Posts

Understanding the stock market and its potential through the use of technical analysis and historical price events has been proven repeatedly to outperform all forms of fundamental trading styles. The following is a story that walks you through my experience, the shift in my mindset and how I came to the conclusion that the three charts I share in this article are critical to your understanding of to make money in today’s market!

When I first learned to trade, I got all caught up with researching companies and finding the ones with the best earnings and future growth. I did that for several years after studying and following many “professional traders” who said it was the best way to trade and invest long term. We lost our shirts during the 2000 bear market by continuing to trade on fundamentals as stocks fell in value week after week. Even the companies that showed quarterly earnings growth fell in value – none of it seemed to make any sense to me, and it was very frustrating.

Losing money when buying the best companies made no logical sense, making me step back from the markets and ask myself, ‘what am I doing wrong here‘. People today are asking themselves the same question given today’s dizzying markets:

· Telsa shares fell from $971 a share down to $347, whopping 63% drop, in only a few weeks and then rebounded again too xx

· Netflix is down 30%, even though people are stuck at home desperately trying to find things to watch)

· Amazon has fallen 26% in the past couple of weeks despite soaring demand for their delivery services

· GDXJ, the gold miners sector that is typically a safe haven during times of volatility, crashed 57% even though gold is usually a safe haven during times of volatility.

So, what was I doing wrong? I started calling and visiting traders who were making money during the bear market to see what they were doing, and 100% of them were doing the same thing – Trading with Technical Analysis. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, per se. I was simply using the wrong tools and analysis for success!

What is Technical Analysis? In short, it’s the study of price, time, and volatility of any asset using price charts and indicators. Traders use technical analysis to find cycles and patterns in the market and trade on the analysis of preferred indicators as opposed to the fundamentals of a company and/or the economy in general.

When you start studying technical traders, you will notice every trader has a particular time frame, a preferred set of indicators, and trading frequency that fits their unique personality and lifestyle. Their brains can see the charts in ways you and I may not see them to predict future price direction over the next few hours, days, weeks, or months ahead. I quickly learned there are infinite ways to trade using technical analysis.

I was very surprised by how much these pro traders allowed me. While standing over their shoulders, I was looking at their charts to try to divine their high-level strategies and learn how they think, analyze, and trade. It was amazing how different each of them traded the market. Some traded currencies; others traded stocks, indexes, options, futures, etc. Most were day traders, swing traders, or a mix of the two. But none of them gave me their secret sauce. That is why I turned 100% of my focus to technical analysis. I was excited at the prospect of being able to profit from both rising and falling prices and no concern for anything other than price action reduced my research time dramatically. It was and is the biggest AH-HA moment of my life and a turning point for my career as a trader.

The year was 2001, when I made the shift to technical analysis. I unsubscribed from everything fundamental based. I canceled my CNBC, stopped listing to news, and stopped reading other people’s reports altogether. My goal was to create my own technical trading strategy that best suited my personality and lifestyle. I would have to discover the securities I was most comfortable trading, the frequency I would trade, and the type and amount of risk I was prepared to take.

I traded options, covered-calls, currencies, stocks, ETFs, and futures. From day trading to position trading (holding several months), I tried it all, hoping something would click for me to pursue at a much deeper level. Day trading, momentum, and swing trading were my sweet spots. Having three of them was a bonus as I know some traders only ever master one in their lifetime if they are lucky. I grew a liking for trading the major indexes like the DJIA, S&P 500, and Nasdaq… great liquidity with big money always at play.

Along my journey, I realized that if I could predict the overall market trend direction for the day or week, then I could day-trade small-cap stocks in the same direction as the index, knowing 80+% of the stocks follow the general stock market trend. I could generate much larger gains in a very short period of time. As time went on, I became comfortable predicting, trading, and profiting from the indexes, and my new trading strategy began to emerge.

I was fortunate enough to start learning about the markets and trading in college with a $2,000 E-Trade account, and then retiring (kinda) in 2009 at the age of 28. I built my dream home on the water, bought cars and boats, and spent time traveling with my growing family. I love trading and sharing my analysis with others – it is better than I had ever imagined and why I continue to help thousands of traders around the world every day with these video courses Trading System Mastery, and Trading As Your Business so you learn and make money from your home forever.

I contribute 100% of my trading success and lifestyle to the fact that I embraced technical analysis, where my strategy involves nothing more than price movement, position-sizing, and trade risk management techniques. All these allow me to easily reduce exposure, drawdowns, and losses with proper position sizing and protective strategies. If you want quick and simple, read about my journey and core trading tools in my book Technical Trading Mastery – 7 Steps to Win with LogicMy strategy is represented by human psychology and historical trading, as expressed in the three charts below.

CHART 1 – HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY IS WHAT DRIVES PRICE ACTION

This chart is my favorite as it explains trader and investor psychology at various market stages. It also includes a simplified market cycle in the upper right corner, letting you know where the maximum financial risk is for investors and the highest opportunity for a trade.

CHART 2 – 2000 STOCK MARKET TOP & BEAR MARKET THAT FOLLOWED

The chart may look a little overwhelming, but look at each part and compare it to the market psychology chart above. What happened in 2000 is what I feel is happening this year with the stock market sell-off.

