It's been a brutal market lately, unless you're a bullion buff. Gold futures for April delivery passed the $1,000 milestone this morning.

I'm not an avid tracker of precious metals, so I have no insight to offer you regarding the nuances and direction of the yellow stuff. As a stock investor, I just want to lay an ounce of gold on one side of the balance, and show you how much that $1,000 value could fetch in equities on the open market.

After all, an ounce of gold these days can buy you any of the following:

  • A round lot of 100 shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE). The conglomerate -- only a few years ago, the most valuable company on the planet -- opened at less than $10 a share this morning.
  • Nearly three shares of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). This one stings personally. Back in 2005, Google and gold were both barreling towards the $500 mark, and I made my case for buying Google over gold.
  • Roughly 8,000 shares of Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI), based on last night's close. I often refer to Sirius XM as a lottery ticket, given the speculative nature of buying into the satellite radio operator these days. However, truth be told, a buck spent on a lottery ticket is now good for eight shares of Sirius XM.
  • Nearly three shares of NVR (NYSE:NVR). The homebuilder peaked in the summer of 2005, with its stock closing just 5% below the $1,000 mark. Remember when metals and real estate were considered hard assets? How times have changed!
  • A hundred shares apiece of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), and General Motors (NYSE:GM), with more than enough spare change to take that special someone to a really good steakhouse. I'm lumping these three companies together because they are part of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average index. Can you believe that five of the 30 stocks in the Dow are trading in the single digits? 

This isn't necessarily a shopping list, though I'll risk further embarrassment by claiming that I would rather own three shares of the world's leading search engine than an ounce of gold at the moment.

Gee, $1,000 can go a long way on Wall Street these days.

Further 24-karat Foolishness: