Well, make no mistake about it, when "crash n burn" finally arrives there will be a flight to the "safety" of the U.S. dollar, just as in 2008. If you look at the historic dollar charts it will "clearly" show you the flight to safety in the dollar in mid 2008. That was nixed when the gold stocks "correctly" began to predict the inflationary aspects of the "free money" Wall St society. The gold stocks began to rally in the period betwixt Aug-Nov 2008...well before the stock market bottomed. I know because back then I began accumulating mining shares and owned 8 different stocks and they all rose 300%+ each before I completely exited...too early. :-) The dollar has maintained its strength even as the markets have rallied to new highs, but I agree about the dollar not being the main cause of the gold collapse. I say the dollar is simply pre-saging the coming deflationary spiral ...just as gold has been since late 2011. Also, in a "proper" gold bull market the gold stocks will lead the commodity. That is not the case now however. There is a clear divergence showing if you look at the HUI vs GLD, especially in the past 6 months. This rally in GLD this month has now breached the June high that "needed" to get taken out before GLD can move to a new 52 week low.

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?show=&insttype=Fund&symb=gld&x=46&y=11&time=7&startdate=1%2F4%2F1999&enddate=2%2F18%2F2017&freq=1&compidx=aaaaa%3A0&comptemptext=&comp=none&ma=0&maval=9&uf=0&lf=1024&lf2=2&lf3=8&type=2&style=320&size=4&timeFrameToggle=false&compareToToggle=false&indicatorsToggle=false&chartStyleToggle=false&state=11

On the other hand, HUI hasn't even come close to posting a new 6 month high.

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?show=&insttype=&symb=hui&x=42&y=7&time=7&startdate=1%2F4%2F1999&enddate=2%2F18%2F2017&freq=1&compidx=aaaaa%3A0&comptemptext=&comp=none&ma=0&maval=9&uf=0&lf=1024&lf2=2&lf3=8&type=2&style=320&size=4&timeFrameToggle=false&compareToToggle=false&indicatorsToggle=false&chartStyleToggle=false&state=11

So the market is telling us that the rally in GLD is a BIG mistake and mark my words, the gold stocks (HUI/GDX/GDXJ) will begin moving looower before GLD does. If you pull the GLD chart back to the 1 year time frame you will also see that the Dec 2016 low you spoke of in gold (GLD) wasn't low enough. Thus my take that this next move down coming will be "catastrophic" to say the least. I like GDX because you get a lot of chachingo for each dollar wagered and the bid/asked spreads are more than reasonable in the options. Plus you don't get screwed with "false pricing" in the options like you do with the shorty ETF's like DUST for instance.