While the equity markets have been highly unstable over the last several years making both great gains and tremendous loses during the crisis the price of gold has been rising the whole time making large gains. Adjusted for inflation the price of gold is actually much higher than it was during the early 1980s highs.
In a strong upward trend since April of 2003 when gold was trading at $330 an ounce it is now as recently as December 2009 gold trading at $1,150 which is more than three fold.
Gold is bought and sold by many traders all over the world in the currency market largely as a speculative play as traders try t profit from small and large price movements. Since gold is used largely as a reserve the price is subject to many factors which cause the price to fluctuate.
When investing over short time frames you are able to earn large amounts of money however at the same time it can be very risky. You have to weight your investments and risk carefully.
