Gold has predictably fallen this week in the wake of some hawkish statements from various Federal Reserve members, as well as the central banks April minutes. But the dip near $1,255 on Thursday represents another buying opportunity before the gold bull resumes its march higher. Heres why:

Although the Fed minutes were interpreted as a firm signal that an interest-rate increase is coming this summer, a quick reading reveals that the Chairwoman Janet Yellen and company are just up to their same-old same old in other words, wait-and-see nonaction papered over with tough talk.

Fed still weighing incoming data: Members generally judged it appropriate to leave their policy options open and maintain the flexibility to make this decision based on how the incoming data and developments shaped their outlook for the labor market and inflation as well as their evolving assessments of the balance of risks around that outlook, the minutes read.

Taking the statement at face value, the minutes do not suggest that an increase in rates next month is a done deal it is the same old data dependent Fed trying to have it both ways, wrote Komal Sri-Kumar of Sri-Kumar Global Strategies.

Brexit vote gives Fed an out not to hike: Frankly, there are too many land mines ahead to allow the Fed to act. Just days after the banks June 14-15 meeting, voters in the United Kingdom decide in a June 23 referendum whether to leave the European Union in a Brexit. At present, the likely result is too close to call. Thus, if the Fed raised rates and thus strengthened the U.S. dollar, it would be doing so without clarity on the Brexit situation with potentially volatile effects on global markets.

Moreover, the Fed is unlikely to raise rates at a meeting that is unaccompanied by a subsequent press conference from Chairwoman Janet Yellen to explain the policy decision and soothe rattled markets. Such a conference is scheduled for just after the June meeting, but there isnt one after the July meeting, so that also lessens the likelihood of a rate hike then, unless Yellen were to conduct one spontaneously.

U.S. election to keep rate hike at bay: The next post-meeting press conference doesnt occur until September. But by that time, the campaigning for the U.S. presidential election will be in full frenzy, and the Fed dares not raise rates unless it risk being accused of interfering in politics. The Nov. 1-2 meeting on the eve of the election therefore also is out. That leaves us with the Dec. 13-14 meeting for the Feds final opportunity in 2016.

So gold investors shouldnt buy into the Feds bluster, but rather should see this rhetoric-induced gold-price weakness as a chance to buy bullion.

Gold under pressure from shorts: A couple of other factors also could keep gold prices from resuming their ascent for the time being. For one, according to Gold Newsletter publisher Brien Lundin, there is massive net short position by the large commercial category of paper gold traders, recent futures data show.

These traders are aligned with gold miners and refiners who hedge positions in order to lessen overall risk. Lundin sees the chance for a significant correction in the price at some point over the next month or so.

Cycle lows could spark big uptrend: Conversely, if some unexpected event transpires thats negative for equity markets, gold could benefit through short covering. However, if some event or economic data point sparks a spike in gold and forces these commercials to cover their shorts, we could see a major rally emerge, Lundin said.

And in a separate analysis, noted technician Tom McClellan sees the potential for gold to hit a cyclical low later this year. However, that could be short-term pain for longer-term gain. We should expect a big uptrend to commence out of that major cycle bottom, he wrote. It will be hard for gold bugs to be patient and wait for that major cycle low to arrive, but the long-term cycles say that the ensuing rally should be worth the wait.

Gold now in seasonally weak period: Morever, gold is just entering its historically weak seasonal period, which begins in late spring and continues until the fall. Since gold began trading freely in the U.S. in the early 1970s, bullion has produced an annualized return of only 1.2% in the March-August period, versus 13.4% in the other six months of the year, observed Mark Hulbert at MarketWatch.

Demand usually picks up once the summertime lull is over and Indias gold-buying festival and wedding seasons begin, running from October to December. Thus, while soft prices could lie ahead, experienced gold investors know that this temporary situation offers a strategic buying opportunity.

If I werent already long gold, Id be buying on this dip as I dont see it falling much lower, Adam Koos of Libertas Wealth Management Group told MarketWatch.

Fundamentals still favor gold: And as Altavest chief Michael Armbruster reminds us, the global backdrop for gold remains bullish, with negative interest rates from Japan to Europe being a game changer for gold. Beyond interest rates, currencies around the world are being devalued via central bank policy. Chinas currency is still overvalued and likely to weaken further, he said. So, the picture really doesnt change for gold unless the Fed hikes rates more than 100 basis points from here.

And dont look now, but the major U.S. stock indexes are again in negative territory for the year at this latest rate-hike threat. As we saw earlier this year in the wake of the Feds December rate increase, such hikes can actually be good for gold because they divert investment capital from stocks and drive it into the safe haven of gold.

