Gold

Hard selling on Friday generated a bearish impulse leg on the daily chart that could grow still more powerful if the weakness exceeds 1281.50 in the days ahead. The effect would be even stronger if this were to occur with an upward correction lasting at least two days. This seems likely, given the pounding gold took last week. It included a 'counterintuitive' buy signal on Friday that produced only a disappointing, fleeting rebound where we might have expected a longer-lasting trampoline bounce. As dispiriting as this must have been for bulls, the futures will have a chance to bottom Sunday night at 1290.50, a minor Hidden Pivot support that I flagged in the chat room Friday afternoon when the futures were trading $10 higher. ______ UPDATE (Mar 5, 5:25 p.m.): The futures would need to hit 1299.10 within the next day or two to trigger a 'counterintuitive' buy signal. That is their last best hope for now, since a further drop would suggest gold could grope its way down into the range 1220-1250 before it is fully corrected. Here's the chart. ______ UPDATE (Mar 10): Friday's robust rally did in fact trigger the buy signal noted above. This means we should use p=1315.00 as a minimum upside target for now. The signal would look better if gold opens Sunday night with a lurch higher. _______ UPDATE (Mar 14, 8:07 p.m.): What a stretch. Gold has gotten sledge-hammered for the umpteenth time after coming within a few inches of an 'easy' rally target. The hourly chart is still bullish and the 1315.00 target still valid, at least in theory. Wake me when it gets there. Zzzzzzzz.

The rally sputtered out between two Hidden Pivots noted here earlier (1345 and 1354) but we'll give bulls the benefit of the doubt because upthrusts have consistently been exceeding external peaks going back to last summer. For now, stick with the ambitious 1378.70 target broached here earlier. If the pullback hits X=1305.80 it would trip a 'mechanical' bid that may be worth considering. Here's a chart that shows the pattern yielding the 1378.70 target. _______ UPDATE (Feb 28, 9:35 p.m. EST): The correction begun a week ago from 1350 looks bound for at least 1309.30. I expect a bounce from within 3-4 ticks of that number, but the futures may ultimately have to test a low at 1304.70 recorded on Feb 14 to get traction. _______ UPDATE (Mar 1, 8:02 a.m.): It is NOT a healthy sign that April Gold has failed to hold the crystal-clear support at 1309.50 (slightly corrected from earlier). Let's see if the 1304.70 low holds. If not, and the 'C' low sits right, I may suggest a 'counterintuitive' buy. Stay tuned to the chat room for timely details.

The trek to our longstanding rally target at 1345.50 has been so labored and tedious as to be nearly  untradeable. Rest assured the futures will get there -- although we should expect a stall at 1336.40, a Hidden Pivot resistance related to a somewhat higher alternative 'A' at 1251.60 recorded on December 19.  The rally has consisted of two extremely choppy legs as different in character as Laurel and Hardy. No matter. We knew all along where things were headed, even if the journey provided no good handholds for a mechanical entry. Please note that a decisive push past the target would put in play a more significant one at 1378.70. It will take a bit more than that, however, to create the impulse leg that would refresh the bullish energy of the weekly chart. Specifically, buyers would need to hit 1404.50 to surpass the key 'external' peak made at the start of 2018. _______ UPDATE (Feb 19, 3:16 p.m.): Gold had one of its sharpest rallies in recent memory today -- a $23 surge that has peaked so far at 1345.00, just 50 cents from our longstanding rally target. In the chat room, a subscriber reported exiting a profitable GLD call option position at the top. The futures have stalled, but the pullback thus far has been shallow. The target, a Hidden Pivot, is sufficiently clear that a close above it would be quite bullish, shortening the odds of a continuation to the 1378.70 target noted above. (Note: Numerous subscribers weighed in later with reports of target-related profits in such equity-based vehicles as GLD, Barrick, JNUG, NUGT and GDXJ.) _______ UPDATE (Feb 20, 10:20 p.m.): Buyers failed to reach an easy target at 1354.30 with today's thrust, warranting moderate caution. The bigger-picture target 1378.70 remains valid. _______ UPDATE (Feb

