2 million ounces of paper gold were dumped on the COMEX in 4 minutes last Friday morning driving the price down $30.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-11/massive-sell-order-takes-out-gold-bidstack-sends-metal-three-month-lows

2 million ounces is about 62 tons.  The COMEX currently has only 22 tons of registered gold in its warehouses that is available to settle futures contracts, which are often referred to as paper gold.  Total gold in COMEX inventory is 215 tons which includes eligible gold, which is owned by the banks' customers.  Eligible bullion is in the proper form to be registered if the owner decides to reclassify it as registered.  The owners could also decide to move their bullion out of COMEX warehouses.

This sudden, large sale of paper gold triggered 'stop loss logic' that halted trading for 20 seconds.  The COMEX has circuit breakers that temporarily halt trading if it becomes too volatile.  20 seconds is a long time is today computer algorithm driven markets.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-11/stop-logic-gold-slam-was-so-furious-it-shut-down-cme-trading-again

As discussed in previous posts, large sudden sales are a sure sign of market manipulation because no rational seller would depress prices while unloading their investment.  A rational seller would sell their position over time, which in this high volume market could be just several hours.

Price suppression like this presents buying opportunities.  But, it will take a while for gold bulls to lose their fear of future price smack-downs in their quest to time a market bottom.  Once gold starts to appreciate, it will really take off.  The fear being left behind will overcome the fear of another, more favorable buying opportunity.  Gold prices have a long history of sudden, dramatic appreciation.  And, gold ownership has never been more leveraged than today.