I think what you say may be entirely right.  However, when we had the mini Asian meltdown, the opposite happened and it took many people by complete surprise.   So, will the surprise be the surprise they were expecting but didn't get or the the surprise they didn't know whether to expect or not.  (My best Maxwell Smart impersonation... a little levity is always needed in financial crisis).

Back to being serious, gold sold off in the short term to raise cash, of course it has bounced back verrrry strongly in the longer term.