Gold has dropped 12 percent in the last seven months to $1,655 an ounce, but investors would be wise to wait until the precious metal hits $1,525 before loading up on it again, says Rich Ilczyszyn, founder of iiTrader.com.

Gold’s decline in recent days stems from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicating that the central bank may keep interest rates near record lows only through 2013, rather than 2014, as the Fed has reiterated in its policy statements, Ilczyszyn tells Yahoo.

Gold has turned into a technical trade, hitting massive sell stops beneath $1,763, falling below the key level of $1,700, and breaking its 200-day moving average last week, he says.

Market swings of $100 a day are the new normal, Ilczyszyn says. “This is how the market is going to move from now on.”

He sees $1,525, gold’s low in December, as the key support level. “That’s probably where we’re headed,” Ilczyszyn says.

“If we close below $1,600, you can probably bank on $1,525, but there I would probably start to get a little long.”

Many others in the gold market share Ilczyszyn’s long-term bullishness. A Bloomberg survey of 14 experts produced an average forecast of a 21 percent gain for gold this year, which would lift it to $1,897.

Strong investor demand and growth of central bank reserves for the first time in a generation will power the move, the experts say.