ARCHIVED COMMENTARY
Gas Guzzlers
Hit the Skids
For edition of May 02, 2007
It has been mere days since gasoline prices here in Colorado rocketed above $3, so news that Ford and GM suffered a catastrophic sales decline in April hardly comes as a surprise. With gas prices predicted to reach $4 here within the next few months – which translates to nearly $5 in California -- it’s going to be a long, hot summer for the Big Three and the auto showrooms.
Even if buyers are no longer clamoring for Ford Excursions, F-150s and Hummers, they still seem to be driving these behemoths as though petrol were 1.30 a gallon, stomping on the accelerator so that they can arrive at the next red light before the rest of us. I used to drive like that myself – back in high school, in a souped-up former police vehicle that could go through a set of rear tires in 5000 miles. Now I drive like your grandma, intent on coaxing another 100,000 maintenance-free miles from my Lexus SUV.
Have you noticed that some of the new hybrids hearken back to the days of the 1960s muscle cars? Honda’s latest offering in this category gets pretty impressive gas mileage, but it would have been more impressive still if the engineers had not used hybrid technology to extract nearly 300 horsepower from the car’s relatively small engine block. What’s curious is that they did not give the car a companionable gearbox and tranny that would have allowed (encouraged?) owners to lay rubber at every intersection. Focus groups must have determined that Honda owners were a little stodgier than that, even if enough of them still lusted after drag-strip acceleration in the 60 mph – 90 mph range, where we do most of our passing.
***
A Guru’s Best Tricks Revealed
“While perusing some of your posts chronologically from months back, I'm truly struck by the remarkable prescience of many of your fearless calls. The results are uncannily accurate. Thanks again for this opportunity to profit from your usually directionally correct analyses. The subscription is worth every penny - and then some.”
-- Colin L. MacVeagh, a subscriber
Aloha Rick. I just want to thank you personally for all of your posts in Comex Gold and Silver. I have traded gold/silver futures for a decade and there is NO ONE who has identified prices as accurately as you do. FACT: Your New Year's Eve call of a high at 643.10 call was dead-on (even if floor traders ran it up a few days later to flush the momentum traders.) But your subsequent forecast of a pullback low at 603.00 was mind boggling! I Sold my longs at 643.10 and covered my shorts at 603.00 -- the exact bottom.
-- Mark Johnson, Hawaiian subscriber
***
Want to learn exactly how I do it? Then click here for details concerning next month’s online Hidden Pivot Seminar on May 19-20 (Saturday/Sunday morning). Sign up now while there are still a few seats left. The goal of this course is nothing less than to teach traders and investors of all levels of experience how to forecast stocks and commodities at least as accurately and confidently as those who do it successfully for a living.
With just a cursory understanding of the material taught in the course, and a little bit of follow-up, you will never again have to ask an “expert” what he thinks about a particular stock or “the market.” That’s because you will be better equipped yourself to answer the question simply by looking at a few charts.
The course is not about technical analysis in the conventional sense, with its tired and overly scrutinized trendlines, its familiar oscillators, channels, volume indicators, and all the rest, Rather, it is a way of looking at charts with a fresh eye – to see charts as “art,” with emphasis on visual elements of harmony, symmetry, and, indeed, beauty. My annotated charts do not look even remotely like those of other technicians, and that is why the “buy” and “sell” signals that come from them rarely coincide with those favored and used by the herd.
Don’t Rely on ‘Experts’
The online class will be a particularly good opportunity for those who were unable to attend my classes last year in New York, Sydney, Vancouver, San Francisco and Denver. If you’ve visited the Rick’s Picks chat room and marveled at the forecasting skill of seminar grads, this course is designed to quickly bring you up to their level. While I cannot guarantee that the course will turn you into a fabulously rich trader, I can promise, as implied above, that with a little diligence and practice, your ability to precisely predict price reversals in stocks, indexes, options and commodities will be at least as good as anyone whose forecasts you have ever paid for.
Although the on-site course was offered for as much as $2,000, I am offering it online for $960, since many of the expenses incurred in holding “live” seminars – including hotel and travel costs, and the rental of conference facilities -- are not a factor. If you are seriously interested in attending, click here for more information, or go directly to the registration page by clicking here, then clicking the “UPCOMING” tab.
