Stocks · Gold · Silver
Energy · Bonds

Rick's Picks

Uncannily Accurate Forecasts for Stocks & Commodities

Options · Futures · Indexes
E-Minis · Hot Issues

Daily Commentary

The Morning Line

Rick Ackerman’s daily market commentary — blunt, specific, and free of Wall Street spin. Browse the full archive below.

January 28, 2024

Gold Stocks and the Coming Judas Swing

[This week’s commentary was written by David Isham, a longtime Rick’s Picks subscribers from Northern California who has been investing in bullion since he was in grade school four decades ago. RA ] Although gold appears to have broken out of a triple top and recently hit fresh all-time highs at $2152, the gold miners […]

Read the full commentary →

January 21, 2024

Onward and Upward for Perhaps a Little Longer

When forecasting stock prices, it helps to view the market as a crazed creature driven by fear, greed, and most of all, stupidity. Of course, everyone but the “theme”-obsessed chimpanzees who purport to manage your money understands that the stock market’s heedless ascent into horrifying news is rock-bottom stupid.  In this case, the very bad […]

Read the full commentary →

January 14, 2024

Deflating a Weak Argument Against Deflation

Reader Scott Baker took issue last week with my unsettling prediction of a deflationary bust. The mountain of debts that I believe will cause this is really no big deal, says Baker. He quotes economist Michael Hudson to back him up: “Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be.” That certainly doesn’t sound very menacing. So […]

Read the full commentary →

January 7, 2024

Advancing the Timeline of Economic Collapse

The stock market is so pumped with hubris, lies and delusions that I’m beginning to doubt whether the bull market will see Microsoft rally to $430 before everything comes crashing down. I’ve been using MSFT as a bellwether because it has been the strongest megacap stock in the world for the last four years, and […]

Read the full commentary →

December 31, 2023

Can We Repeat 2023?

In these way-too-interesting times, there aren’t many publications that would trumpet a New Year’s Eve headline like the one above. It topped the front page of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, however, a tribute to the Sunshine State’s winning performance on the playing field. Two college basketball teams, University of Miami and Florida American University, […]

Read the full commentary →

December 24, 2023

Celebrating Christmas in Unmerry Times

[The following was written by my good friend James Trabulse.  A devout Catholic, Jim regularly attends a Latin mass. He is also a gifted trader who brings rigorous science and outside-the-box thinking to nearly everything he does, including playing golf, staying healthy, cooking savory, nutritious meals and training Olympic-caliber athletes. RA ] Merry Christmas, and […]

Read the full commentary →

December 17, 2023

Gold Can’t Pussyfoot Forever

Most of us had been expecting gold to explode through the $2000 “barrier” and soar into the wild blue yonder. Instead, it spasmed to $2152 for a nanosecond on December 4, then crashed back down below $2000 like an anvil dropped into an elevator shaft. What happened? Gold is most certainly in a bull market, […]

Read the full commentary →

December 10, 2023

Why Liberals Dump Their Oldest Friends

[This essay originally appeared here in July 2022 and was written by a friend who spends a lot of time thinking outside the box. His provocative thesis is that that there is a physiological basis for our political differences; moreover, he notes, liberals cancel and ghost their conservative friends for reasons that are tied to […]

Read the full commentary →

December 3, 2023

My Brash Call for a Top

They don’t ring a bell at the top, as the saying goes, but it’s hard to see how Mr. Market can avoid it this time. The stock market’s heedless, nutty short squeeze since October will end when Microsoft hits $430, probably early in the new year. It’s that simple.  How do I know this? Just […]

Read the full commentary →

November 26, 2023

What Has AI Done for YOU Lately?

AI hubris has become America’s chief source of good news. Over the past year, artificial intelligence surpassed bitcoin as mankind’s most easily imaginable pathway to quick riches, shortened work weeks, ingenious solutions to every problem, and endless satisfactions. An AI-assisted world supposedly will revolutionize the way we do business, enabling high school graduates, even mediocre […]

Read the full commentary →

November 19, 2023

Celebrating the Wealth Effect’s Last Hurrah

Lacy Hunt, a gray eminence of the financial world and no doomsayer, was out with a Hoisington Report recently that should scare the pants off anyone concerned about the direction of the U.S. economy.  His meticulously detailed take on a commercial real estate debacle that has been metastasizing for more than a year should dispel […]

Read the full commentary →

November 12, 2023

Revved-Up Microsoft Is the Engine that Could

U.S. shares continued to climb a wall of well-justified worry last week, propelled with sufficient vigor to suggest new all-time highs are likely.  Notice how Microsoft’s push into record territory on Friday occurred after the stock had spent nearly six months consolidating at the red line. This is a ‘midpoint Hidden Pivot’, according to our […]

Read the full commentary →