Nice forum you guys have going here, away from the SH nonsense which I could no longer stomach as of late last year. At any rate, out of all the enlightening discussion so far, Sinclair & Hobbers have hit upon the key point - namely not a single ounce of IMF Gold will ever hit the streets:

Hobbers snipped re: IMF Gold regulations "What it can do is “accept gold in the discharge of a member’s obligations”

Sinclair wrote "Any sales of gold have nothing to do with the market for gold, as not one ounce will ever see the free market. The buyers will be gold-poor central banks."

I also note the anti-gold establishment have cried wolf many times in the past with little if any residual impact on the POG. The Street gold community has been trained to react Pavlovian style to ignore any IMF sales announcments for the hollow threats they have been. Why would we expect any different outcome this time?

Scare tactics used once too often can and will eventually backfire on the perpetrators. In fact, the latest IMF's announcement might very well be interpreted by the Street as a final Cartel capitulation signal that they are losing control of the Precious Metals markets. It is obvious to me, the anti-Gold establishment is desperately running short of fresh physical Gold to cover existing shorts, and is unable to find new ounces to offset the increasing investor base around the world. If enough hedge funds also sense this weakness as I do, I would view this IMF announcement as an exciting opportunity to aggressively go long Gold after waiting for the usual short-term orchestrated trashing that accompanies these news releases. Even a mightly African elephant who reigned the plains unchallenged for decades eventually grows old and weak and is susceptible to attack by a pack of smaller predators who work together as one to defeat the old beast.

At any rate Come Sunday evening I expect a concerted Central Bank effort against the POG at the open, leading to a few traders blindly following suit, loss of downside momentum after a day or two, leading to a resumption of the current uptrend which I expect to peak in early March according to my proprietary cycles work. If this comes to fruition, then this also has implications on long-term tactics for the perenniel hedge fund shorters who have successfully preyed on small caps for nearly two years, if you get my drift.

ESL