Gold

Switching to the December contract, I'll suggest using the 1278.70 correction target shown if the selling should breach the 1296.60 midpoint support. Both of these Hidden Pivots looks enticing for bottom-fishing, since neither coincides with structural support from a prior low. Accordingly, you could use a stop-loss as tight as four ticks below a bid at either target.

The rally from Thursday's 1287.50 low is bullishly impulsive on the lesser charts and would trip a buy signal at 1309.70 on the pattern shown. Accordingly, day traders should come to their task with a bullish bias. The bigger picture, however, needs a decisive push above 1331.90, the midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance of a bull cycle that projects to 1376.30. If the midpoint is exceeded by week's end it would all but clinch a follow-through to 1376.30.

The futures looked like they could go either way as Monday's session drew to a close. However, the stall within 0.70 of the 1318.30 midpoint resistance I'd flagged implies that a decisive move past it would reach its D-target sibling at 1331.60. Alternatively, my worst-case target for the near term would be the 1278.20 Hidden Pivot support in the lower-right quadrant of the chart -- or possibly even 1271.70 if any lower.  The accuracy of this target would be affirmed by a bounce, possibly tradable, from within two or three ticks of the 1302.00 midpoint support. ________ UPDATE (9:57 a.m. EDT):  Gold has bounced $14 this morning from a low just two ticks (0.20) from the 1302.00 midpoint pivot flagged above. Now, if the futures breach the support, we'll know EXACTLY where they are headed. _______ UPDATE (July 23, 12:01 a.m.): Someone in the chat room said that because everyone seems to be bearish on gold right now, perhaps we should take the other side of the bet.  I'm a bit bearish myself, and thus this response: "Rather than take chances and let gold disappoint us for the zillionth time, we should simply stipulate that the August contract close above 1318.90 before we get excited. That's the midpoint resistance, on the 180-minute chart, of a=1292.60 on 7/15; b= 1325.90 on 7/27; and c=13-02.20 on 7/22. At that point, I'd lay even odds of a move to at least 1335.50; above 1337.00, the futures would be a good bet to hit 1381.40.  Whatever happens, bulls will have to prove their case. _______ UPDATE (July 24, 1:20 a.m.):  Sellers paused for a relatively blissful nine hours yesterday just inches above the 1302.00 'hidden' support I'd flagged, presumably to sniff the flowers before going back on the attack.

The uptrend that looked so promising as trading began on Friday sputtered out, but the subsequent selloff did little damage to the hourly chart. Now we have a new rally pattern to consider that has tripped a buy signal at 1311.70. This implies August Gold could run up to 1331.60 over the very near-term, provided bulls are ready to move . This is merely conjectural, however, until such time as they push decisively past the 1318.30 midpoint pivot. Notice that there's a small external peak 0.50 below that number that could be used as a hook for getting long. Specifically, the opportunity would come in the form of a shallow pullback from within the range 1318.40-1318.70.

The pattern shown is just gnarly enough to work, so let's use its midpoint pivot at 1337.00 as a minimum upside objective for now.  A long-entry signal has already been tripped at 1314.80, but I'd suggest waiting for a small, uptrending ABC pattern to get long.  I've sketched this hypothetically, the idea being to look for your entry opportunity on the three-minute chart once 'x' is tripped on the ABC pattern shown

I've zoomed down to the 15-minute chart to create a pattern sufficiently nuanced to give us a handle on a possible end point for this choppy correction. Bottom-fishing the 1293.90 midpoint pivot could be dicey due to its close proximity to the 7/15 low, but D=1283.60 could be a piece of cake, since it lies in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, and therefore would not be subject to interference from the bozos.

A very tedious and tiresome consolidation that has stretched into weeks has not altered the bullish look of the intraday charts. My immediate rally target has changed slightly, however, to 1374.00, a Hidden Pivot that should be considered well in play as a minimum short-term price objective once the futures push past the midpoint pivot at 1339.70.  Night owls looking to get aboard should use a pullback from just above the 1333.20 peak recorded on July 2. _______ UPDATE (8:20 a.m. EDT): Bullion prices have in fact taken flight this morning. If you got aboard as advised, please let me know in the chat room so that I can establish a tracking position for the further guidance of subscribers. _______ UPDATE (10:13 p.m.): The so-far $10 correction off Thursday's high will trip a new buy signal at 1340.75. If the futures run up just $5 from there, they would be signaling more upside to the 1354.70 target of a minor rally pattern subsumed by the larger one that still ponts to 1374.00.________ UPDATE (July 14, 10:50 a.m.):  Gold has gotten whacked today, but you could search a billion web pages and not come up with a satisfying explanation as to why. We'll chalk it up to 'just one of those things' and wait for improved price action.  Although the $35 dive has negated the bullish targets given above, it did no damage whatsoever to a weekly chart that shows two bullish impulse legs of different degree: one starting from the New Year's low, the other from the 1240.20 low recorded on June 6. ______ UPDATE (July 16, 1:10 a.m.):  The futures bounced very precisely yesterday from the 1292.10 target shown (see inset), but the bounce wasn't very robust, and if it goes just a smidgen further the 1275.70 target of

The 1334.90 rally target sent out Sunday night very precisely contained yesterday's bullish feint, although the pivot worked in way that could be described as 'theatrical' (see inset).  From a technical standpoint and strictly speaking, we have no way of knowing for certain that the pivot will be brushed aside , or whether instead it will mark the highest high in gold futures for the next ten years. My strong hunch, however, is that the August contract will punch through it shortly, and when it does, the next logical target would be 1364.30 exactly.  Traders should plan accordingly. _______ UPDATE (July 9, 2:36 a.m. ET): Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

August Gold is in its umpteenth straight day of a tedious consolidation.  The pattern shown does not look like it could conceivably produce any result other than a new rally leg, but it's obviously not going to happen on our schedule. The patient camouflageur will be rewarded when the opportunity finally comes, but it will require rapt attention each day to charts of 15-minute degree or less. Upside potential is to the 1334.90 midpoint pivot shown but any higher would indicate 1364.30, its 'D' sibling.