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Over the past year we have had some really interesting things unfold in the market. Investing or even swing trading has been much more difficult because of all the wild economic data and daily headline news from all over the globe causing strong surges or sell offs almost every week.

For a while there you could not hold a position for more than a week without some type of news event moving the market enough to either push you deep in the money or get stopped out for a loss. This has unfortunately caused a lot of individuals to give up on trading which is not a good sign for the financial market as a whole.

The key to navigating stocks which everyone thinks are overbought is to trade small position sizes and focus on the shorter time frames like the 4 hour charts. This chart is my secret weapon and giving you both large price swings which daily chart traders focus on while also showing clear intraday patterns to spot reversals or continuation patterns with precise entry/exit points.

While I could ramble on about why the stock market is primed for major long term growth from this point forward I will keep things short and simple with some 4 hour and daily charts for you to see what I see and what I am thinking should unfold moving forward.

Keep in mind, the most accurate trading opportunities that happen week after week are the quick shifts in sentiment which only last 2-5 days at most which is what most of my charts below are focusing on…

Dollar Index – 4 Hour Chart

This chart shows a mini Head & Shoulders reversal pattern and likely target over the next five sessions. The dollar index has been driving the market for the past couple years so a lower dollar means higher stock and commodity prices.

Dollar Index Trading

Bond Futures – 4 Hour Chart

Money has been flowing into bonds for the past couple weeks with most traders and investors expecting a strong correction in stocks. As you can see the price of bonds hit resistance this week and as of Thursday has now started selling off. Money flowing out of this “Risk Off” asset means money will move to the “Risk On” investments like stocks and commodities.

Bond Futures Trading

Gold Futures – Daily Chart

Gold is stuck in both categories in my opinion. It is a “Risk Off” safe haven when people are scared of falling stock prices, and it is also a “Risk On” speculative investment when people are feeling good about the market. Gold has been trading at key resistance for a couple weeks and looks as though it’s starting its next rally.

Gold Futures Trading

Silver Futures – Daily Chart

Silver is in the same boat as gold though it carries much more volatility than gold. Expect 2-4% swings regularly and sloppy chart patterns in this metal.

Silver Futures Trading

SP500 Futures – Daily Chart

As much as everyone hates to buy stocks up at these lofty prices I hate to say it but I think they are going to keep going up and they could do this for a long time yet. If the dollar index continues to break down then I expect the SP500 to rally another 3% from here (1500) in the next 1-2 weeks.

SP500 Futures Trading

Crude Oil Futures – 4 Hour Chart

Crude oil has not had much attention from me in the past few months. While it has had big price action many of those big days took place on news causing an instant price movement making this extra dangerous to trade. I continue to watch rather than get attached to it.

Crude Oil Futures Trading

Natural Gas Futures – Daily Chart

Natural gas has been a great performer for us in the past 6 months as all the short positions slowly get covered. I just closed out my natural gas ETF trade this week with a 31.9% gain and plan on getting back in once the chart provides another low risk setup.

Natural Gas Futures Trading

Trading Conclusion:

In short, I feel the dollar index along with bonds will correct over the next few weeks. That will trigger buying in stocks and commodities. Keep in mind natural gas dances to its own drum beat. The dollar does not have much affect on its price and most times natural gas is doing the opposite of the broad market. Get My Pre-Market Trading Analysis Video and Intraday Chart Analysis EVERY DAY – www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Over the past month the gold and silver markets have taken a good drubbing. Silver has dropped from 19.50 to 15.00 and gold from 1227 to 1044 as the US Dollar has finally rallied after a long drawn out correction.

Since the advent of ETF’s market players have been able to invest in gold and silver for the first time without using Futures and investors have made the gold and silver ETF’s a very popular way of investing in the precious metals. The advantages of ETF’s are many versus buying a futures contract. Investors can hold them for the long haul, there is no contract switching every few months, investors can buy as much or as little as they want and there is no need to worry about a leveraged position. But are there any disadvantages to ETF’s versus a futures contract?

