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When To Get Aggressive With Your Portfolio And Gold Vs Gold Stocks

Chris Vermeulen, Founder of The Technical Traders joins Cory Fleck of Korelin Economics Report to discuss general strategies and market outlook for US stocks and precious metals. He argues that now is still the time to have a cash-heavy strategy.

As for Gold and gold stocks they are still in very different patterns. Gold continues to show strength and the stocks are doing well but still have yet to break out to get him excited.

Mr. Vermeulen has been a technical analysis and trader since 1997 and has been through a few bull/bear market cycles. He has a good pulse on the market and timing key turning points for short-term swing traders.

Visit his ETF Wealth Building Newsletter to follow him to success by riding his coattails while navigating these financial markets.

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Reality Check on Trading Equities & Precious Metals

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

Part II – We Are Concerned About The Real Estate Market

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

Coronavirus Induced Bear Market with Chris Vermeulen

Chris Vermeulen says money is moving just as it has in the past 5 waves of panic. This is a normal technical behavior in this type of market. There will be a huge move when money comes back into the stock market within several weeks. This will mark the first bounce in the bear market. All the countries of the world are pumping and dumping money into their economies.

Eventually, the music will come to an end. Dumping trillions may work out well for everyone, Americans, government, and investors. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a major plus for precious metals and mining stocks.

Click Here to Listen to the Audio

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

Four Key Questions To This Crisis Everyone is Asking

Recently, I was asked to participate in a live radio talk with Arnold Gay and Yasmin Wonkers at Money 89.3 Asia First and was sent the following questions to prepare for the show.  I thought this would be a great way to share my thoughts and expectations related to the Covid-19 virus, global economics and what the Central Banks are doing to combat this virus economic event.

The reality is that the bottom in the markets won’t set up until fear subsides and the unknowns related to this virus event are behind us.  Until then, the global markets will attempt to seek out the true valuation levels based on this fear and the unknowns.  This means true valuation could be much further away from current price levels as the virus event is still very fluid in nature.

I’ve included a few of our custom index charts to highlight exactly where the markets are currently situated and have attempted to explain my thinking related to these charts.  Please continue reading.

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

CUSTOM SMART CASH INDEX WEEKLY CHART

This first chart is our Custom Smart Cash Index Weekly Chart.  We had been expecting a breakdown in the US stock market last August/September 2019 (near the origination point of the line on the RSI pane) as our Super-Cycle system indicated a major breakdown was likely near the end of 2019 and into early 2020.

As the US Fed started pumping credit into the Repo market and the US/China trade deal settled over many months, a zombie-like price rally pushed prices higher through December 2019 and into early 2020.  We alerted our members that this was likely a blow-off rally and to prepare for greater risks.

You can see how dramatic the change in trend actually is on this chart.  We have broken the upward sloping price channel and moved all the way to the lower range of the GREEN downward sloping price channel.  This is HUGE.  Near these levels, we believe the US stock market will attempt to find support while continuing to rotate and setup additional “waterfall downside price events”.  These custom indexes help us to understand the “hidden side” of the market price action.

Chart by TradingView

WEEKLY CUSTOM US STOCK MARKET INDEX

This next Weekly chart is the Custom US Stock Market Index and we want you to pay very close attention to the fact that the recent lows have come all the way down to reach the upper range of the 2016 trading range.  Once the 2018 lows were breached, we knew the markets were setting up for a deeper downside price move.

We do believe this current level is likely to prompt some type of “Dead Cat Bounce” or moderate support though.  The entire range of 2016 (low, midpoint and high) are very much in play right now as these represent the current support levels for the US stock market.  We do believe some moderate support will be found near these levels – yet we have to wait for the price to confirm this bottom setup.

Chart by TradingView

WEEKLY CUSTOM VOLATILITY INDEX

This is our Weekly Custom Volatility Index and the extremely low price level on this chart suggests the US stock market may attempt to try to find moderate support soon.  We have not seen levels this low since 2009.  If the markets continue to push lower, this Custom Index will continue to stay below 6.0 as the price continues to decline.  Yet, we believe this extremely low price level may set up a bit of support near recent lows (within the 2016 range) and may set up a sideways FLAG formation before the next downside price leg.

Chart by TradingView

Please continue reading the questions (below) and answers/thoughts to those questions (below the questions).  We certainly hope this information helps you to understand and prepare for the next 6 to 12+ months as we believe the volatility and unknowns will persist for at least another 4 to 6+ months. But keep in mind the market dynamics change on a daily and weekly basis and if you want to safely navigate them and have a profitable year follow my analysis and ETF trades here

QUESTIONS:

1. Rates at zero, massive injections and coordinated central bank action… why isn’t the market convinced the situation is under control?