In 2000, all market participants learned of at the same time was that there were no earnings coming from their darling .com stocks. Knowing they were not going to make money for a long time, everyone started selling these terrible stocks, and the market collapsed 40% very quickly.

What is similar between 2000 and 2020? Simple really. COVID-19 virus has halted a huge portion of business activity, travel, purchases, sporting events, etc. Everyone knows earnings are going to be poor, and many companies are going to go bankrupt. It is blatantly clear to everyone this is bad and will be for at least 6-12 months in corporate earnings; therefore, everyone is in a rush to sell their stock shares and are in a panic to unload them before everyone does.

CHART 3 – THE 2020 STOCK MARKET TOP LOOKS TO BE UNFOLDING

As you can see, this chart below of this year’s market crash is VERY similar to that of 2000 thus far, it’s based on a similar mindset, which is the fear of losing money, which causes everyone to sell their positions.

I am hopeful that we get a 25-30% rally from these lows before the market starts to fall and continue the new bear market, which I believe we are entering. Only the price will confirm the direction and major trend to follow, and since we follow price action and do not pick tops or bottoms, all we have to do is watch, learn, and trade when price favors new low-risk, high reward trade setups.

It does not matter which way the market crashes from here, we will either profit from the next leg down, or will miss/avoid it depending on if we get a tradable setup. Either cause is a win, just one makes money, while the worst-case scenario just preserves capital in a cash position, you can’t complain either way if you ask me.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals 
before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

In short, is if you lost money during the recent market crash, then you likely have not mastered a technical trading strategy and do not have proper trade management rules in place. All traders must manage risk and trades to be sure you lock in profits and limit losses when prices start pullback or collapse. Without either of these, you will not be able to achieve long term success/gains, and that’s a fact.

While we can all make money during a bull market when stocks are rising, if you cannot retain or grow your account during market downturns, then you may as well be a passive buy and hold investors. You are better at riding the emotional investor rollercoaster without wasting your time and effort as a trader if you are not going to spend the time and money to learn to follow someone to become a successful trader. Without proven trading strategies or someone to follow, you are more likely to underperform a long-term passive investor.

I get dozens of emails from people every week trying to trade this wild stock market and use leveraged ETFs, which doing so during these unprecedented market conditions is absolute craziness if you ask me.

These people think that because there are big moves in the market, they should be trading. That big money should be made trading them, which drives me crazy because it could not be further from the truth unless you are a scalp or day trader. To me, in this market condition, it’s about preserving capital, not risking it, in my opinion.

A subscriber to my market video analysis and ETF trading newsletter said it perfectly:

“Always intrigues me how many amateur surfers get to the north shore beaches in Hawaii, take one look at monster waves and conclude it’s way too dangerous. Yet the amateur trader looks at treacherous markets like these and wants to dive right in!!” Richard P.

I have to toot my own horn here a little because subscribers and I had our trading accounts close at a new high watermark for our accounts. We not only exited the equities market as it started to roll over we profited from the sell-off in a very controlled way.

I hope you found this informative, and if you would like to get a pre-market video every day before the opening bell, along with my trade alerts, visit my ETF swing trading visit my website at www.TheTechnicalTraders.com.

Chris Vermeulen
Founder of Technical Traders Ltd.

Our research team continues to dig into underlying patterns and set up in the global markets to assist skilled technical traders in understanding the current Covid-19 virus event and other key technical data.  Recently, we’ve authored a number of detailed research articles that we believe helped prepare traders for the events of the past 30 to 90+ days.  If you missed them, please take a moment to review some of our critical market research posts:

February 24, 2020: HAS THE EQUITIES WATERFALL EVENT STARTED OR A BUYING OPPORTUNITY?

January 31, 2020: A COMBINATION TOPPING PATTERN IS SETTING UP

December 20, 2019: WHO SAID TRADERS AND INVESTOR ARE EMOTIONAL RIGHT NOW?

Today, we are writing about a pattern our research team is seeing in the Gold/Silver ratio which is correlated to the price movement of Gold.  What does this mean and how can we profit from this setup?  Let’s get started trying to explain this chart pattern/setup.

GOLD:SILVER RATIO CHART FROM A NEW ANGLE

This first chart highlights the pattern we have identified and how we believe a similar pattern is setting up again in the current market.  The setup of the pattern is explained in the text below, but quickly scroll down and look at the first chart and the pink shaded areas “A” to get an idea of what we are talking about.

PRIOR TO “A” PATTERN SETUP

_ After a moderate price decline in Gold (1996 through 2001), a bottom sets up as the price of Gold begins to base near support.

_  The Gold/Silver ratio (BLUE), falls throughout this pattern setup as both Gold and Silver prices decline somewhat in unison.

THE SETUP “A”

_  Gold prices begin to rally moderately while pushing the Gold/Silver ratio higher over an extended period of time (from 1999 to 2003: about 4 years).

_ The Gold/Silver ratio peaks and begins to decline in mid-2003 as the price of Gold continues to rally at a bit more accelerated rate.