The chart below is the silver ETF with the symbol (SLV). Because the precious metals are a global commodity and one that has been in the spotlight lately, like most commodities they trade on a world wide scale 22-24 hours per day. Since ETF’s only trade during stock market hours there can be drastic changes to price when local markets open up the following day.
1SilverETF.jpg

The arrows I’ve drawn show how the price of silver has been vulnerable to severe price drops on the open of trade in these stocks. The recent severe correction in silver is an excellent example of how prices can open much lower than the previous day’s close. Technicians call them price gaps when they appear on a chart pattern. Investors who are using the ETF’s to be long the metals call them EQUITY gaps because of the drop in price that occur affect their bottom line.

When investors awake to learn that gold or silver is down heavy overseas, the natural tendency for short term traders is to bail out on the open for fear of losing more money than they already have. Since these ETF’s have been closed for trading about 16 hours previously, big price changes can and do happen.

Now let’s look at a futures chart of silver. The chart below is a 1000 ounce silver futures contract.
2Silverfutures.jpg

Notice how there is only one price gap on the entire chart since the top price in January. That is because this contract trades 22 hours per day and price gaps only reflect the changes that occur from about 5 PM to 7:20 PM EST time. The remainder of the time the market is open somewhere in the world and the globex market is linked to all of them. Therefore an investor can avoid nasty drops in price over night by choosing to trade a futures contract.

Futures contracts are not for everyone as the mini contract has 1000 ounces as a minimum and most be rolled over every three months or so to a new contract. Most of the time there is a few cents difference in price as well and this is called a premium. For someone who is buying 1000 shares of the silver ETF and is an in and out short term trader might want to consider trading futures. The commissions can be much cheaper if you have the right broker charging under $3.00 commissions to trade a 1000 ounce contract which only requires a minimum margin of $1600 to trade $16,000 dollars worth of silver and the cost to fund an account is as low as $5000 dollars to open.

Probably the best advantage is that trading on these contracts begins on Sunday evening (in USA), a full 14 hours before the ETF’s open up for New York trading. On weeks such as we’ve seen this can be a marked advantage, especially when a severe correction begins to develop as the markets reopen from a weekend or Holiday.

Another advantage is the ease of which one can short these contracts. Unlike ETF’s one can short a contract just as fast and as easy as going long. It only requires a click of the button.

What about disadvantages?
Trading in futures is a leveraged game and while the gains can be magnified, so can the losses. However, if you’re already trading 1000 shares of SLV there is no difference. If you’ve never traded futures before it can be at times more emotional. Probably the biggest advantage is the ability to trade with ease and this can cause the user to overtrade and therefore accumulate more losses if you don’t have a game plan.

What about liquidity?
I’ve traded these contracts and have never ever had a problem getting in and getting out. However once in a while these contracts can fluctuate a bit more in after hours when trading is thin. I’ve seen 10-20 cent price rises after the market closes only to pullback to its original price before the markets close for those few hours a day in which there is no trading.

If you’ve been frustrated with your silver ETF when it opens down 50 cents in the morning you might want to look into trading a futures contract instead. But be sure to read up on futures and possibly try a demo trading package so as to get used to the ebb and flow and psychology of trading futures versus ETF’s. They are not for everyone, but for those who are disciplined and experienced traders; futures can offer advantages that the ETF counterparts don’t.

While we are on the subject, let’s take a look at the silver chart from a technical standpoint.

The chart below shows that silver has suffered some technical damage on the charts that should have technicians concerned.

Over the past 14 months silver has been in an uptrend defined by a parallel channel that has recently been broken on the downside and it has done so on heavy volume. As you can see by the chart, silver’s Friday lows were comparable to prices from April 2009, almost a full year ago. The correction from December has wiped out almost a year’s worth of gain in two short months. The break of the lower channel line confirms this downside momentum and has considerably weakened the technical picture.
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We can see how the 16 dollar area was a key support level and when it got taken out a lot of stop loss orders were probably lying underneath that target area. Investors who had bought last spring saw all of their gains taken away in a few short months and the panic selling that ensued can be witnessed by looking at the volume spike.

Investors should not be totally surprised. The January/February period for the precious metals tend to form tops in price from which late winter corrections are born and from which spring or summer bottoms are formed. This pattern has been more often than not the modus operandi during the bull market run of the past 9 years.
We can see by the seasonal chart below that this time period is usually met with a sell-off that lasts unto month end. Readers of my past articles have been shown the following chart before in other updates.

As we have stated in the past, the month of February is not usually a good time to be in precious metals and this month’s action confirms that very well.
4SilverSeasonal.jpg

What about Gold ?
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The chart above shows that gold recently took out a very important support area. For a few months the 1075 area in gold and the 105 area in the gold ETF (GLD) has been a key point technicians have been focused on. Last week’s rout finally took that area out. We can see that last week’s lows were below that line and that gold is trying to now climb back above it and maintain price in order to regain its support area. The important thing about a channel or support line is not whether it is penetrated by price but what price does immediately afterward. For the moment gold is trying to make its mind up as to whether it will forge forward here or breakdown to the next support area on the chart.

The next major channel line on our chart is all the way down at the 95 area on the chart. However, if we look at the September high and the October low during this rally we can make a case for support at the 100 area. For gold this would equate to the 975-980 area in spot gold. So at this current moment we remain neutral in the precious metals waiting for gold to make its decision on the next leg it is to embark on. Let’s look at the short term pattern by zooming in on the 60 minute chart of the April Gold Futures contract.
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Ever since the December peak at 1227 the gold market has been in a correction that has shaved off about 180 dollars from peak to bottom. We can see that each attempted rally above the moving averages has ended up in failure. Last week, spot gold touched the 1143 area, just 10 dollars shy of the original breakout point of 1033. This return move to the point of breakout is not a rare occurrence in the commodity world and there are myriad examples of such a move before the “big” one came after the breakout. The 1044 area is also the place where India made their large purchase of gold last fall and from which the news launched the market much higher when it was announced they had purchased 200 tons of the precious metal.

Thus there are two key areas for gold to watch for. First a move back above the support shelf of 1075-1090 in gold would at least put gold back in a neutral pattern instead of a downtrend. Then if gold can above the 1100-1110 area it would provide impetus for a potential test of the highs at 1125 and 1163.

In summary, the February time frame is usually a weak time for gold and usually leads to a spring rally. The early peak in December opens up the potential for gold to attempt a March or April rally. In the meantime, one would be wise to watch the current areas of support.

1075-1090 – previous support area we need to get back above.

1010-1033 – The 200 day moving average and the original breakout point.

975-980 – The first support area of the last up leg in price that began in September.

Finally let’s look at the crude oil market.
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In my past few updates I have advocated that a great play is to sell some precious metal holdings in early winter and raise some cash into the spring. Not only is this good due to the seasonal tendencies of gold to correct but it allows one to begin to deploy some of that cash into the crude oil market in late February. As you can see the oil market is usually much more seasonal in trend and that time of the year is approaching.

As you can see below, the crude oil chart shows price from March2007, 2008 and 2009. All three times oil turned out to be a great buy. The current pullback from the 83 area got as low as 71 before reversing this week and price is right at the 200 and 50 day averages. Thus the 200 day average is one place we should be on watch for as support. We are close enough now that we should be on guard for a seasonal low. Should there be a selloff as in the precious metals; the 58-60 area would offer a good chance at a seasonal bottom. If the rally has already begun the 200 day average or more importantly about 5 dollars below it would be a good support area.
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We are constantly watching for low risk set-ups to get our subscribers into plays like this. Feel free to check this website for my past reports. They have advocated the same strategy as I have in this article. Why not drop by our website and see what we might have for low risk entry opportunities as we await the potential seasonal trend changes and position ourselves to take advantage of them.

