Don't know why someone down voted this article. It's interesting and pertinent to our times and is a valid opinion, so I bumped it up. Technically, the fast spike in gold price was due for a correction, IMHO, so here it may be and is perfectly natural for the investing (speculating?) community. There's been a huge increase in "buy gold" advertising over the past year or two bringing in more buyers than ever before and I expect that demand helped drive the price up. If the amount of money the retail buyer has for commodities like gold is starting to dry up then having a correction is no big deal. With that said, if the underlying value of gold is truly worth more than it is selling for after correcting, the rise will resume.

The decline was probably amplified by the need to raise cash to meet margin calls. It wasn't just the price of gold, all the precious metals - gold, silver, platinum and palladium - were hit at the same time. The stock market and Bitcoin are way down also. I expect that many investors are cutting their losses and retreating to cash and treasury bills, which are still generally seen as more of a "safe haven" than gold.

Are there any reliable data on the purchases and sales of gold by the governments of China and India?

Are there any reliable data on the amount of gold held by the government of America in the Fort Knox vaults?

Are they important to the rise and fall of gold prices?