_ Gold prices begin a parabolic upside price advance in early 2006 after the Gold/Silver ratio collapses about 18% to 20% from the peak level near 82.50.

We believe a similar type of pattern is setting up right now in the metals market and we believe both Gold and Silver will engage in a price advance over the next 10+ months that may be similar to the post-A set up in mid-2003.  If you are familiar with what happened in the metals market at that time, Silver began to advance at a faster rate than the price of Gold advanced.  This is what caused the Gold/Silver ratio to begin to collapse.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals 
before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

SILVER MONTHLY CHART FROM 1993 TO 2004

This Silver chart from 1993 to 2004 clearly shows how the price of Silver was reacting throughout the setup prior to “A” and after “A” in the chart (above).  Silver began a moderate price advance in 1993 from a level near $3.50 and advanced to a level near $7.50 in 1998.  Then, it began a downside price move to reach new lows in 2002.  At that point, the markets changed.  Gold and Silver began to advance almost in unison with Gold still advancing slightly more than Silver until early/mid-2003.  Once Silver broke dramatically higher, in late 2003-04, the Gold/Silver ratio started breaking downward instead of upward.  This is the pattern we are seeing in the metals market right now.

We believe the recent rotation in the metals market and the dramatic price divergence between Gold and Silver are setting up another similar type of pattern that could prompt both Silver and Gold to rally upward from current levels by at least 200%.

CURRENT SILVER MONTHLY CHART

The extremely deep price retracement on this Monthly Silver chart (below) highlights what we believe is a deep washout low price rotation that is setting up the “disconnect” as we have tried to explain in the Gold/Silver ratio chart and historical Silver chart (above).  Yes, Gold also moved dramatically lower over the past 2+ weeks illustrating the shock to the markets that took place as the Covid-19 virus event disrupted the US and global markets.  But our researchers believe this dramatic washout low in Silver is setting up a much bigger pattern, longer-term than most people understand.

Recently, news that global precious metals suppliers have received a tremendous surge of orders for the physical stock over the past 2+ weeks (source: https://www.msn.com).  In fact, many global suppliers and mints are simply “out of stock” at the moment.  This surge in demand changes the dynamics of the market and how we look at the washout low in Silver.

If demand continues to surge, which we have no reason to doubt at this stage of the Covid-19 virus event, and Silver begins to rally as it did in 2002~2005, then the Gold/Silver ratio will begin to collapse just as it did in 2003~2007 (see the first chart – Post “A”).  This means the demand for metals is skyrocketing and Silver has suddenly become a more “in demand” physical metal than Gold.

You want a reality check on how to trade gold, silver and the stock market in this type of market condition be sure to check this out.

CURRENT GOLD WEEKLY CHART

We believe the next phase of price action in Gold is a move above $1990 as demand for metals continues to surge.  This would represent a 100% Fibonacci price expansion of the last price rally from the lows set in September 2018 (near $1168).  It would also represent a rally from the current level of at least +22.50% in Gold.  Subsequently, if Silver begins to rally at a greater rate than Gold over this same span of time, Silver could rally to levels above $22 representing a +53% price rally according to our Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system (the CYAN target on the chart above).

Pay attention to the Gold/Silver ratio and the price of Silver compared to Gold over the next 30 to 60+ days.  If our research is correct, the current low price of Silver will be a distant memory in less than 60 days and a tandem price advance in both Gold and Silver will propel the metals much higher.  How much higher?  From 2003 to the peak in 2011, Gold rallied 450% (from $350 to over $1900).  Over that same span of time, Silver rallied 1024% (from $4.50 to just under $50).

If we are right about this pattern setup and the future opportunities it may present, we could see Silver trading above $160 per ounce within 4 to 7 years.  Can you guess where Gold would likely be trading if Silver rallied 1000% from current levels?  Don’t miss this next big move in the metals.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Trading Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

I put together this video that will calm you down, because knowing where are within the stock market cycles, and the economy makes all the difference.

This is the worst time to be starting a business that’s for sure. I have talked about this is past videos and events I attended that bear markets are fantastic opportunities if you can retain your capital until late in the bear market cycle. If you can do this, you will find countless opportunities to invest money. From buying businesses, franchises, real estate, equipment, and stocks at a considerable discount that would make today’s prices look ridiculous (which they are).

Take a quick watch of this video because it shows you what I expect to happen over the next 3-6 months, and beyond and it goes against what everyone else is thinking.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals 
before closing this page, so you don’t miss my next special update!

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

In this last segment of our multi-part research article, we want to highlight our expectations of the Covid-19 virus event and how the next 6+ months of global market activity may play out.  We’ve covered some of the data points we believe are important and we’ve touched on the collateral damage that may be unknown at this time.  Today, we’ll try to put the bigger picture together for investors to help you understand what we believe may be the 12+ month outcome.

As the global central banks and US Fed attempt to come to the rescue, the reality is that monetary policy works better when consumers are able to actually go out and engage in spending and economic activity.  If the Covid-19 virus event contracts global consumer activity, as it has recently, for an extended period of time (4 to 6+ months), then we have a real issue with how QE efforts and consumer activity translate into any real recovery attempt.

