 I am not a gold bug.But I have been around gold bugs and gold market enthusiasts for more than 30 years. From Doug Casey of Crisis Investing fame, to Adrian Day of Global Analyst and of course the godfather of gold investing in the U.S. -- Jim Blanchard. Jim Blanchard fought for years to legalize the ownership of gold for Americans and eventually worked with President Richard Nixon to accomplish the feat back in the 1970s.And Ive also been friends with geologists and mining experts including Rick Rule, the CEO of Sprotts OTCMKTS:SPOXF U.S. holdings.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice Trading TipsThen on the investment fund front there was Ian McAvity, who was on the board and directed Central Fund, now Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trust NYSEMKT:CEF.But up until June of last year, I had never recommended a gold investment. And now, I remain in my recommendation to buy and own gold -- but in a very specific way.Gold can be an emotional investment. Many folks have a want or need to own it as for them it is a better store of value than fiat currencies including the U.S. dollar. And those same investors will also view it as an inflation hedge. Still, others see it as an absolute asset to have for when the financial Armageddon strikes. 7 Safe Stocks to Buy on the Coronavirus Dip But I see gold differently. Gold to me is valued on some of the just-mentioned rationales -- but it is more accurately priced based on more specific economic and market conditions. Interest Rates and GoldInterest rates are one of the biggest drivers for gold. Gold in and of itself does not earn a dime in interest or dividends. So, by buying and holding it you are incurring an important cost in opportunity lost in interest.So, as interest rates in the U.S. rise, gold will tend to suffer as the pain of the lost opportunity of earning more interest drives away buyers. And in turn, when interest rates are low and falling, then the opportunity cost of holding gold drops and the demand to own it rises.Look at the following graph that plots the price of gold and short-term U.S. dollar interest rates for the trailing year. Three-month London Interbank Offer Rate LIBOR is plotted in white and the spot price for gold is fittingly in gold.Source: Chart by Bloomberg 12-Month History: Three-month LIBOR White and Spot Gold GoldYou can clearly see that as interest rates drop, gold is rising. And if you look at the same chart for the trailing three years, youll see that as interest rates climbed in 2017 and continued sharply into 2018, gold prices and the gold market were having a tough time.Source: Chart by Bloomberg 36-Month History: Three-month LIBOR White and Spot Gold GoldAnd U.S. inflation continues to remain low, as seen in the core U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure Index PCE. The Federal Reserve and its Open Market Committee FOMC uses this index as an inflation gauge.Source: Chart by Bloomberg, Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis U.S. Core Personal Consumption Expenditure IndexThe FOMC made policy errors in 2018 as it acted to influence short-term U.S. interest rates. It raised the target range for Fed Funds -- a benchmark market rate for banks to lend to one another. It reversed its mistake, and I expect that it will make further corrections to lower the target range resulting in lower U.S. interest rates. This should benefit the price of gold.But the U.S. is just one of the primary markets for interest rates. And for the rest of the globes major markets in Europe and Asia, short- and longer-term interest rates are even lower than in the U.S. Many markets have negative yields.Source: Chart by Bloomberg Amount of Negative Yielding Debt in U.S. dollarsThe amount of negative yielding debt and negative yielding bank deposits makes gold outside the U.S. all the more attractive to buy and own. Thats because it doesnt have negative yields, making for a cheaper store of value and savings. And this buying helps gold prices in the U.S. as demand rises under this condition.And given the slowdowns in European and Asian economies, including borderline recession or actual recessions, negative yields outside the U.S. arent going away for some time. This will continue to help gold demand. U.S. Dollar and GoldGold for U.S. investors is priced in U.S. dollars. So, it makes sense that as the dollar rises in value, gold will feel the pinch. And as the dollar falls in value, gold will gain, all other factors aside.Source: Chart by Bloomberg Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index White Spot Gold GoldYou can see that over the trailing five years, that the U.S. dollar and the spot price of gold have an inverted market relationship.Back in 2015, the dollar was up, and the price of gold was lower. Then into early 2016 the dollar fell back, and gold rallied in price. Later in 2016, the dollar headed to recent highs and gold