2. What are investors looking for now – A peak in coronavirus infection rates? A sense that a proper healthcare response is in place and won’t be overwhelmed?

3. The main issue seems to be that this is not a slowdown, but the sudden closure of economic activity, do you see massive fiscal support coming, including bailouts for sectors like airlines?

4. Do you get a sense that the White House finally gets it, and is now moving to reassure markets and ordinary Americans?

ANSWERS/THOUGHTS:

The markets are not reacting to what the global central banks are doing right now and probably won’t react positively until two things happen: fear of the unknown subsides across the globe and the total scope of the global economic destruction is assessed (think of this as TRUE PRICE VALUATION).  Right now, we are in the midst of a self-actuating supply and demand-side economic contraction that will result in a renewed valuation level as markets digest the ongoing efforts to contain/stop this virus.  Where is the bottom, I have an idea of where the bottom might setup – but the price will be what dictates if that becomes true.

If 2018 lows fail to hold as a support level, then we are very likely going to attempt to reach the 2016 trading range and I believe the midpoint and low price range of 2016 are excellent support levels for the market. I show the SP500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones index analysis and prediction in this video below.

What we are looking for in terms of closure of this event (or at least a pathway out of it) is some type of established containment of the event, the spread of the infections and the ability for governments and economies to begin to advance forward again.  As long as we are stuck in reverse and do not have any real control of the forward objective (meaning consumers, corporations and governments are reacting to this event), then we will have no opportunity to properly estimate forward expectations and advancement in local and global economies – and that is the real problem.

The White House and most governments get it and are not missing any data with regards to this virus event.  I truly believe that once this virus event ends and the general population gets back to “business as normal”, the world’s economy will, fairly quickly, return to some form of normal – with advancing expectations, new technology and continued global economic and banking functions.  Until that happens, which is the effective containment and control of this virus event, then no amount of money or speech writing is going to change anything.

Far too many people are acting emotionally and afraid right now.  The facts are simple; until we get a proper handle on this virus event, there will continue to be extended threats to our economy, people, families and almost every aspect of our infrastructure, banking, society and more.  Once the virus event is mostly contained and settled, then we can get back to business cleaning up this mess and finding our way forward.

I’m not worried too much, my research team and I advised our clients to move into bonds and cash before the drop in equities and have been warning our members of a “zombie-rally) for the past 5+ months which took place as expected.  We called for a “volatile 2020 with a very strong potential for a breakdown in global markets” near August 2019.  This is playing out almost exactly like we expected (except we had no idea a virus event would be the cause).

I firmly believe the global leaders and dozens of technology firms will have a vaccine and new medical advancements to address the Covid-19 virus.  I believe this event will be mostly behind us in about 90+ days.  What happens at that point is still unknown, but I believe we will be able to see a pathway forward and I believe all nations will work together to strengthen our future.

In closing, I urge everyone to try to relax a bit and understand this is a broad (global) market event with a bunch of unknowns.  It is not like the Fed can just throw money at this problem and make it go away.  This is going to be a process where multiple nations and various industries and groups of people will have to work together to reduce and eliminate this threat.  Because of that, there are no real clear answers right now – other than to be prepared for a few months of quarantine to be safe.

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

Market Volatility, Safe Havens, Gold, Crude Oil

Have we seen this pattern before?

Be prepared for some really ugly earnings data in Q2 and Q3 of this year, then we’ll figure out if our expectations were accurate or not and what we should be doing to plan going forward.

The type of market condition I think we have entered could be here for a long time, and it’s going to be a traders’ market, which means you must have a trading strategy, plan your trades, and trade your plan. It’s amazing how simple a few trading rules that are written down on paper can save you thousands of dollars a week or month from locking in gains or cutting losses.

I have this mini trading strategy mastery course if you want to take control of your trades and override your emotional issues. And also if you want to start making money from home which is the only option going forward the next 3-6 months from the looks of it my trading as a business program is something to think about doing.

– If you hold winners until they turn into losers

– Taking too large of a position and get stuck with a drawdown so large that if you close the position you will lose 10-50% of your trading account

– have masted the art of buying high and selling low repeatedly?

