alyx.layla: For investors chasing a secure investment, gold is not the silver ...

It?s the price of gold bursting.

Oh, gold prices ma? go up again, but investment advisers and regulators are warning investors to be careful about putting too much mone? in gold.

As the market has vaulted up and down, investors have fled to gold. But have all these investors chasing what the? think is a secure investment created a bubble?

You bet ?our glitter? gold bullion, sa?s Wells Fargo Private Bank.

?We believe that we have reached the point where we can confidentl? state that interest in gold investing has reached the level of a speculative bubble,?? the bank?s investment team wrote in a market update Aug. 15. ?Prudent investors should be ver? war? of having substantial investment exposure to this precious metal in their portfolios.??

With ver? little warning, the bottom can drop out on gold prices, the report said. During a six-month period in 2008, gold lost more than 30 percent of its value. In the 1980s, in just over two ?ears, the price plummeted about 65 percent.

And what do ?ou know, not even a week after Wells Fargo released its market update, a Bloomberg report led with this: ?Gold plunged in New York, heading for the biggest drop in 18 months, on speculation that financial markets ma? be stabilizing, eroding the appeal of the precious metal as a haven.??

Bullion fell more than 5 percent in two da?s of trading last week. That drop erased the gains that sent the metal up as much as 16 percent to a record $1,917.90 an ounce, Bloomberg said.

?We are seeing the exact same behavior at the height of the tech bubble, housing bubble, and the Japanese Nikkei bubble,?? Erik Davidson, of Wells Fargo Private Bank, said. ?Excuse the pun, but we are cr?ing out to investors that gold is not a silver bullet.??

Unlike investing in a stock that pa?s a dividend or in real estate where ?ou can collect rent, gold has no inherent earnings power, Davidson said. Investors have to hope someone else comes along and pa?s more than the? did. He points out that when gold hit a record $850 an ounce in Januar? 1980, it took until Januar? 2008 ? 28 ?ears ? before investors bu?ing at the high broke even.

Last week, the North American Securities Administrators Association and Financial Industr? Regulator? Authorit? both issued warnings to investors to watch out for gold-related scams.

Gerri Walsh, FINRA?s vice president for investor education, said, ?We were seeing scams increasing that were tied to gold.?? In one t?pical con, a promoter gets investors to pon? up mone? for equipment to reopen a dormant mine.

It?s the fear of economic Armageddon that is driving up gold prices, Davidson said. Investors need to curb their enthusiasm, he said. Gold is not going to climb in perpetuit?. ?We are not sa?ing take ?our gold investment to zero, but certainl? this is not the time to jump on the bandwagon.??

Michelle Singletar? is a columnist for The Washington Post.

? Cop?right 2011 Globe Newspaper Compan?.