Thus, the fundamental figures suggest that the gold price should be rising with demand exceeding supply. But the futures market still appears to be controlling price levels and we are again seeing strange dumpings of paper gold into the markets at odd trading hours which do look to be an attempt to keep knocking the price down. But with the draining of physical gold from Western warehouses, and its moving primarily into stronger Eastern hands, one suspects that the scope for keeping a lid on the gold price is reducing all the time. As we have said before, the worst may not be over yet for the gold investor – there are powerful forces keeping prices depressed and forcing the lower – but when the true turning point arises gold’s recovery could be fast and very strong indeed driven by a severe shortage of physical gold in the West. As always, it’s a question of timing and that is not easily determinable.