Gold buggery is often advocated by economic libertarians because they think that because it is something concrete, it provides more stability than stocks. Gold bugs also believe that gold is a good investment because they predict that the market is going to crash, or certain sectors are going to crash, and gold will withstand such a crash and remain valuable. There's a bit of nostalgia for the old gold backed currency system in gold advocacy - many believe the use of fiat currency is simply dangerous in the long run.

People have been selling the gold line for a long time. Yes, it's around the $600 an ounce level, but it is far more likely that it will depreciate in value than appreciate. One cannot infer that because something has climbed higher in value it will continue to do so.