Monday, May 28, 2012

SP 500 Update.... U.S. Markets wear the Heavy Crown

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The US market is one of very few trying to maintain a long term uptrend Bull cycle around the world.  Most major world indices are in decline, only Germany and London are also trying to hang in of the major indices.

Will the rest of European problems continue to spillover and weigh down our markets in finally cause a flush?  Or… will the US stay strong and lead higher amidst the turmoil?

The threat of debt repudiation resonates throughout Europe and has major headwinds for the Banking industries and otherwise… and it may be hard for the US market to gain much traction until we find out if there are any resolutions near term.

The Technical picture is mixed.  The drop to 1292 from 1422 highs created a 38% fibonacci retracement of the October lows at 1074 and the March highs of 1422.  This is typical for a 4th wave correction after 3 waves of rally.  In addition, we had Mclellan Oscillators at extreme lows coming into this past week, investor sentiment running at multi month lows not seen since last summer, and many other oversold indicators.

This led to a 36 point bounce early in the week from 1292 to 1328, but it had trouble holding into the end of the week. I was looking for a strong close over 1322 to help confirm the downtrends lows were in place at 1292, but we did not get that just yet.  Near term we have to see a very strong bounce this coming week over 1330 on a closing basis or the market will be at risk of a rising bearish wedge and then another large downleg to new lows since the 1422 highs.  Therefore, Tuesday and Wednesday in my opinion will likely immediately tell us which way this market is about to go.

We have a few outlooks that are valid.  One is that we had an ABC correction from 1422-1292 and we are in the early stages of a Major Wave 5 up bullish pattern.  The  other is we had 3 waves down, this is a 4th wave bounce, and a 5th wave to new lows on the move is next.  Again, early in the week will be key in my opinion.

Here are two charts. One shows the Weekly SP 500 pattern and prior pivot points where downtrends halted and reversed. In each case the candlestick pattern for the week was inside and above the prior weeks lows and closed higher (White Candlesticks).  This also happened this past week, but I again would like to see higher closing levels early in the week to confirm.

The other chart is a daily chart showing the 1330 barrier we would like to see crossed to avoid a rising bearish wedge pattern.

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David Banister

Check out our latest Video, Market Analysis and Forecast for the Dollar, Crude Oil, Gold, Silver, and the SP500

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Gold and Silver Long Term Signal

