On September 5th, gold surged continuously from $2511 to $2578 in a short period. With such significant gains in a brief timeframe, a correction is inevitable. There are two types of corrections within a trend: time-based and price-based. Time corrections primarily involve sideways consolidation to restore alignment between moving averages and technical indicators. Price corrections typically involve substantial pullbacks followed by bottoming and recovery patterns.

After consecutive sharp rallies in a short period, rapid declines are commonplace. As mentioned, without fundamental changes, gold prices are unlikely to experience major drops - this can only be considered a correction. Ignoring a nearly $270 rise while viewing a few dozen dollars decline as a major drop or trend reversal shows a fundamental misunderstanding of trends. Thursday's pullback and consolidation correction saw the daily cycle retrace to MA5 support levels, approaching the strong support zone at $2508. The European and American sessions performed as expected, showing significant upward momentum.

Yesterday's pullback low was around the $2511 level, with a secondary low near $2524. Late yesterday, it was emphasized that positions above $2524 could serve as stop-loss levels for long positions, with the lowest point reaching around $2534 before rallying. Unfortunately, being slightly off on positioning led to missing the move. For today's trading, one can consider long positions around $2534 with stop-loss at $2524 - positioning doesn't need to be too rigid. If reversal signals appear above $2534, stop-loss could be placed at $2532 for short-term long positions. The key focus remains tonight's non-farm payrolls data, which could generate significant gold price volatility. Intraday short-term long positions should be closed before the non-farm release. If tonight's non-farm data proves bearish, any gold pullback presents opportunities for additional long positions.