The real risks to the global markets is an extended risk that the Covid-19 virus creates a contracting economic environment for many months/quarters and potentially fosters an environment where extensive collateral damage to corporations, consumer activity, credit/debt markets, and other massive financial risks boil over.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals 
before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

News is already starting to hit that QE is not helping the deteriorating situation in the Mortgage banking business.  Remember, this is the same segment of the financial industry that started the 2007-08 credit crisis event.  News that mortgage lenders and bankers are already starting to experience margin-calls and have attempted to contract their exposure to the risks in the markets (a bit late) are concerning.  This is a pretty big collateral damage risk for the global markets.

Additionally, as we expected, applications for new mortgages have collapsed to their lowest level since 2009.  Until consumers feel confident in their ability to get out, engage in real economic growth and take on home loans they know are relatively secure in their ability to repay – there is going to be a continued market contraction.  The next phase of this contraction is a price reduction, forced selling/foreclosures and a glut of assets waiting for a bottom.

“Home-purchase applications dropped by 14.6% while

refinancing applications plummeted 33.8%… “

I think the most important aspect of this global virus event is to remember that we will survive it (in some form) and we will live to rebuild after this event completes.  Yet, the reality is that we were not prepared for this event to happen and we don’t know the total scope of this Covid-19 virus event.  We simply don’t know how long it will take to remove the threat of the virus and for societies to reengage in normal economic activity – and that is the key to starting a real recovery.

Hong Kong has recently reported a “third wave” of Covid-19 infections.  I believe we should attempt to learn from places like Hong Kong, where news is moderately accurate and reported via social media and other resources.  If we want to learn what to expect in the US and how the process of containing this virus may play out, we need to start learning from other nations that are ahead of us in the curve.

It appears that any attempt to resume somewhat normal economic activities while the virus is still active spouts a new wave of infections.  This would suggest that the only way to attempt to reengage in any somewhat normal economic activity would be when a vaccine or true medical cure is in place to allow nations to attempt to eradicate the virus as these waves continue. (Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/third-wave-hong-kong-thought-it-had-a-handle-on-coronavirus-it-doesnt-2020-03-23 )

The price collapse in 2008-09 represented a -56% decline from top to bottom.  Currently, the S&P has fallen by just over 35%.  We don’t believe the bottom in the US stock market has setup just yet and we do believe there is a greater downside price risk ahead.  We don’t believe the housing market will be able to sustain any of the current price levels for much longer.  We believe the collateral damage of this event is just starting to be known and we believe a greater economic contraction is unfolding not only in the US but throughout the globe.

Skilled traders need to understand the total scope of this event.  We’ve attempted to highlight this risk in this article and in our “Crunching Numbers” research article (PART III).  An economic contraction, like the Covid-19 virus event, could contract global GDP by as much as 8 to 15% over an extended 16 to 36+ month span of time.  Are we concerned about the Real Estate market?  You Bet!  Are we concerned about global markets?  You Bet!  Are we prepared for this as traders? You Bet!  Are the central banks global nations prepared for this? We certainly hope so.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Yesterday I had a great call with Moe Ansari, who has over 40 years of experience trading and investing. We talked about the market and some technical analysis as to what we think about everything happening right now.

Moe and I share a comment thought which is:

IT IS NOT WHAT YOU MAKE, IT IS
WHAT YOU KEEP THAT COUNTS.

I have been pounding on the table for weeks since we closed out last trade in TLT for 20.07% profit on Feb 23rd, that cash is king, and it is more important to avoid uncertainty than it is to try and trade the random and volatile price action.

Subscribers of my ETF trading newsletter love the fact that our trading portfolio is at a NEW HIGH WATERMARK, and we completely sidestepped this market correction, which turned into a full out market crash.

I won’t lie. I knew a market correction was starting, which is why I adjusted our trailing stops to protect us if things began to turn south. But I did not expect a market collapse that would start a new bear market.

The good news is that because I strictly use technical analysis, position-sizing, and management of positions for profit-taking and trailing stops. We will never be caught on the wrong side of the market for more than a few days. So when a market collapse happens like what we are experiencing now, it does not affect our financial outlook.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

As you may or may not know, the markets have a way of making it extremely difficult to trade in general almost all of the time if you do not have a trading plan.

One of the ways the market likes to pull money from traders is through morning opening gaps. For example, yesterday, the inflow of emails about gold, silver, and gold miners was insane. I keep trying to keep everyone in check with how to handle high-risk, high uncertainty, and volatile times, which, for our case right now, is a cash position for a few more days.

Unfortunately, big moves in price trigger emotions with some of you. It causes you to start trading just because you think you need to trade, which can be for many different reasons I won’t get into here. You should know my stance by now, which is cash is a position, and retaining our capital is more important than trading some times.

I know for a fact that all successful traders have a detailed trading plan, they can control their emotions, are logical, and they wait for opportunities vs. jumping at anything that moves more than normal.

Below is our portfolio equity curve, which we hit an all-time new high just days after the stock market started its crash. Maybe if you see what your portfolio growth curve would look like if you followed my trades, you will finally see the value in CASH.

I don’t trade a lot, and we are in cash when we don’t have any positions. Other times we will have 2 or 4 positions open, but it all depends on the market and volatility. You want trading to be simple, boring, and profitable, trust me on this.

