The Hidden Pivot pattern shown, with a major rally target at 5165.25, is a poor specimen because its point 'B' high failed to exceed the 4765 'external' peak recorded in April 2021. However, it should be considered good enough for government work, meaning the target should show some stopping power and could perhaps even prove fatal. A reverse pattern trigger for the short is already in effect, predicated on a 143-point drop that touches 5006.50. The implied entry risk on four contracts is $28,600, so we'll need to cut that down to size with a 'camouflage' trigger if and when the trade is signaled.
I'd expected a modest pop to the 24.08 target of a reverse pattern to start the week. Instead, March Silver stumbled as it emerged from the gate, disappointing bulls yet again and providing yet more evidence that the bull market from hell is on its own time. My hunch is that the target will be achieved, but only after the futures have come down to the 22.385 target of the small rABC pattern shown. This calls for bottom-fishing with a 'camouflage' trigger, meaning an abcd pattern of small degree (the 15-minute chart should do).
The futures rallied last week to within a hair of the 5128.50 Hidden Pivot target sent out to you last Sunday. The forecast came with an explicit, high-confidence recommendation to get long if the uptrend pulled back to the green line (x=4984.50). This it did on Tuesday, subsequently producing a profit of as much as $7,200 per contract for anyone who did the trade. I followed up on Friday afternoon with a suggestion to buy SPY 1 March 498 puts. (See my chat room link to the gnarly chart that informed this decision. ) Most subscribers were able to buy them within a penny of their intraday low, 0.37, so we'll have a horse in the race when index futures resume trading on Sunday.
Crude is the most agitated trading vehicle I track, but paradoxically the easiest to trade. We can practically count on every tradable price reversal to come from within a tick or two of an in-your-face-obvious prior high or low -- i.e., from smack-dab-in-the-middle of a 'discomfort zone'. The pattern shown has a rally target at 80.30, and we know from experience that the political powers that be and their lackeys will be there to impede the uptrend, lest gasoline prices become problematical for voters nine months ahead of the election. The pattern is also an inch from triggering a textbook 'mechanical' buy at the green line. Watch it develop if you are bored. _______ UPDATE (Feb 23): The green line (x=76.71) could have been used to make as much as $2,200 per contract with little difficulty, since the futures made a nearly two-level move after dipping slightly below the line on Wednesday morning. A subscriber reported having used UCO to do the trade. Here's the chart. The 80.30 target given above remains valid.
Bulls were in charge when the week ended, having clawed their way back to within an inch of new record highs. Option expirations slowed the ascent, since many traders held calls at the higher strikes that had prevailed before stocks plunged on Tuesday because of unsettling inflation news. Although the futures finished the day down 32 points, it took gumption for bulls to pull the lunatic stocks out of a nosedive that began to gain momentum just minutes into the session. Look for the rally to continue to the 5128.50 target of the pattern shown, and don't pass up the opportunity to bottom-fish 'mechanically' if a correction should bring the March contract down to the green line (x=4984.50).
Friday's blast through p=23.03 clinched more upside to at least 24.08, the unexciting target of the pattern shown. That would amount to a rally of just 60 cents, but if the futures thrust past this 'hidden resistance', we could look for a test of the peak at 24.895 recorded on December 22. It's too early to start counting our chickens, especially given the way the futures have underperformed since early December. But our bias will be bullish for now. Since the last correction would have trashed a 'mechanical' bid at the green line, I won't suggest attempting to buy there if the opportunity presents itself.
Here's a picture I can't recall having seen before -- and on the weekly chart, no less. We would ordinarily expect buyers to have show deference toward the 4950.00 Hidden Pivot resistance, which could not be more clear or compelling. Instead, they plowed right through it last week, turning it into a launching pad to lengthen the previous week's modest breakout. It's possible this will turn out to have been brought on by the pattern's obviousness. If so, the rally will not have much further to go until it sputters out. But the impalement of D has already been sufficient to suggest otherwise -- i.e., that it is unadulterated, muscular buying that has turned the resistance into chop suey. Regardless, I'll suggest using this extremely gnarly pattern to get a fix on the trend Sunday night/Monday morning. Price action at p absolutely guarantees D=5061.00 will be reached, at least. If it, too, gets blown away, bears had better get out of the way. However, if the futures into creep up to D Sunday evening or at the opening, you can try shorting there with a trigger interval (TI) as tight as 4.25 points.
The futures are on a reverse-pattern buy signal triggered nearly three weeks ago at the green line (x=23.06). They haven't done much since, other than disappoint, but the signal remains valid nonetheless until such time as the March contract drops below C=22.04. My gut feeling is that the trade will work, delivering at least a one-level ride to p=22.08. However, I'd be tempted to try again with a tighter reverse pattern if sellers should stop out C. A voodoo number sits about 30 points below it and could be useful for those inclined to trade this vehicle and who are familiar with voodoo set-ups.
The futures were not supposed to blow past a target as clear and compelling as the one at 4950.00 shown in the chart. Yes, the pattern is too obvious to work precisely. But still. Regardless, we must now infer not only that at least somewhat higher prices impend, but that the ballyhooed one at 430.58 in MSFT may not show the stopping power I've given you to expect. Either that, or the 5059.75 target of the more expansive pattern shown here is in play. It will not work precisely because this is a continuous chart, but the target should be good enough for government work, meaning we can improvise a short up there if necessary, about 10-15 point higher on the March contract.
Last week's rally to the green line (x=23.15) generated an enticing signal to get 'mechanically' short, but it went unanswered because silver hasn't exactly been a hot discussion topic in the chat rooms. 'Spartacus' offered a link to an ostensibly bullish chart, but only tentatively so. The chart shown in the inset had more immediate consequences, but it remains to be seen whether the so-far one-level move finds its way down to the 'D' target at 21.45. I doubt it, but a further fall to at least p2=22.02 is neither illogical nor unlikely.
