By Chip Hanlon

They're jumping right out the windows, that is.

Seriously, in recent weeks--and this has been even more accute in recent days-- I have seen a number of committed, long-term, true doom-and-gloom commodities bulls dump everything. Literally everything.

Like the dying hero gurgling blood, they'll still mutter their own version of, "save yourselves," with a final reminder to own gold as the only safe haven in a world gone mad, but they've been hitting the exits themselves--hard.

Aside from the irony of watching them fly into the thing they hate most, cash (i.e, the U.S. dollar--horror!), this actually isn't me poking fun at them as I sometimes like to do with perma-anybodies. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

If we're clearly reaching the point of maximum pain in the commodities space, then one of two things is happening:

1) The global economy is in total meltdown and we are headed into a "deflationary death spiral," as they'd call it (notice they haven't abandoned doom-and-gloom, merely embraced a different form of it). In such a case, no asset class will be spared, save cash.

2) Their pain and willingness to abandon their own devotion to the inflation story is an interesting contrary indicator suggesting this commodities sell-off is nearly over.

I suspect it's the latter. Now, just a few days ago I wrote how gold would likely break down and head toward $700, and I still believe this is likely (it's finally acting like this today).

That said, if we get a big whoosh down in commodities in coming days, which is likely, keep a close eye out. Between leveraged funds being forced to sell positions and true believers losing faith, an unreal buying opportunity is likely to present itself. No need to be a hero and force trades in this market, but keep your eyes peeled.