Mark Hulbert Reports Gold Timers Now Gloomy

In his latest Marketwatch column, Mark Hulbert says that last week's more than hundred dollar decline in gold has finally sunk into gold timers' models. Initially stubborn, expecting another mere fall out of bed, the gold timers that Hulbert watches shed their bullishness this week at a surprisingly rapid rate:

Consider the average recommended gold market exposure among a subset of the gold market timers tracked by the Hulbert Financial Digest (as measured by the Hulbert Gold Newsletter Sentiment Index, or HGNSI). Just a week ago this average stood t 73.7%, one of the highest readings for this index in several years.

Today, in contrast, it stands at just 7.0%.

This sixty-seven percentage-point reduction in a week’s time is impressive, and most definitely enough to get the attention of contrarian analysts.

The good news for contrarians is that sentiment seems to have shrunk a bit despite gold's recent bounce-up. From a contrarian's standpoint, skepticism about the bounceback would be heartening because it suggests there's reservoirs of buying power not yet committed.