Gold follows inflation, soaring oil prices add to inflation and hence help gold indirectly. Gold has risen because interest rates had been going down and liquidity had been increasing throughout the world for the last few years.
For gold play, note that you pay much higher long term tax on gold. If you held gold or gold ETF for more than a year, you still have to pay 28% tax whereas the tax is almost half of that for stocks held more than a year. This is because gold is considered a collectible by IRS.