Long time readers know that we have been and remain bullish on gold and gold stocks in the longer term. However, the reasons why I believe gold and silver will perform well in the longer term are a bit different than what many economists and pundits are expecting.
I am a contrarian by nature. I generally try to do the opposite of the crowd in every situation I find myself regardless of whether I am in a movie theater or trading options. Before getting into the gold and gold miners analysis, I thought I would explain my position publicly to readers. I do not consider myself an expert economist, but I try to read those who many consider to be experts looking for similarities in their viewpoints and expectations.
The herd mentality exists in financial markets and a similar behavior exists among economists. Most economists in the mainstream media today tend to be Keynesians or neo-classical economists. Both viewpoints are generally accepted as the correct interpretation of economic and monetary policies by academia.
However, the academic world can actually reduce open thought through ridicule and persecution. In the world of academia the herd is right, until someone proves that they are wrong using logic based reasoning.
Very similar to political ideologies, economic ideologies are deeply rooted. Paul Krugman is a great example of Keynesian economist. Like it or not, the majority of economists believe his views are correct regardless of whether they are based on fact, history, or dare I say “common sense.”
This leads me to the reason why precious metals and commodities in general may be approaching a major bottom and the potential for a monster rally. The reasoning stems from the fact that across the world central bankers generally share the same views as Paul Krugman. They believe that the modern finance system does not need gold and that fiat currency is the answer even though history argues in their face across multiple millennia.
Most economists and financial pundits believe that sovereign debt is going to bring down the economy and they may be correct. Many believe that the debt will unleash a massive deflationary spiral that will consume fiat valuations, specifically on risk assets and debt obligations.
I do not necessarily disagree that this is a likely outcome, but what concerns me is the number of people that believe this is true. This is the herd’s idea and as I have said many times before the herd is rarely right. This time may be different, although it rarely is. For inquiring minds I offer a rather different potentiality.
What if the debt crisis causes a totally different outcome that very few economists envision? What if they follow Dr. Krugman’s ideas and create massive amounts of debt to stimulate the economy while printing vast quantities of fiat money to prop up failing financial institutions? Clearly increasing debt levels and debasing the currency do not imply a long term positive scenario.
Central banks do not have a strong track record when it comes to reducing liquidity or increasing liquidity at the appropriate times. Thus these actions are likely to facilitate some sort of crisis in the future whether it is a result of runaway deflation or inflation.
I believe that should a deflationary crisis caused by massive debt levels and diminishing economic strength present itself, central bankers around the world will behave exactly the same way. They will act simultaneously and through dovish monetary policy central bankers will flood the world with massive sums of freshly printed fiat currency with the intent to print away issues with a liquidity induced risk-on orgy.
Should that be their ultimate choice, risk assets will rally sharply higher initially. Paper assets like stocks will produce huge gains in a short period of time while supposedly safe assets such as Treasuries would likely arrive at negative interest rates across the yield curve in nominal terms. The next phase is the scary part and why I am bullish long term of precious metals specifically.
The devaluation of fiat currencies simultaneously around the world will result in a monster economic crash when the masses realize that the majority of the major worldwide currencies are becoming worth less and less. The resulting crash would be caused by the opposite force of runaway inflation while the herd mentality that anticipates a deflationary debt spiral espoused by most experts and pundits would be proven materially false.
Under those circumstances, precious metals will be the true safe haven. Gold and silver will prove to be a true store of wealth that they have been for centuries. So many so-called experts fail to recognize that gold and silver are currencies. Yes they have industrial uses, but gold and silver represent the last unequivocal bastion of wealth preservation against the constant debasement procured by central bankers and their minions.
Under the scenario whereby central bankers flood financial markets with cheap, freshly printed fiat currency one would expect other essential commodities such as oil to also perform well. Furthermore agricultural based commodities would also flourish under those economic conditions. Investors would be in much better fiscal condition owning things that they could hold in their hands versus stocks or bonds.
I posit this potentiality not to say that this is exactly what is going to happen, but to challenge readers to open their minds. The crowd is usually wrong. The central bankers and most economists generally share the same viewpoints and their behavior is literally a giant group think.
Is it possible that they are a herd which ultimately will be proven wrong? Will the herd mentality of economists and central bankers cause a massive currency crisis as they attempt to stem the tide of a deflationary debt crisis?
The two possible outcomes go hand in hand. I do not know what is going to happen, but neither outcome in the longer-term is especially optimistic. Should either scenario come to pass, the human condition will likely be threatened by a decrease in the standard of living across multiple developed countries and ultimately the threat of revolution and military action on a scale not seen in several decades could eventuate.
Clearly I have simplified the issues at hand presently for ease of reading, but the ultimate endgame will likely be one or a combination of both a debt crisis and a currency crisis. They will likely occur in close proximity to one other in terms of time, but the precise outcome will likely be different than what is commonly expected.
Regardless of which scenario occurs, precious metals will eventually be sought for their protection against the constant devaluation of fiat currencies by central banks around the world. For this reason, I remain a long term precious metals bull. With that said, why don’t we take a look at the recent price action in gold, silver, and gold mining stocks shown below.
A lot of writers have stated that gold has bottomed. I am not totally convinced, however I do believe that gold is in a bottoming process. For me to get completely in my gold bull suit I would need to see price action exceed the key resistance trend line shown below.
Gold Futures Contract Daily Chart
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As can be seen above, until we see price push through resistance I will remain cautious. I would also point out that the last two times gold found bottoms near current prices the bottom forming process took several weeks to complete.
I do not expect for gold to form a V shaped reversal. In fact, lower prices in the short term would help drive the bullish case for the longer term. Bottoms take weeks to form and can be very dangerous trading environments where active traders get chopped around.
Silver is very similar to gold in that it appears to have formed the beginning of a possible bottom. Bottoms are generally not formed in one day. During the recent selloff, silver showed relative strength against gold. It is important to acknowledge that silver has yet to test the key lows that should offer support.
Because of this divergence in these two precious metals, I continue to believe that gold may see more downside again before a much stronger rally begins to take hold. Similar to gold, the descending trend line offers a great resistance level where traders can flip from being short-term bearish to longer-term bullish if the resistance line is penetrated. If we see silver carve out multiple daily closes above the resistance trend line paired with strong volume, I would anticipate that a bottom has formed and silver prices will have an upward bias. The daily chart of silver is shown below.
Silver Futures Contract Daily Chart
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As expected, the gold miners have shown relative strength recently. The miners were just absolutely massacred during the recent sell off in equities and precious metals. However, gold miners similar to precious metals have a major descending trend line which they have already tested today. If the gold miners can push through resistance a large scale rally could play out. The daily chart of gold miners is shown below.
Gold Miners (GDX) Daily Chart
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In addition, if readers look at a long term GDX price range that dates back to the 2009 lows the recent pullback is almost precisely a 0.50% Fibonacci Retracement. Similar to gold and silver, I would expect to see the gold miners pull back a bit here before pushing through major resistance. We may be setting up for a possible major bottom in precious metals and gold miners in the near future. Only time will tell.
In closing, remember to keep an open mind with regards to the future. The more often you hear the same message coming from financial pundits and experts, the more cynical you should become. Both potential scenarios will likely not end well. The question is whether the reason for the crash is deflation, inflation, or a combination of both scenarios. Regardless of the outcome, the long term future for precious metals remains quite bright.
Happy Trading and Investing!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Can the Stock Market Reverse and Rally to Highs?

