Someone posted an $1158 target for gold in the chat room, attributing it to Martin Armstrong.  Over time, I’ve lost a clear sense of whether the guy has been right more often than wrong, which is the basis on which all forecasters should be judged. However, the seven-year stretch Armstrong did in prison for what many believe to have been trumped-up securities-fraud charges seems to have given his credibility a more or less permanent boost.  After looking at gold’s long-term charts myself, I find no basis for predicting such a severe drop in the price of gold in 2013 — one amounting to a 62% correction of the rally begun in October 2008 from 728.  What I see is a lazy consolidation that could continue for quite some time, perhaps into 2014, without exceeding the range 1500-1800.  That said, an impulsive, unpaused thrust breaching lows #1 and #2 (see inset) would lend weight to Armstrong’s scenario.  Perhaps he has a crystal ball?  We don’t, however, and until such time as we see some strongly bearish impulse legs develop on the daily chart, we’ll stick with a forecast that is only moderately bearish at worst for the intermediate term.  _______ UPDATE (January 4 at 1:23 p.m. EST):  With this morning’s dump, the futures appear bound for 1606.40.  The midpoint sibling of that ‘D’ target, already exceeded by a whopping $24,  lies at 1650.90, and so we should view any rally to that threshold as short-able, albeit via camouflage.