Gold price on insane surge after massive trade

Los Angeles (June 19)  The gold price scaled $1,300 an ounce for the first time in more than a month, after comments by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen yesterday and a huge buyer lit a fire under traders.

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for August delivery – the most active contract – jumped to $1,319.50 an ounce, up $45.70 or over 3.5% from yesterday's close. It was the best one day performance for the metal since September last year.

After months of subdued trade on gold futures markets volumes surged on Thursday leaping past 210,000 contracts – double recent daily averages – by mid-afternoon.

As the chart shows, after a steady climb throughout the morning, during lunchtime volumes suddenly spiked with more than 2.9 million ounces (82 tonnes) changing hands in three big chunks in the space of 15 minutes.

The chart looks almost like the inverse of the trading pattern on April 15 this year when exactly year to the day of 2013's $200 shocker another strange gold price plunge occurred.