Gold exploded last week after spending three weeks in a tedious consolidation. The April contract is bound most immediately for the 1336.00 target shown, but if it gives way easily expect the rally to continue to the next, 1345.50. It has required great patience to stay with the trend, but don't be surprised if it fools the herd by accelerating, since that is what few expect. I don't ordinarily recommend placing 'mechanical' bids at the red line (p=1313.50), but if it's touched on a pullback, we can use the signal to set-up a camouflage trade with risk tightly managed. Playing it by-the-book, a mechanical entry at 1313.50 would require a stop-loss at 1302.80. Alternatively, if the futures were to swoon violently down to the green line (1297.50), that would generate an even more attractive mechanical buying opportunity. _______ UPDATE (Feb 6, 5:17 p.m.): Gold has an annoying habit of testing two key Hidden Pivot assumptions: 1) that good trades seldom originate in one's psychological comfort zone; and that 2) the more vicious the price swings, the better mechanical set-ups work. And so it goes with the April futures at the moment, as they plummet toward the 1297.50 'x' level where an ostensibly appealing 'mechanical buy' would be signaled, stop 1281.40. Here's the chart. Let's see how it goes._______ UPDATE (Feb 10): The 1345.50 target remains viable, but I am no longer recommending entry via a mechanical bid because the pattern has strayed too far from 'textbook'.

Gold continues to make headway in herky-jerky fashion, failing to fully satisfy bulls but also denying bears much to cheer about. On Monday, the February Comex contract rallied to within a millimeter of the 1240.20 Hidden Pivot target shown. The pullback so far has been mild, encouraging the thought that the next pop will be good for a ride to 1259.80. Another encouraging sign is that some recent ‘mechanical’ buy signals in gold vehicles, including one in HUI, the Gold Bugs Index, have been winners.  We’d sworn off this type of trade in bullion after getting stopped out once in the futures, but they seem to be working again. This implies that buying enthusiasm has picked up a little over the last couple of weeks. For your information, the February futures is currently on a ‘mechanical’ buy signal that tripped at 1216.80, stop 1202.40.______ UPDATE (Dec 7, 4:00 p.m.): The February contract climbed as high as 1255.80 today. Just a smidgen more! We want buyers to blow past that Hidden Pivot, since that would announce their intention to push still higher. _______ UPDATE (Dec 12, 9:59 p.m.): Zzzzzzzzz. _______ UPDATE (Dec 16, 12:17 a.m.): The futures have rolled down without having achieved an 'easy' 1259.80 target, but also without having exceeded any external peaks on the most recent upthrust. Taken together, these signs of weakness suggest that gold's balky uptrend since August is not destined for greatness. We've made similar observations scores of times since the gold price peaked above $1900 in 2011, and the only thing that has changed is that bears have become too depleted to sell off bullion except for short periods when conditions are perfect. It is not a bull market we are seeing at this point, but neither is it much of a bear. _______

Comex futures have achieved the dubious distinction of being the only vehicle I trade that routinely fails to convert picture-perfect 'mechanical' trade set-ups into winners. That this has occurred in the context of a bullish pattern that goes back to mid-August suggests that buyers are too lazy and uninspired to shift a fundamentally positive chart into second gear. Well, at least gold is not moving in reverse.  But three steps up, two steps back has been a challenge to enthuse over. For now, and simply to chase boredom, you could try bottom fishing at p=1210.00 (see inset), with a 1210.10 bid, stop 1209.80. ______ UPDATE (Nov 28, 2:23 p.m.): The futures popped a $16 rally from 1210.50, four ticks above the 1210.10 bid I'd advised. Were we perhaps front-run by a Goldman mole who stays closely tuned to Rick's Picks?  In any case, I see the rally as a fake, since it was caused by a dovish Fed headline that had already been thoroughly discounted. Powell seemed to be saying what we all knew -- that the Fed might tighten the screw one more time in December, but that'll be it. The market jumped not because of this supposed news, but because every trade desk boss on earth knew that every trade-desk competitor would reflexively pounce on stocks in response.______ UPDATE (Nov 29, 9:41 p.m.): If this were any vehicle other than gold, I'd say the 1234.30 rally target shown here is a lock-up to be reached. Let's see._______ UPDATE (Dec 1): Friday's weakness was disappointing but not fatal. However, any lower -- specifically, a fall beneath 1216.80 -- would negate the 1234.30 target. _______ UPDATE (Dec 3, 11:07 a.m.): Apologies. I somehow got too busy over the weekend to post this chart, which highlights an in-your-face rally target for

