Gold/Dollar Play is Getting Extreme

A lot of what is driving the recent stock market and commodity rally can be attributed to the plummeting Dollar. To some degree the rally in Gold (GLD) is almost getting parabolic in nature. While we've been longer-term bullish on Gold for some time, such a strong uptrend becomes more and more likely to break down sharply. Feel free to ride up such a strong uptrend, but take profits quickly and be prepared to jump on the bearish side should it break down -- because it will correct sharply and quickly when it does.

Take a look below at the recent very strong inverse correlation between GLD (yellow) and the Dollar ETF (UUP, green). When/if this does break down a bit with the Dollar rallying and Gold selling off, option traders can consider a Long UUP, Short GLD paired trade strategy. But don't jump in front of this runaway train yet.

And wherefore the Dollar, which more and more seems to be the main driver of the recent big rally in many commodities and strenght in stocks. Using the US Dollar Index (DXY), which goes back 30 years+, you can see below that we've reached the lowest levels ever since the economic crisis occurred. As I've mentioned previously, a weak currency is NOT good for a country and its economy over the long-term (although some make the argument that it does boost the power of our exports). Buying power and wealth of Americans are badly hurt when foreign good become more relatively expensive and inflation raises the prices of basic commodities. And think about it from a traveler's perspective ... if you travel to a country with a very poor exchange rate, making it basically dirt cheap to go there ... what do you equate that with? A third world or emerging economy, basically. Not good for the once strong USA, in my view.

So where can the Dollar bottom out? Well, looking at the DXY Weekly Chart below, you can see we're in a pretty steep downtrend, so don't fade this just yet. Notice that the recent downtrend began when we failed at the same top that was resistance in late 2008 and early 2009. We are fast approaching the area where the DXY bottomed in late 2009, and beyond that lies the significant lows of the 2008 panic.

Bottom line: The Dollar and its various ETFs and Indexes are in a free fall, so don't jump in front of a falling knife. This is contributing to strong rallies in Gold and other commodities and also helping push stocks higher to some degree. These types of parabolic trends in Dollar and Gold will tend to steepen and steepen until it breaks down sharply, right at the top (or bottom) when the biggest greed of an "easy trade" comes in. So ride these trends while they last, but limit exposure and take profits quickly, when these end they usually reverse hard and rapidly, and jump on the other side for profits in both directions from option trading.

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