Everybody, it seems, needs a summer holiday. A time to clear out of town. A time to recharge one's batteries. That includes gold traders, who've been exiting the COMEX in droves lately.

Gold spent the week absorbing body blows from all quarters as euro/gold spreads continued to be unwound. Every reserve currency rose against bullion, led by the euro's 5.6 percent gain. The yen appreciated 5.0 percent, while sterling and the Swiss franc climbed 3.9 percent.

So far, the newly created option market for the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE Arca: SGOL) offers very few, um, options for users.

You need buyers and sellers to make a market like the one in which gold is traded. There's no shortage of players in the gold market presently. There are, in fact, sellers aplenty now. Commercial traders have been building up a net short position that could soon outsize the one that set up gold's December sell-off.

Gold backed off after reaching a new nominal high against the U.S. dollar early in the week. The greenback was the only reserve currency to yield new high ground to the metal. Gold appreciated 0.8 percent against the euro, but ended 0.2 percent lower priced in sterling, down 0.9 percent against the yen and off 1.5 percent in Swiss francs.

The Market Vectors Junior Miners ETF has been all the rage in 2010. But is the hype justified?

Gold showed some late-week strength after backpedaling against the world's reserve currencies. For the week ending Thursday, bullion lost 2.5 percent versus the euro, 1.9 percent against sterling and 1.6 percent in Swiss francs. Gold managed to gain ground against the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen this week.

Investors new to gold often assume miners offer a direct play on the yellow metal's prices. But there's more to this relationship than there might seem.