As gold (CME: GC) and silver (NYSE: SLW) continue to surge, two conflicting schools of thought have emerged. Many are advising to try to trade these metals within their moving averages in order to turn a quick short term profit. They believe that there is a high probability that Gold, especially, returns back to earth rather quickly. They cite the fact that Gold is already close to it's two hundred day moving average as a reason a pullback could be imminent. Thus the strategy would be to place stop orders in case of a back slide. Others think that you should buy and hold gold simply because it is a good, reliable asset. I would tend to lean toward this latter camp. Trying to time the market is always tricky, so there’s always that. But, more importantly, people throughout history just can’t seem to get enough of gold. From the beginning of time it has been revered as a prized metal. Whether this is fair or not (it does have amazing attributes like conductivity and malleability,) the point is that people love it as a building material and a jewel. I’m one to believe that humans will always feel this way. And if that’s the case, why not just keep gold as a consistent part of your portfolio? In a thousand years, I'm more confident that gold and silver will be around as opposed to an iPhone (NYSe: AAPL) And no, gold and silver iPhones don’t count.