Chris Vermeulen's  Instablog

December 20, 2009
Gold Trends:
Gold has been leading the market for almost a year. Last week gold and gold stocks were trading at support looking ready to bottom but as you will see in my charts below, both broke support on heavy volume.

With gold now under performing the stocks market, I get the feeling we could see the broad market top. Topping is a process and after this strong climb I figure it will be choppy (tough to trade). Much like the price action on the Dow and S&P500 the past month, but this time it will be on a larger scale.

From a technical stand point the major indexes are trading at a key resistance zone from Oct 2008. This has been an amazing year for trading but I think the time has come for a correction or another melt down depending on how you view the US economy. It does not really matter which happens as we can play both directions.

As far as the fundamentals go, well the US economy in my opinion is scary. All I know is that if the markets start to melt down everyone better make BIG money on the way down because a severe correction will cripple the county as millions more will become unemployed. I am concerned that current recession may turn into a depression.

‘If’ we get another stock market meltdown, literally every asset class will go down with it. The only difference I think will be the trend of gold. Everyone has started to buy gold or at least thought about buying some.

‘If’ a meltdown occurs I think gold will go down in price at first with everything else, but if we are headed for another market collapse EVERYONE will turn to gold as the safe haven, triggering a massive parabolic spike straight up which could last years.

Enough of this negative talk, Lets take a look at the short term gold trends.

The trend of gold broke down from the red rising channel a couple weeks back as expected. We were taking profits at the $115 level.

The more recent price action shows two technical breakdowns on the daily chart and the small 60 minute overlaid chart. The daily breakdown crashed through our support trend line and the 60 minute chart shows the breakdown below the previous low. The price is currently trading at resistance and the odds now favor lower prices.

 

Silver is trading at support and has yet to break the previous low. I think we will see this happen in the next few days.

 

Oil had a great setup last week with many readers profiting from the oversold bounce off support which I pointed out on the daily chart last week. When buying into an oversold setup like this I scale in over 2-3 days in case prices dip lower as the selling dissipates. Average price was $35.75 and sold at first target of $37 for a 3.5% profit. Many of us still hold a core position with a tight stop.

The 60 minute chart shows this play and how the price popped once the sellers were cleared out.

 

Trend lines provide excellent levels for support and resistance and this chart is a perfect example of that. Not much to say about this chart other than UNG is trading at resistance and volume is big. This tells me we could see lower prices from here or some sideways price action first.

 

In short, the market is starting to correct as we thought. It still has more to go before testing support. But because this week is a holiday week, volume will be light and like volume favors higher prices. So we could see the highs tested or sideways action.

From looking at the monthly, weekly and daily charts of the major indices I think the market is about to have a sharp correction. If we get a breakdown then we are headed to the next support level which is about 9% down from the recent high in the DIA etf fund.

 

The trend of gold has been very predictable over the recent months and this correction seems to be text book pullback. I see the short term trend of gold still down but the longer and more powerful underlying trend is up. Let’s wait for the price of gold and silver to sort itself out and wait for low risk entry points before jumping back in.

Crude oil is in pinball mode. It’s just bouncing around between support and resistance levels now. Not much we can do but wait for another setup.

Natural gas is trading at resistance and if we get the proper price action in the next few days we could have a great short trade. Only time will tell.

The broad market trend is looking and feeling very toppy. A lot of money has been moving out of stocks the past 4 weeks and January could be a roller coaster. Last week I exited all my positions except XTR.TO (Energy and Financial dividend fund) which many of us took a position in late February and first week of March. I have set a tight stop and hoping to get the 4th dividend payout before it corrects.

I want to note that I am not going to be shorting the market until the bear trend is definitive. This could be 2-3 months down the road still. But after a great year of trading and the market and economy looking the way it does I am happy to be sitting in cash.

Dec 16th, 2009
It’s been a great week so far. Stocks and commodities are moving as expected from my weekend trading report. I like to see the market unfold in a calm collected manner.