PORTFOLIO GROWTH CHART

AVERAGE PORTFOLIO RESULTS THIS YEAR

Ok, enough of that rant, BACK TO MORING PRICE GAPS!
The stock market loves to do most of the day’s price range and profit potential in a way the average trader is not able to catch the move. Even more so, it is trying to get traders the worst entry or exit price.

New members over time will see and understand this when I talk about these gaps getting faded in my morning videos, which I will explain in a minute. For now, let’s take a look at the price of gold and the market sentiment from yesterday.

Yesterday gold traders were acting like a school of piranha’s. A big one day pop in price is like a drop of blood in the water, and it created a feeding frenzy. There was so much momentum going into the closing bell that the market makers will take advantage of this and walk the price up in pre-market trading the next day and try to reach the next resistance level before the opening bell.

This is what happened to gold, and miners this morning.  Market makers know there are still a ton of gold and miner stock buyers out there who are going to BUY as soon as the market opens, so what happens?

The general public pays the high price, way up at resistance, and the market makers get to sell any access shares they have for a huge profit. After that, the price generally fades (falls) back down, and the majority of buyers that day just bought at the high because of pure emotions and a lack of understanding. This happens for gaps to the downside as well in a similar manner.

Now, keep in mind, this is a very short term price action. The gap may fade down over the rest of the session or a few days, but it does not mean the uptrend is the price is finished longer term.

My point is, the market has a way to get you a bad fill MOST of the time if you do not understand how and why the price moves the way it does. Even if you know all this, sometimes we have no choice to pay the price depending on the trade setup if we want to get into a position. I just wanted to share this small tidbit on how the market moves with price gaps because almost all price gaps fill, fade back down to the previous days high for the stock indexes. Commodities gaps don’t always fill, because they are a very different asset class than equities.

MY CURRENT OUTLOOK AND THINKING FOR GOLD, SILVER, AND MINERS?

In short, gold is the only one in a bull market, and it’s been the definite leader time and time again for the past year almost. It remains in a bull market, and all the money printing/QE, and zero interest rate things are very bullish on metals long term. I like gold a lot, have for a while. I think it’s going higher still as I pointed out in yesterday’s afternoon video, $2600 is my primary target long term. If you didn’t watch yesterdays afternoon video be sure to do so here:

Members video: https://www.thetechnicaltraders.com/memberships/wbn/monday-afternoon-video-update/

As for gold miners and silver, well today is the same story as yesterday, everyone wants to own them and thinks they are missing the train. How you should see these charts and how to best trade them I tell you in yesterday’s afternoon video.

Trading now, in my opinion, is pure speculation and emotionally driven. Sure, you could be right, and this could be the bottom, but as technical traders using rules, logic, and a proven strategy, we are not cowboys trying to pick a bottom to be early. A broken clock is right two times a day. You may get lucky, but because bottom picking without any technical confirmation is a sucker’s (gamblers) game in the long run.

As our portfolio graph above speaks for its self, in that we do not need to catch every move, in fact, we just need to catch a couple of low-risk trades and slowly build our capital.  I was told by one of my mentor traders years ago, once trading becomes slow and boring to you, that’s when you finally understand the market and have a proven trading strategy.

I hope you find this helpful, and if you want this type of info every day, plus my videos, and winning trading strategy, become a member right now!

Chris Vermeulen
Chief Market Strategist
www.TheTechnicalTrader.com

In this second part of our research into the potential collateral damage, the Covid-19 global virus event may cause in the housing and commercial real estate markets, we want to start by sharing some information that severe cracks are already starting to appear in the entire system.

Hedge funds and banking institutions may already be feeling the pressure to attempt to contain the losses that are piling up (source: https://www-bloomberg-com).

An extended decline in the global markets will continue to place pressure on institutional financial markets, banks, hedge funds, and other traditional lending and investment firms.  Investors will start to pull investment capital away from risk (out of the markets and funds) and may expose some of these larger institutions’ excessive leverage and risk exposure in the process.

This is almost exactly what happened with Bernie Madoff when his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, collapsed in December 2008.  As long as there was no pressure on his firm from clients pulling out capital or asking too many questions, he was allowed to continue running his Ponzi scheme.  Once investors started pulling capital out of the firm and questioning the transactions/reports, it became evident that it was all a house of cards and would come crashing down quickly.

If larger investment firms and hedge funds are attempting to “buy the dip” at this point in time, we believe they are making a grave mistake.  We believe the downside risks associated with the Covid-19 virus event are just starting to unfold and the collateral damage that may come from this massive global shutdown that is currently taking place will be unprecedented.  We don’t believe there has been anything like this happening in any recent history – even WWII pales in comparison to this event.

News is starting to hit the wires about large investment firms and Real Estate investment companies sounding the alarm  The one news item out this weekend that caught our attention was this one from https://www-bloomberg-com. The fear is evident in the short content of this news article.

“Loan repayment demands are likely to escalate on a systemic level, triggering a domino effect of borrower defaults that will swiftly and severely impact the broad range of stakeholders in the entire real estate market, including property and homeowners, landlords, developers, hotel operators, and their respective tenants and employees,” he wrote.

