Gold may or may not be a currency or hedge against crisis but it has been traded for thousands of years. That being the case, gold can probably be expected to fluctuate in value but it's not going to disappear. At least not in a straight line.

Jeff Kilburg, founder & CEO of KKM Financial, is a gold trader rather than a fundamental purist. For him the underlying demand gives him a trading backstop, but getting ahead of price fluctuations are how he brings home the bacon.

Kilburg says the trader in him thinks gold is on the cusp of a breakout. "I want to see it get back above $1,500, but I think you can layer into gold positions here," says Kilburg in the attached video.

Why wait? Because good commodity traders know to respect the technicals. $1,500 is a level from which gold broke down. Those who bought that level and rode gold to the lows and back the mid-$1,400s are weak holders likely to breath a sigh of relief and bail when they get back to their cost basis. Traders who bought lower will see resistance at $1,500 and take profits. Either way Kilburg says it pays to wait.

I like to call them the disaster du jour. It's when a particular stock gets crushed after missing analyst expectations or gets slammed for perhaps sounding more cautious than optimistic in giving its purview of the future. As jarring as these double-digit dips are for existing shareholders, they can also be pure gold for investors who are quick enough to react when they think the punishment does not fit the crime.

"Whether they miss here or miss there, that's not going to change the arithmetic of how they create value for investors over the long term," says Martin Leclerc, managing partner at Barrack Yard Advisors of IBM's (IBM) recent 10% post-earnings dive.

In the attached video, Leclerc explains that while he hasn't bought IBM yet, "it's very much on our minds," pointing out that the company's strong cash flow and a share count that's fallen 40% in a decade are the real "driving force."