Gold set its low for the handle with an intraday spike down to 1166 compliments of the heavy handed bear raids ahead of option expiry, but put in the daily close at an almost perfect 38.2% Fibonacci retracement.
Since then gold has been rallying, breaking through the key 1200 level right after the expiration where so many call options had been concentrated.
h/t lemetropolecafe.com
It has already reached what might prove to be the upper bound of resistance for the handle, although I would expect it to be a rough go higher from here until a breakout is achieved.
The target of 1400 to 1450 looks good. As the breakout gains shape hopefully a minimum measuring objective can be calibrated more precisely.
Once gold starts moving I would not be surprised to see a breakaway gap that does not get filled, but leaves many punters on the sidelines waiting for a pullback.
The usual caution is that if there is a market crash and a liquidation panic, gold will be sold along with almost everything else, at least temporarily, but then should rebound strongly as the central banks act to bolster confidence and liquidity by devaluing their currencies even more aggressively tha they have already been doing.
Classic Cup and Handle Chart Formation
See also Gold Is In a Classic Cup and Handle Formation Targeting 1,450: May 19th
Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all the objective, logical considerations, we find the struggle against evil, against the servants of the antichrist. Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak. When he yields to the forces of evil, he separates himself from the power of a higher order; after taking the first step, he is driven on and on to the next and to the next, at a furiously accelerating rate.
Die Weiße Rose, 1942