In fact, one-day GLD ETF sales above 1% are extremely rare this year. So rare in fact, that 2 such sales helped me to identify the low back in April, something I discussed in a post called A Double Bottom For Gold.

It just so happens that on Wednesday, which is still the low in gold and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) for this correction thus far, the GLD ETF dumped just over 10 tonnes -- just shy of 1% and the first such 1% sale since the April low.

Was Wednesday’s plunge below the June lows another capitulatory low?

I tend to think it could have been, especially since so many of the gold equities still remain well above their June lows (see GSS, NXG, SA, MFN, EGO, and so on) and the COMEX futures saw open interest actually rise dramatically on the plunge, indicating that heavy short selling was more than likely at work rather than heavy long liquidation, which would have caused open interest to fall.

                                   
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I could certainly see how we could retest Wednesday’s low in the yellow metal early next week or perhaps even test the $900 area -- which would be even more convincing if it occurred along with another 1% sale by the GLD. But either way, I tend to think there are enough encouraging signs -- given that the metal and its equities are digging in -- to tell us that this month-long correction is now coming to an end.

And if this correction is coming to end, it could be that we’ve finally completed the year-and-a half-long base in gold that's going to catapult prices to new all-time highs above $1000 later this summer.