I'm torn on what's driving today's big gold rally. It's up $110 to $4108, which is the highest since October 24 and should add confidence to anyone who is trying to pick a bottom in the recent dip. Some thoughts on the strong bids today:1) The end of the government shutdown is getting the credit for asset moves today but I'm not sure why that should be good for gold. Dysfuction is good for gold and Republicans killed the filibuster would have been another abnormal move in the way that firing Lisa Cook and the BLS head helped to kickstart the gold rally. If anything, this trims some of those bullish tail risks.At the same time, the political take that could be boosting gold is the fold from the Democrats. As a party divided, they have less of a chance of winning the House or the Senate in the midterms and that should keep the promise of more spending alive.2) Spending like Trump promising $2000 checks to Americans last week with tariff funds. I don't think anyone takes that much more seriously than him saying he will lower prescription drug costs by "700%" but he's certainly not the anti-deficit President and the fiscal hawks in the Republican party are long gone.3) Everything is getting bought today. I think the simplest explanation for today's rally is that gold is now more of a retail favorite and everyone is piling back into their favorite assets today and abandoning some of the trepidation from last week. Gold is among the best trades in the world this year and it's normal to chase the winners on a day with stock markets up big.4) Barrick Gold, the world's second largest miner, today announced positive results and boosted the dividend, sending shares 5% higher. That could be boosting interest in the broad mining space.5) Momentum on the chartThere was some narrow consolidation around $4000 and with something of a breakout to the upside, we could be seeing technical buyers step in. The 50% retracement of the Aug-Oct rally held and that should add some confidence that we're going to at least consolidate around these levels. This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.