Well, it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but for the first three days of this week daily turnover in the gold future fell to about 80,000 contracts, compared with a more normal level of 120,000. At the same time volatility fell to as close to zero as you can get. The week started with the gold price at $1241 and until yesterday at 1.00pm UK time stuck to a tight range of $7 centred on $1244. Open interest picked up a little, as shown in our first chart.