Rick’s Picks

TNX.X – Ten-Year Note Rate (Last:2.37%)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Ten-Year rates hit my 'max' number today exactly: 2.39%. The chart also shows rates above the maxed-out, 2.31% target of a larger, 'reverse' pattern. Together, these two Hidden Pivot resistance points should offer challenging resistance, notwithstanding the Fed's determination to tighten for the foreseeable future. However, if 10-year yields continue higher, I will need to haul out some very-long-term charts to project a new target. This is even though yields on the 30-Year T-Bond still have room before they hit a 3.02% target that we've been using for about the last six months.

ESM22 – June E-Mini S&Ps (Last:4453.50)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

Use the pattern shown, with a 4584.50 rally target, to confidently trade and second guess this vehicle. It has already produced a nearly $50,000 'mechanical' winner from x=4216.75 and looks reliable for doing so again if the futures should surprise with another swoon to the green line. More upside to D=4584.50 is not quite a done deal, since we'll need to see this short-squeeze take out p2=4461.75 decisively first. Notice that if 'D' is achieved, that would generate the first major, bullish impulse leg we've seen on the daily chart since a presumptive bear market began on the second trading day of the year. At that point, we bears had better not be so complacent, since the crooks running this gaff would stand an excellent chance of achieving new record highs.

AAPL – Apple Computer (Last:174.10)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

I offer this view of AAPL to complement the menacingly bullish look of last week's short squeeze in the E-Mini S&Ps.  Together, the two charts cannot fail to tell us whether new all-time highs are coming. Although both need more upside to make this bet and D=172.05 a lock-up, AAPL's thrust through p=161.08 on Friday strongly implies it won't be a problem getting to at least p2=166.50. That will generate a strong enough impulse leg on the daily chart to put permabears' fond vision of global ruin in jeopardy. Trade the stock with a bullish bias for now, but you'll need to tune to the chat room or your email 'Notifications' to exploit this lamb chop with Hidden Pivot voodoo. [Note: I have revised my numbers to accord with the chart. I am not sure what planet my brain was on when I typed the original numbers.] _______ UPDATE (Mar 24, 12:59 a.m.): AAPL spent most of the day diddling the 172.05 target before relapsing in the final hour. It took two months to get there, so we should expect a pullback that lasts for more than just  a few days. Anything less would be quite bullish, but we'll let the stock decide this rather than speculate. ______ UPDATE (Mar 24, 10:40 p.m.): AAPL's take-no-prisoners institutional handlers took all of one day to push the stock past a daunting Hidden Pivot resistance at 172.05, signaling a continuation of the uptrend to at least p2=182.86. I've altered the point 'A' low, slightly lowering the 'D' target to 193.78.

GCJ22 – April Gold (Last:1962.30)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

The punitive selloff from the $2078 all-time high recorded on March 8 has generated sufficient downforce to imply that a snap-back rally is unlikely. To be sure, however, let's focus minutely on the lesser charts. The one shown has a corrective target at 1915.10 that was narrowly missed at Friday's low. The target remains viable, but if the so-far-tentative bounce continues, each new peak it surpasses would have increasingly bullish implications.  A key number is 1945.60, the midpoint pivot of a big, bullish pattern projecting to as high as 1973.80. _______ UPDATE (Mar 24, 10:50 p.m.): Two days of robust buying has shifted the focus to the bullish pattern shown in this chart. Expect minimum upside to p=1988.50, but if buyers bore through it effortlessly, a possible new all-time high at 2081.50 would come into view.