Do the Bulls still stand a chance to make another run?

That is the question this weekend after we saw the 1340, 1322 pivots crashed right through following the “SP 500 Bear Case” weekend report on May 13th I sent to subscribers with a chart last weekend (May 13th SP 500 at 1353).

We ended the week with the SP 500 falling from 1353 to about 1292 and the US Dollar having rallied 13 of the past 15 days to the upside. We also have The Mclellan Oscillator at extreme oversold levels as in the November 2011 lows and close to the August 2011 lows. The Sentiment gauges are running at only 24% Bulls as opposed to the historic 39% averages, and the Percentage of NYSE listed stocks trading above the 50 day moving average plummeted to 12%. That is about as low as it has been during this bull market, other than last August when we hit 5%.

So that means that the sentiment/human behavioral ingredients are actually in place for a marked rally to the upside. What we examine this week is whether that can still happen and what type of Elliott Wave pattern would we need to see to validate it.
We can still make a case that this correction of 130 points from 1422 to 1292 (about 9.1% similar to many Bull market corrections since 2009 lows) is a wave 4 correction of waves 1-3. Wave 1-3 rallied in total from 1074-1422 and a 38% retracement of that entire cycle would put us right around 1291/92 pivots.

So below we have the chart that the Bulls would hang onto as possible for a dramatic recovery to new highs past 1422 and onward to 1454 or so. This needs to begin very shortly though and much below 1285 we can wipe this idea off the slate in my opinion.
So, last weekends Bear View is now a 50% probability and the Bullish count below is also 50%. The good news is I think we will know which one is taking control very early in the week. This is probably not a good time to place a big bet just yet in either direction, we are at an inflection point.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Platinum Shiniest of Precious Metals [GLD, GDX]

E-Minis Unfair Advantage....Have You Watch This Yet?

Tim Harvey, Sr. VP at ETF Securities, explains why platinum is holding up better than gold, silver and palladium.



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Monday, May 14, 2012

Gold & Gold Miners Are Closing in on a Major Bottom

From this mornings Video Traders Playbook.....

Members of my service as well as long time readers know that I do a lot of analysis based on the past. I am constantly looking at long term historical price charts and data. As a trader, I am always looking for an edge.

