David Fuller's view When I increased my gold long position on Friday, I added: "I do not know whether the next $50 to $100 move is up or down." Well, it did not take long to find out that the first $50 plus was to the downside and this has eroded some support in the process. The nature of the move - a downward dynamic indicating persistent selling, with other precious metals also falling today, reminds me once again that the sector is not immune to contagion selling during this ongoing period of global deleveraging. Deciding that I would rather watch this drama play out from the sidelines, I closed my remaining gold (weekly & daily), silver (weekly & daily) and platinum (weekly & daily) trading positions at losses this afternoon and may not institute any new trades for the remainder of the year, preferring to concentrate on observation and analysis. Both gold and silver have rolled over in the last few days and need to rally above this month's earlier highs to remove pressure from underlying trading. Platinum remains the sector's underperformer.

For the record, my Feb gold longs were sold at $1673.4 (60% of the position) and the remainder at $1672.8, against purchases at $1998.98 (40% of position on rollovers), $1748, $1715.5 and $1714.5 on 23 Nov, 1 Dec and 9 Dec, respectively. My Mar silver longs were sold at $31.155 against my purchases at $33.295 and $32.808 on 2 Dec. My Jan platinum long was sold at $1484.9 against my purchase at $1559.9 on 30th Nov. These prices include all spread-bet dealing costs.