Silverman99 said:
Any logical reason for the big hit downwards ?
Good question, I've spent some time looking for an answer if only to make me feel better about cutting my losses.
I can only parrot the pundits [Kitco, silverseek, sharps pixley, gold review, bullion desk, zerohedge et al], the gist being (as far as I can make it all out):
A few recent (last 14 days or so) "better than expected" US economic news reports gave credence to concerns of an upcoming FOMC interest rate hike in the offing and DXY continued to rise steadily, coincident with Gold falling steadily to the USD 1300 level. So Gold was under pressure due to a strengthening dollar and associated worries of an upcoming interest rate rise.
Then, either someone/body decided to sell 3.2 million toz of Gold December futures, or the flash crash of GBP created a surge in DXY just as Gold closed in and around the USD 1305 -1310 mark; whatever, and probably a bit of both - the net result was a closing Gold price on the order of USD 1299 around 12:30 (NY time) which triggered a wave of stop loss selling which drove the price down and blah, blah, blah. Maybe they just wanted to go to lunch! [From what I could see it was the first instance post Brexit of DXY over 96 rising and Gold under 1310 falling]
So, price manipulation or fat finger trade appear to be the options.
The context is significant as many market watchers had been talking up the likelihood of some form of correction being imminent.
Importantly, once the USD 1300 level was breached it was on for young and old, nobody wanted to buy until long term average prices were in view. Remember the very recent payrolls number was on the horizon then.
20/20 hindsight