I unfortunately do not think there is a stress-free way of investing. Gold has been fairly volatile over the last 5 years, so I am not sure its a low risk investment.

Some people invest in gold with the sole intent of sitting on it for at least 5 years. Keeping tabs on it weekly is still a good idea, but I personally think that it is a very stress-free way of investing.

$1273 as of now, from the looks of it, gold broke out of the downtrend since 2011. Not sure how much more it will go up, but breaking out of the bear is a positive sign.

As of Tuesday, March 8, 2016 the price of Gold on the open market is is $1253.40 per ounce at close. Don't know where you found $1,700 per ounce? In the last several months Gold has been around $1,000+ per ounce to about $1,300 per ounce on the open market.

How do people feel looking at the gold prices 4 years down the line? Today I see prices around 1,700 USD an ounce. Crude oil is around $40 a barrel.

The man who has "GOLD" rules. But, the man who has "OIL" also rules. My money is on oil and a few carefully chosen "equity" stocks.

I have to add my prediction

Gold in 2012 = $2,000 to $3,000 per ounce. Oil at $125.

Nobody really knows, but based on the charts and fundamentals of our spending, it is possible.

Oh, Meya, that's NOTHING. I've been involved in gold deals for 20,000 metric tons or more -- with one Saudi connection seeking 50,000 metric tons!

Try being one of the facilitators for a deal like that. Just think a sec. Let's say gold is $1000 an ounce again, so that's $16,000 per pound, and $35,200,000 per metric ton. That's just ONE METRIC TON! Imagine if you were one of the brokers for the 50,000 deal, and you were guaranteed (1% of 1%) of approximately $1,760,000,000,000. ($1.76 trillion). I'm not sure I'm reading the zeroes right, but I think you'd still make a healthy $17,600,000 off the deal! For just being you. It could happen, provided you met a real seller and a real buyer and got them together.

10 metric tons or more

That is too much of a big shot for me...out of my league! Sorry for the mishap

Yes, consumers of course are biting the bullet, and people are going to pawn shops en masse. I'm talking more about the big-time gold investors, those people with several billion to work with to buy/sell gold bullion, say, 10 metric tons or more. These are the kinds of deals you only see negotiated by Swiss bank bullion officers -- or the most notorious gold dealers in the world known as CCI. They've been trading on gold since the latter part of the 17th century, and it's unclear exactly how much gold they have. One person told me in confidence he estimated it might be hundreds of billions of tons. If you ever wonder what makes the gold market walk and talk, look no further than CCI.

I was listening to something about this on the news last week, but I heard that the price of gold is going up, but it hurt the jewelry industry and consumers are going to buy less. Consumers taste and lifestyles for "Gold" is not at the same peak that it used to be in a lot of segmented areas, so I am assuming that a lot of shops are going to close becasue they will have to raise their prices to recover the lost in profits. Wheeew this is going to be something when it happens.

It doesn't take much research to discover that gold was actually at its peak in the mid-late 1970s, just about the time oil prices were shooting out of control. Is it any wonder we were sitting at $1,000 USD/ounce not too long ago this year? Gold moves as the oil moves. As we head for summer and the $4.00/gallon gas, it'll be interesting to see too where gold is going to end up. Experts are predicting gold at $1,500 by year end, but I'll be bold and say $2,000. Bullion dealers are going crazy right now though, because NO-ONE wants to buy at those prices. If you can land a good 6% or 8% discount on a bullion bar, my advice says go for it! When the price sat at $1,000 a few weeks ago, the number of deals rose drastically as more and more people decided to "fold the gold" -- which meant more gold in the market available for trade. Right now however, people are holding as gold has leveled off again to the 920's. Look for a dramatic jump over $1,000 in the coming days though, as numerous quarterly business reports are due, and the outlook isn't favorable. If you're going to get into gold, the time would be now.