Gold Regains its Shine as an Investment

One of the benchmarks that Mike Martin, a financial adviser in Columbia, Md., uses to compare gold against the Dow Jones average is to divide the DJIA by the current price of gold.

In 2000, at the peak of the stock market, it took 40 ounces of gold to buy the Dow Jones average. Today, it costs about 14 ounces of gold to buy the Dow Jones average.

"Most people think gold is a weird investment to have in a retirement account because it's not traditional stocks and bonds," said Mr. Martin, chief investment officer for Financial Advantage Inc., which caters mostly to retired clients.

"The main reason we recommend gold ETFs is a hedge against paper currencies," Mr. Martin said. "We call gold the only dependable currency because no government can influence the supply of it. They can run the printing presses, but they can't print more gold."