The regulator’s main concern is over investment scams that promote gold stocks, making claims about companies’ gold reserves and the potential effects on their stock prices due to changes in gold’s value.

"Con artists are using the run-up in the price of gold as a hook to part investors from their money. Investors should think twice before investing in any gold investment promising exponential returns, or any company that claims it is a buyout target for other mining companies," said Gerri Walsh, FINRA's vice president for investor education.

Last year the organization filed a complaint with the SEC against Quri Resources, a Florida-based mining company, over press releases claiming that a mining project in Ecuador contained gold reserves worth more than $1 billion.

FINRA has highlighted tactics such as tying stock performance to the gold price in investor presentations, making speculative claims regarding new reserves or mining takeovers, and companies which have recently changed their names to align themselves with gold.

The regulator is also cautioning investors over the volatility of gold and ETF investments, saying that while they can be legitimate diversifiers a heavy concentration in these assets leaves investors at risk of losing substantial capital.

Just yesterday it emerged the world’s largest exchange-traded fund is one exposed to gold rather than equities. State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR GLD ETF ended last week with $76.7 billion in assets, surpassing for the first time the SPDR S&P 500 ( $74.4 billion), which was the world’s first ETF when it launched in 1993. At the end of July the situation was rather different, with the equities vehicle way in front with $93.3 billion in assets to the gold ETF’s $66 billion.

The price of the precious metal fell yesterday as investors went back into equities, boosted by some positive data as well as growing rumbles about a bubble in the gold price. The spot price closed at $1754.10/oz. Some however believe the higher price is reflective of a long-term shift in the economic landscape, due to investors losing their faith in fiat currencies.