Gold fell a further $13 on Friday, pausing just a few ticks above the 1206.70 target I'd sent out the night before. I say that the futures have merely paused because the void beneath that low looks like it wants to be filled. That would imply renewed weakness in the days or perhaps weeks ahead to at least 1190.50, the midpoint Hidden Pivot support shown in the chart. Notice that the worst case over the next several weeks would be 1134.90, a crystal-clear target that lies 6% below. A decline of that magnitude would be discouraging, but it would still be a far cry from the sub-$1000 prices that some bullion bears have long predicted. A half-hearted sell-off would reflect the reality that weakness since 2011, when gold's price hit a record high $1911, has been merely corrective of a long-term bull market begun in 2008 from $680. Sellers Unable to Deliver a Coup de Grace As persistent and vexatious as sellers have been since 2011, they have lacked the power to deliver a coup de grace. While it's conceivable that gold could eventually fall below $1000, there are no strong indications on the long-term chart that this is likely.  Indeed, price action since early 2016 has been bullish and could support a push to as high as 1452.60. This would be in the context of a decade-long bull market that could ultimately reach 2278.20. Click here to see the picture. _______ UPDATE (Nov 14, 9:34 p.m.): A sharp push past 1225.40 would re-energize bulls for a possible shot at 1254.10. Here's the chart.  _______UPDATE (Nov 15, 7:30 p.m.): This pattern looks extremely likely to work, meaning that a decisive stab past p=1216.30 will put December Gold on course for a run-up to exactly 1225.50. If so, that would set

Gold has once again fallen into a rut, dropping moderately for three consecutive days. This has occurred with the December contract having failed by $8 to achieve a $1254.10 rally target I'd flagged. The futures have since made a tentative bottom 0.60 above the $1212.80 correction target where I'd suggested bottom-fishing.  Thus did we narrowly miss catching the $5.40 rally that ensued. But will it get legs? I doubt it. Even so, lest we become depressed, consider today's chart (inset), which is quite bullish. Rick's Picks falls somewhere around the middle of the pack in letting gold's seemingly endless thrashing around, mostly southbound, discourage us. But we can still read a chart, and the one shown gives bulls the edge because of last week's upthrust to 1246.00. That slightly exceeded a July peak, creating a by-the-book impulse leg of intermediate degree.  To negate it, the December contract would have to fall beneath August's 1167.10 low. That's not out of the question, and we shouldn't be surprised if the futures do just that in order to jerk bulls' chains for the umpteenth time. Regardless, the uptrend begun in August deserves the benefit of the doubt, and any rally of $15 or more will kick it into mid-gear. _______ UPDATE (Nov 1, 9:43 p.m. ET): Use the 1242.20 midpoint resistance as a minimum upside objective for Friday. If the futures exceed it decisively intraday or close above it for two consecutive days, that would imply more upside to the 1279.09 target shown. _______ UPDATE (Nov 3): Zzzzzzz.  Let's give it another day or two to see how buyers fare at 1242.20._______ UPDATE (Nov 5, 5:54 p.m.): More waiting is what gold typically requires of us, followed by more frustration, then more disappointment. It has been in a correction for more than seven

One step higher, three steps back. At this rate, it could take most of the week for December Gold to reach our aging target at 1254.10. Alternatively, if that Hidden Pivot resistance is brushed aside, look for a continuation of the three-week-old bull cycle to at least 1260.80. Expect a tradeable pullback from that number if it's reached.  Even if it were certain the rally will achieve 1254.10 or higher, it is not tradeable if risk:reward is held constant at the 1:3 ratio I always advise. That's because the $2-or-so additional theoretical profit possible at each new high is followed by a $15 swoon, effectively generating a risk:reward of 7:1._______ UPDATE (Oct 29, 6:36 p.m.): The 1226.00 downside target I posted in the Banter Room Monday afternoon caught the bottom of a so-far $6.60 rally within a single tick. Subscribers reported using the target to get long in the futures, but also in GLD, an ETF-based alternative. I will be spending more time in the Banter Room in order to pick up the tempo there. All subscribers are invited, but I have requested that anyone who visits the room -- as opposed to the chat room, which is attracting mainly lurkers -- post at least once per hour, or once per session if the post is actionable._______ UPDATE (Oct 30, 9:01): Gold is once again doing what it does best, disemboweling the faithful. The futures tripped a 'mechanical' short from 1227.70 that is doing nicely. Half should have been covered at p=1222.80, predicated on a 1212.80 target. Cover another 25% at p2=1217.80 against a 1232.80 stop-loss for the two contracts that remain._______ UPDATE (Oct 31, 9:07 a.m.): Because I have reverted enthusiastically to my gold-is-garbage mantra, it is a perfect time to be on alert to the possibility of a