However, the market found support at 1210 to form a potential "double bottom" on the daily chart - this saw the shorts covering before the weekend, with the price subsequently rising quickly to the upper boundary of the down trend channel at 1245.
This area provided resistance and the price dropped back to settle around unchanged on the day, demonstrating perfectly why trading or initiating new positions on or around NFP day should be avoided if at all possible. This morning, gold has quietened down and is trading around 1230.
After initially surging higher on Friday in the wake of the NFP data, the dollar is weaker, continuing the softer tone of the past month that has seen the dollar fall by 1.6%. Worrying for the gold bulls is that in the same time frame, gold has fallen even more sharply and is down 7.3%, failing to take advantage of the favourable dollar action.
Support can be found at 1223-1227, 1217, 1212, 1200-1207 and 1180. A break of 1180 would have serious bearish implications for gold and suggest a decline to 1000-1050 in the short term.
Resistance can be found at 1235, 1245, 1250, 1260, 1270, 1277-1280 and 1291-1295. A break above 1295 would suggest an end to the down trend, though it would take a break of 1360 to confirm this was the case.
Today's video for subscribers looks at the recent trading in more detail and our strategy for our next trade.