Worried About Falling Euro? Five Things Investors Can Do

4. Go for the Gold

Besides Treasurys, the other big beneficiary of the euro drop has been gold, which has hit a succession of all-time dollar highs.

Traditionally thought of as an inflation hedge, the metal has now become a safety play against euro demise.

"Investors who have assets held in euro currency are concerned they are holding useless currency," says Andre Julian, senior market strategist at OpVest Wealth Management in Irvine, Calif.. "Gold is the new reserve currency. It's gone beyond an inflation hedge."

Julian thinks $1,500 is a realistic price target for gold this year, with $2,000 a possibility if stability is not restored to Europe.

"Technically there's nothing stopping it from continuing," he says. "Investors are fearful of the capital markets."

5. Safety in Cash

Some sense of euro-zone stability will be only thing to stop the currency's plunge, analysts say.

And with leaders seemingly unable to agree on a future path not only for Greece's debt problems but also the likely contagion to follow, the investment landscape will remain one primed for safety moves.

Money on the sidelines, earning almost nothing in money market funds, remains at $2.88 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

"From a point of worry, the biggest concern would be the European response does not continue to be progressive but becomes regressive and more traditional," says John Stoltzfus, senior strategist at Ticonderoga Securities in New York. "European leaders have been known, sadly, to pull the wrong lever in the middle of a crisis."

Stoltzfus advocates a strategy he calls "hedging the cyclical and funding the secular," or essentially using fundamentals but adding provisions for temporary market developments.

Other managers, such as Mike McGervey, president of McGervey Wealth Management in North Canton, Ohio, are listening to models that say this is a good time to start raising cash. He said his firm raised 15 to 20 percent crash after Monday's relief rally and probably will accrue more after this week.

"We're starting to play defense," he says. "That strategy has served us well in terms of minimizing losses—especially during times of economic crisis."