hmmm, I can't get my streaming charts going behind my firewall at work ... but ... if we're looking at a 10 year trend, gold would have to drop well below $1,500 an ounce to break that trend line. If memory serves me correctly the 10 year trend line sits somewhere between $1,000 and $1,200 an ounce.

the 20% drop and cross of the 50 week ma would indicate a shorter term down trend but the 10 year up trend would still be intact. Such volatility is the name of the game when dealing with multi year uptrends.

my belief? the chances of gold breaking below $1,500 in the short term (before end of year) are far greater than gold breaking $2,000. Yet, we still may see prolonged consolidation as Mr Ripple suggests as well.

The USD has a built-in negative coorelation to the Euro which was amplified last week when the Swiss decided to fix the franc to the Euro by a factor of 1.2 and in the process had to purchase large amounts of USD. If Europe's troubles get worse in the next month or 2 we could see gold drop easily simply as a function of a strong (relatively) USD. But as the Beav said, these effects will be short term until the attention turns back to the US ...

Make sure you're strapped in or the roller coaster will toss you off at the top of a corner.