So, the message to take away from this weeks Fed news is:

1. Although the Fed could raise rates in June, its unlikely because of the Brexit vote. And if it doesnt act in June, chances are it wont until at least December because of the presidential election.
2. The weakness were seeing in gold is at least partly because of annual seasonal trends, and history tells us that gold almost always recovers by the fall.

Keep in mind, too, that despite the latest dip, gold is still up roughly 20% on the year. For the savvy gold investor, the recent pullback is a chance to get in on the cheap.

Hedge-fund legend Stanley Druckenmiller, who vociferously came out in favor of gold during a presentation at the recent Sohn Investment Conference, has a famous mentor: fellow billionaire George Soros.

Now Soros, who once employed Druckenmiller as a portfolio manager at his famed Quantum Fund, is jumping back into the gold camp for the first time in years, regulatory filings for the first quarter of 2016 show. And whats more, Soros has become even more bearish on stocks.

Banking on bullion, miners: On the gold front, Soros 13F filing with the SEC reveals that he placed a bullish 1.1 million-share call option on the worlds biggest bullion-linked ETF, the GLD. The new wager comes after Soros Fund Management sold off about 531,000 GLD shares in the first quarter of 2013.

Soros also purchased sizeable stakes in the worlds biggest gold producer as well as the worlds largest precious metals streaming company.

As for stocks, Soros substantially cut his exposure a move that was no surprise given his publically bearish stance on China and its debt problems, which he warned could result in a bigger crash than the 2008-09 crisis.

Accordingly, Soros cut his long equity holdings by more than one-third, to just $4.5 billion. He also doubled down on his bearish bets on the S&P 500, buying more than $200 million worth of SPY puts, or bets that the stock indexs price will fall.

Longtime bull Paulson takes profits: Not every billionaire was buying, however. Paulson & Co. chief John Paulson, who made his fortune betting against subprime housing and also with early investments in gold, sold 17% of his GLD shares, reducing his 5.8 million-share stake to 4.8 million. He still remains the third-biggest investor in the gold fund, after BlackRock and First Eagle Investment Management.

If you were already long, which clearly Paulson was, maybe hes just taking some profits off the table, TD Securities strategist Mike Dragosits told Reuters, alluding to the $5 billion Paulson reportedly earned from gold in 2010.

Paulsons current take on gold is unclear, but count Soros in as a member of the heavyweight division of gold bulls that currently includes Druckenmiller, Ray Dalio, David Einhorn, Paul Singer, and Jeff Gundlach.

When was the last time you heard about a big Western bank investing in the future of the gold trade by building a massive new vault to house the loot? Answer: not lately.

More likely, you’ve heard about those same Western banks selling off those vaults to the new big player in the global gold market: China.

That’s the news that hit Monday when ICBC Standard Bank Plc, the worlds largest bank by assets, announced that it is buying one of the biggest gold vaults in Europe from Barclays Plc. ICBC, not incidentally, just won a role in determining prices as part of the London Bullion Market Association.

Bank to expand gold services: The London vault, which can hold up to 2,000 tons of precious metals, or about $90 billion worth of gold, was only just opened in 2012 in a secret location.

This enables us to better execute on our strategy to become one of the largest Chinese banks in the precious metals market, said ICBC commodities executive Mark Buncombe. The acquisition of a precious metals vault allows us to expand our services in clearing and processing.

The London Guardian described the vault in a report on the sale: Its security precautions reportedly include: a front door that can withstand a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade; an electrified roof; and plinths that have been sunk to keep out anyone ambitious enough to try to tunnel in.

ICBC had sought Deutsche Bank vault: ICBC had reportedly bought the lease to Deutsche Banks massive London gold vault back in January, but that deal is said to have fallen through. The purchase from Barclays now fills that slot.

ICBC’s vault purchase comes on the heels of its new collaboration with the Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange Society. The partners are reportedly planning to build the biggest gold vault in the world and establish a trading hub that would link Hong Kong, Macau, Qianhai, and Shenzhen.

The acquisition of the Barclays vault is more concrete evidence that China is aiming for a tighter grip on the West’s gold-trading epicenter of London while also expanding its domestic trade via ambitious new plans such as its yuan-denominated gold-pricing fix on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

China dominates in terms of actual physical gold trading, CNN confirmed. Gold imports to China have surged over 700% since 2010, and the country overtook India to become the worlds biggest gold consumer in 2013.

With the West busy trading paper and electronic representations of gold (such as ETFs, futures, and options), China is busy working to corner the market on physical gold. Get your physical metal while you still can.

Gold expert and author Jim Rickards calls it one of the top reasons to invest in gold today: financial theft via computer hacking.

