I have managed to finally find a bit of time to confirm that.
Here is the data in chart format. Note, the general public is the LEAST BULLISH ON GOLD since the very beginning of the decade+ long bull move way back in 2001. You will recall that gold was coming off a twenty year bear market back then.
Even during the depths of the credit crisis in the latter part of 2008, the general public, in spite of a sharp crash in the price of gold, still remained biased towards the bullish side, even though that sentiment took quite a hit during that downdraft.
Fast forward to this past week and you can see how rapidly sentiment towards gold, on the part of the small speculator, has been damaged. All I can say about this is if the Central Planners wanted to discredit gold as an alternative currency to the Dollar, they have certainly managed to do just that. They have gotten the entire speculative camp, hedge funds, other large reportables and the small speculators selling gold while the bullion banks and swap dealers are in the process of buying it.
Keep in mind that this is using the paper Comex markets as the benchmark against which most of the investment world leans when it wants to know what the price of gold is doing. Most people outside of the gold community do not even know what a gold coin dealer shop looks like or where even to find one. Mention the words, "spot price of gold" and you are liable to get someone asking why the metal is spotted.
Let's keep a close eye on this to see if we can spot any shift in sentiment. Markets that have suffered such brutal maulings need some time to repair the psyche of those who have been on the wrong side of a move of that nature and been devastated as a result.
This is the reason that I am not in the camp with those who believe that we are now going to see an immediate rocket shot higher in gold. I can assure you as a trader that once you are on the wrong side of a trade of this nature, and watched your trading account or investment capital been blasted into the nether regions, you are in no special hurry to plunge right back into that market. You need time to lick your wounds. There are probably people out there who are swearing out loud right now that they will never even look at another ounce of gold, much less plop down money on a gold investment, especially a mining share!
This market will thus need some sort of healing process in my view to convince the skeptics that it is for real.
Those of us who believe in honest money, need to understand that the majority do not look at these things in the same manner in which we do. Thus, the mass exodus out of the Comex gold markets and the gold ETF. If gold can continue to stabilize here and avoid any further sharp downside plunges, that will go a long way to convincing some of the new skeptics that the worst is over and give some the confidence to wade back into the water.
Traders and other investment types will be looking for another retracement lower in price to see where the support emerges. They will be especially interested in seeing where the strong physical offtake begins to fade at these higher price levels.