Analysis: Gold bulls defy historic pullback, increasing their bets on long-term gold call options.

PANews reported on February 16th that, according to Jinshi, some staunch gold bulls are unfazed by the historic pullback in the precious metals market and still expect gold prices to surge to unprecedented levels again. At the end of January, New York gold futures prices briefly broke through a record high of $5,600 per ounce, but then suffered an unprecedented plunge the following day. During this period, one or more investors began buying December-expiring call option spread contracts with strike prices of $15,000/$20,000 on the COMEX division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Even after gold prices consolidated around $5,000, this position continued to grow, now reaching approximately 11,000 contracts. "It's truly surprising to see so many deep out-of-the-money call option spread open interest after a technical pullback," said Akash Doshi, global head of gold and metals strategy at State Street Investment Management. "Some traders may see this as a cheap lottery opportunity."