The nation of Bangladesh got a firsthand look at the costs of financial hacking back in February, when $81 million it was storing at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was stolen. The criminals used sophisticated techniques to transfer the cash via the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) network, and experts see similarities to the hacking of Sony Pictures in 2014.

The attackers clearly exhibit a deep and sophisticated knowledge of specific operational controls within the targeted banks knowledge that may have been gained from malicious insiders or cyber attacks, or a combination of both, SWIFT said, warning of a wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks.

Critical security gaps remain: And the hits keep on coming. News has surfaced that in late 2015, a Vietnamese commercial bank also was targeted by hackers. Tien Phong Bank of Hanoi issued a statement denying that it incurred any financial losses but admitting that hackers attempted to transfer $1.1 million in funds.

That attack and the $81 million heist from the Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February are thought to be part of a broad assault on the global banking system by thieves whose operating methods and digital fingerprints are being studied carefully by analysts worldwide, The New York Times reported.

I remain concerned that there are critical security gaps in the international payment system, New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said.

Digital wealth can disappear: These ongoing vulnerabilities now being exploited by hackers mean that investors need to consider storing at least part of their wealth in physical precious metals that are impervious to computer theft.

Rickards agrees, noting that financial hackers are busy all over the world, working individually as well as for sovereign entities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a 6,000-member cyber brigade working night and day to destroy, disrupt and erase digital wealth, he recently told Bloomberg TV.

I run into billionaires and say, What do you have? And they say, I have stock and bonds, and I say, No, you dont. You have electrons, he noted. Its all digital wealth. This can all be wiped out by Putin and Syria and North Korea, Iran, other countries. The thing about gold, you cant hack it, you cant erase it, you cant delete it. Its tangible.

FDIC accused of lax security: Sure, you can depend on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to back you up if your account is hacked and looted. It pledges to guarantee bank deposits of up to $250,000 for a single account holder.

Of course, the FDICs dirty little secret is that it is wildly underfunded. And ironically, according to a recent report, the agencys own financial data have been subject to breaches, with departing employees leaving with depositors personal data on removable hard drives.

Altogether, more than 160,000 people were affected, Congress discovered at a hearing covering the breaches. To date, FDIC has failed to notify any of those individuals that their private information may have been compromised, Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk lamented.

Regrettably, the American people have good reason to question whether their private banking information is secured by the FDIC, hesaid. The agency is failing to safeguard private banking information.

So the very agency charged with guaranteeing Americans deposits is itself allegedly failing on the information-security front. That shocking news, along with the growing list of financial-hacking victims, means its more important than ever to protect yourself with hard assets and precious metals.

Add the Bank of Montreal to the list of major financial institutions that have become bullish on precious metals.

One of its subsidiaries, BMO Capital Markets, has issued a positive medium-term forecast for both gold and silver.

Its projecting that gold will hit $1,400 by the end of first-quarter 2017, up from its previous forecast of $1,200, while it sees silver reaching $22.50 by the same time.

Fed policy key to golds movement: The BMO analysts hedged their optimism by insisting that their forecasts hinge on the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates lower for longer. Maybe the Fed does decide to hike rates in July which would be the biggest downside shock for gold prices, in our view, they said.

They also conceded that gold could see another traditional summertime dip that might damage sentiment.

Gold prices nearly always decline between May and July, Canadas Globe and Mail newspaper noted. If that pattern, which has held true in 36 of the past 40 years, continues, it could deflate the enthusiasm around precious metals.

We are not advocating an extreme doom-and-gloom and $10,000-an-ounce gold price argument, they said.

Big funds load up on bullion exposure: BOM is bullish, and so are some major hedge funds, recent federal filings show. Jana Partners now owns gold for the first time since December 2014, according to Reuters. Barry Rosensteins fund bought 50,000 shares, worth almost $6 million, of the worlds largest gold-linked ETF.

Meanwhile, CI Investments Inc., an investment manager of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp., almost quadrupled their stake in the ETF, becoming the sixth-largest shareholder, Reuters noted.

CI purchased 2.81 million ETF shares to bring the total values of its bullion holdings to $441 million. It also has interest in various gold mining companies.

The buying by some of the largest gold investors highlights how funds rushed back into bullion ETFs, which are backed by physical gold, as expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would continue to raise interest rates fade, Reuters added.

The rising tide of bullishness has raised gold ETF holdings to their highest levels in years. The great gold rush of 2016 is gathering pace, Bloomberg reported. Holdings in exchange-traded funds have now surged by a quarter,with investors taking advantage of lower prices over the past two weeks to enlarge stakes on rising concern about central bank policy making worldwide. The holdingshave increased to 1,822.3 metric tons, the most since December 2013.