The midpoint Hidden Pivot support at 32.493 has repelled three bear assaults, hinting that the futures want to go higher. Notice that the first time the futures came down to the red line, setting up a 'mechanical' short at the green line (x=32.986), the trade produced a quick $2400 profit when it plummeted once again to the red line. But this appears to have spent sellers, and that's why the chart is bullish, at least for the near term. Since I've provided a 'best bet' for a tightly stopped bid in June Gold (see tout above), let me do the same for July Silver: 32.480, exactly 40 cents below where it was trading when the clock ran out on Friday's impacted action. ______ UPDATE (May 12, 5:05 p.m.) The nice thing about no one giving a rat's ass about Silver is that when Gold gets crushed as it did today, Silver does necessarily fall in sympathy. It just might, however, so be prepared for a drop to 31.505 (60-min, A= 33.835 on 4/29). You can try bottom-fishing there with a very tight stop-loss if you know what you're doing.
I've flagged two rally targets that lie, respectively, at 72.23 and 111.59. The first is 'guaranteed' to be reached, but I cannot yet certify the higher target as a sure thing. However, GDXJ will be drawn more immediately to the 66.71 midpoint Hidden Pivot of the pattern shown (see inset). The likelihood of this increased with last week's failure to reach the 'd target of a minor bearish reverse (rABC) pattern. If buyers pop it through p=66.71 easily, this vehicle would be on track for a move up to 75.04, a tad better than the assured objective at 72.23.
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.
Bitcoin’s poke last Thursday above a 102,355 ‘midpoint Hidden Pivot’ has shortened the odds that it will reach the 130,189 target. (Note: Because of a change in my coordinates, these numbers differ slightly from the price points given here earlier.) Moreover, a pullback to x=88,362 (the green line), however unlikely, would trigger a juicy theoretical ‘mechanical’ buy, stop 74,419. Let’s wait and see how easily and/or decisively the upthrust exceeds p on first contact. Two consecutive weekly closes above it would all but clinch more upside to at least p2=116,247.
At the risk of being premature, I've used the weekly chart's breach of a midpoint Hidden Pivot support at 56.30 as evidence that crude is likely to be trading lower in the weeks and months ahead. This is like trying to call Arizona's election an hour after the polls close, but in any case, sellers' ability to penetrate the support is surely not a sign of robust health. Even now, a rally to x=60.57, the green line, would trigger a mechanical short, stop 64.85. There is no way to estimate how long it will take for this to play out, but in the meantime, we should trade even the rallies with a bearish bias. ______ UPDATE (May 18, 12:43 a.m.): I now see that the short noted above had already triggered at x=60.57 when I posted the tout. I will track the trade nonetheless, using the suggested 64.85 stop-loss. The worst-case target for this gambit is 47.87, a conventional 'D' target where A=69.93 (4/3) on the daily chart. _______ UPDATE (May 19, 2:59 p.m.): I've been bearish or indifferent toward crude for so long that it has become a habit to predict generally lower prices. That said, a fist-pump through 65.78 would grab my attention, since it would indicate more upside to as high as 76.89. I doubt this will happen, but it's always better to be prepared if it does.
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 does the dollar much respect 'technical' tops and bottoms. For now, all we can do is watch.
The slimeballs who manipulate this stock for a living made full use of a short-squeeze opportunity when Microsoft announced earnings after Wednesday's close that unsurprisingly surpassed estimates. What could bears have been thinking?? DaBoyz kicked off the celebration with a $40 rally after the close, then worked their criminal magic again on Friday's opening to hoist the stock a further $10. Realize that no stock changed hands during the spectacular first stage of this maneuver, and only a relative handful of shares traded on the second. The result was an approximately $317 billion contribution to the financial realm's gaseous 'wealth effect'. Most of it came in mere nanoseconds, since that's how long it takes to create an enormous gap on a chart. This is a feat that mere bullish buying could never have hoped to achieve. It required mainly the arrant stupidity of shorts, who dependably acted as though the risk of getting blown out of the water was negligible. If I had to guess where MSFT, financialization's chief instrument for adding fake money to the system, is headed, I'd say to xxx.xx. I don't want to queer the bold, Hidden Pivot magic of this number, so I'll post it only in the chat room.
The futures ended the week a hair shy of a 5736.00 target I'd posted in the chat room. This would have merited an aggressive short if the target had been hit, ideally with at least 90 minutes remaining in the session. Alas, we'll have to reserve these ambitions, since it will be a new game when the futures start to trade again ahead of Monday's opening. The target is still shortable, but squeezing off the trade could be harrowing in the thin-volume nervousness of Sunday evenings. If the June contract blows past 5736.00, be prepared to short the next target aggressively, a Hidden Pivot 'd' target at 5867.00.
A faint glimmer of hope appeared last week with DXY's subtle poke through the 'd' target of a minor reverse pattern. It isn't much to celebrate, but the fact that the rally even made it to 'D' implies something may have changed, since the last time this modest feat succeeded was almost a year ago. To gauge its significance, we'll need to monitor retracement patterns closely, since they should have trouble exceeding p if the dominant trend has in fact changed. The first in evidence, on the 30-minute chart, not only exceeded p, it topped at the 'd' target of a minor rABC on Friday (a=99.70 on 5/1 at 7:30 a.m.).
I used a tiny one-off high to draw the pattern shown, but three confirmations at p suggest it will produce only winning outcomes for us. That would imply that a drop to D=3174.50 should be bought aggressively, albeit with the obligatory micro-stop possible using a 'camo' trigger. One thing the chart does NOT say is that June Gold will necessarily reach the target, since the initial penetration of the midpoint Hidden Pivot was anything but decisive. Notice, however, that it delivered a profitable 'mechanical' short - three of them, actually - and that's usually a tip-off that D/d will be reached. We don't much trade 'conventional' patterns any longer, but this one, with its crazy point 'a' and asymmetry, seemed ripe for exploitation. _______ UPDATE Apr 6, 5:52 p.m.): As the chart makes crystal-clear, June Gold is headed most immediately to 3472.7, the ‘midpoint Hidden Pivot’ of the pattern shown. It can be shorted there, but only with a delicate stop-loss, since the futures will be on their way to 3736.00 in a trice if they blow past the midpoint resistance without hesitation. You could always try shorting up there, but wouldn’t it be far better to shove your accursed doubts aside for once and catch an almost certain 300-point rally?
