A "golden cross" formed on spot gold's price chart gives bullion investors another reason to increase their bullish bets.
On Thursday, gold's 50-day moving average (DMA) traded above its 200 DMA, which marked a golden cross in technical analysis, indicating bullion's intermediate and longer-term momentum is getting increasingly bullish.
"Given shorter-term moving averages have all turned higher in recent weeks and the bullish price action recently, this golden cross today is an additional indicator of strength in an already strong market," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital.
The previous long-lasting golden cross on bullion charts was formed on Feb. 6, 2009, and gold prices surged 11 percent in the following 11 sessions.
Technical traders and momentum-driven investors could buy more gold as the bullish formation will remain in place as long as the current gold price stays sharply above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
On Thursday, gold traded nearly flat at $1,768 an ounce, more than $100 higher than its 50 DMA at $1,650 and its 200 DMA at $1,645.
Gold has gained nearly $200 or 10 percent in the past four weeks.
Gold is within $20 to reach its 2012 high of $1,790.30 an ounce set on Feb. 29. A new round of bond buying by the U.S. Federal Reserve last week and loose monetary policies from other major central banks have rekindled the metal's appeal as a traditional inflation hedge.
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