Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Facebook is closing on an important support at 24.71 flagged here earlier, but also a midpoint support at 24.84 (see inset) that should evince tradable support. Taken together, these two Hidden Pivots provide a compelling reason for camo traders to try bottom-fishing just south of here. I'd suggest limiting entry risk to no more than 6-8 cents per share. Please let me know in the chat room if you fill, since I'll establish tracking guidance if at least two subscribers report getting aboard.  _______ UPDATE (10:54 a.m. EDT): Facebook exploded this morning from within a penny of our longstanding target at 24.71.  For  camo traders, entry was perfectly signaled on the 1-minute chart at 24.91 (9:43 a.m. EDT). Buyers there never looked back. I'll record a 24.93 entry unless a less favorable fill is reported in the chat room. Assuming 200 shares exited at the 25.13 'D ' target of the camo pattern, we hold 200 shares with a cost basis of 24.73. For now, use a fixed stop-loss at 24.36. ______ UPDATE (9:45 p.m. EDT):  Switch to a stop-loss that would be activated by the creation of a bullish impulse leg on the 10-minute chart.  At the moment, that would imply an uncorrected downdraft touching 25.68 (see new chart).

It's been a while since we looked in on Silver Wheaton, and it may be a while longer before we do so again, since the stock has been a tease for longer than most of us want to recall. Notice how its most recent head fake failed by a few crucial inches to surpass a distinctive peak recorded a couple of weeks earlier.  That's sufficient to imply that bulls are content to screw the pooch for yet a while longer. This state of lassitude is nothing that couldn't be remedied with a relatively modest rally (i.e., past peaks #1 and #2), but until that happens we'll resign ourselves to seeing each new rally as gratuitous.

Cyprus depositors and bondholders have taken a mortal hit, and the episode seems likely in my estimation to have far-reaching consequences that will rival those set in motion by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. For now, though, the OPM-mongers who move markets are treating it as a non-event, as are the lazy, clueless hacks who write the news. Notice that the corrective abc in the chart reversed from just below p to create a bullish impulse leg.  This 'duel' suggests that bulls are merely marking time, waiting for Cyprus to blow over, before they take stocks still higher. For camo traders, this suggests that buying opportunities will best be found near p and d pivots of downtrending abc patterns.  Click here to find out more about Rick's proprietary method of trading and technical analysis. Rick majored in English lit, implying that just about anyone can learn how to use Hidden Pivot Analysis and 'camouflage' trading tactics.

We have “Easy Al” Greenspan to thank for a new generation of reporters and economists as blissfully ignorant of the basic principles of economics as he was.  Recall that during Greenspan’s tenure as Fed Chairman, he repeatedly referred to inflated property values as “wealth,” thereby encouraging millions of homeowners to spend up a storm with home-equity lucre that had fallen from the sky. We all know how that turned out.  And now it’s threatening to happen all over again as 3% mortgages, courtesy of the Fed and of tax laws skewed pathologically toward housing “investment,” lift millions of underwater-property owners at least temporarily from the muck.  So whom did Wall Street Journal report Conor Dougherty seek out for a quote on this happy turn of events?  One Sam Khater, an apparent disciple of the Greenspan School of Free Lunch.  Khater, who works for a firm called CoreLogic, showed himself to be Greenspan’s kinda guy – i.e., an economic slut – with this paean to consumerism: “Home equity is the biggest source of wealth,” he averred, “so if equity is increasing, that has a very large effect on household spending and consumer psychology.” Khaner is unfortunately not alone in his belief that home values inflated by the central bank’s monetary wilding spree constitute wealth, nor that the highest purpose of such “wealth” is to buy furniture, appliances, automobiles and other big-ticket items on credit. Khaner’s economically destructive ideas would undoubtedly find support from the likes of Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning disgrace to the already dismal science. Krugman would have us believe Americans are not doing their patriotic duty if they fail to convert every dime of inflated property values into consumer goods. This pernicious idea reigns supreme in the thinking, not only of every economist, but among editorialists who are either