classic speculative bubble that's ready to burst. Nobody has a crystal ball, but an "agnostic" technical analysis of the charts provides some good clues about gold's future.

Gold is on a record bull run, up from $328 in 2002 to $1,375 an ounce today. What caused that steep rise wasn't any inherent increase in gold's value to society, but a clever marketing scheme that allowed it to be traded easily without the hassle of physical delivery: The SPDR Gold ETF.

Recent reports show that several banks have begun advising their wealthiest individual clients to put as much as 10% of their assets into the precious metal. And some are stocking up by the ton.

Gold prices reached a record $1,308.90 an ounce Tuesday after earlier price declines and continued low interest rates spurred investors to buy bullion. Gold, which earlier had its biggest intraday decrease in more than two months, reached a record high for the eighth time in two weeks.

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Thank the Incredible Shrinking Dollar. The Federal Reserve wants a cheap buck to help boost exports and create jobs, but so far it's just made central banks and institutional investors at home and abroad feel pretty stupid holding rapidly depreciating greenbacks. So, they're dumping dollars and hording gold.