February 11th, 2012
Published Daily
COMMENTARY for Monday

Has BP Summoned the Fires of Hell?

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 12:01 am GMT · 71 comments

We’ve railed at traders and speculators recently for their arrogant and sometimes breathtaking stupidity in failing to discount an onslaught of world-shattering news. If the dolts, rubes, bozos and mountebanks who have kept stocks afloat even remotely understood what has been going on in this world, we wrote here recently, the Dow Industrials would plummet 6000 points in mere days.  And the news has been grave, indeed.  America’s wholly imagined economic recovery died for good on Friday with the release of shocking retail figures for May. Household incomes have been falling, consumer credit imploding, M3 plummeting, and now it turns out that corporations have allowed $1.8 trillion to sit idle in low-yielding bank accounts, hastening the economy’s deflationary collapse and the onset of a Second Great Depression. We face the impossible task of getting out from beneath $130 Trillion of debt and liabilities amassed by government at all levels. The nation is adrift under a weak president whose radical politics have sharply divided the voters. Iran and Turkey (a NATO member!) have declared war on Israel, sending warships to run the Gaza blockade. Europe’s financial house of cards is within months, or even weeks, of total collapse.  The jihadists may be turning the tide against U.S. and British forces in Afghanistan. » Read the full article


TODAY'S ACTION for Monday

Some Key Benchmarks

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 12:01 am GMT

 Member-only content. Please Login or get a free trial of Rick's Picks to view.


Rick's Picks for Monday
$ = Actionable Advice + = Open Position
Hidden Pivot Calculator   Education Page
All Picks By Issue:

I’ve provided benchmarks in today’s E-Mini S&P tout by which we could judge the staying power of any short-squeeze that may be lurking.  For the Indoos, the squeeze would need to surpass 10488 to have entertainment value for us, and the rally would need to be unpaused on the hourly chart once above 10315.

GCQ10 – August Gold (Last:1229.40)

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 12:01 am GMT

August Gold (GCQ10) price chart with targetsTwo midpoint pivots lie not far above, hidden  impediments that could soon test bulls’ mettle.  One is at 1237.40, the other at 1244.40, and the provenance of both is shown in the accompanying chart. Let’s stipulate that a two-day close above the lower resistance is needed before we infer more upside to the sibling targets of those numbers — respectively,  1258.60 and 1272.60

SIN10 – July Silver (Last:18.235)

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 12:01 am GMT

While Friday’s fleeting spike failed by a few cents to reach a midpoint target at 18.555, it succeeded in refreshing the bull trend by pushing above some external peaks from earlier in June. If and when the midpoint is breached, we should infer that more upside to at least 19.200 lies immediately in store.  However, if the futures should pull back over the next day or two, a midpoint support at 17.765 is the first place we might look to bottom-fish aggressively.

E-Mini S&P (ESU10) price chart with targetsLet’s make DaBoyz push this hoax past 1118.00 (1122.75, basis June) before we jump on the bullish bandwagon.  That number corresponds to a peak along the wall of May’s decline, and a rally that exceeds it would create a sufficiently robust impulse leg on the hourly chart to warrant our bemused attention if not our respect. Keep in mind that the rally would need to be unbroken on the hourly chart from the time it passes the “starting line” represented by twin peaks #1  at 1102.75.

$SLW – Silver Wheaton (Last:35.93)

by Rick Ackerman on February 9, 2012 4:24 am GMT

 Member-only content. Please Login or get a free trial of Rick's Picks to view.

$GS – Goldman Sachs (Last:116.29)

by Rick Ackerman on February 8, 2012 3:36 am GMT

 Member-only content. Please Login or get a free trial of Rick's Picks to view.

Dow Industrial Average (DJIA) price chart with targetsTake any dozen good reasons for being bearish right now and they still don’t equal the bullishness of the chart shown. The undeniably compelling rally objective is 13085, a 4.8% move from current levels, and one can only surmise that the dusting the 12158 midpoint received on the last pullback (12/28) all but clinched a finishing stroke to the higher number. Moreover, it implies that bears shouldn’t get their hopes too high even if, in the next few days, the Dow plummets 324 points to retest the midpoint support. As of now, that would signal not weakness, but a screaming opportunity to get long.  Hard to believe, really, but that’s what the charts say. 


This Just In... for Monday

Inflation, deflation, government borrowing or the plunging euro — you name it — the specter of these concerns has set off a dash to gold, driving the precious metal to new highs and illustrating how fears of economic turmoil have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.

via Worried About Their Dollars, More Are Turning to Gold – NYTimes.com.

U.S. Nears Endgame in Afghanistan

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 2:56 am GMT

Debka.com is reporting that the war in Afghanistan is about to end, although not with a victory for the U.S.  “The repercussions of the U.S. exit in these circumstances will impinge on American influence worldwide including the Middle East,” Debka noted.  For the complete story, and for details of how Pakistan has helped turn the tide for the Taliban, click here.

Something to lighten the heart…

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 7:25 am GMT

Today’s commentary is indeed grim, so let me offer something to lighten the heart:  a well-reasoned essay predicting that Obama will not finish his term — that he will be forced to resign.  The author is Peter Ferrara, writing in The American Spectator, and you can access the article by clicking here.

Borrowing from Peter to pay…Peter

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 7:38 am GMT

As long as we’re trying to lighten the mood around here, check out this howler from the New York Times.  It concerns how New York’s legislature is about to let the state and municipalities borrow $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund.  You’ll never guess were they intend to get the money.  Click here  for the punch line.

‘USA Beats England, 1-1′

by Rick Ackerman on June 14, 2010 9:27 pm GMT

Auerbach Grayson’s latest market report is out and it’s pretty bullish. For a look at  ’USA Beats England 1-1′, click here.


Hidden Pivot Webinar & Tutorials
The next Hidden Pivot Webinar will be held on Feb. 29th - Mar. 1st. This two-day event is designed to teach you the risk-averse trading strategies Rick has taken to his seminars around the world. Once you have learned his proprietary secrets, you will approach trading and investing with enough confidence to make your own decisions without having to rely on the advice of others. For more information, or to register, click here.