Deciphering the SP500 Trend
The SP 500 and the markets topped one day after my Jan 18th forecast to our subscribers that the market had met all conditions for an interim top. This followed my Feb 25th, 2009 forecast for a huge bull market rally which we rode with aggressive stock trading. I am now forecasting an ABC correction likely lasting 3-5 months into June. We have adjusted our trading plans from individual stocks to Leveraged ETF’s to take advantage of the increase in volatility. Our ETF trading is designed to work in high volatility bull or bear cycles and has a 90% historical accuracy rate with profits typically within 24-48 hours of entry. The market moves in very clear herding behavioral patterns, and we identify those early and trade accordingly at David Banister. Here are his latest views, and you can read more at www.activetradingpartners.com/articles

If you would like to receive our Free Weekly Trading Charts and Analysis please visit our website at: www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen

The commodity futures charts and gold precious metal stocks have be trading with increased volatility as they bounce between support and resistance levels on the daily and hourly charts.

This report is focused more on technical analysis and charts so that I can show you what I feel these commodities are lining up to do.

GDX ETF – Daily Trading Chart
I posted this chart Monday afternoon to members as a short educational piece and to give warning to those where were currently in short term long positions. This chart clearly shows that when the short term trend is up and we get a black candle (Pop & Drop) the odds tell us that we should see lower prices over the next 24 – 48 hours for silver and gold.

This type of price action may look easy to trade, which it is, but only day traders and even better yet futures traders, can make the most when these setups occur. It doesn’t get anymore exciting than Trading after hours with commodity futures.

The nice thing about trading futures is that charts run around the clock 24 hours a day so you do not get price gaps that miss most of the short term low risk plays. Investment vehicles on the NYSE are limited to trading from 9:30am – 4pm and that really does cut down in the amount of low risk trade setups we get on a monthly basis.
GDX

Silver Commodity Trading Contract YI – Daily Chart
Silver has been tougher to trade than gold recently. Percentage moves are much larger with silver adding more potential risk to buyers and sellers. In addition, silver is not trending strongly like its big sister gold and this adds another level of difficulty. Profits should be taken quickly during this type of price action.

Silver Futures Trading

Silver Futures Trading

Gold Futures Trading YG Contract – Hourly Chart
Gold is my favorite and most profitable investment vehicle. I trade gold using the GLD etf and futures. Last week I wrote about this key resistance level and how I was waiting to trade until the Friday unemployment numbers were out and to see how the market reacted before putting our money to work. Over the weekend the bullish sentiment caused gold to gap above that key resistance level but has sold back down after beginning the new week.

The chart below shows that I am neutral/bearish for the next few days. Heavy selling and the small bear flag is warning me of lower prices. The natural tendency for gold is to drift higher through the night from 6pm EST – 4am EST, so we could see higher prices in the short term but what happens in the following 1-3 days will set the tone for gold.

Gold Futures Trading

Gold Futures Trading

Crude Oil Futures Trading CL – Daily Chart
Oil has pulled back the past few days and is now trading near a support level. I feel it is over sold and could bounce the second half of this week and I will keep my eye on it for members.

Crude Oil Futures Trading

Crude Oil Futures Trading

Natural Gas Futures Trading NG – Daily Chart
Nat gas is the most deadly commodity I know for the uneducated trader. The price swings are wild and WILL trigger you stops no matter where you put them almost. The whipsaw action always seems to form a Mega Phone pattern which means there are higher highs and lower lows during key pivot points forcing shorts to keep coving their positions and longs to keep getting stopped out as they try to protect their down side risk.

I rarely trade Natural Gas because of this. The stats I’ve heard are that almost everyone who actively trades natural gas will lose their money within 3 months. Yikes! So this is why I am so picky trading it.

The current price of NG is trading in the middle of is range. Entering a trade here is 50/50 and just not worth the risk.

Natural Gas Futures Trading

Natural Gas Futures Trading

Commodity Futures Trading Conclusion:
There are not too many exciting things in the market right now. We continue to watch stocks and commodities work through their patterns and cycles as we just jump in and out of the market when the timing is right. It’s like a large game of double Dutch skipping, just have to time the monitor the patterns, speed and cycles so you lower the odds of getting hit.

If you would like to receive my Free Weekly Trading Reports, please visit my website.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com