There is a triple top forming on the hourly gold chart right now, similar to the one that formed at $1587 last week.  That one fell and so will this one.  The market looks poised to take a shot at the $1620 mark tomorrow.  A close above that would be a major bullish signal in the short term and set up another run back to $1700.  This long-delayed march back to first $1800 and then the all-time high is playing out now as the trade which had been in play for the hedge funds continues to slowly unravel.

The speed with which this will unspool, however, will occur once gold puts in a strong reversal signal on a weekly chart and not one moment before.  Tomorrow will be hard fought as everyone involved knows what the situation is and with options on futures expiration on Monday there will be a concerted effort to limit the damage.  But, the bull have control of the market now and if some central bank wants to take it out on the hedge funds that have been stupid enough to side with the IMF and the ECB, well, it could get fun tomorrow.  If not, it will be next week.

The early trading in Sydney as I write this is bullish coming out of the gate and that is different behavior than we’ve seen recently as buyers usually haven’t been showing up until Hong Kong opens.  Watch for large block buying to move price and momentum buyers to force short covering.