Gold has been testing the limits of our endurance lately. A week ago, when we tried to buy shares of GDXJ, a proxy for junior mining stocks, it ran away from us, seemingly headed into the wild blue yonder. At nearly $24 a share, it was difficult to justify jumping aboard, since, just a couple of days earlier, we’d blown an opportunity to do so at a bargain-basement price of 21.52. We sat tight nonetheless until yesterday, when GDXJ dove into our lap, then trampolined off a 19.66 correction target that had been spotlighted in the “trading touts” section of Rick’s Picks a month ago. Here’s the recommendation exactly as it went out to subscribers the night before, with GDXJ settled at 21.09:  “An important [Hidden Pivot] target at 19.66, last mentioned here on April 5, appears to be this vehicle’s immediate destination. I’ll recommend bidding for 400 shares at 19.75, no stop-loss, day order. Camouflageurs can start looking for the turn now, seizing the advantage if it should present itself.”

The chart tells the rest of the story.  GDXJ made its intraday low at 19.62 in the opening minutes of the session and never looked back. And  neither did we.  An hour later, with the stock on its way to a remarkable 8% gain from the low, we told subscribers to take a partial profit. Here’s the advice we sent out via an intraday alert: “Our longstanding target has caught this morning’s 19.62 low nearly perfectly, allowing us to buy 400 shares at the suggested price. Now, on a good-till-canceled basis, offer 200 shares (or half of the position if you bought more than 400 shares) to close for 20.60.”   Any subscriber who did so would now be sitting on 200 shares with a cost basis reduced by profit-taking to 18.60. With GDXJ currently trading for 20.55, that equates to a paper gain so far of $390.  While there can be no guarantees that GDXJ won’t tank on the opening bell this morning, we’re in good enough shape to weather a few nasty bumps.

Does this style of trading – reducing risk with tightly stopped entries and partial-profit-taking when things go your way — appeal to you?  If so, click here for a free trial subscription to Rick’s Picks.  You’ll gain access not only to detailed trading “touts” and real-time alerts such as the one above, but to a 24/7 chat room that draws veteran traders from around the world.