SIK22 – May Silver (Last:25.97)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

Silver bulls shouldn't give the seemingly nasty selloff of the last two weeks a second thought, since it is correcting an impulse leg that surpassed no fewer than three significant peaks on the weekly chart, including a bad-ass 'external' at 26.87 recorded last July. In fact, even a selloff into the low $20s would not much change the bullish look of the long-term chart.  It allows for a minimum projection of 34.74 and a maximum 40.12 (A=11.64 on 3/20.20). That last target has been validated theoretical with the print through x=26.08 two weeks ago. Here's a bullish pattern to guide you this week with Monday's action included. _______ UPDATE (Mar 24, 1:10 a.m.): Here's another bullish pattern, since Monday's low wrecked the previous one. It is not very impressive. _____ UPDATE (Mar 24, 11:01 p.m.): Buyers turned on the turboboost, all but clinching more upside to p=26.34, shown here. An easy push past it would shift our gaze up to D=28.13.  

DXY – NYBOT Dollar Index (Last:99.71)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

I've been shouting about this for many years, but let me repeat it once again: The last thing the world needs is a strong dollar, since it will lead inexorably toward ruinous deflation.  Over several decades, I've never wavered in my hyper-bullish outlook for the dollar, even amidst current headlines screaming about inflation, and regardless of what most economists were  saying.  That's because I see no resolution for the global debt bubble other than via massive liquidations that would be tantamount to deflation. A stock market bear will be the catalyst, assuming some 'black-swan' asteroid does not hit us first. From a technical standpoint, the dollar index is rallying sharply after the briefest of corrections. That is quite bullish, but even moreso because the recent 99.42 peak whence the correction began had hugely overshot its Hidden Pivot rally target. _______ UPDATE (Apr 7, 12:09 p.m.): This chart, too, should have been included earlier, since it shows a can't-miss minimum rally target at 103.25. It is predicated on an easy move past p2=99.74, but I doubt that will be a problem. ______ UPDATE Apr 13, 11:012 p.m.): Here's a pattern I somehow overlooked that shows why DXY topped exactly where it did. The weakness presumably is corrective, since we have the outstanding target at 103.25 noted above..

ESH22 – March E-Mini S&P (Last:4155.50)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

I hate to be the bearer of good news, but the futures were actually a 'mechanical' buy when Friday's death spiral splattered on the green line in the closing minutes of the session. You are forgiven if you had no appetite for the trade, since neither you nor anyone else could have expected the weekend to bring a bullish resolution to Putin's potentially world-ending dilemma. Don't feel bad about missing this opportunity, however; it rates only a '6.8', since the A-B impulse leg was not exactly a killer wave of insatiable buying. The implication is that the futures will rally to p=4296.63 before taking out the pattern's 'C' low at 4138.75.  Bet on it Sunday night if you wish, but I'd prefer to watch before hazarding a guess as to what the rest of the week will bring. Whatever happens, ALL rallies for the foreseeable future should be regarded as juicy short sales.  If you want to see how this can be done without incurring too much risk, stay closely tuned to the chat room. _______ UPDATE (Mar 14, 8:21 a.m.): DaBoyz failed miserably at exhausting sellers over the weekend because none showed up. This means that the obligatory stage-managed, distributive, short-squeeze rally on the opening will be very subdued and brief if it happens at all. For that reason I'll suggest scratching the trade now. Please let me know in the chat room if you took the trade, since it triggered on Friday's closing bar and was showing a paper gain of more than $7,000 on four contracts at 6:00 a.m. this morning. The futures have traded up to within a tick of the green line when this update was posted, and gave since traded as high as 4224.25.  _______UPDATE (Mar 14, 10:06 p.m.): This pattern has worked well

AAPL – Apple Computer (Last:155.16)

