Gold initially touched $1000/oz this morning as a confluence of factors caused investors to flee to safety. While initially hitting the $1000 mark and then settling back a bit, gold prices appear to be running unabated while investors' willingness to hold stocks, even overnight, waned.

Gold futures hit this high amidst the dollar sinking to 12-year lows against the yen, oil prices hitting $110, and news of Carlyle Capital on the verge of collapse.

With the Federal Reserve continuing to add liquidity to the market and the perception that Fed Chief Bernanke is willing to print money at all costs in order to bring back economic growth and provide a backstop to the entire financial system, investors are fearful of runaway inflation and continue to pour money into hard assets as a hedge.

While the move in gold continues to capture all the headlines, the real winners in this flight to hard assets are the soft commodities and oil and its derivatives. Individual investors can use ETFs linked to the price of gold, like the StreetTracks Gold ETF (NYSE: GLD), or gold and precious metals mutual funds.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund