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Market Meltdown & Metal Missiles – SPX, Gold, Silver & Oil

June 30th, 2010
What a nutty week for the equities market! The bleeding has not led up with almost 2 weeks of straight selling. Also we are seeing oil break down with a rather large bear flag and if that happens, which it looks like it will… then hold on tight or cash out of the market!

There has been nothing but negative news for the past month and its not looking like there is much light at the end of the tunnel for a long time still… The only places which people feel some safety is in gold and silver. That being said the market is way over sold here and we could get a bounce lasting a couple days soon. But that bounce will be sold and pulled back down as it looks like a new bear market is starting.

Here are few charts of how I am seeing things in general.

Gold ETF GLD – Daily Chart
Gold has formed a large cup & handle pattern. It has held up well during the recent weakness. But zooming into the intraday charts I do have some concerns about a sharp sell off in the very near future. We recently bought gold at $1226 and sold out between $1255-1260 a couple days later because it’s not just screaming at me as a great buy. I am not a gold bug, I’m a trader who finds low risk opportunities, gets in and out with maximum profits and minimal draw downs spending most of my time in cash. They way I see things is that there is always another trade just around the corner.

Silver ETF SLV – Weekly Chart
This is a weekly chart and goes all the way back to 2008 showing a very large cup & Handle. We could technically still see silver trade sideways for several months before it reaches the apex and is forced to breakout in either direction. The up side potential for a cup and handle pattern is 100- 300% of the height of the cup. So this means $1450 gold and $29 silver using the minimum potential. Now you can see why so many people are buying precious metals… they want a big move… All that excitement and greed could catch up to them if we see a complete market melt down again which will pull EVERYTHING down with it including gold and silver. This is one of the reasons why I cashed out this week near the high.

Crude Oil Fund – Weekly Chart
Oil formed a triple top over the past 10 months and has started to head south. We have seen selling volume drop during the test of resistance which is not a good thing. A heavy sell off from resistance as everyone bailed out of the investment sent oil tumbling and just this week oil started to break down from its bear flag. We are looking at USO to possibly drop to the $25-27 area and oil to drop to the $60-62 level over the coming 2-3 months.

SP500 ETF SPY – Weekly Chart
The SP500 along with several other indexes have formed a head & shoulders patter and appear to be in the process of breaking down through the necklines. If this unfolds then we are looking at much lower prices for stocks. It is important to buy some protection on the down side or get into cash until the dust settles as we can always buy back in, but we cannot get back lost money as easily.

Mid-Week ETF Trading Conclusion:
In short, I really hate to be negative on the market and economic outlook. I know if the market crashes again the majority of individuals who have worked hard, saved money and invested using mutual funds will lose most of their money in a fraction of the time it took to create the wealth, and that is a uncomfortable thought. Nothing worse than just getting to retire then seeing half of your money vanish.

Anyways, the good news is that we can avoid these market crashes and actually take advantage of them using inverse ETFs which go up 2 or 3 times faster than what the market is declining. These powerful trading tools if used correctly can make us a fortune while others are losing their shirts.

Currently I am in cash and have taken a couple scalp short trades taking advantage of the market falling on Tuesday and again today. These trades only last about 10 minutes but generate some fast profits. You can see the short I did yesterday which explains what I saw and when I put on the trade: http://www.futurestradingsignals.com/trading-education/es-mini-scalp-trade-video/

On another note, Tomorrow is Canada Day and I am Canadian so… I will be done around 10:30am ET once the jobs numbers come out and the market trades for an hour incase there is a nice short or long trade for some quick money – eh!

If you would like to get my trading alerts please check out my websites at www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com or www.FuturesTradingSignals.com

Chris Vermeulen

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SPX, Gold & Oil on the VERGE of Something BIG

Wednesday June 9th
Market volatility continues to shake things up making it profitable for traders who are quick to spotting key reversal points, manage risk and taking profits before it evaporates. On Tuesday we saw the market go up and down more than I have seen in a long time… It moved over 5% as it trended up then down in 1% increments as shown in the chart below. Members of FuturesTradingSignals were able to capture a 1-2% gain which may not sound like much but when trading the leveraged ETFs, Futures or CFD’s we are making 4-200% profit within a few hours. That being said this type of price action is proof that the market just does not know which way to go and why trades must be very quick to enter and exit positions.

The SP500 daily etf chart shows my simple volume analysis during market corrections. During the early stages of a trend, pullbacks are quick and simple. But as a trend matures we start to see corrections become much more complex. We first saw the simple 1 wave corrections in 2009, then we saw a much deeper 3 wave correction which was enough to shake most retail (average Joe’s) out of the market before heading higher, and now it looks as though we are headed into a complex 5 wave correction which should be enough to shake out the majority again.

It’s important to note that the longer a trend lasts the larger the corrections/shake outs must be in order to get everyone out. From what I am reading and seeing everywhere online are doom and gloom scenarios. In my opinion this is good. One more leg down should be enough to shake everyone before we see a nice 10-20% rally. Once we see that bounce/rally then we can reanalyze the market to see if we are headed back up to test the 2010 highs or if its just a bear market rally. In the end it does not matter as we play both the long and short side of the market.

Gold ETF continues to unfold as planned. We caught a good chunk of the recent rally and are now in cash waiting for another low risk entry point in the coming days or weeks.

Crude oil Fund (USO) has been struggling to stay up the past 2 months. As you can see the chart below it’s trading at a key resistance level and at this point it could go either way… I don’t like to get involved in trades when they look to be a 50/50 probability of going each direction. If anything I would think oil will head back down as the US dollar continues its strong rally.

Mid-Week ETF Trading Conclusion:

In short, the broad market is in a down trend and selling volume continues to rise. Investors around the world continue to accumulate gold and the US dollar as they seem to be the safe havens for the time being. Oil is also in a down trend and trading at resistance which means we should see lower prices for oil and oil companies and this will weigh heavily on the equities market.

Cash is king and during times of uncertainty that’s for sure… It is very comforting to know we are in cash most of the time and only get involved with the market when there is a low risk, high probability setup on the charts.

If you would like to get my trading analysis and trading alerts check out my services at: www.FuturesTradingSignals.com and www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

GET MY FREE WEEKLY TRADING ANALYSIS

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Technical View of What’s Next for Precious Metals, Stocks & the Dollar

March 14, 2010
Last weeks price action unfolded just as we expected. Money poured into stocks with the focus being on small cap, banks and technology stocks. The fact that these sectors are showing strength while utilities, health care and consumer staples lag is a good sign that investors are once again taking risks in the market.

Because investors and traders are bullish on the stock market again the money flow into the safe havens like Gold and Silver decrease. I believe this is the reason stocks moved up last week while precious metals drifted lower.

Below are three charts (Dollar, Gold and Silver) showing what I think is most likely to happen in the coming week or two.

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US Dollar Index – Daily Chart

The US Dollar has put in a very nice bounce/rally since the low in November 2009. Last month the dollar finally reached a key resistance level of 81. I have been talking about this major resistance level since January as the Dollar would find it difficult to break above this level.

Take a look at the daily chart below. You can see a head & shoulders pattern and a neckline which appears to have broken late Friday afternoon. There is a strong chance we could see 78 reached which is the measured move down. If we get follow through selling this week then I would expect 78 to be touched within 5-10 days.

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GLD & SLV ETF Trading Charts

Precious metals have been moving very well for us recently. From looking at the charts using technical analysis we were able to catch the Feb. 5th low and also the Feb. 25th low on a several ETF’s.

As you can see from the GLD and SLV charts, both metals are now in an uptrend showing bullish chart patterns and trading at support. If we see the US Dollar break down next week then be ready to go long gold, silver and stocks.

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Precious Metals, Stocks and the Dollar Trading Conclusion:

As a technical analyst the above charts are pointing to higher prices in the coming day’s which is exciting for us all. BUT when things are this perfect looking we must be very cautious as the market has way to suck people into setups like this and spit them out a couple days later for a nasty loss.

Understanding how the market moves is crucial for avoiding and/or minimizing losses when trades go against us. That is why I continue to wait for my signature low risk setup before putting any money to work.

My focus is to take the least amount of trades possible each year, only focusing on the best of the best setups. My low risk setups require downside risk to be under 3% for the investment of choice when the broad market shows signs of strength, as well. I use several different types of analysis to confirm if a setup has a high probability of winning and those which do are the trades I take along with my subscribers.

It is very important to wait for the market to confirm a move higher before taking a position with this type of setup. The market could go either way quickly and jumping the gun is not a safe bet.

Get My Precious Metals and Index ETF Trading Alerts: www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

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Video on How to Day Trade Spot Gold & the Indexes

March 13 2010
Last week was an exciting one for intra-day traders who follow the spot gold and major stock indexes. Actually, since early November 2009 the market has been performing very well for us day traders.

As we all know the market is consistently changing its price patterns and momentum from up, sideways to down, which in turn affects everyone’s trading results for any given month.

For swing/position traders who trade using the daily charts they will find some months will favor trend trading strategies, while other months favor short term range bound strategies, and other months that just are not good for trading at all like last November and December.

During extremely choppy market conditions such as we saw last November and December, the market was up an down like a yo-yo. Swing/position traders had a tough time making money, and speaking for myself, once the market gets like that I patiently sit in cash or hold very small positions.

The good news is that when the market become choppy and swing traders are having a tough time making money (which is fast intra-day up and down movements), day traders come out of the wood work like fire ants. There are crazy amounts of money made and lost during high volume intraday trend reversals and pattern breakouts.

Day Trading Spot Gold – YG J0 Gold Mini Futures Contract
Here is a quick video I did of my trade in gold on March 9th. This video shows a trade using the 5 minute spot gold chart profiting $6.00 per ounce with minimal downside risk. Depending on what you use to trade gold – Futures Contract, ETF or CFD – you could have profited $600-$2,400 in less than 2 hours.

This is the second video I have ever done so it’s nothing fancy by any means. It will take me a few more videos to get a good understanding of them as I do plan on doing weekly videos in the coming weeks and will be sure to make them more exciting.

Gold Day Trade
Click Link if you cannot see the video below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHSc6JORyew&feature=player_embedded


Day Trading the Index – DIA Exchange Traded Fund
If you watched the gold video above you will see how I day traded spot gold in the morning and why I used futures as my investment vehicle. That being said, anyone could have traded the GLD or DGP gold etfs.

Only a couple hours later I saw a great Head & Shoulders pattern on the broad market indexes. Taking a step back, my chart analysis has been telling me to look for a reversal pattern on the broad market as I feel it is over bought, and I still do…

So when I saw gold roll over then a reversal pattern on the Dow Jones Index, I decided to take a short position. Also, I noticed the price reverse down off the right shoulder.

This time, I traded the DIA etf just because it is where I saw the pattern develop first and because I have a thing for DIA (I just like trading it).

So once the price reversed down off the right shoulder with the long red candle I went short at $106.07 with a first target at $105.85 to sell half of my position, and then move my stop to break even on the balance of my position. I ended up pocketing just over 25 cents per share in gains which does not sound like much but because day traders get 4:1 and some brokers allow 10:1 leverage you can trade large amounts of shares for these quick trades.

Trading the DIA I focus on 500 or 1000 shares per trade depending on how I feel about the trade. This particular trade I did 1000 shares pocketing $250 profit within 70 minutes.

*Trading Tip*
If you see a Head & Shoulders pattern with a neckline angled up (see chart below), then you should focus on trying to short the top of the right hand shoulder (the first reversal candle). The key here is to be short before the index (or any investment) breaks the neckline.

Once a neckline is broken a large surge of sellers should rush in as everyone jumps out of their long position. Also, this is the point when aggressive traders start taking a short in order to take advantage of the breakdown and price depreciation.

So if you see a right shoulder drifting higher into resistance with that bearish looking flag, be ready to short once you see selling volume pick up and a drop in price.


Day Trading Spot Gold and the Indexes Conclusion:
Well I hope this short report helps you to take advantage of the market using different trading strategies and time frames. Every day and week is different and I jump around from trading 60 minutes charts, 4 hour, daily and the occasional 5 minute charts like the ones above.

I try to stay away from the 5 minute charts simply because they move so fast, and the shorter the time frame the smaller the potential. But some days favor it so I just take what the market gives me and that’s all we can do.

On another note, if you are interested in my new high-end trading service that trades all the setups in real-time, I will be launching this service with my personal trades and analysis for you to trade alongside me!

You will receive all my intraday and swing trade alerts for indexes and commodities allowing you to trade which ever vehicle you want – whether it’s an ETF, Leveraged ETF, Futures Contract or CFD. This way your timing is accurate, your downside risk is carefully calculated and you can trade which every investment you are comfortable with

There will be a 24/7 chat room allowing us to trade around the clock when setups arise. Also, members can swap ideas, ask me questions, make new trading buddies etc… There is even a squawk box feature! I can and will talk live with audio to everyone in the chat room for important news, trades alerts or questions.

All trade alerts are instantly posted in the members area, chat-room and sent via email making it one of the most powerful trading services I have ever seen available online.

If you are interested please fill out the form to be notified for this service which will start the last week of March or the first week of April. It will have limited availability to keep it personal.

