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For months, the talk of gold (GLD) hovering around (and dipping below) $1,300 an ounce has been frequent. $1,300 is thought of as a psychological number, meaning if gold dips below that price, then people really start to panic.

But, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, gold rallied to $1,400 for a brief period on Friday afternoon last week (August 23, 2013). All of a sudden, $1,300 was just a distant blip in the rearview mirror.

The question is, can gold sustain this price or will it sink back to the $1,300 range? The answer depends on several factors.

The reason for the late rally on Friday was because of some disappointing economic news from another sector. Housing data released on Friday indicated that new home sales in the U.S. dropped over 13% month over month and rising mortgage rates are to blame. This data was enough to spark a large risk-off session in the market. Many investors feverishly bought gold in a short period of time, thus driving the price to over $1,400 an ounce late in the afternoon.

While the buying tapered off, gold has held strong thus far, finishing Monday August 26 just under $1,400 an ounce.

Gold is starting to show signs of life again, which is good news for gold investors. Both silver and gold have had a solid few weeks, and while clearly not out of the woods yet, these past few weeks have looked much brighter than the spring and early summer months.

However, there are still hurdles to climb, which for potential investors, means there is still time to buy gold at low rates. The Fed has indicated that at some point it will begin tapering off is purchasing of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, which is around $85 billion each month. If and when that reduction happens still remains to be seen, but it will have a global economic impact.

While you cannot control the government’s financial and economic decisions, you can control your own investment portfolio. Buying gold at low rates is really a no-brainer from an investment standpoint. Some people are hesitant because of the metal’s poor performance this year, but it has historically always bounced back and emerged from periods of decline even stronger and more valuable. Had you bought gold a few weeks back at $1,300 an ounce, your investment would be looking quite good today. Imagine if you buy around $1,400 an ounce, and the price hits $2,000 or higher in the not-so-distant future! Then, imagine the long term value of holding onto gold for decades. You get the idea.