With gold, I think what really helped light a fire under it in the 2000s was the creation of the various metals ETFs (GLD, SLV) in the mid-2000s, along with the mining ETFs like GDX, SIL. That made it super easy for investors to pile in, and up she went.
Right now it's starting to look like the US dollar could be ready for a bounce back after the huge drop since Oct. How long the dollar bounce lasts, who knows, but it could cause the metals to retrace and consolidate for a while.
My gold story goes back to when it was ~250 range and I bought some US and foreign gold numismatic type coins. It was exciting to see gold reach 700 so I sold them at a nice profit, but of course it continued to zoom, eventually reaching 2000/oz, so got off the bus too early. Still a nice profit though.
For exposure to the miners I would mainly stick to the broad ETFs like GDX and SIL, and for small caps there is GDXJ and SILJ. Jim Rickards recommends a max of 10% allocation to the metals sector, which seems like a wise strategy all things considered. Best not to go too overboard in any sector :o)
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