Get Notified Of Launch.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

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How to Trade IntraDay Gold and SP500

Last week was an incredible week for trading the intraday charts. With rising volume and volatility prices began to move up or down for extended periods of time allowing traders to profit from these powerful short term price swings.

During times like these traders using the daily charts for their guide found the market very difficult to time because of the whipsaw action each day. In this case, it is definitely best to stay clear of the market until the dust settles. But for a trader who watches the intraday charts, this is when serious money is made on a daily and consistent basis.

Most traders avoid using intraday charts because they either:

1. Think it’s day trading and do not want to sit in front of the computer all day
2. Do not understand how to trade in these “intraday” time frames.

Intraday trading is one of the most over looked yet most profitable trading strategies, in my opinion. One of the reasons I like/love it so much is the fact that it provides high probability setups on a weekly basis and trades generally last 2 -36 hours. Also, this strategy carries very low risk simply because you are in cash most of the time, putting your money to work only when high probability setups form.

If you are an active trader you should have been making money hand over fist last week. Below are close up shots of my charts:

My eSignal Trading Platform

This is my main trading screen which allows me to see the entire market. This, to me, is like a dashboard of an airplane. Each mini intraday chart is like a gauge hinting to what the plane in doing (horizon indicator, fuel, air speed etc.) My custom dashboards quickly allow me know if the market is heading up or down, what speed it is moving measured by volume and momentum, and if all pistons are firing which sector is really moving.

My Custom Dashboard

Quotes for every index and sector
Top Row: 60 minute charts with volume of: DIA, SPY, QQQQ and NYSE
Second Row: 60 min chart of NYSE TRIN, NYSE Adv/Dec, 60min Gold, 60min Oil
Bottom Row: 120 minute chart of the US Dollar, Interactive Brokers Trade Window

In short, I can see waves of money flowing in and out of each sector. These views give me a strong sense as to the strength of momentum. From these observations I determine whether the setup is favorable for shorting into light volume rallies, shorting into resistance levels or buying oversold sell offs in up trends.

Also, the chart patterns on the 60, 240 and 480 minutes charts are so powerful and accurate that you only need 2-3 trades a week in order to make decent money.

I would like to note that I do have 4 larger charts with different time frames allowing me to really get a feel for a trade before I commit money. These charts are Weekly, Daily, 240 minute and the 60 minute chart.

If you want to see some exciting daily charts of gold, sp500, oil and silver check out my weekend report: http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/articles/gold-sp500-psychology-they-bail-we-buy/

SP500 Day Trading Futures Signal – 30 Minute Chart

The SP500 ES mini contract, or you could have traded the SPY exchange traded fund, provided an excellent intraday short trade last Wednesday.

All the indexes (NYSE, NASDAQ, SP500, DOW) drifted higher on light volume. While you can play the long side of these low volume rallies I prefer to stay in cash and wait for another short setup. Trading with the short term trend (240, 480minute charts) is crucial. Counter trend plays tend to be weak and short lived.

In short, the SP500 drifted into a resistance level on light volume and the NYSE TRIN indicator was rising in a very strong way. The combined information of price, volume and the TRIN indicator were screaming – short the market.

When the TRIN is above 1.00 it means the majority of the trades being executed on high volume NYSE stocks are sell orders. You don’t see the TRIN rise this high without the market selling off as it did on Feb 3rd. But when it does, Bombs Away – time to go short!

The next day the index crashed with panic selling across the board. The NYSE had over 30 sell orders for every 1 buy order. Now that is panic selling and, coincidentally, exactly as has happened at each bottom formed throughout 2009.

Intraday Trading SP500 – 60 Minute Chart

This chart clearly shows the high probability setup which took a few days to form. A short position was taken during the small bear flag pattern. My short position was covered on the break of a new high formed on heavy buying volume.

Intraday Trading Gold Futures – 120 Minute Chart

Gold had virtually the same setup as the SP500.

Intraday Trading Gold & SP500 Futures or ETF’s Conclusion:

As you can see intraday trading is nothing like what most people think it is. Trading using the 60, 240 and 480 minute charts really opens one’s eyes, allowing a panoramic view of the price action the market has to offer.

As most of you know, my goal is to trade low-risk, high-probability setups. And, the less time my money has to be in the market, the better.

If you are interested in getting more Intraday Analysis and Setups for ETF’s, futures and CFD’s be sure to join my free newsletter for Trading Futures and ETF’s:

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com