"I don't think gold is quite the safe-haven play now. That doesn't mean it won't be later," he says. "It could go one way or the other. I am long gold in my portfolio because of last week's action and will stay so until I get a signal telling me that's not what to do."
But Newsom sees the storm clouds growing over gold, and he thinks a plunge below $700 is more likely than a move higher.
If last week's stock market rally continues to be erased--the Dow fell 7 percent Monday though futures indicated a higher opening Tuesday--Newsom thinks gold could see $640.
"I just don't see anything that's attractive to start pulling a lot of money back into gold," Newsom says. "After the rally we saw last week it's not surprising that we're seeing a retracement. That has the tendency to trigger technical trading systems. It's not a real surprise that once we got through the holidays that the pressure came back into the market."
If there's a bright side to the tumble in gold prices it's that the metal's fall is far less steep than oil. Crude has tumbled about 65 percent from its high reached over the summer, more than double the move lower for gold.
And there are a host of other wildcards out there that could send gold back up again, particularly the trend of global central banks to devalue currency. There is some thought that the Federal Reserve will reduce its fed funds rate to zero at some point early next year.
That would resume gold as a hedge trade against weak US currency.
"It's very hard to be sure where the market is going, especially when central banks of the world are coming in and pushing it around at a whim," Brodrick says. "They're picking the winners and losers these days. Most investors can't be blamed for going into cash."
"That said, on a weekly basis we're pretty oversold. It wouldn't be a surprise to see a late-year rally...What we really have to see is if people come in and buy the dip. That should give us a clue."
But Newsom thinks that somewhere in the $600s is the true support level for gold at this point.
"In the grand scheme of things gold has lost less than, say, the crude oil market," he says. "Maybe it is in a way recapturing its old role of the geopolitical hedge in times of turmoil, just not to the degree to provide it a lot of support this time."