Marketwatch.com ran a story recently titled, A reality check for investors mulling the sale of gold. There they argue that the its nearly impossible to pick the best time to exit your investment in gold. You stand the risk of missing out on profits or of getting burned when you could have locked in a lot of greenbacks.

The most interesting thing about the article, though, was a quote from Patrick Kerr, managing director at Amerifutures Commodities & Options: “We may reach levels previously thought of as crazy — $5,000 an ounce or even $10,000, with plenty of volatility along the way, including pullbacks.”

Yesterday, I wrote an blog post looking at Seven ways gold could top $2,000 per ounce. The same logic applies to even higher values, but this is the first time I’ve heard an analyst claiming gold could hit $10,000 per ounce by the end of 2010.

So first, we’ve got to look at the facts:

1) Gold’s went up 40+ percent on the year. Gold would have to go up 850 percent from here in order to hit $10,000 per ounce.

2) The analyst claiming gold might hit $10,000 per ounce has a vested interest in encouraging people to trade (as he works at Amerifutures).

3) We can’t accurately predict the future.

So, while $10,000 per ounce gold by 2010 might fall far outside of the trend (and the prediction’s coming from someone who encourages trading), it’s the third item on the list above that makes $10,000 per ounce gold a possibility.

But it’s not going to happen without some drastic changes in the way the economy’s operating. We’d have to be embroiled in war, for instance. Or the dollar would have to utterly collapse against other currencies. The government would have to default on a batch of treasuries or the stock market would need to collapse (again).

Those aren’t all that appealing options, but they’re certainly within the realm of possibility. And for that reason alone every investor should have at least some exposure in gold. It’s the investment of last resort, and a hedge against the unthinkable. It also happens to be quite trendy right now.