Inflation threats are right around the corner. Eric Fry of the Rude Awakening examines 6 ETFs and how to prepare for the “near-certain arrival of inflation.” He says now is the time to be wary of price increases and these ETFs act as an “insurance policy” to hedge against them.

Gold declined on Wednesday, extending the previous session’s 3 percent losses, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s reassurances on the outlook for inflation and the economy cooled risk aversion.

With food prices on the rise, the price of gold will drive. Martin Hutchinson of Money Morning says, “As gold goes up, it gets more popular and investors start piling into it…” Here are five ways to play bottom-basement gold.

Q4 GDP data shows U.S. economy shrank less than expected… Indian gold, euro-priced gold hit records…  Silver hits highest level since Oct 1…

Dollar touches fresh 3-week high versus the euro…  ETF Securities reports 2 pct rise in gold ETF holdings… Platinum, palladium rise to multi-week highs…

The spot price of gold has fallen more than 20% from its all-time high, reached in March of 2008. But if you think that means demand has declined, think again.

Both silver and gold didn’t do much in early Far East trading, but starting shortly after midnight Wednesday (New York time), a gentle selloff began which ended about an hour before trading started on the Comex in New York.

On Friday in the Far East, the gold price wandered aimlessly until shortly after the London market opened. A rally ensued that really gathered steam shortly before New York opened for business. The peak came at the London p.m. fix…the same as Thursday. From there, it sold off a little, but gained most of it back in Globex trading in the after-market hours.

For a few days last week it looked like the ‘junior miners’ had finally decoupled from the mainstream stockmarket trend. They actually rose as the Dow and S&P plunged. Sadly it didn’t last – before long they turned down once again. It seems we were being teased.

One of the things people don’t understand about buying gold for diversification is that it doesn’t work all the time. It works over time. That means that you can’t simply switch from one asset class to another when the going gets tough and expect miracles.