All these things happen to most traders, and they can easily be overcome with a logical game plan I cover in the crash courses, pun intended 🙂

In short, if you have lost money with your trading account this year giving back years of gains, I think it’s worth joining my trading newsletter so you can stay on top of the markets and if you really want to excel take my mini-courses. I take the loud, emotional, and complex markets and deliver simple common sense commentary and a couple of winning trades each month for you to follow.

My trading is nothing extreme or crazy exciting because I’m not an adrenaline trading junky. I only want to grow my entire portfolio 2-4% a month with a couple of conservative ETF trades. Earning 22% – 48% return on my capital every year without the stress of being caught up in this type of market, and knowing I have a proven bear market trading strategy incase this market continues to fall is a comforting thought.

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

Crunching Some Numbers – Our Researchers Share Their Data – Part II

Continuing our earlier multi-part research post related to our extensive number crunching and predictive modeling systems expectations going forward many years, (Part I) this second part will highlight some existing data points and start to discuss the concepts of what the Covid-19 virus event may do to the immediate global economy.  Remember, in the first part of this article, we shared research related to the US Fed Funds Rate (FFR) and how the Covid-19 virus event may create an environment of economic malaise over the next 12 to 24+ months as well as potentially disrupt the population and deficits over a 5+ year span.

This type of event is very similar to war (think WWII) in the sense that consumer spending changes, population growth, and levels change, GDP changes and deficits change for all involved.  Our researchers modeled the GDP levels from 2017 will now with the intent of attempting to identify probable outcomes of GDP output throughout the world over the next 5+ years.  Throughout these types of events, a massive capital shift takes place where consumers within areas impacted by war shift their spending and purchasing habits to address the immediate real needs of their attempted survival.  Speculation vanishes.  People only spend on things they are confident they can afford to risk their money on.  Anyone who is able to take advantage of the displaced or disparaged has a real opportunity to create some real gains if they don’t become the next displaced or disparaged individual.

Here is some data we used to model what we believe will happen over the next 2 to 5+ years as a result of the Covid-19 virus event.  We are using this global data as a basis for our modeling going forward and attempting to align 2018 and 2019 data with that reported by the St. Louis Federal Reserve data.  Our objective is to attempt to identify the scope and extend of any potential change in economic cycles going forward and to prepare our friends and followers of what to expect.

This data illustrates the scale and scope of the total global GDP output of all the nations on the planet for 2017.  It is important to understand that China and the United States are the two biggest GDP producers of all nations.  Between the US and China, both nations produce roughly 40% of the world’s total GDP annually.  When you consider all nations producing more than $1.5T in annual GDP on this graphic, these 12+ nations (including OTHERS) produce nearly 78% of the world’s total GDP annually.

The nations that make up this list of top GDP producing nations are:

These nations (and the group of nations listed as OTHERS) total almost 80% of total annual GDP across the entire planet.  Keeping in mind that we are attempting to model the Covid-19 virus event, which nations are likely to be the hardest hit on this list?  Obviously China, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and the United States are all prime targets of the Covid-19 virus event.  Brazil, Canada, France, India, and Others are secondary targets for GDP disruption.  Yet, their proximity to the price candidates makes them fairly easy targets for future GDP disruption related to the Covid-19 virus.

The point we are trying to make by illustrating this is that 80% of the world’s total GDP is at risk over the next 24+ months related to shifting consumer spending, central bank activities, asset valuation levels and much more.  We’re not talking about 4% or 5% of the world – we’re clearly showing you that 80% of the world’s total economic output is within the cross-hairs of this virus event.

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

Our modeling suggests the 2017 GDP levels presented by the image (above) and the subsequent yearly REAL GDP levels presented by the St. Louis Federal Reserve deliver this data as a basis for our modeling system.

Our attempted modeling of the Covid-19 virus event across global economies is based, in part, on what happened in the 2008-09 Credit Crisis event.  Throughout that span of time (2008 to 2009), US GDP fell -3.36% over 12 to 16 months.  The difference between this Credit Crisis event and the Covid-19 event is that the Covid-19 event appears to be disrupting a broader segment of economic sectors across dozens of nations/cities all at once.  Whereas the Credit Crisis event resulted in somewhat isolated asset and economic contractions related to banking, insurance, credit, and assets – the Covid-19 virus event appears to be much broader in scope and consequences.  Our researchers believe the Covid-19 virus event will reach nearly every segment of the global economy in some way or form – causing some type of economic disruption either in supply, demand or overall consumer activity related to the sector/economic component.  Therefore, we believe the scope of the contagion event related to Covid-19 will be, at a minimum, 2x to 3x the scale and scope of the Credit Crisis.

