Worry and unease are starting to cement themselves as mainstays in today’s stock market, with the S&P 500 approximately 1% away from its all-time high and on pace to turn in its fourth consecutive monthly gain.

No market remains bullish forever — a fact not lost on professional investors.

Today’s bull market commenced at the start of 2009 and has charged through the decade, though nothing was fundamentally solved during the last financial crisis in 2008. For this reason (and others), investors are becoming increasingly more cautious — one chief investment strategist thinks this caution will push the stock market to record highs.

“Unlike any in at least the last 50 years, the contemporary bull market has coexisted with a tall and persistent Wall of Worry,” Leuthold Group chief investment strategist James Paulsen said in a note to clients, as reported by CNBC. “The Worry Gauge suggests most investors already expect, and are prepared for, a difficult future.”

How Everything Still Turns to Gold

The Worry Guage Paulsen references is essentially the price of gold compared to the overall Commodity Price Index. The former is used because it represents the safest of havens when it comes to safe-haven assets.

Gold is currently oversold if one considers the opinion of Standard Chartered’s Suki Cooper — who expects precious metals to see potentially-explosive gains before the end of 2019. Her prediction comes in consideration of the Federal Reserve’s recent tightening policies.

Gold is also in high demand internationally, with Russia and China stockpiling the precious metal amid speculation that the two powerhouses are planning on releasing a gold-backed digital currency to counteract an inevitable failure of global fiat currencies.

The Price of ‘Digital Gold’ is Rising Fast

Bitcoin (BTC) — sometimes called ‘digital gold’ by those who see the market leader as a store of value more than an alternative currency — is currently experiencing impressive gains this month. At the time of this writing, the first and foremost cryptocurrency is trading at $5563 per coin on Bitstamp after breaking out on April 2.

Bitcoin’s price increase may indicate that investors are taking risks while the stock market continues to push towards new highs. Alternatively, it could also indicate that investment funds are beginning to flow back into the most prolific alternative to fiat amid increased worry that a recession (or worse) is on the way.

What do you think about the price of Bitcoin (BTC) amid increased caution in the stock market? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!