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TODAY'S ACTION for Friday
Rick's Picks for Friday
Yesterday’s inebriated swan dive came within two ticks of a two-day downtrend’s Day-Glo target (1040.50) on the hourly chart. The futures should go no lower than that Hidden Pivot if bulls are to maintain the appearance of being in charge. However, if they do breach the support decisively, I’d put pivotry aside and use the 1025.50 low from August 13 as a minimum downside objective. Alternatively, a print at 1050.00 Thursday night or early Friday morning would turn the one-minute chart bullish. ______ UPDATE (11:40 a.m.): The day so far has been spent playing Hidden Pivot toe-sies, with a high at 1049.50 and a low at 1039.75. Don’t expect much more today.
The corrective rally Thursday night promised to deliver no more than 1000.10 — and that was only if the Hidden Pivot’s midpoint sibling at 997.30 is exceeded. Promises sometimes get broken, though, and we should take it as a bullish sign if it happens here. However, it would take nothing less than 1009.40 to turn the lesser intraday charts decisively bullish. If we study Thursday’s tumult from the top of the 5-minute chart on down, we find a Hidden Pivot at 976.10 that can serve as a worst-case target for the near term. And as always, price action at the (988.80) midpoint pivot will tell us whether our coordinates are the right ones. _______ UPDATE (11:44 a.m.): The futures have closely followed our script, topping in the wee hours at 1000.50, four ticks above where predicted. The subsequent breach to the downside of the 988.80 support is a bearish sign for the near term, but it would be counteracted by a print at 1001.70.
Applying Lindsay’s rules straightforwardly, December Silver is entitled to a pullback into the range 15.120-16.645 before it embarks on another leg up. The resumption of the bullish trend would be signaled by a booster-stage rally of at least $1.05 starting from anywhere within the given range. The potential for the move, measured from the low, would be $2.16
Bears found themselves trapped on the opening yesterday for the umpteenth time since the bull market began, setting up a short-covering panic that turned what began as natural weakness in the broad averages into steroid-powered strength. DaBoyz simply pulled their bids at the bell, allowing the relative smattering of market orders that had built up over the weekend to have an inordinate effect. Into a bid-less vacuum, stocks dove the equivalent of 120 Dow points, exhausting pent-up orders in about 45 minutes. Once sellers were spent, it was child’s play for the smart money to effortlessly squeeze the futures back up to where they had begun the day — plus a little. Moreover, since there was but a shallow correction from the end-of-day highs, bears remained tactically on the ropes at the close.
For our part, since subscribers could have gotten short from as high as 1984.25 based on a Hidden Pivot rally target disseminated last week, some may have elected to swing for the fences by staying short. However, although the trade could have produced a profit of as much as $1200 per contact, the possibility that we were getting the jump on the Mother of All Tops was never more than remote. If you still hold a position, please let me know in the chat room and I will furnish further guidance. Strictly speaking, a short would have survived yesterday’s nasty dipsy doodle if it had been tied to an impulse leg-based stop-loss on the hourly chart.
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As GDXJ was working its way south from around $43, my bearish forecast called for a washout low at exactly 40.42, a Hidden Pivot support of great clarity. I’d suggested buying down there ‘aggressively’ and with an ‘absurdly’ tight stop-loss. This advice would have paid off handsomely for anyone who followed it, since the stock trampolined 64 cents yesterday off an actual low of 40.43, a penny from my target. Since a subscriber reported doing the trade as advised, I’m establishing a tracking position for the further guidance of all who may have gotten long. (He reported having bought 1000 shares off a 40.44 bid, but I’ll assume a more conservative 400 shares.) Accordingly, I’ll recommend exiting half the position on Friday’s opening if you haven’t done so already. We’ll impute any profits thereof to the cost basis of the 200 shares that will remain. _______ UPDATE (July 27, 9:48 p.m. ET): Exiting 200 shares on Friday’s 41.20 opening leaves us with a tracking position of 200 shares whose imputed cost basis is 39.66. Exit another 100 shares on today’s opening and tie the rest to an impulse leg-based stop-loss on the 15-minute chart. At the moment, that would imply bailing out on an uncorrected dive touching 41.73. ______ UPDATE (July 28, 11:46 a.m.): We got sleazed when DaBoyz opened the stock on the so-far low of the day, 42.40. The good news is that such shakedowns usually occur because the smart money is trying to buy the stock. In any event, I am tracking a 100-share position with an effective cost basis of 37.25. For the time being, let it run.
