Current Touts

GCM24 – June Gold (Last:2303.40)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

The 2488.90 target shown has a good chance of being reached, but there is no reassurance this will happen without an intervening, potentially severe, correction.  The future would become an appealing 'mechanical' buy on a pullback to the red line (p=2114.80), and an even more compelling one at, heaven forbid, x=1927.70. What are the odds it will turn out that bad? It's not worth worrying about at the moment, since a reverse pattern on the weekly chart suggests a pullback would not even reach the red line -- would in all likelihood go no lower than 2170.20 (a=2159.00 on 5/5). There is even a chance of perhaps 40% that last week's low at 2304.60 (basis June) will turn out to have been the correction low, since it coincides with p of the same reverse pattern.  For a clearer perspective on the larger pattern, here's a continuous monthly chart with a cleaner point 'A' low and a 2514.60 target that corresponds to the June's 2488.90. _______ UPDATE (Apr 30, 3:26 p.m.): With today's breakdown, the June contract has signaled more downside to at least p2=2280.00, but possibly to D=2251.90. The ability of either of these Hidden Pivot supports to resist the selling will give us a better idea concerning how the bigger-picture Hidden Pivot supports identified above will play out. I will continue to track gold and silver very closely, since chat-room interest has been high. 

SIN24 – July Silver (Last:27.53)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

July Silver's weekly chart allows room for a 34% rally to 36.96.  In order to extrapolate a comparable move in gold, we need the help of an extremely gnarly pattern on the continuous monthly chart that projects a 28% rally to 2995.00 (A= 681.00 on 10/31/08, B=2063 on 8/31/20). More immediately, July Silver's correction from the 30.19 high recorded on April 12 appears bound for a minimum 25.90. (This would imply that gold's correction has further to go.) The provenance of this target is shown in the thumbnail chart. The decisive downside breach of the rABC pattern's midpoint pivot (28.04) implies not only that D=25.90 will be reached, but that an intervening rally to x=29.12 would offer a tempting opportunity to get short 'mechanically'.

GDXJ – Junior Gold Miner ETF (Last:42.39)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Although the downtrend's stall at 40.24 suggests the midpoint support might hold, my bias is bearish due to a silver chart that suggests bullion's correction has further to go. That implies sellers will breach p, headed to at least p2=38.00, or possibly to d=35.77.  That is as bad as I could see, as the chart suggests, although it is not theoretically the worst case, which would be 31.27 (on the daily chart, use reverse a=43.89 on 4/13/23). The good news is that the associated p at 37.99 would offer another potential turnaround spot where we could attempt to bottom-fish aggressively with risk under very tight control. There is also the possibility that p=40,24 will hold and the GDXJ, along with gold and silver futures, will break out to new highs. For that to happen after so fleeting a shallow a correction would be very bullish.

TLT – Lehman Bond ETF (Last:88.41)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

So much for the extravagantly bullish speculation that I allowed in the last few touts and in a recent commentary. This vehicle continues to look like hell, and so we'll revert to the still unachieved downside target at 80.84 as a minimum objective. An upthrust of 4.44 points would be reason to open our imaginations to the possibility of a bullish reversal, and it would shift our trading bias to bullish. However, until such time as that happens, there is no reason to think that the powerful rally in Q3 was other than a nasty tease.

CLK24 – May Crude (Last:83.02)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Although 2024's steep rally from $69 failed just shy of an important Hidden Pivot target at 88.54 (see inset), I expect a second-wind push to get there, surpassing the key external peak at 88.31 recorded in June 2022.  That would create an impulse leg of weekly-chart degree sufficiently powerful to push crude to $100, a psychologically terrifying level in a world where inflation has stubbornly refused to cool off. I am bullish on crude in part because the recent high occurred in too obvious a place -- i.e., slightly below the D target of a pattern that virtually every trader would have observed, and less than a dollar below the June 2022 peak. This doubly obvious resistance' begs to be tested, and so it shall be. _______ UPDATE (Apr 28): The 88.54 rally target is still my minimum upside objective for the near term, but here's why the futures may have to come down to 80.39 first.  The equivalent numbers for the June contract, respectively, are 88.31 and 80.03.

MSFT – Microsoft (Last:399.,12)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

The stock's steepening fall last week put more distance between it and the all-time high a month ago at 430.82. That was just 24 cents from a longstanding target I'd said could cap the bull market begun in 2009. Perhaps it has, although I'd like to see MSFT fall at least 30%, to $300, before I consider the prediction fulfilled. Odds of this will shorten if the new week begins with just slight weakness. Anything exceeding 397.21 to the downside would breach three (!) external lows on the daily chart, creating a powerful impulse leg with devastating potential.

DXY – NYBOT Dollar Index (Last:106.12)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

The previous tout suggested the dollar could range-trade for a long time between 100 and 110.  However, if it merely pushes above the 107.99 'external' peak shown in the chart, that would command our attention and respect. It would also be something to fear, since a resurgent dollar would put the global economy back on a path to the deflationary bust I've predicted for many years. A rally piercing the 107.99 resistance would be all but certain to hit p=109.66, providing a test of the most important resistance the Dollar Index has faced in years.

ESM24 – June E-Mini S&Ps (Last:5003.50)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

The predicted fall to at least 5055.50 occurred with a selling climax on thin volume Thursday night. This set up an all-but-certain relapse after a brief flurry of buying at the opening bell on Friday. The renewed weakness has greased the track for a further fall to p2=4916.50 as the new week begins, but more likely to D=4777.50. A rally first to x=5194.50, however unlikely, would trigger an appealing 'mechanical' short that you shouldn't pass up if you trade this vehicle. Also, the D target can be bottom-fished with a reverse-pattern trigger that can be calculated using an intraday chart.

TLT – Lehman Bond ETF (Last:88.88)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Bulls continued to lose ground last week, but the weakness was not quite sufficient to push this vehicle beneath the 82.42 point 'C' low of the bullish pattern we have been using speculatively. If the pattern were to hold sway, which is looking increasingly doubtful, an extended uptrend could take TLT as high as 150.22. That implies a spectacular bull market, one driven by vanishing inflation and expansionary yield curves. This seems so unlikely at this point that we should view any upturn in TLT with caution, if not to say suspicion, Realize in any event that it would not be unusual for a bull market to be born in obscurity and for no apparent reason.

GCM24 – June Gold (Last:2324.90)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

I only belatedly discovered the reason for the hard selloff a week ago from 2448.80. That number lies just 0.70 from the target of the very gnarly pattern shown. I still think the June contract has a better than 50% chance of achieving a somewhat higher target at 2514.60 given here earlier. However, we should be very cautious at the moment, since this corrective pattern on the weekly chart suggests the June contract will fall to at least 2309.50 before it finds traction. Worst case would be 2170.20, and we cannot rule it out, but we'll be looking to bottom-fish at p=2309.50 (slightly adjusted from last week) in any case. _______ UPDATE (Apr 23, 1:35 a.m.): The clowns/thieves/Masters of the Universe who erroneously believe they are manipulating this vehicle were themselves manipulated into a nearly $40 plunge when June Gold fell Monday night to a so-far low at 2308.70 -- less than $1 from the Hidden Pivot target I'd flagged above. The $19 bounce that has occurred so far would need to hit 2348.00 to move the futures out of the danger zone; otherwise, look for a further drop to at least 2239.90 (see my chart), a Hidden Pivot support that can be bottom-fished as aggressively as the one at 2309.50.