Poor policy making and floating currencies are open to instability, but gold's value is independent. The underlying worth of gold is most obvious when a national currency becomes unstable. While a devalued currency can positively impact international competitiveness, it increase the cost of imports and makes the net holdings of bank savings by citizens worth less. Gold then becomes a counter-measure as investors and countries buy gold at spot price to protect themselves from instability.

With all our new industrial technology and metal extraction techniques, there are still people around the world who mine gold in a similar way to our ancestors. The big difference today is the manner in which you can buy and sell it, and who can trade it: previously only the very wealthy could own gold, and even up until as late as the 1970's ordinary folk did not have the access to gold as they now do. The generation of new wealth today is largely information based. We have the ability to gather, consume and analyze far more data in a single 24 hour period than all previous generations could assemble in a week.

Along with property, owning your very own stockpile of gold has always been seen as a measure of wealth in societies throughout the world. Gold has has its ups and downs in terms of price, but in general it is a steady riser and over longer periods of time, measured in say decades, it always appreciates in value at a similar rate to the share market. Gold has been used as an effective hedge against troubled financial times, like during the recent global financial crisis. Its price fluctuates based on supply and demand. Look into gold as a profit-making exercise and I think you'll agree that it's a great option if you have some spare cash lying around.

One of the greatest risks to long term financial security for the average investor is not having a properly diversified portfolio. As technology has progressed and the internet has become progressively more entrenched in every day life, share trading technology has reached levels where investors of any size can take direct oversight of their personal investment portfolio. Despite the increase in capabilities, trading in gold has always remained somewhat elusive. Doubling in price during the past four year, gold has been a place for weary investors to find growth in the troubled times brought on by the global financial crisis. Technology has finally caught up to the demand for buying gold online and has made better programs available to all potential investors. Having a good mix of gold and other precious metals in your holdings is a great sign of portfolio diversification.

With the help of the internet, even the smallest investors now have the means and the technology to trade in shares virtually anywhere in the world. There are now programs available to buy gold online just as easily as you can trade shares. Do your research, decide what type of investment you want to make - do you, for example, want to invest only a small sum of money or are you planning to trade gold as a supplement to your gold retirement plan? Finally, don't forget that, just like any type of investment, the more you know about current events the better - keep yourself well informed and you'll soon reap the rewards.