Rick Ackerman

The 'mechanical' short recommended from the green line (x= 5.9093) last week narrowly survived getting stopped out when a midweek upthrust failed to surpass the conventional pattern's point 'C' high.  On Friday, the futures fell far enough to touch the midpoint Hidden Pivot support (p=5.7035), where we customarily take profits on half a position. If you are still in the trade, plan on taking an additional 25% off at p2=5.4978, the seondary Hidden Pivot, saving the remaining 25% for a possible ride down to D=5.2920. Since there has been little discussion of the trade in the chat room, I will likely replace 'Doc' Copper soon with another symbol as part of a continuing.

AI hubris has got itself in a bind, trapped between two conflicting stories, neither of which seems likely to end well. One story has the boys in the billionaire's club throwing untold sums of money at a technology that seems increasingly unlikely to produce commensurate returns. The other story has been threatening whole sectors of the economy with creative destruction: software development, financial, legal and accounting services, money management, entertainment and even trucking. Each day, there's a menacing new headline about some industry whose workers, mostly white-collar, are about to be replaced by thinking machines. The recent trucking news concerned the logistical problem of routing vans so that they are filled with cargo all the time. Artificial intelligence has taken on this challenge, squeezing out inefficiencies in ways that human workers could not have imagined just a few years ago.  The shares of companies that do this work crashed last week, victims of AI's Grim Reaper. It won't end there, either, since driverless fleets of trucks are coming, and soon. Humans will be needed to load and unload them -- that is, until Musk robots come along to relieve them of their jobs. A Chimpanzee Reflex Whenever creative-destruction stories hit the tape, the chimpanzees entrusted with America's 401(k) savings instantly dump the shares of all companies likely to be impacted. The trouble is that the list is growing so fast that it has become hard to imagine an area of the economy that will not be affected. We are talking mainly about job losses, and there seems to be no end to the number and variety of positions in AI's crosshairs. So what's an investor to do?  Our money is on Musk, arguably the only player with a strategy imaginative enough to encompass and integrate AI's myriad possibilities while also

The chart leaves no doubt that this short-squeeze rally will reach the 7023.00 target. Friday's move impaled the midpoint resistance (p=6887.25), then went on to poke a hole through p2=6955.13 and close within a hair of it. Is this sufficient power to produce the bullish breakout investors have awaited since the Halloween top just above 7000? Probably. Although d=7023.00 will still be worth shorting, you should do so with a delicate 'reverse pattern' trigger that risks no more than 3.00 or so points per contract. In the meantime, bull trades will likely enjoy safe passage at least to 'd'.

I've returned AAPL to the list, since MSFT's dirge is no longer representative of the animal spirits that have been moving the markets higher. The chart shown leaves room for a possible double top, but I've selected a lower point 'A' in order to project a likely move to new record highs. The move through p=274.76 is not quite powerful enough to guarantee this, but it will offer 80% odds if the stock can close for two more consecutive days above p=274.76. At the point, the secondary Hidden Pivot (p2=290.42) would become my minimum upside objective. If a pullback to the green line (x=259.09) were to occur first, it would offer a stellar opportunity for a 'mechanical' buy, stop 242.00.

Gold is showing rather more pluck than Silver at the moment, having failed correctively to even reach the midpoint Hidden Pivot at 4586.20, let alone decisively exceed it as Silver has. The latter's more punitive correction is undoubtedly related to its singular nuttiness in recent years. The seeming divergence will almost surely be resolved in the week ahead, and I lean toward a bullish outcome. The point 'C' high at 5113.90 does not look capable of putting up a fight, and gold showed every sign on Friday of its eagerness to test C's mettle. The only hint of trouble is that the B-C leg of this pattern did not generate a fresh impulse leg with the 5113.90 top.  In any event, we'll need to wait and see how things play out over the next couple of days before assuming new record highs are coming.

As I've noted in the latest Gold tout (see above), Silver's chart looks significantly weaker in comparison. The correction from January's record 121.23 has breached the midpoint support (p=68.390) by a significant amount, setting up what can only be viewed as a 'textbook' mechanical' short on any rally that touches the green line (x=80.203).  That implies the futures could fall as far as D=44.765 after peaking at x or somewhat higher.  I prefer to analyze each chart on its own, rather than complicate the picture by tying it to another, even if they are close cousins. We'll have to see what the new week brings, but I've mentioned in the Gold tout that bulls would seem to hold the edge here. ________ UPDATE (Feb 9, 11:12 a.m.): See Monday night's chat room discussion for further guidance.

I'll spare you the boring details, but the pattern shown, wih a 202.52 target that lies 20% below, has everything I look for. It tripped a conventional sell signal when it touched the green line last Wednesday, and the choppy downtrend since should be presumed bound for a minimum 118.05 over the near term. If that midpoint Hidden Pivot support is easily exceeded to the downside, it would portend more slippage to as low as D=102.52. We'll let price action speak for itself, but take it as a bullish sign if buyers push above C=133.57 before p=118.05 is touched.

The futures ended the week just a hair shy of triggering a 'mechanical' short at the green line (x=5.9093).  Because it would require an initial stop-loss just above C=6.1150, I am recommending the trade only to those of you who are familiar with small-interval (i.e., 'camouflage') triggers. (They are covered in the Hidden Pivot Course that is available free to most subscribers.)  The trade is predicated on a price objective at 5.2920, the 'D' target of this conventional pattern.  That implies it should be good for at least a one-level ride from x to p=5.7035, but anything lower than that would indicate more slippage to at least p2=5.4978.  ________ UPDATE (Feb 9, 11:14 a.m.): See Monday night’s chat room discussion for further guidance.

[The following commentary was written by Steve Houck,a longtime investor in bullion and knows the markets well.  He is also a friend and a former business partner.  RA ] Looking at the froth in silver, it became apparent it was time to rotate from overvalued to undervalued once again.  Selling precious-metal ETFs like SLV and AGQ meant cash was available for the next trade, but where to go?  While silver has been on a relentless tear, the miners have only grudgingly moved higher.  Yes, there have been good moves in many of the miners, but quite a few trade with a ball and chain weighing them down in the form of fear.  That's because the last two times silver surpassed $50, in 1980 and 2011, it collapsed and went into long, grinding bear markets.  Silver mining stocks get caught up in this because the public doesn't believe prices will hold, and that silver will fall back to earth. But what if the new floor is $55 to $70, and not the $15 to $25 range that obtained for decades?  This silver run-up is different because it’s about one thing:  physical metal.  Just look what;s happening: China, the U.S. and the rest of the world are hoarding and trying to secure metals. That puts the miners in the catbird seat, because they produce and control the supply.  Their shares, however, are still being priced as though silver were selling in the  $20s even though it averaged close to $50 for the entire fourth quarter 2025.  The miners wil start to report earnings next week, beginning on February 16.  Because many of them will announce blowout earnings, now is the time to capitalize! How to Play It How to play this?  Over the last two decades of investing in silver miners, the