We’ve come to the conclusion that the disruption to earnings, revenues, expenses and other economic factors across a broad spectrum of global economic outputs may look something like this.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.png

We believe Q1 and Q2 of this year will be a disaster for almost all nations.  We believe there is a chance Q3 and Q4 2020 may see a moderately strong recovery (or the start of a recovery).  We believe winter 2020 and into 2021 may bring further influenza type illness and may begin the process anew.  Or, we believe the recovery process may be somewhat stalled in 2021 as we believe the fallout from the previous year may still be taking place across multiple asset classes and corporate level and banking/insurance level industries.  We believe that by mid-2022 and early 2023, the global economy will begin to find a solid foundation for future economic growth and that global GDP may begin to move higher overall.

We are basing our modeling process on the information we have gained from our experience in the markets and from living through the 2008-09 Credit Crisis event.  Far too many people fail to understand the contagion event process that takes place when consumers abandon traditional spending patterns as income levels become more “at-risk”.  As we’ve suggested many times in previous articles, consumer spending and the “flock mentality” is not something to underestimate.  Current GDP levels are calculated mostly by consumer spending activity.  Think about what that means going forward.

Here are some St. Louis Federal Reserve data charts that we used in attempting to model these results.

A potential further decrease in M2 (velocity of money) throughout this Covid-19 virus event is very likely.  This is one of the primary reasons we believe this event may last more than 24 months in total span.  We believe the continued decline of the M2 velocity level is a very strong indication that historical levels of economic activity (1965 through 1995) simply are not present in today’s global economic world.  This complicates how money is used within the global market – it is being engaged as active money transactions by a -30% ration than 1995 levels. If M2 continues to decline, we believe the consequence of this move will relate to an even slower recovery from the Covid-19 virus event.

In the next part of this article, we’ll explore the real data points and outlier expectations of the 2020 Covid-19 virus event.

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

Crunching Some Numbers – Our Researchers Share Their Data – Part I

This is one of those articles that are packed with resources showing your what to expect for various assets both long-term and short-term and will guide you through these volatile times and this year.

Our friends and followers continue to contact us asking what to expect and what should they be doing with their assets and trades?  Our research and analysis have been very clear up to this point; we warned of a Zombie Rally in early November and early December 2019, we warned that Oil would fall below $40 on November 15, 2019, and we warned of a global Black Swan event on January 26, 2020.

January 26, 2020: THE BLACK SWAN EVENT BEGINS

December 2, 2019: IS THE CURRENT RALLY A TRUE VALUATION RALLY OR EUPHORIA?

November 15, 2019: WHEN OIL COLLAPSES BELOW $40 WHAT HAPPENS? PART III

November 10, 2019: WELCOME TO THE ZOMBIE-LAND OF INVESTING – PART I

All of this research, in addition to our other research, was very clear that we believed the upside price rally that began in September/October 2019 was a “Zombie-like” price advance that didn’t have a supporting fundamental or technical foundation.  We were warning clients and followers to use this advance as a means to move away from risk and into more of a cash position – in preparation for a future event that we believed was setting up.  One of the clearest examples of our research team attempting to prepare our followers for what we expected in early 2020 was this post.

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

LIVE FROM NASDAQ

On Friday I was on TV “live from NASDAQ with TD Ameritrade” talking about the technical breakdown on the charts and what to expect here

S&P 500 TOPPING CHART PATTERN

This article highlighted our belief that a major topping pattern was set up and that this same price pattern happened just before other major peaks in the US stock market.  The Stealth, Awareness, and Mania Phases seemed to be in place – the only thing left was the Blow Off Phase.

This article, today, is going to attempt to share some additional research data developed by our team to help you better understand the potential future outcome of this unfolding event.  As with anything we share related to making future price predictions or analysis, this is all based on our research team’s understanding of various global economic fundamentals and expectations related to capital functions throughout the global economic environment.

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

Let’s get started…

FED FUND RATE & EXPECTATIONS

First, we want to share with you our modeling of the US economy and the Fed Funds Rate Optimal Levels which will assist all of us in understanding the future expectations and actions by the US Fed related to future economic modeling.  This chart, created by our research team in early 2018, attempts to model the optimal US Fed Funds Rate (FFR) levels based on a decline in population and GDP while US Deficits also decline moderately after 2020 – in other words, more of the same type of global economic functions.