Obviously the keys to long term success involve proper position sizing, risk management mechanisms, and ultimately leveraging probability. Professional traders are masters of these tenets. These characteristics are what separate successful traders from average traders over the long haul.

Sometimes through my rigorous analysis I come across price charts and oscillators that help put together a picture that helps shape my view of the marketplace. The past few months have been some of the most difficult market conditions that I have seen in some time.

The “wall of worries” permeates the financial landscape as risk at present seems unprecedented. The list of macroeconomic concerns ranges from the European sovereign debt crisis to escalation of military action in the Middle East.....Read the entire article and watch video!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Weekly Precious Metals Futures Wrap Up

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The precious metals this morning were severely pressured by lower stock and commodity prices around the world this week with gold futures leading the way down another $7 dollars an ounce currently trading at 1, 588 down over $60 this week hitting a new five month low with the next major support at 1,528 and if that level is broken you could possibly see gold go all the way back down to the low 1400’s while silver futures started the week at 30.43 down nearly 1.40 for the trading week and trading down 30 cents at 28.90 with the next major support all the way down to 26.50 which is still over $2 dollars away also hitting a new five month low.

As I’ve been stated in previous blogs am very bearish the commodity sector due to the fact that demand has definitely weakened due to the recession which is happening in Europe and the problems now in China and I believe that silver and gold will drop substantially from these levels in the next coming weeks.

Copper futures which have been the strongest precious metal lately down 300 points currently trading at 365.50 a pound with major support at 357.75 a pound and if that level is broken you will see a five month low created and bear markets across the board in the precious metals.

One of the biggest bear markets in the precious metals which has not been talked about a whole lot is the platinum futures which are down another $32 dollars an ounce down over $70 dollars this week alone currently trading at 1,450 an ounce also hitting a new five month low with the next support all the way down the 1,400 which is still a good distance from these trading levels.

In my opinion I would stay short all of the precious metals because I do think they are headed lower with many of the other commodities and now you are seeing cracks in the S&P 500 for the first time in a while and remember the old saying which is been true in the last three years sell in May and go away because this could be déjà vu all over again.

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Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Dollar & Gold Have Eyes on Europe

Friday saw heavy selling pressure coming into risk assets, specifically equities and oil. However, the real driving force behind the selling pressure is likely the result of several unrelated economic/geopolitical events. Clearly the unemployment report had an impact on price action, but strangely enough it would appear to those more in tune with reality that market participants want lower prices so that the next quantitative easing program can be initiated.