– Posted in: Current Touts Rick's Picks

The institutional chimps who are paid to rig this vehicle's ups and downs have become so obvious about it that they've opened themselves up to abuse and insult by pishers like us. On Friday, we guessed correctly that they would open the stock with a poorly supported feint toward 160.  They did, enabling many Rick's Picks subscribers to buy expiring 157.50 puts on the opening for 0.50 that sextupled to 2.97 by the close. Two days earlier, the supposedly all-knowing, all-seeing 'They' pushed distribution shenanigans to the limit with a closing-bell stab at the green line, triggering a 'mechanical' short that would have produced a gain of as much as $9 a share for alert disciples of the Hidden Pivot Method. The stock now appears bound for a minimum 147.57, the 'D' target of the pattern shown, but be alert as always to a possible bounce from the 'secondary' pivot, p2=152.91. That's where we can expect many killer bear-rallies to start in the weeks, months and years ahead. ______ UPDATE (Mar 15, 10:42 p.m.): The bounce from no man's land between p2 and D is now impulsive on the hourly chart, so any trades over the next day or two should go with the flow.  If this team effort makes it to the green line (x=163.58), which I suspect it will, that would trigger a 'mechanical' short similar to one that has worked for us very consistently in the past.  However, if we attempt it, it will be with a risk-controlled entry, camouflage-style, on the lesser charts. Alternatively, if the stock surprises on Wednesday by diving, I would strongly recommend bottom-fishing at 147.57.

GCJ22 – April Gold (Last:1919.10)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Gold's feisty comeback on Friday went only far enough to trigger a moderately appealing 'mechanical' short at the green line (x=1991.70). We took a pass nonetheless, since no one wants to go home short gold with war and all-out conflagration threatening Europe. The 1921.60 downside target can still be used, but it would not be unusual for a vehicle that's in a bull market like this one to correct no lower than the secondary pivot, p2 -- in this case 1945.00. Alternatively, a move straightaway through C=2015.10 would be hell-of-bullish. ______ UPDATE (Mar 15, 1:20 p.m.) Sellers have dismembered the 'hidden' support at p2=1945.00 in order to concentrate on Part II of their plan for tonight: gang rape. _______ UPDATE (Mar 15, 9:09 a.m.): The 1921.60 target has caught the exact low to-the-tick of last night's avalanche. Sellers have been mau-mauing the Hidden Pivot this morning, but any bottom-fishing done there so far, regardless of the tactic used, would have made money. If you did a trade using my number and still hold a position, please let me know so that I can determine whether to provide tracking guidance.  Here's the chart. _______ UPDATE (Mar 15, 9:20 a.m.): The Hidden Pivot has finally given way under brutal pounding. Structural support lies near 1890, within a head-and-shoulders pattern that has traced out over the last three weeks. _______ UPDATE (Mar 15, 10:45 p.m.): The April contract is still groping for a foothold at the 1921.60 correction target, although the breach of this Hidden Pivot support is not exactly a sign of good health. We'll move to the sidelines for now.

SIK22 – May Silver (Last:24.80)

– Posted in: Current Touts Free Rick's Picks

Use the arrestingly bullish pattern shown with high confidence in the weeks ahead, since it will allow you to do whatever you please with Silver, whether trading it or smugly anticipating its next move. It cannot miss because 1) it is so beautiful, featuring a spectacularly precise pullback from p=25.58, and 2) we are the only traders in the galaxy who know how to leverage it. The next possible 'buy' worth looking at would be a 'mechanical' at p=25.58, stop 24.19. Tune to the chat room, as always, for risk-mitigating details in real time. ______ UPDATE (Mar 14, 10:12 p.m.): The big picture pattern (inset), with vast spaces between levels, is intended only for subscribers familiar with Hidden Pivot tactics for greatly reducing risk.  In this case, it amounts to about $28,000 on four contracts.  A smaller, downtrending pattern, where a=27.39 on 3/9, suggest the low of this selloff will occur at or near 24.63. _______ UPDATE (Mar 16, 11:35 a.m.) As expected, the futures have taken a tradeable bounce from the 24.63 correction target drum-rolled above. The reversal occurred from within three cents of the Hidden Pivot, enabling at least one chat-room regular to report a profit on a partial exit. Whether the support will hold cannot be predicted at present, but if it gives way easily, that would be bearish, considering its compelling clarity. Here's a chart that shows the bounce so far.