CITI: GOLD $3500

After falling by more than 20% from its recent highs, gold is now nearly 20% off of its lows.

Citi's top technical analyst Tom Fitzpatrick has been a long-time bull on gold.

And in a new interview with King World News' Eric King, Fitzpatrick reiterates his view that the yellow metal could head to $3,500.

“Within the gold dynamic, we believe this recent correction was very similar to what the gold market witnessed from 1974 to 1976 -- as the equity markets recovered from the bear market bottom in 1974. In this instance, very recently gold went 14% below the 55-month moving average, exactly as it did back in 1976.

After the low in gold in 1976, the equity market peaked 4 weeks later. So far, following the $1,181 low in gold, the peak in the equity markets has been 5 weeks thereafter. And as we started that historic upward movement in gold, beginning in 1976, this was also when the equity market peaked and went into a corrective phase, and that is when gold really came into its own.

So we believe we are back into that track where gold is the hard currency of choice, and we expect for this trend to accelerate going forward. We still believe that in the next couple of years we will be looking at a gold price of around $3,500. As the gold/silver ratio plummets near 30, this would also suggest a silver price above $100.”

To be clear, this is not Citi's house view. According to Bloomberg, Citi metals analyst David Wilson is much more cautious with year-end targets of $1,150 in 2013, $1,145 in 2014, and $1,250 in 2015.

Read more about Fitzpatrick's near-term views on gold and silver at KingWorldNews.com.