Another key development in equities price action as of late has been selling pressure in Apple (AAPL). A few weeks ago we witnessed a sharp downturn after prices surged higher into a blowoff top. Earnings came out and prices jumped again and we have watched Apple’s stock price drop considerably since.
Friday saw sellers circling the wagons pushing the tech behemoth down around 2.25% as of the scribbling of this article. When AAPL was rallying it helped the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 grind higher. Now that it has clearly given up the bullish leadership role, it now appears to be a drag on the price action of domestic indices.
Additionally there was a mountain of economic data released out of Europe overnight which was entirely negative. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the Euro-area in general saw their Service PMI readings all come in below expectations. Europe is moving into a recession which whether economists want to acknowledge it or not has implications on domestic U.S. markets. The Eurozone as a whole is the largest economy in the world. Clearly the European economy is slowing, and our exports to Europe will slow as well.
This leads me to the final data point which is still unknown. What will the outcome of the French and Greek elections over the weekend mean for the Eurozone’s geopolitical ties as well as the potential impact on the Euro currency itself?
The answer to that question will likely not be known until late Sunday evening; however by the time U.S. markets open this coming Monday the cat(s) will be out of the bag. This final question leads me to the real topic of this article. The question I want to know is what impact these elections could have on the value of the U.S. Dollar Index as well as gold?
As an option trader, I am always focused on the volatility index (VIX) as well as implied volatility on a number of underlying assets. I came across the following chart courtesy of Bloomberg which appeared in an article posted on zerohedge.com. The chart below illustrates the differential between European Union equities’ implied volatility levels and the EUR/USD currency pair.
Currency Trading
Chart Courtesy of Bloomberg
It is rather obvious that EU stocks and the EUR/USD implied volatility levels have diverged. Generally speaking, when volatility increases it means that price action will typically move lower. The higher levels of volatility, the lower the price the underlying will move. There are exceptions to that rule such as earnings reports or key headlines which drive volatility higher, but generally speaking high volatility levels correlate with uncertainty and risk.
What is particularly troubling about the chart above is that the EUR/USD currency pair is seeing reduced implied volatility. This essentially means that the market is not expecting any major moves in the currency pair amid all of the poor economic numbers coming out of Europe.
For those not familiar, the EUR/USD currency pair reflects the value of the Euro against the Dollar. Thus, if the EUR/USD is rising, this means that the Euro is moving higher against the Dollar. The opposite is true when EUR/USD is selling off.
At present implied volatility levels are quite low by comparison to European equities. The zerohedge.com article entitled “Is EURUSD Volatility About to Explode?” shares the following statement to readers, “The last two times this has occurred (in the last year), EURUSD implied vol has rapidly caught up to equity’s risk.”
What that statement means is that it is becoming more likely that implied volatility of the EUR/USD currency pair is going to increase back in par with European stocks. If that takes place, which based on recent data is likely, the intraday volatility in the EUR/USD will increase thus intraday price ranges and sharp moves will become more prevalent.
The long story short is if implied volatility picks up in EUR/USD then it is likely going to be quite beneficial to the U.S. Dollar. The largest concern for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has to be the potential for a monstrous move higher in the U.S. Dollar should an unforeseen event arise in Europe. An event such as a disastrous auction or the discussion by German Parliament about leaving the Euro could both help push the Dollar much higher than anyone expects.
A higher Dollar is negative for risk assets and Mr. Bernanke does not like the word deflation at all. None of the central banks around the world like deflation because it means all of the debt they are holding and helping to prop up has a much more significant intrinsic value. If the Dollar is worth more, Dollar denominated debt is also more expensive to pay off.
The U.S. Dollar Index has languished for several weeks, but recently the greenback started to reverse higher and at this time has managed to push above major resistance levels overhead on the daily timeframe. The daily chart of the U.S. Dollar Index is shown below.
US Dollar Trading
If the Dollar remains firm into the bell on Friday which appears likely, the results of the two key European elections over the weekend could provide the ammo needed to really force the U.S. Dollar higher or lower depending on market sentiment. It appears the Dollar wants to go higher currently, but a sharp reversal is not out of the question.
The key level to watch is the 80.76 price level on the U.S. Dollar Index futures. If that level gets taken out, the Dollar could extend to recent highs and beyond should the situation in Europe begin to unravel.
If the Dollar surges what will that mean for gold? Generally speaking most readers would expect gold and silver to move lower on Dollar strength. For a time, that would likely be true, but if a real currency crisis plays out gold and the Dollar might rally together as citizens would try to move their wealth into safe, liquid assets.
Under that type of scenario, gold and silver could both rally along with the Dollar. When the moment finally arrives where the Euro begins to selloff sharply, physical gold and silver will be tough to acquire in Europe.
In the short to intermediate term, gold will likely continue to drift lower searching for a critical bottom. The weekly chart of gold futures below demonstrates the key support and resistance levels that may have to be tested before a major reversal can play out.
Gold Trading
Make no mistake, I remain a gold bull in the long term. However, in the short run the Dollar has the potential to outperform gold under the right circumstances. Ultimately it is important to recognize the distinction between selling pressure and what would likely happen in a full blown currency crisis in Europe which is possible, if not ultimately inevitable.
The price action over the weekend on Monday will likely be telling and we could see the beginning of a major move in a variety of underlying assets depending on the election results. Clearly times have changed when U.S. market participants are concerned about what is going on in Europe more so than domestic issues. Unfortunately, we live in very strange times.

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