suffered in the market. Then as the dollar plunged in value in 2017 into 2018, gold was generally higher in price. And this reversed in mid-2018 until late in that year as the dollar slipped and gold went up.For 2019, the dollar has been generally in a range. But again, you can see that as the dollar edged higher in that range, gold drifted lower. And in June 2019, the dollar was slipping again and gold did better.But I believe that interest rates are right now more important for gold spot prices as U.S. rates head lower and global rates head deeper into negative territory. Calamity in the MarketsMany think that gold makes for a good hedge during stock market calamity. But that really doesnt pan out with history. Take for example the plunge in the SP; 500 in the fourth quarter of 2008. The SP; 500 dropped as the impact of the financial crisis took hold of stocks and sent them into the basement.But gold didnt do much better. It ended the year below the higher prices it saw earlier in 2008.Source: Chart by Bloomberg 2008 SP; 500 White and Spot Gold GoldAnd then we can look at the fourth quarter of 2018 when the SP; 500 had a full slip and slide. From my perspective, that market action was due to expectations that several companies would report lower sales and earnings growth.Source: Chart by Bloomberg 2018 SP; 500 White and Spot Gold GoldAs the errant FOMC led U.S. interest rates higher, gold started to go down. And even during much of the heavy selling and the drop in the SP; 500 gold remained low. And only as selling begat more selling in mid-December did gold begin to rise a bit. Even then, it still was much lower than earlier in the year.That said, market calamity can drive some demand for gold, particularly when the markets are dropping very heavily on any given day such as has been the case over the past few days. But one of the reasons for gold gaining might not be concerns about stocks, but rather concerns over the possibility of slowing U.S. economic growth. For example, fears that the coronavirus from China will have a major impact on the U.S. could take gold higher. And in turn, this would support even lower interest rates and a lower U.S. dollar. All About Investing in GoldThere are several ways you can invest in gold. To start, you can buy coins, either in the form of bullion or in numismatic or collectable coins. You can buy allocated gold, where a certain amount of bullion becomes your explicit property. Or, you can own unallocated gold, which remains under the ownership of a bank. Here, you essentially have interest in a certain amount of gold in storage.Coins have bid-offer rates and can also have commissions. And if you choose to have them delivered, you will also have shipping and insurance costs. This is perhaps not the best investment in my opinion unless you derive some personal benefit from holding coins.Allocated gold comes with the benefit of ownership and the storage facilities are audited in that storage. But you will have bid-offer costs and you will incur storage fees which mean that gold not only has an opportunity cost to own it, but a further actual cost to store it.As mentioned above, when you buy unallocated gold, a bank or financial firm is allowing you to buy and sell bullion. But instead of delivering it to your doorstep, it carries the gold on its books as an accounting item for you. Think of it as when you buy a stock and your broker holds the stock for you, journaling your holdings in your account. Here, you still pay bid-offer costs. But unallocated gold comes with lower -- and sometimes no -- storage costs. The firms will view the storage costs as their responsibility, absorbing the fees from the income they make off your transactions.One of my long-time friends and former business partner from my banking days is Chris Gaffney. He is the president of world markets at TIAA Federal Savings Bank, which is part of the massive non-profit financial and retirement firm, TIAA. TIAA offers coins, but more importantly, unallocated gold with no storage fees and lower bid-offer costs. He and his team can be reached at 800-926-4922 my old office number at Mark Twain Bank or online, here. Taking the Fund RouteThen you can look at a gold exchange-traded fund such as the SPDR Gold Shares NYSEARCA:GLD which synthetically holds gold bullion. This is a very easy means of buying and owning gold as more and more brokerages eliminate commissions. But it doesnt mean that its free. That storage -- either real or synthetic -- comes into play for the ETF with an expense ratio of 0.40, or 40 on an 10,000 investment. This means that you will have an actual cost to hold shares of the ETF, as it doesnt pay a penny in dividends.Source: Chart by Bloomberg SPDR Gold Shares ETF White and Spot Gold GoldGLD does track spot gold pretty well as you can see in the graph of the two. But that embedded cost represented in the expense ratio means that it will lag gold prices. 