If the Covid-19 virus pushes the GDP lower while government expenses increase and consumer spending/activity decreases, we believe this model is most likely a proper representation of what to expect by the US Fed going forward.  As you can see, this modeling system draws an expected FFR level in BLUE, a high variance level in PINK and a low variance level in GREY/TURQUOISE.  After the near-zero rates after the 2008-09 credit crisis, our model expected the Fed to begin raising rates in 2013 and for rates to peak near 2017.  We believe the US Fed was behind the curve in their actions to adjust the FFR levels throughout most of the past 8+ years.  Although, The US Fed has positioned current rates very near to where our predictive modeling system expects for 2020; between 1.25~1.50%.

The future of this model suggests the US Fed will normalize rates near 1.0% as early as 2022 or 2023 and keep rates near 1.0% until sometime near 2027 or so.  This model suggests a substantial advance in the US stock market may take place sometime between 2022 and 2028 – before it appears the US Fed will have to address another type of crisis event in near late 2028, or 2029, or early 2030.

How this chart plays into the current Covid-19 expectations is simple, the US Fed will have to attempt to lower rates while stimulating the US and global economies in conjunction with other Central Banks.  This modeling system does not take into consideration a pandemic event or other type of Black Swan event.  It does take into consideration modeled optimal levels based on a decrease in population, a decrease in GDP and an increase in US Deficits.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

The point of this article is to share some of our data and our future expectations with you, our friends and followers.  As we continue to post additional sections/parts of this article, we’ll dig deeper into our research and forward expectations.  Remember, we’ve just highlighted two charts that show potential global economic expectations well into and past 2030.  We’ve also shared some predictive modeling that suggests a period between 2021~22 and 2027 should be relatively calm and trendy (likely Bullish) for the US markets.  Keep this in mind as we continue our future article posts.

The type of market condition I think we have entered could be here for a while, a year or three, and it’s going to be a traders market, which means you must have a trading strategy, plan your trades, and trade your plan. It’s amazing how simple a few trading rules are written down on paper can save you thousands of dollars a year from locking in gains, or cutting losses. I have this mini trading strategy mastery course if you want to take control of your trades and override your emotional issues. It’s easy to hold winners until they turn into losers, taking to large of a position, or maybe you have masted the art of buying high and selling low repeatedly? Yikes! It happens to most traders, and it can easily be overcome with a logical game plan I cover in the crash course, pun intended 🙂

In short, if you have lost money with your trading account this year, holding some big losing trades that were big winners just a couple of weeks ago, I think it’s worth joining my trading newsletter so you can stay on top of the markets. I take the loud, emotional, and complex market and deliver simple common sense commentary and a couple of winning trades each month.

My trading is nothing extreme or crazy exciting because I’m not an adrenaline trading junky. I only want to grow my entire portfolio 2-4% a month with a couple of conservative ETF trades. Making 22%-48% return on my capital every year without the stress of being caught up in this type of market, feeling like I always need to be in a trad, and knowing I have a proven bear market trading strategy incase this market continues to fall is crucial for capital preservation, and my health.

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

Where’s the Bottom? – Cycles Paint A Clear Picture

Has the selloff ended?  When will it end?  What will the bottom look like and am I at risk of taking further losses?  What should I do?

Do you want to take a guess at how many of our friends and family members are calling us over the past week or so asking these questions?  Personally, I get bombarded with dozens of emails every day from friends and other family members asking “where’s the bottom?  What should I do?”.

This post is going to help you understand the structure of the markets and what is really happening.  Price always attempts to seek out new price highs or new price lows.  In this case, we are seeking out new price lows with a downside price rotation.  Price structure, which is normally discussed in Elliot Wave structures is the process of setting up new higher high or lower low waves as price rotates in a defined wave structure.  Keep in mind the broader wave structure that is currently unfolding.

Over the past 16+ months, we’ve suggested that the price rotation in 2018 was a Wave 4 downside price rotation of a Wave C upside price structure.  If our analysis is correct, the last rally we just experienced (ending near February 1, 2020) was the end of a Wave 5 upside price move that completed the Wave C upside price structure.  This would indicate a very real possibility that the current downside price trend is a Wave 4 downside price move.

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For readers that are not familiar with the Elliot Wave process/structure, each major wave (1 through 5 or A through C) can consist of various types of minor wave structures (as you can see from the middle chart in the example above.  The major wave 1 could consist of a 5 wave minor wave structure (as shown).  The major wave 2 could consist of a 3 wave minor wave structure (as shown) or even a downside 5 wave structure.

Going even further, each of these minor wave structure could consist of even smaller price wave structures.  These types of price rotations often populate in 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13 and 21 wave structures.  Unlocking the major wave count and minor wave count can help us unlock swing trading and day trading opportunities.

