When the market looks shaky and there's little faith in government, gold prices skyrocket. That was the case last week when a sudden stock market dive drove prices to an all-time high, then saw them taper slightly with a market rebound.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 634 points Monday, the first day of trading since Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating. By Thursday, gold surpassed $1,800 for the first time. It settled at $1,747 on Friday, thanks in part to several 400-point days, new regulations on deposit amounts required to trade gold and a report indicating the U.S. retail sector had grown by 0.5 percent — the most in four months.

"Gold moves opposite the market," Centenary College Economics Professor David Hoaas said. "It's an obvious fallback investment for the nervous."

Gold is a traditional safe haven from U.S. government bonds, themselves safe havens from an unstable and unpredictable stock market, said Diana DeCharles of the Ark-La-Tex Chapter of the Financial Planning Association. More interest in gold shows aversion to the market and government, she said.

She said speculators and a nationwide herd mentality have also contributed to rising gold interest and prices.

While investors can feel safe with something they can hold in their hands, she said at some point gold prices will drop, and because the newest investors are getting in at the highest price, they probably won't make much money.

"If you've got the gold fever, at least keep it minimized," DeCharles said. "People are just mad, and they're taking money out of the stock market and putting it into gold."

Gold doesn't pay dividends or interest, and DeCharles said no more than 5 percent to 10 percent of anyone's total finances should be put into precious metals.

Steve Darden, a Shreveport wealth adviser, said he steers his clients away from putting a large percentage of their finances in gold or any other single commodity. Still, he said he was "dead wrong" when he predicted gold wouldn't rise much above $1,300.Read More