Crude looks primed to screw the pooch, but the daily chart suggests two trade possibilities nonetheless. One would call for getting short on a pop to d=65.38. A stop-loss as tight as 15 cents can be used, although it would be preferable to set up a 'camo' trigger pattern on a chart of a lesser degree. The second trade calls for bidding 'mechanically at the green line (x=57.0). The textbook stop-loss would be just below c=54.33, so tighter risk management is called for by entering the trade with a trigger pattern of small degree. _______ UPDATE (Jun 11): Today's unusually powerful spasm suggests war may be coming, perhaps in the form of the long-anticipated strike on Iran's nuclear bomb facilities by Israel. There are many other imaginable catalysts, however, and they should all be taken seriously if this spike gets past two tough obstacles: 1) a Hidden Pivot at 68.98; and 2) the distinctive peak at 71.10 recorded on April 2.
If DXY is going to resume the uptrend begun in April from 98.01, the 98.66 Hidden Pivot support shown would be a logical place for this to occur. The pattern is a conventional one, but because the 'B' low is not obvious, its gnarliness should work for us, delivering a tradable bottom precisely where expected. We don't typically trade this vehicle, but a reversal from the target could yield opportunity in currency pairs or futures. ______ UPDATE (May 30): Easy come, easy go. What started out as a promising week ended with a steep, one-day reversal that left the dollar little changed from the previous week's lows. Still worse is that the apex of the rally failed to generate an impulse leg on the hourly chart by surpassing an external' peak at 110.58 recorded May 19 on the way down.
Of all the nutty ideas in investors' heads these days, none is crazier or more pernicious than the mass delusion that grotesquely inflated asset prices have made tens of millions of us rich. As equity shares and residential real estate prices have risen higher and higher due to Fed stimulus with money conjured from nowhere, Americans have basked in the so-called wealth effect. 'Easy Al' Greenspan could be their patron saint. An egghead with a PhD in economics, he often spoke of inflated home values as 'wealth' -- i.e. money in the bank. He should have known better. Investors paying homage to Greenspan would have been at their giddiest recently when Microsoft shares opened $31 above the previous day's close. Because the software giant is a $3 trillion company, the biggest in the world by capitalization, this added about $273 billion to investment accounts holding Microsoft shares. The total amount of bullshit wealth produced by the price gap has climbed much higher since, because the short-squeeze that goosed MSFT initially has continued to this day. At last week's $460 high, the tally of vaporous 'wealth' injected into the system by MSFT's scripted explosion was $492 billion. The actual figure is probably at least five times that, or $2.4 trillion, since Microsoft's steep run-up has dragged the entire stock market along with it. The effect was most pronounced in the lunatic sector, which is sometimes referred to as the Magnificent Seven by the clowns who invent the news each day. The group includes Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla, and the orgiastic performance of their shares, far from being 'magnificent', should be a source of embarrassment to civilization itself. Surfing Sea Waves You don't have to be a chartist to see that this won't end well. Stocks tend
Silver has been engulfed by tedium, almost too painful to watch. A breakdown below the sawtooth action of the last several weeks should be presumed headed to the red line, a midpoint Hidden Pivot support at 30.200. A tightly stopped buy there would be warranted if you feel like bottom-fishing, but it could take a while before the futures signal the trade. Neither bulls nor bears could be very happy at the moment, which is usually Mr Market's cue to deliver more of the same.
I’ve supported Trump since his first term, but my hopes for his success peaked a month ago when a panic-induced plunge in the S&P 500 reversed almost precisely from a 4820 target I’d sent out to subscribers. I saw this as the surprisingly quick end to a bear market that had only just begun in February. If my hunch turned out to be correct, this meant America would experience no recession, and the tariff wars would blow over without causing any lasting harm to the global economy. So far, the prediction — still an outlier, for sure — looks good, at least on paper. The chart shows how the S&Ps have rallied a Krakatoa-like 1089 points since trampolining in April from within a hair of 4820. The powerful move has somewhat muffled the clamor of TDS sufferers, even if it seems clear by now that nothing will ever bring them around. Meanwhile, dare we hope the radical changes that have set Trump’s agenda will extricate America from a debt trap with no apparent exit? A debt deflation has long seemed inevitable because public and private debts have grown far too large to repay. DOGE Gains Up in Smoke If Trump initially offered a possible way out and seemed enthusiastic about pulling off the impossible, he may have lost too much momentum already to succeed. The DOGE cuts that fired up so many supporters have been voted down by Congress, including by some Republicans, and it took quiet help from the Fed last week to bolster the appearance of strong demand for long-term Treasury paper. Now, if the Supreme Court fails to put the kibosh on birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions by woke judges, Trump may need a hat-trick of successes in Ukraine, the Middle East and China to rally the
Talking heads, TV pundits and eggheads seem befuddled about where rates on the Ten-Year Note might be headed, but a chart with correctly drawn Hidden Pivot levels offers only clarity. The trend has been higher since May 1, with a rise from 4.12% to a high 4.40%, and although it seems likely rates will go somewhat higher, expect a downward break, perhaps a sharp one, from within the range 4.42%-4.58% [corrected]. The highs might seem scary for those who owe or need dollars, but a subsequent fall to as low as 3.902% should help quell their fears.
