One of the most successful ETF products to date is the gold ETF by streetTracks (GLD).  What makes this ETF fairly popular is direct access to the underlying.  Gold bars are held in vaults, not futures contracts.  This has proven that the price of the ETF tracks the underlying pretty well.

As the popularity of this ETF grew and grew fast, the question asked by option traders, is why we don't have options on GLD.  The reasons have varied from not enough volume (clearly wrong) to that the level of derivation was too much (again, wrong).  Apparently the market has spoken and the options are on their way.  If all of the hurdles are properly cleared the CBOE could list these options as early as the end of this month.

I'm not a gold lover.  An asset that seems to create nothing but volatility or at best, counterbalances volatility in your portfolio without actually creating real returns over time is not really for me.  However, I really like the idea of being able to play gold speculatively.  If the volume on the options is anything like the volume on the ETF, we could find ourselves with another liquid option set and that's always good news!