1. One can use the price of gold as a measure of the prevalent fear in the financial markets. One can see that during a financial crisis generally gold price rises with exception when generally traders offst losses in equities and commodities against the profit made in gold appreciated price. Gold is seen as a safe haven in the times of financial crisis. It is pertinent to note that in present financial crisis people are buying gold on Ebay. One will appreciate this fact that gold was hovering near $60 an ounce in year 1973 and it hit $650 in 1981. Thus one will see that gold performed considerably well in financial crises of the 1970s.

2. If one has a look in present financial down turn one will realise that gold hiit $1000 mark per ounce on March 17 2008 which coincided with the date when Bear Stearns investment bank collapsed.

3. I personally feel exchange traded fund (ETF) is the best way of holding the gold as one need not hold the same physically.ETFs follow a single security that is traded on the London Stock Exchange and one just pays dealing charges of around 0.4 per cent.One can read more about gold at Profitable Stock Tips India site and can know the Indian price for gold through gold chart and live gold prices in Indian currency.