Just take look at the foreclosures in the major cities starting to spike in the maps below. This was before the virus closed down most businesses, and everyone losing their jobs. Give the fact that 70% or more of the world lives pay-check to pay-check, foreclosures and real estate values are likely to plummet lower to an extreme similar to how overpriced they are now.

I have talked about his in some presentations, and in videos in the past how real estate is grossly overvalued and when the music stops, prices will tumble. Huge opportunities for those who can preserve their capital until the recession matures enough will be able to buy real estate, businesses, and equipment for pennies on the dollar, but this will take another 1-2 years from now I imagine, but it will be great for those with money on hand when things get ugly.

Be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

CURRENT LOS ANGELES FORECLOSURE MAP
(SOURCE: ZILLOW.COM)

CURRENT SAN FRANCISCO FORECLOSURE MAP
(SOURCE: ZILLOW.COM)

CURRENT NEW YORK FORECLOSURE MAP (SOURCE: ZILLOW.COM)

Many of you may remember my Crunching Numbers article from just a week ago where I attempted to model what I believe would be the likely outcome of US GDP over the next 5+ years?  Well, it now appears others are following up with their own predictions for US GDP.   Based on some of the expectations within this Bloomberg article, my predictions pale in comparison to these comments.  Source: https://www.bloomberg.com

Now, let’s try to be realistic about how this entire process is likely to take place.  We know the economy will find a base (at some point) and attempt to recover from this virus event.  The question is what does that base look like and where is the bottom?

We won’t really know where the bottom is in the global markets until most of the unknowns have been processed, most of the collateral damage has been identified and processed, and consumers realize the bottom is in sight.  At that point, there is a real chance that the global markets will begin a recovery process that may eventually push to new all-time highs.

What we’re concerned about right now is the Q1 and Q2 economic activity and how that relates to consumer markets, credit markets, existing business enterprises and the potential collateral damage to hard assets like homes, commercial real estate and other foundations of wealth.  We believe the first few dominos of this event will be the collapse of jobs, earnings, and consumer spending.  The longer the global stays in a mostly shutdown economic environment, the greater the risks these critical numbers will implode – possibly taking with it the rest of the economy.

We believe the suspension of Foreclosures for a potential 12 month period may not reduce the total number of foreclosures across the US, we believe it may compound the problem.  The suspension effort is designed to help people stay in their homes if their incomes become threatened or lost.  But the reality is that a Foreclosure suspension will simply start to build larger and larger numbers of properties in foreclosure (waiting for the suspension to be lifted) while home prices potentially collapse.

We’ll dig into more data in Part III of this article and attempt to illustrate the data we believe will point to a clearer picture of how all of this may unfold in the near future.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

If you do not understand implied volatility and you are buying put or call options or some combination, you have been warned!

The market continues to move very fast, has large swings, and one would think that makes it an excellent time to buy options for huge gains, right? Our Research Team believes that large Volatility swings will be here for a while. Once you understand the significant role Volatility plays in Option Pricing, you may want to avoid this investment construct for some time to come.

The VIX is at an extreme level and has only been over 50 only seven times in the past 25 years based on a daily closing price. It evident the last two trading sessions the investment sentiment has been bearish and option puts make money if price declines, which has been the popular trade of choice until now.

What many options traders do not understand, however, is that the price of options is configured using implied volatility.

The more volatility, the more expensive the options become to factor in the wild swings the underlying security may experience. This is reflected in the price the option trades off to factor in the fear and trepidation.

This can be seen in the substantial premium on top of the intrinsic pricing from the strike price.

Be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals before closing this page, so you don’t miss our next special report!

For example, bank stocks are usually considered very conservative when implied volatility is under 20. This results in options being priced accordingly.

However, in the last few trading sessions, volatility has jumped, reaching 62 at one point this week already, which is more than 3x what you would want when simply buying options. This is a VERY HIGH RISK and a difficult time to buy options. Unfortunately, this is what most options traders do, they BUY options, and while it may work in most market conditions, this is most likely NOT the time you want to do so until such time Volatility and VIX begin to subside and we do not see that in the near future.

Let me try to explain in the most basic laymen terms because I know 95% of options trades don’t really get this, and it boggles my mind. As you know, or should know, buying options is one of the riskiest and hardest ways to profit from the market, in my opinion (and statistics continue to prove this out as MOST option buyers LOSE money). I traded options years ago and do very little options trading now, though they are still a great way to make money with certain trade setups and in certain market conditions.

OPTIONS RISK #1: TIME DECAY/THETA

In short, trying to time the market with an index, stock, sector, commodity, or currency is hard enough, but when you buy options, you make things a whole lot harder for yourself. Not only do you need to time this almost perfectly so that the underlying asset has time to move, but you need to time it with precision because now the time is your enemy (Theta).

Every day the option contract you bought is going to lose value because you lose time, and there are fewer days left for your asset to move in the direction to make up for the large premium embedded in the option price. Each day this time premium begins to erode. The closer you get to the time expiration, the faster the time premium decays.

OPTIONS RISK #2: IMPLIED VOLATILITY

This is the main issue I want to share and the reason for writing this article for you.

