Eoin Treacy's view Gold had become quite overextended when it hit a peak above $1900. At the time there was quite a lot of investor resistance to the idea that gold prices were close to a medium-term peak. Gold closed the overextension relative to the 200-day MA this morning with an additional decline of $100 and has found at least short-term support in the region of $1550. I opened a long position in the December contract at $1562.4. Such has been the speed of the decline that continued volatility is virtually assured but gold has now returned to a potential area of support. If the consistency of the 2-year portion of gold's secular bull market is to continue, demand should continue to reassert itself in the region of $1550. Sentiment is also an important consideration because it is now considerably more bearish than that exhibited in July and August.

I have been participating in Bank of Ireland on a spread-bet, baby steps basis since July. Two positions were rolled formation on the 20th. As a baby steps operation these are small positions. I do not look at this position every day which is the reason for the late report of the roll. Bank of Ireland has avoided nationalisation and has quite a long road to recovery. It has not been helped by the turmoil in European financials. My September contracts were sold at 7.175¢ against my purchases at 11.071¢ and 10.76¢ on July 25th and 26th respectively. Positions in the December contract were purchased at 7.23¢ including spread-bet dealing costs.