Until the late 20th century, gold trading was the most common form of monetary exchange. But over time, the value of gold faded and the dollar became the favored currency.

However, with the precious metal recently testing a new record high – near $1,600 – its monetary value once again is gaining prominence.

Fear pertaining to U.S. and European debt situations have prompted cautious investors to flee stocks in favor of safer assets. Add an unstable U.S. dollar and highly volatile oil prices – caused by continued geopolitical tensions and destructive weather patterns – wreaking economic havoc in many countries, and gold should continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

A good way to benefit from the current gold rush – without having to risk your fortune trading volatile gold mining stocks – is to purchase the precious metal through a gold bullion Exchange Traded Fund.

SPDR Gold Trust Shares (NYSE:GLD) is the biggest physically backed gold ETF. This means the bullion is bought and held instead of invested in through futures contracts. As a result, you can physically own the commodity without having to buy and store the gold blocks yourself.

Since being listed on the NYSE in 2004, GLD has become one of the fastest-growing ETFs in the United States. The fund currently has a total net asset value of approximately $63.5 billion and has a reasonable expense ratio of 0.4%.

Technically, GLD is strong. And the fund appears poised to soar higher.

As you can see on the chart below, the precious metal has been in a steady uptrend since August 2009, when it traded around $90. Since this time, it has advanced more than 73%, currently trading around $156.

The steadily rising 50-week moving average, which acts as an important support level, runs parallel to, but well below, the major uptrend line.

From April 2011 through early July of this year, GLD appeared to be stuck in a $10 trading range, between resistance near $153.61 and support near $143.50.

However, with increasing economic uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic, investors turned to gold, pushing the fund up.

During the July 11 trading week, the fund burst past resistance, forming a minor accelerated uptrend line. In the process, it bullishly completed an ascending triangle formation.

This pattern is formed by the minor uptrend line and $153.61 resistance. When ascending triangle patterns are broken, the trend is typically up.

If we use a measuring principle for a triangle by adding the height of the triangle ($153.61-$143.42=$10.19) to the breakout level ($153.61), the fund easily could reach a price target of $163.80. At current levels, this represents a modest 5% gain. However, with no historical resistance in sight, GLD could surge much higher.

The indicators – used to predict the fund’s movement and depict whether it has reached overbought or oversold levels – are all bullish.

Since early 2011, RSI has been in an uptrend. At nearly 70, and rising, RSI is approaching but has not yet hit the highly overbought level of above 70.

MACD has given a buy signal, indicated by the black line crossing above the red line. The blue MACD histogram is now poking its head in positive territory.

Stochastics and Williams %R, both overbought/oversold indicators, show the fund is approaching highly overbought levels. However, both remain on buy signals. Strong securities can become and stay overbought for long periods.

Given GLD’s strong fundamentals, combined with current unstable global market conditions, investors looking for a safe haven might want to consider going long on GLD.

As of this writing, Deborah O’Malley did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.