The futures did nothing last week to allay suspicions that the no-longer-exciting move off early April's low is just a garden-variety bear rally. Although it exceeded my 5736.00 target by five points, the fact that one needs a microscope to see this on the weekly chart means we should treat the resistance as intact. If buyers get decisively past it, I will be the first to guarantee 5867.00 as a minimum price objective. But we'll remain disciplined for now, and that means bulls must prove their case every step of the way. I may put out a trade in the chat room this week because this vehicle's minor swings are so easy to read. Stay close to the room if you're interested. The trade will likely happen too quickly for an email blast to be of much value, but if I see an opportunity developing lazily, I'll notify everyone.
MSFT wasted a week with its failure to achieve a modest 'conventional' Hidden Pivot target at 450.24. I didn't make the target viewable on this page, even by paying subscribers, because I didn't want to queer its voodoo magic. However, it still looks like a terrific place to attempt getting short with a tightly crafted 'camo' trigger. If you don't know enough about them to fool around, I'll suggest buying a few puts or naked-shorting some near-the-money, soon-to-expire calls when the stock gets within 1.00 of the target. Tie the position to a tight stop-loss, since the trade is likely to work precisely if at all, and be sure to nail down a small partial profit if the opportunity arises. _______ UPDATE (May 15, 5:10 p.m..): The sleazeballs who control this fusion-powered 'wealth-generator' are milking the huge short-squeeze gap from May 1 for all it's worth. MSFT now looks like it will hit 477.45 before DaBoyz run into real resistance. Short there, too, with a stop-loss as tight as 0.20-0.40 cents. For your information, the short I'd recommended above from 450.24 could have produced a quick, juicy gain, since the stock fell to 439.78 on May 12 after topping at 450.59 the same day, just ahead of the regular-session opening.
The dollar's unaccustomed burst of strength last week actually generated some hubris, along with speculation that the bear market begun in late 2022 might be over. Although it's too early to be confident about this, the possibility warrants our attention. The move so far tripped a theoretical buy signal at x=100.43, the green line. It's a strong bet that the uptrend will continue to p=102.93, the midpoint Hidden Pivot, but we'll be better able to judge its strength and durability once we've seen bulls interact with p. A completed move to d=107.94 wouldn't signal an inevitable end to the dollar's 2.5-year dither, but it would put DXY in good position to break out for a run at 2022's high, 114.78.
We should know soon whether Silver's mini-explosion upward, the second in three months, is just another false start. From a Hidden Pivot perspective, the selloff of the last two weeks is not as bearish as it seems. It triggered an attractive 'mechanical' buy on Monday when it touched the green line (x=86.95). This implies that a bounce will reach p=89.91, at least, before it can stop out bulls with a dip beneath c=85.00. Whether it can muster a finishing stroke to d=92.81 depends on how easily buyers penetrate p on the next rally. _______ UPDATE (May 18, 12:50 a.m.): Bulls held on by a hair when TLT dipped last week to a bottom just 20 cents from the 85.00 point 'c' low of the ostensibly bullish pattern detailed above. _______ UPDATE (May 25): TLT popped a wheelie at an 83.66 voodoo support, but don't expect the bounce to get legs. The low occurred just inches shy of a chasm beneath the watershed low recorded in October 2023 at 82.42. It is too obvious a place for a good bottom to form, nor do T-Bonds much respect 'technical' tops and bottoms. For now, all we can do is watch.