So, to put into context what we are attempting to convey to you is that we believe the peak in early February 2020 was the end of a major wave 3 and the start of a major wave 4 (to the downside).  Because the upside price wave 3 originated after the 2009-10 price bottom, we believe true support in the markets is likely the midpoint of the 2018 price rotation range or near the low price levels of 2018.  These price levels represent a very clear support level and low price target level that continues to follow the price structure rules of Fibonacci and Elliot Wave.  If the 2018 lows are breached and the markets continue to push lower, then we fall back to the 2016 price lows and midpoint level.

WEEKLY YM CHART – DOW JONES

This Weekly YM chart highlights the two lower MAGENTA lines that we believe represent clear price support for the Dow Jones (24,000 & 21,450).  At this point, the YM has already moved below the 24,000 level and closed trading on Monday, March 9, near 23,900.  Although this price level has breached the 24,000 level, we do not consider “support” a hard level (like concrete).  It is like water in many cases and it matters what price does when it reaches this level.  If price finds support near this level, it will begin to bottom out and potentially trade sideways before attempting to move higher.  If not, the price may stall near this 24,000 level before breaking down to the 21,450 level (or lower).

We do believe the INDU/YM will put in a bottom before the ES and NQ do.  Thus, we believe support will be found in the INDU/YM well before support is found in the other major US stock market indexes.

SPY WEEKLY CHART – S&P 500

This SPY Weekly chart highlights the same setup with the two MAGENTA lines we’ve drawn.  The first level of support for SPY is $261~$262.  We believe this midpoint of 2018 high to the low trading range will offer a fairly strong support level for the SPY to attempt to set up a price bottom.  Below that, the $234 level (the lower range of the 2018 trading year) would provide very clear support for the SPY.

The same type of price theory and expectations are at play on this chart as with the YM chart above.  The YM has already reached our first level of support, yet the SPY is still $12 away from this first support level.  This would suggest the YM may begin to set up some type of price support while the SPY may continue to trail a bit lower over time.

If this first level of support does not hold, then we would be looking for the 2018 price low levels (near $234) to become the next target for support.  Ultimately, the price must either continue to attempt to break previous low price points as it attempts to establish “new price lows” or, at some point, it will fail to break past lows and that is where it will find support.  The midpoint, often called the “belt line” (a Japanese Candlestick term) is used by technicians for two reasons: first, it represents 50% of a defined price range and, second, Japanese Candlestick theory teaches us the BeltLine is “the center of control” or price.  Once price breaks this level, then further trending may continue.

NQ WEEKLY CHART – NASDAQ

Lastly, this NQ Weekly chart with the three MAGENTA lines drawn on it.  The top line is the 2018 price peak level.  The middle line is the midpoint of the 2018 trading range.  The lower line is the bottom of the 2018 trading range.

The NQ has been the high-flying sector in the US stock market for many months.  You can see the massive rally that took place near the end of 2019 pushing the NQ up to nearly 10,000 before the recent correction.  Compared to the YM and SPY charts, it is easy to see the NQ rallied much stronger than the others.  This is why we believe the downside price move in the NQ could also be far greater in scope than the YM or SPY.

If the NQ falls to our midpoint level (near 6795), the NQ must call another -1100 points to reach this level.  Whereas the YM has already reached this critical price level and the SPY is only about $12 away from that same level.  Therefore, the NQ, in our opinion, could continue to trend broadly lower throughout Q1 and possibly into Q2 before finding any real support.

The low price range of 2018 puts final support for the NQ near 5,832.  From current levels, if price falls to this support level, it would total an additional -2066 point decline (-26.11%).  It would also represent a massive -40% selloff from the peak set in February 2020 (near 9763).

Where’s the bottom?  What’s next?  Our advice would be NOT to chase this selloff and NOT to attempt to bottom pick this move.  We believe the Covid-19 virus event will last well past April/May 2020 and we believe both Q1 and Q2 results will be far below expectations.  Therefore, we don’t believe any real bottom will setup before May, June or July of 2020 – after Q2 earnings are announced and contingent on the virus event subsiding and earnings starting to recover.  Otherwise, we could be “searching for a bottom” for quite a while yet.

Still, massive price rotations are taking place in the major markets and various sectors.  If you are a skilled trader and are able to manage risk properly, you should be able to identify multiple opportunities over the next 90+ days for incredible trades.  We know we certainly are finding them.

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

Why You May Want to Avoid Buying Options This Week

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.

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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