quote>

Since there had been rumors that a major fund would call for delivery of Dec gold, it is possible that someone got verification of this in the afternoon and spreads that were short gold scrambled to deleverage prior to the weekend...too late to cover/buy gold, so sell the other side of the spread.

<

If the play is for gold to sky-rocket, why would they sell the 'long' side of the spread?

Possibly I do not understand the 'long index' aspect. When I play stradles and think the commodity is going up, I lift the short side, NOT the long side.

Please educate this old guy.