Longbob I have stayed out of these gold conversations (and most other conversations tbh) but I think I have noticed some of the same things you have.
Trouble is that China is so opaque and bereft of good data that it will be impossible to tell if that is the source of this or not for a while. If ever. Still it kind of looks like Asia is the source of this latest round of risk off and China in particular. Looks like you have a lot of folks worried if China's thirst for commodities might be played out for a while. They may have finally cracked just a bit.
Add to that the extraordinary number of gold investors in the market for all the wrong reasons... well it kind of got messy in a hurry.
I don't particularly like conspiracy theories and this time is no different. The Fed may indeed hold a lot of gold but this time there isn't just a pump/dump in one category. Gold and silver and oil are all taking a beating back of the woodshed. At lest to me that implies that this one is a bit different.
Could be wrong.
Will
