An in-depth guide to making gold a serious part of your portfolio

Gold, the long forgotten store of value that was once the center of the global financial system, suddenly matters a great deal again. It has become a leading asset by virtue of its strong performance, and its booming demand has made it the only financial asset that remains in an uninterrupted bull market. And yet gold remains one of the least-owned financial assets in investment portfolios today.

Hard Money helps investors move beyond the simple, yet widely accepted notion that gold makes sense in...