There is only one chart on this page which would give a "disinterested" observer any clue about the "angst" being felt amongst Gold and Gold stock investors. That is the daily bar chart - the top one to the left. See the "gap down" day. That took place on Wednesday, June 5 when spot future Gold lost $US 6.60. The next day, Gold got $US 3.70 of that back.
There's a very old market adage: "A BULL market climbs a wall of worry". It may not be familiar to many Gold investors, after all, it has been a while since Gold was in a bull market. But Gold investors, no matter how long they have been Gold investors, are very familiar with the "worry" part. That is because most Gold investors know or very quickly learn (that's what the Internet is for, after all) that they are bucking a bit of a stacked deck.
The problem for Gold investors is that they are in just about the only segment of the investment market that the financial powers that be do NOT want to see go up. Whenever it does go up - as it was doing with a vengeance right up until June 5 in $US terms, they get worried about it being bludgeoned back down - with NO warning. Their worry is not misplaced. Gold HAS been bludgeoned down before - with no warning - many times.
The other worry that many Gold investors have is that technical analysis (charts) of Gold are useless because the financial powers that be can step in at any time and king hit Gold. This worry is misplaced, for two very good reasons.
First, Gold investors are not the only people who look at Gold charts. The financial powers that be look at them too. Gold investors look for resistance areas - price levels where a lot of previous buyers are waiting to "get out even", for example. Even more important, levels where long-standing trendlines are threatened and/or broken. When levels like these are reached, Gold investors get REALLY nervous, waiting for them to be broken through. The financial powers that be know this, and they know that if they can knock the price down a bit, the Gold investors might help them out by dumping some/all of their Gold/Gold stocks.
Please scroll up to the top of this analysis and click on the link labelled "Monthly bar chart back to 1975". In May, Gold broke ABOVE the trendline connecting the all time high of January 1980 and the last bull market high set in February 1996. In other words - GOLD BROKE ABOVE A TWENTY-TWO YEAR TRENDLINE! You can BET that the financial powers that be noticed that.
So, Gold got "hit" on June 5 - much of the hit coming in after-hours trading in New York. The problem is that before it got hit, it had made a new 2002 high close ($US 327.80) the previous day. Gold is still above that trendline.
The second reason why Gold charts are very useful is exactly the same as the reason why ANY chart of ANY investment is useful. They show TRENDS. Gold in $US terms is in an UPTREND and has been in it since April 2001. The trend has steepened over the past two weeks only to stall this past week (June 3 - 7).
No uptrend (not even the Nasdaq in 1999) goes straight UP. There are pullbacks, corrections, and even fairly prolonged periods where not much is happening. But as long as the trend is intact, there is no reason for concern. If you look at the three charts on the left on this page, you can see that NONE of them gives any reason for concern.
The more leveraged your Gold investment, the more risk you are taking. The more you trade - buy in and out of a RISING market - the more risk you are taking. Holders of physical Gold have absolutely NO reason to be concerned at all. If you doubt it and you are an American, take a look at the table on our home page showing the relative gains of the Dow and $US Gold in 2002.
And if you are "worried" about Gold stocks, well, take a look at the point and figure chart of the Australian Gold index. Look at the trendines. Look at the up channel. Look at the fact that the price rise has now turned down RIGHT AT THE TOP OF THE UP CHANNEL. The bull market is perfectly intact. The index has turned down right where one would expect it to turn down. Charts are VERY useful, don't you think?
Gold - and Gold stocks, have paused/turned down/corrected - whatever you want to call it - PRECISELY where the charts show that such an even could be anticipated. When the future is uncertain - and it is ALWAYS uncertain - one needs all the rational help one can get. Charts provide it.
What would worry us is a situation where Gold investors were NOT worried about the future price of Gold. They are worried. The uptrend is intact. Unless you are VERY highly leveraged or you are trying to trade Gold/Gold stocks by jumping in and out, you have no reason for concern. The longer everyone else "worries", the longer this bull market will last.