As Gold (NYSE: IAU) continues to fluctuate on the whims of the Fed, it’s left me wondering: are gold investors doing themselves a disservice by monitoring the Fed and interest rates so closely? Sure, it makes sense that when the rate eventually goes up that will be bad for gold. But does anyone truly know that to be a fact? And furthermore, since no one has any idea when that might happen, is it a fool's errand to sit around and base all your investing decisions on what Janet Yellen and her buddies may or may not do? In my opinion, metals are a hedge against inflation and a good thing to have around if there is a run on the banks. As Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) showed when they revealed that they are keeping 10 million dollars in gold bars on hand to pay their employees in the case of a catastrophe, even CEO’s think like this. If you believe that metals, especially gold, have value, then trust that, and buy them for the long term. It’s tough to make money on any asset class if you are trying to time the market, but it seems especially hard to do so with metals considering all the recent volatility and uncertainty.