I agree the bang for the buck is not looking that good so far. It's possible that those trading with the cartel today may not want to go into the weekend short so if those taking them on can continue then a nice rally may emerge between now and 1:30 PM today.

No one would want to be short gold over a wekkend with wars and nuclear issues, etc. even with options expiry on Monday. They will likely want to cover and re-short Monday morning if the conditions look right and the cartel boys are still trying to break gold down from $420.