Why is the gold price under pressure?

Gold has witnessed a big recent sell-off. John C Burford looks at the charts to see what's made the market so bearish.

With traders back at their desks after the US Labor Day holiday, the markets have sprung to life in no uncertain manner. Yesterday, we saw big falls in gold, crude oil and Treasuries in particular.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to announce a plan to stimulate the eurozone economy and traders are positioning for what they believe will emerge.

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(Contracts of 100 troy ounces)Row 0 - Cell 1 Row 0 - Cell 2 Row 0 - Cell 3 Open interest: 363,608
Commitments
172,02258,85323,465127,433250,981322,920333,29940,68830,309
Changes from 08/19/14 (Change in open interest: -2,793)
-11,82412,9833,0655,056-19,058-3,703-3,010910217
Percent of open in terest for each category of traders
47.316.26.535.069.088.891.711.28.3
Number of traders in each category (Total traders: 263)
12470685448205162Row 8 - Cell 7 Row 8 - Cell 8

John is is a British-born lapsed PhD physicist, who previously worked for Nasa on the Mars exploration team. He is a former commodity trading advisor with the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and worked in a boutique futures house in California in the 1980s.

 

He was a partner in one of the first futures newsletter advisory services, based in Washington DC, specialising in pork bellies and currencies. John is primarily a chart-reading trader, having cut his trading teeth in the days before PCs.

 

As well as his work in the financial world, he has launched, run and sold several 'real' businesses producing 'real' products.