On January 2, 2008 (using the closing price for the first market day):

How did they do? Here is where they were at as of closing on Friday, March 24, 2012 (along with the percentage gain or loss):

Very Interesting! During a time period of over 4 years and 2+ months... the Dow actually ended up about 1 percent. Meanwhile, gold and silver roughly doubled during the same time frame!