If options are valued in relation to implied volatility (which they are), then when the volatility is above 50 (62 as of Monday, March 9) and the option is worth $1,00.

Here is the issue, even if the price of your asset stays the same, but the fear in the market fades away as it always does from this extreme level, your option value will decline dramatically. I’m just using numbers out of thin air for the example so you can grasp the issues easily.

If implied volatility drops from 62 down to 35, the option contract value will go down with the volatility as well. The $1.00 contract priced with huge volatility could now be worth $0.85 overnight.

If you traded a short-term option contract, then you will also have time decay, and your option would drop even more to say $0.82.

Remember this is the type of price action you will experience and the VIX falling (and fear subsiding) and even if your asset price just stays the same you have the potential for a significant loss and is the reason why buying options during extreme high volatility is not the trade that should be taken.

OPTIONS TRADING TIP

If implied volatility is over 25 then 
it is usually better to be a seller of options, 
if it’s under 25, then its often better to be a buyer.

So what does a trader do? 

We encourage investors to use probabilities to work in your favor!

You could put on debit spreads: This way, some of the volatility is reduced as you sell a put or call, so the volatility premium is now in your favor, and time decay is mitigated.

OR

Sell it to those people that are so sure of this big move!

We have already identified that we are in a period where the VIX in an area very rarely seen. But since the VIX can stay here for a while, a more logical option move may be to sell calls going out into the future. Due to contango, it will retrace back down as the contango effect will begin to change as trader sentiment improves, and fear is reduced.

Credit spreads have so many advantages over simply buying calls and puts

  • Defined risk – Can only lose the difference of your strikes less the premium received.
  • If the trade starts to go against, you have backup options to manage risk.
  • Roll the trade to a future date giving your trade time to work out.
  • Sell another option spread opposite of your existing trade (if a put spread on place a credit call spread, this creates an iron condor) now giving you a larger cushion for the trade to work as you received more premium.
  • Buyback the offending strike at a loss and let the profitable strike run if you feel it has legs.
  • Buy a put to defend your spread further out in time as theta decay does not get affected as quickly.
  • Use a stop loss of 2x or 3x premium received etc.
  • or take possession of the stock
  • Income – selling out of the money credit spreads can be an effective way of generating a passive revenue stream

RISK REWARD is most important, and it is critical to get into the right trade at the right time. Remember that theta-neutral trades and buying options are when implied volatility is low. Selling options, when implied volatility is high, is your best option.

  • This is where we are right now.

I hope this helps shed some light on the basics of why buying options during high volatility is an uphill battle, no matter how good your timing is to predict the movement of the underlying asset you are trading.

In the near future, my team and I will make our options trades available to follow. As you know, timing the market is our specialty. Knowing what time frame an asset will rally or breakdown, and how far its first move will give us a distinct advantage to pinpoint the ideal option contracts to consider buying or selling for maximum short-term gains.

Happy Trading!

Chris Vermeulen
 www.TheTechnicalTraders.com 

Since 2009 the stock market has had for major waves of investor fear (volatility) take place which was in 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2018. Each time the market corrected we saw a drop anywhere from 12% – 18% and both traders and investors became emotional and started selling assets in fear of lower prices. What we are experiencing right now is the same sort of setup once again.

These waves of panic selling are a signature pattern of a mini-crash and they have similar outcomes each time which I will share with you here so you know what to expect and how to trade this rare market condition.

It takes a lot to convince the masses to reach this level of fear. Each of these mini-market crashes there has been some catalysts to further induce fear/selling. This time its Covid-19 that is tipping the scales.

Only two assets have acted as a safe haven which is bonds, and gold. Once again everyone has been piling into these over the past week, and even more so on Friday with Bonds surging 6.5% at one point during the session.

What does it mean when everyone is buying bonds and gold like this?

Where should you put your money to work going forward?
If you are thinking of buying bonds or gold you may want to think again.

Take a look at the charts for gold and bonds below when fear and the volatility index (VIX) have reached the level we experienced last week.

WEEKLY CHART OF GOLD, AND THE VIX PERFORMANCE

The chart below is straight forward. The bottom yellow section is the level of fear (VIX), while the top candlestick chart is the price of gold.

This chart shows what happens to the price of gold when everyone becomes fearful. Gold tends to rally as fear rises and the VIX spikes. But once the VIX has spiked the price of gold will trade sideways for many weeks and eventually have a deeper correction.

While gold could see more fear-based buying in the next week or two I feel most of the upside potential has always been realized and your money will be stuck in an underperforming asset when it could be deployed elsewhere in the market.

WEEKLY CHART OF BONDS (TLT), AND THE VIX PERFORMANCE

The below chart of bonds is a little different in how it reacts to extreme broad-based fear. Bonds tend to trade sideways or higher for a few several weeks and this is because bonds are really the core safe-haven play amount investors and financial advisors.

When extreme fear hits the market and spooks the masses it can take weeks for all those buy and hold investors recognize the market weakness and take action selling their stocks and moving their money into bonds. This buying pressure on bonds is a slow trickle-in effect as advisors have clients call them and demand they put their money into a low-risk investment like bonds.

