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From the monthly archives:
September 2009
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The futures appear to be struggling too hard to get past a relatively modest resistance at 16.410 made last Friday on the way down. Such a thrust would create a bullish impulse leg on the lesser charts, but if it doesn’t happen, look for further consolidation over the near term to as a low as 15.680.
We can use a midpoint support at 96.97 this morning to attempt bottom-fishing in this vehicle. Bid 1.55 for two October 97 calls (DAVJS), but stop yourself out if the stock trades under 96.89. DIA would be signaling more weakness over the near term to as low as 95.58 if the stop is hit. _______ UPDATE (10:20 a.m.): DIA was trading below the stop when the calls hit 1.55, but if you bought them anyway your loss on exit moments later would have been no worse than $12 per contract. The 95.58 target is still valid.
At yesterday’s peak, the futures were just a few ticks shy of a potentially important Hidden Pivot target at 121^31. If it fails to contain the surge, however, look for another topping possibility at 122^22, a Hidden Pivot that you can short with a tight stop-loss. Switch to a 5-tick trailing stop on a pullback of 10 ticks, and use 121^24 as a minimum downside target. A top of at least short-term significance is loosely corroborated by a 43.18 target for TBT that I disseminated in the chat room yesterday afternoon. ______ UPDATE: Both vehicles trashed their respective targets, stopping out anyone who attempted to go against the trend.
Considering that Gold has simply been loitering near $1000, chat-room interest in the stuff seems somewhat fevered. Relative to my forecast for the dollar and U.S. Treasurys (see today’s touts), I see bullion remaining under pressure for perhaps another week or two before it advances on a long-standing Hidden Pivot target at 1074.50. I’ll be ready to reconsider if the December futures start pumping out some bullish impulse legs on the hourly chart (or even a mere 1001.70 on the 5-minute bars) , but until that time, keep the 970.80 downside target in mind as a worst-case number for the near term. _______ UPDATE (1:21 p.m.): We lucked out during this morning’s weekly tutorial session when a “camouflage” entry opportunity at 1004.50 popped up unexpectedly, allowed us to get long almost risklessly. The ‘D’ target of the minor pattern used to make entry was 1005.70, but, as is the usual practice with camouflage entries, longs were to hold onto at least a small portion of their original positions for potentially bigger thrills ahead. [Note: Recordings of more than 30 Wednesday sessions are available to all seminar grads. The seminar fee includes three months’ access to the recordings, but if you’ve used that up, please contact mikej165@gmail.com to renew.)
The dollar’s recent low missed a Hidden Pivot target that I’d drum-rolled in my commentary by just 26 cents. I offered no target for the current DXY rally, but keep in mind that once it ends, I expect DXY to plummet all the way down to 72.93. Moreover, DXY’s rally may just be getting started because the initial reversal off the 75.83 low (versus a 75.47 target) has had no problem generating bullish impulse legs on the hourly chart. If true, this would mean gold will remain under pressure for a while — perhaps another 7-10 days. The good news is that it is already under pressure but still able to home in on $1000 nonetheless. If $1000 is cruising altitude, as would appear to be the case, that’s good news for long-term bulls.
Frank Shostak is one of our favorite economists because he talks plain-sense. In a recent essay he wrote for Mises Institute, he explained why the government’s huge stimulus efforts have failed to stimulate much of anything. To make matters worse, says Shostak, if the feds continue down this path, seeding the banks with yet more money from nowhere, it will effectively destroy the real-savings base that is absolutely crucial to any recovery. Click here to read his essay.
Neither bulls nor bears seems particularly inspired at the moment, although the edge still goes to the latter and to the downside target given here previously: 970.80. A descent to that Hidden Pivot would become an odds-on bet if its midpoint sibling at 985.60 is exceeded on a closing basis. Alternatively, the futures would need to touch 1000.10 on a rally Monday night or Tuesday to turn the minor trend bullish. A more important midpoint resistance would come into play thereupon, and with its breach a potential run-up to 1028.10.
Credit Card Noose Tightens in Deflation
by Rick Ackerman on September 30, 2009 12:10 am GMT · 9 comments
When B of A spokesman Lawrence DiRita turned up on the evening news not long ago to assure listeners that his employer was willing to work on a case-by-case basis with troubled customers, we decided to call his bluff. Would DiRita, formerly a high-ranking official in the Defense Department, go to bat for the borrower whose “teaser” loan from the bank was about to shoot up overnight from 0% to 12.24%? Everyone with a credit card has been offered such a loan at one time or another, and it was once possible to initiate one at rates varying from 0% to 4%, with no additional fee for the balance transfer. Not any longer, though. Anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten caught with a large balance when the » Read the full article