Gold is NOT an investment, not for gain, anyway. Gold is to store value while the markets all get unpredictible from the inflation that is represented by the rise in the nominal price of gold. Only some speculators make money "investing" in gold metal by playing the very short term dips and blips in the price of gold. Those who hold gold lose a percent or two in transaction costs but the main body of value does not rise or decline. Investing in gold stocks can be lucrative if bought before the gold price starts making headlines which sends folks to gold stocks and runs the prices up more than the price of the metal warrants.
I'm no investment big shot, win some/lose some. But buy low sell high works with gold just like it does with a stock, yet it has instrinsic value, where stocks have none (just ask Kmart investors of a few years ago). One of the luckiest decisions I made was to taking about 30% of my money out of stocks in early 1999 (yes I felt like a chump most of that year) and invested about half in physical gold and half in gold funds. Still holding all the physical and some of the funds, and they have way out performed almost anything else I have been "invested" in the last 6 years while the Dow has basically traded between 9000-10800. I may start peeling those positions off and get heavier in stocks soon. I think if you are patient, buying anything that represents value at a historic low will make you money.