"How strange that every time gold or silver are about to break upward resistances or there is an event that could lead them to the upside (ie. Feds QE 3 or 4) a huge sell order appears, usually at early hours, that carries prices sharply down. The seller does not care about selling slowly in order to get the better price. He smashes the price in one hour or two. I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but sometimes these events make me think about them! Especially when we know that gold is the "enemy" of Central Banks.

"2012 was a very challenging year and thanks to your superb and sharp coaching we were able to sail through it in a very smooth way, sometimes near the coastline, sometimes with full sails. But we are reaching 2013 safe and wiser, I hope. Thank you very much. Best wishes to all of you up there in London."

David Fuller's view Thank you for your generous comments on Fullermoney, and best wishes to you and your family.

Neither of us wants to engage in too much conjecture, not least regarding some of those temporary downdraughts in gold or any other widely traded asset.

Living through a trading range can be tedious, to put it mildly, although those patterns often look normal enough with hindsight, especially when viewed on weekly charts. There is also disagreement in trading ranges which can make them appear to be choppy.

There are also plenty of short-term distractions, including the tedious US Fiscal Cliff. Also, some people may have held gold as a short-term haven because they thought everything else was dangerous. Whatever, I think the current environment of QE and extremely low interest rates is consistent with gold's overall secular uptrend, in which we have participated for over a decade. Gold is hard money.