Bonds do have another interesting twist for last week’s particular price action. Only three times since 2008 have I seen bonds move 20% in value within a short period of time which is what they reached last week. Within  1-3 weeks from a 20%+ gain, the price of bonds has corrected on average 11.5%.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

In short, my 23 years of technical analysis experience in reading charts, and statistical analysis is telling me we should be looking at different asset classes to trade over the next couple of months.

On Friday at the opening bell subscribers and I closed our TLT bond trade for a 20.07% gain. During that time the stock market crashed 14.5% which we avoided because of our technical analysis which closed our long SP500 position before the big drop.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial markets and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

The recent price breakdown in the US stock market (near the end of February 2020) prompted a very big spike in the VIX – could we see another HUGE spike with a deeper price selloff in the near future?

Our researchers believe this first downside price rotation in the US stock market may be just the first downside move in what may become a “waterfall” price event where price declines in a series of downside price waves reaching an ultimate support level.  The way the VIX works is to attempt to normalize implied volatility based on available options call and put data over a 30-day span.  The process of normalizing this data attempt to eradicate outlier data from the equation.  Thus, a VIX level of 40 has likely resulted in completed data that attempts to eliminate outlier data points that may have resulted in a much higher VIX value.

After this recent rally in the VIX level, the current normalization process will likely take the current range of the VIX (options data) into consideration for future VIX levels.  Thus, in order for the VIX to reach levels above 40 again, a much bigger downside price move would have to take place – possibly pushing the SPY to levels near $260 or lower.  A move like this would have to happen in an aggressive type of price decline in order for the VIX to rally back above 40.  Is this something we should expect in the near future?

Options Traders Be Aware: In our next post, we will touch one why trading options in this type of market condition is a major NO-NO.

Be sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals newsletter before closing this page so you don’t miss our next special report!

Our researchers believe the likelihood of a price decline like this is greater than 60% at this time.  We believe a Waterfall type of price event is unfolding where the price will attempt to source out true support levels as global central banks position ahead of any economic fallout for Q1 and Q2 of 2020.  It is because of these expectations that we believe global traders and investors will suddenly pull capital away from risk, into CASH and safe-havens while the unknowns of the global economic situation play out.  This dramatic shift from just 30 days ago may push the VIX to levels above 50 or 60 if we experience another aggressive selloff.

Liquidity becomes a major problem as Algos begin to pull capital out of the markets – like the FLASH CRASH of years ago.  This type of activity is already happening as many of our Algos and those of some of our friends have already started identifying severe risk factors in the markets as ATR and VIX have skyrocketed.  This lack of liquidity in the global markets could prompt an extended FLASH CRASH type of price event over the next 30 to 60+ days – possibly multiple FLASH events.

DAILY VIX CHART

This Daily VIX chart highlights the scale of the second Waterfall price event that recently took place.  The first Waterfall price move took place in early February and was very minor – yet our researchers caught it.

WEEKLY VIX CHART

This Weekly VIX chart highlights what we believe to be a likely scenario where VIX normalizes to levels below 25 over the next 2~3 weeks before another downside Waterfall event takes place as Q1 earnings data is about to hit the markets (near the end of March or early April).  It makes perfect sense to us that revisions and announcements will begin to hit the news wires relating to missed earnings and profit expectations near the end of March 2020.  If the Coronavirus is still working its way through Europe, the Middle East, and North America, we could be set up for a shocking April 2020 as Q1 earnings are announced.  This is what we believe will send the VIX skyrocketing to levels above 45~50 potentially.

A 25 to 35 day period of relative calm (2~3+ weeks) before earnings data starts to funnel into the news cycle.  Come early April, if companies have not yet already adjusted guidance, we could be in for a series of surprises that shock the US stock market and send the VIX skyrocketing.

SMART CASH INDEX SHOW GLOBAL EQUITY TREND

Our Smart Cash Index has recently broken below historical support channels and may begin to move into a new downward price channel soon.  This would be the first time in over 8+ years that this lower price channel has been seriously threatened in this manner.  A new downward price channel setup could indicate some extended downside price moves are in our future.  These types of downside price moves could indicate a broader global move away from risk as trader attempt to move capital into the safety of CASH and other investments.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

As we’ve been warning for many months, 2020 is sure to be a very exciting year for skilled traders.  Don’t miss any of these incredible opportunities for broad sector swings and bigger moves in the US and Global stock markets.  These are the types of price swings that can make fortunes for skilled traders who are ahead of the bigger moves.

In fact, on Friday while traders and investors were down 15% with equities subscribers and I locked in 20.07% profit on our TLT trade and we avoided the equities collapse all together using my proven technical analysis strategies.

As a technical analysis and trader since 1997, I have been through a few bull/bear market cycles. I believe I have a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for both short-term swing trading and long-term investment capital. The opportunities are massive/life-changing if handled properly.

I urge you visit my ETF Wealth Building Newsletter and if you like what I offer, join me with the 1-year subscription to lock in the lowest rate possible and ride my coattails as I navigate these financial market and build wealth while others lose nearly everything they own during the next financial crisis. Join Now and Get a Free 1oz Silver Bar!

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com