In any event, what we're seeing yesterday and today is (IMO) a...

In any event, what we're seeing yesterday and today is (IMO) a fairly important move. The $900 level resistance has been respected, as expected. So what we're looking for is indications of what the retracement will do. Again, I'm hoping for a weak retracement and a hold over $870 or $880. If we get this short term then I'd say it's a very good sign that there will be an upwards breakout. If $850 should not hold, then I'll be expecting another downwards move. If $800 should fall then I wouldn't be surprised to see $700 again.

Very sentimental market at the moment, and a number of factors working aginst gold. Some are mentioned above. More important for me to watch at the moment is the health of the financial sector - which I've been long on since last Friday and have made some really good returns on this week, just moving my stops up. I'm seeing gold and the financials working inversely at the moment - when we see a panicked sell off in financials, gold benefits. Interesting that the slide in gold hasn't been proportional to the rise in financials, though. That for me is an interesting signal.

The market, governments, regulators, just about everyone wants to see the financials rally. To me, this is where much of the helium in those stocks comes from. If (and I suspect it's probably a when rather than an if) they continue to hit new lows, interesting times.

Irresistable force = governments, ordinary investors, institutions, the market wanting financials to be healthy again. Immovable object = the probability of government/regulatory intervention failing and a worstening of the global economy. Gold is the volcano trapped on the edge of those two techtonic plates, and the friction is fascinating to watch.

I'm bullish medium term, but the trench warfare we're seeing - advance, take a few yards, be driven back - isn't indicating an easy battle to me.