A Gold Bull Stops Running

By Brad Zigler

Oh, my. A long-time gold bull has decided he won't slash his horns at the red cape any longer.

Monday's Gartman Letter offered the stunning news that its editor, Dennis Gartman, was bailing from his long-held bullishness on gold. Gartman then telegraphed his trading intentions, saying he'd use the rebound from Friday's sell-off to exit his entire long position.

This is the first time in three years that Gartman, whose widely followed newsletter is directed mostly to hedge funds and brokerages, hasn't held a positive outlook on the yellow metal.

Gartman cited a waning in the gold market's relative strength this year, noting it was "a circumstance that has bothered us but which we were willing to overlook so long as new highs were being made." The market's failure to reach higher price plateaus, says Gartman, indicates the bullish trend has been broken.

Friday's market was, indeed, scary, featuring a nearly $24 gap-lower opening in the COMEX June delivery at $919 an ounce, followed by selling down to $907.50. The contract struggled to a mid-range close at $915.20. Monday's market opened $8 higher and reached for the $931 level before settling near session lows at $917.60. Tuesday morning's market carried over short covering from the overnight trade. Technical signals are tipping over to the bearish side, putting June's support at $907 in trader's sights. If that's taken out, the next stopping point looks to be $876.

June COMEX Gold

Comments

[aztex66:]

Gartman is the Boone Pickens of Gold. Once Gold breaks new highs Gartman will reverse course just as Pickens did with oil.

Oh by the way, most gold bulls need to jump ship to resume the gold rally, looks like Gartman and his followers may be the catylyst needed. Thanks Dennis.

Aztex66 in Glendale, AZ

2008 Apr 22 08:31 PM

[01GTvert:]

I agree with axtex66...Gartman is a paid shill who's trying to divert investors towards equities to keep the gold bull in its pen. European CBs have been selling off gold like crazy at discount prices to keep the price down. The BIG question here is....how long can they keep it up?

2008 Apr 23 02:27 AM

[EIguy:]

I think gold may be settling into a trading range confined to the neighborhood it's in right now. But if the price begins to fall, I'll be considering buying up more sometime in the future.

2008 Apr 23 07:02 AM

[Don-100:]

One could argue that gold is overbought currently, as happened in May of 2006. This does not change the facts that the long term fundamentals are strongly bullish.

2008 Apr 23 07:56 AM

[Kimblake:]

Nothing has changed to support the dollar, the small cap gold stocks are washed out, I am going to take this as a contrarion indicator and look for value in the small caps.

2008 Apr 23 09:27 AM

[ussmls7:]

I believe if you read comments from GATA.org ,Gartman has other things on his mind, like to know them? He knows that the Fed, along with Goldmans & JP Morgan Chase are heavy into price supression. What I dont understand, where is the MSM, when proof has taken front stage. It leads us to think, even the news is rigged!

2008 Apr 23 09:59 AM

[jt:]

ussmls7...you're dead on right about Gartman, and 01GT, absolutely right also that he's a shill. Despite GATA's massive PUBLIC proof of its claims, Gartman has done NOTHING but make fun of them.

But on the news being "rigged"...ya think??...I say only if Pravda was rigged...ya think?? Ask journalists around the world. As of the past 5 years or so, the US press has been ranked as one of the absolute WORST in the WORLD for trying to get real eyewitness news printed...worse than a number of countries with absolute dictators!! It is controlled to the max...and it is owned and controlled by the very ones that own and control this country's money supply.

If you want to know who the MSM is now...go read George Orwell's 1984--they are the purveyors of "governmentspeak." And they will tell you EVERYthing they want you to know and to think. Count on it. jt

2008 Apr 23 03:06 PM

[User 30121:]

To those of you who made comments above, its obvious there's a lot of "yellow talent" here. Me, I'm just buying gold/silver at opportunistic prices. Heck, I'll follow it (buying) as far down as it wants to go, because when gold/silver turn the corner--and it will in 2008--its gonna be F-U-N, F-U-N, F-U-N!

2008 Apr 24 05:45 PM

[maher:]

Gartman is an idot: when oil goes up for one day he is bullish the next day, and when gol dgoes down for 2 days he is bearish the next day on Fast Money.

I have no idea why he is even in a position that he is vis a vis the media.

Oh I get it now: He is a PAID mole in the media!

Personally, I will not listen to ANYTHINg this idiot corporate fat Stooge has to say.

2008 Apr 24 06:00 PM

[dandy:]

Yep! He's right. Everything has changed overnight. Didn't you notice. WoW! It was amazing. The dollar is rebounding and has amazing ammounts of support. In fact, expensive oil at it's highs is actually good for the dollar for the first time in history. SO is the war and the major worldwide food shortages. These have changed too. Now everyone in the world has all the food they can eat. Yeah! All of the bailouts and interest rate drops have also helped the dollar for the first time in history. There is no more bullish case for metals. Also, some new mines were discovered yesterday creating a massive over supply accross the world.
Now Gold and Silver are coming out our ears and they will stop gaining value and start subsiding. Wow things change so fast just from some very smart analysts. What a genious. This isn't a volatile correction in a very bull market that just had a major run. NO, this is the end of the bull run. It just reached the highest it can get and so naturally everything has to change around without any real catalyst.
MORONNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!...

2008 Apr 25 10:55 AM