How should you play gold? Rather than buying the commodity, you have two choices: an ETF or a mining company. While the ETF is less risky, it also stands to return less, in my opinion.

The ETF play is streetTRACKS Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD), an ETF intended to mimic the price action of the underlying commodity contract. Each share is representative 1/10 of an ounce of gold. This is perfect for most people who would like to bet on gold or hedge their portfolio.

However, I think a more interesting play is the miner Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX), a stock that broke to a new 52-week high today. Because of its incredible technical strength, especially recently, I believe this stock should mimic gold's returns with higher beta. In other words, I think a 1% risk in gold will result in a rise greater than 1% in this miner's stock. Accordingly, I believe if gold is up 10% on the year, this miner could be up 20% or more. However, if gold is down on the year, I think Barrick will be down even more. In other words, Barrick should serve as a leveraged bet on gold's price with the added upside of a very attractive chart.

Gold could be prime for another strong year with many concerns about the economy plaguing many investors' minds. As a retail investor, you have two interesting ways to play a higher gold price: an ETF that mimics the price of the commodity and a mining stock that should serve as an interesting leveraged bet on the commodity.