Time is more important than price. That’s what we – investors – are often made to believe regarding the future price movement. And rightfully so. The price could reach a bottom several dollars ahead of the predicted price target or it could break through it, leaving investors wondering, if there was a breakdown and thus they should expect to see another big downswing shortly. With time, things are clearer. The time for a given move is up and the price reverses. When is gold likely to finally bottom?

Between August and October 2018. That’s the most up-to-date estimate based on the data that we have right now. Here’s why (chart courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).

In the previous weeks and months, we wrote on multiple occasions why the current situation is similar to the 2012-2013 top and subsequent decline, so we don’t want to go into details once again today. Instead, we want to focus on the size of the follow-up action in terms of price and time.

When gold topped above $1,350 in early September 2017, it seemed that the decline might have started. This might have indeed been the case, but the pace at which gold has moved lower up to today is different. It was sharper in 2012. Consequently, perhaps looking at the decline from the late-2012 top to the 2013 bottom and applying it to the September 2017 top in order to estimate the time and price of the upcoming bottom is not the best approach.

It might be better to start the analogy with the second top of the decline – the November 2012 top. At the same time, we should take into account the scenario in which gold follows the entire 2012-2013 decline, but the current starting point should be the current top, not the September 2017 one.

Both mentioned analogies are visible on the above chart in the form of the blue dashed lines. They point to a bottom in August or in late September (perhaps early October).

The latter is more probable because of another important factor that points to this time frame. The long-term cyclical turning point.