A subscriber reported success yesterday legging into the 1340/50/60 August 16 call butterfly that I’d advised. He did so 32 times at no cost, as suggested, but it took a $10 move in the stock between legs to get filled so advantageously. His maximum profit would be $32,000 with the stock trading at 1350 come August 16. Since he owns the position without cost, no loss is possible even if PCLN should all to zero or rally to $1000. We’ll do nothing further for now, but I’d suggest that those of you who were unable to buy the spread keep trying. We’ll shoot for a partial profit if the stock rallies $40-$50 in the next few weeks but otherwise do nothing further. I’ve reproduced a chart that shows why our expectation of a $120 rally from current levels, to a 1358.18 Hidden Pivot target, is not exactly farfetched. To that end, a pop above the 1270.59 midpoint pivot would be most encouraging. ______ UPDATE (July 28, 7:46 p.m. EDT): Yesterday another subscriber reported legging into ‘free’ butterfly spreads as suggested. Keep trying for at least one more day if you haven’t yet acquired a stake, since the spread will remain cheap as long as PCLN doesn’t blast off.
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I haven’t tracked currencies that closely, but because they tend to move very precisely to Hidden Pivot targets, traders should consider exploiting them whenever possible. Notice how EUR/USD has broken beneath a midpoint Hidden Pivot at 1.34841 after noodling around near that pivot for a few hours on Thursday. This suggests that it is bound for D=1.34197, at least. You can bottom-fish there with a stop-loss as tight as 3-4 ticks. Notice as well that there are two slightly higher possibilities for point ‘A’. The correction targets they yield lie, respectively, at 1.34114 and, worst case, 1.33992. I expect these numbers to work very precisely, so use them in whatever way suits you best. Note as well that a last-gasp rally to p=1.34738 after EUR/USD has fallen a bit would be short-able. _______ UPDATE (July 24, 5:35 p.m. EDT): Yesterday’s short-squeeze feint topped precisely at a midpoint Hidden Pivot (see inset, a new chart) that was originally support but which is now resistance. This price action confirms the pattern we’ve chosen as well as its ‘D’ target at 1.34197. At least one subscriber has confirmed getting short in the chat room. _______ UPDATE (July 27, 10:43 p.m.): Friday’s low occurred at 1.34206 — 0.00009 above our 1.34197 target. Shorts should have covered there, but if you were able to bottom-fish the low and catch a piece of the 144-tick rally that ensued, please let me know in the chat room and so that I can establish a tracking position for your further guidance.
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SIDE BETS for Friday
Goldman’s clawback propensity yesterday was fearsome, especially when you consider how very badly the stock needs to correct a 15-day run. If it pokes its greasy little snout above 185.60 today, bears had better be prepared to throw in the towel.
Relief may be near in the form of a Hidden Pivot support at 389.22, but it would be bearish, at least for the short term, if that number fails to hold.
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Panicky Gold Sellers Find Safety Aboard Titanic
by Rick Ackerman on September 25, 2009 3:44 am GMT · 7 comments
It’s a crazy world that views dollars and Treasury paper, of all things, as a safe haven whenever the financial news turns unsettling. Yesterday’s upsetting story had sales of existing homes falling by 2.7% last month, darkening the mirage of recovery in the housing sector. Home sales had risen over the four previous months, but the distress buying that was driving this statistic appears to be drying up. Skittish traders lost no time connecting the dots, dumping gold and piling into dollar assets. They evidently had » Read the full article