The US dollar has made a nice move in the past couple weeks. Although it has broken out of its down channel I think there is a lot of short covering going on making this bounce more powerful than others. Also it is important to note that it is near resistance which could dampen things around the $77-77.5 level. If the dollar heads back down I expect gold to start making a move back up which it started to do Wednesday.

Below are my thoughts and charts about what I think is unfolding for both stocks and commodities.

DIA – Dow Jones Index Fund
The DIA fund has performed just the way I thought it would. Push to a new high then sell down. Generally I would expect this move down to test my support level or trade near that level, but because we are heading into the holiday season and volume is light the market has a natural tendency to drift higher. I’m sure this is why it’s still trading near the high.

This new yearly high was enough to suck in breakout traders and only time will tell if they get follow through or get shaken out of this trade also. Oh, the joys of buying a breakout in an over bought market condition.

 

GLD – Gold Exchange Traded Fund
Gold broke down sharply from its trend channel and has settled into a support zone. Wednesday we saw a nice bounce but the question is, is this a rally or a sucker’s bounce?
I’ve found the best setups and moves occur after an ABC retrace. The black lines on the chart show exactly that type of price action. These retraces shake out most short term traders before starting a new rally. There is a thin dotted blue line showing a possible resistance trend line which would need to be broken after the ABC retrace pattern has formed if we want a low risk setup with a sizable win/loss ratio.

 

SLV – Silver ETF Trading Fund
Silver is in the same boat as its big sister (Yellow Gold). We just need to wait for a high probability setup to present its self before putting any of our hard earned money to work.

 

USO – Crude Oil Fund
USO has provided some great short term gains for anyone who used my analysis from my Sunday night report. The quote and chart below covers my thoughts for USO.

Sunday night report:
“Oil broke down out of its bull flag last week and is currently testing both trend line support and horizontal support levels. We could see a short term bounce here to the $37, 38 or 40 levels. Taking money off the table at each resistance level and raising your stop is an important money management strategy I use for this type of play.”

 

UNG – Natural Gas Trading Fund
Natural gas is still very much a speculative play as everyone thinks they will make huge money from this commodity.

This means two things in my opinion:
1.It’s still headed lower
2.After rallies the sellers jump back in.

UNG is trading near resistance and it could provide a great shorting opportunity in the coming days.

 

ETF Trading Conclusion:
Although it’s been a quite week in the market, I have really enjoyed it. Not sure if it is related to everything unfolding in a controlled manner or the holiday season nearing, or maybe both?

November and December have been quiet for our ETFs but I know we are on the verge of either a large move up or down in the coming weeks. Let’s watch the market and funds unfold and see if we can get another trade or two in before year end.

December 13, 2009
The past three weeks have been interesting to watch as the Dow (DIA ETF) has broadened causing traders to be shaken in and out of positions. Commodities have been under pressure as the US dollar has risen. Below are some charts of these investments and what I think could happen in the next couple weeks.

DIA – Exchange Traded Fund
As you can see the broadening formation is bearish as it results in a short term pullback. This type of price action is what frustrates breakout and novice traders. As traders jump into positions once the previous high is broken, they hope for a rally. Instead the market briefly moves higher then reverses and moves down to penetrate the previous pivot low. This is where breakout traders place their stops and as the market knows this, it obliges by moving below this level to shake out these traders before it rallies again.

That being said, it looks like stocks could make a new high this week, just enough to suck in more short term breakout traders before rolling over once again to test a deeper support level. A pullback to the $99-100 level would make for a great buy point.

 

GLD – Gold Exchange Traded Fund
The strengthening dollar is putting pressure on precious metals with gold testing the first support level. Depending on what the dollar does in the coming days we could see gold test the second support level.

In my opinion gold can test the second support level without triggering any major sell signals for traders and investors. The trend will still be up and it is important to know the horizontal support level is more important than a trend line support level.

 

SLV – Exchange Traded Fund
Silver is in the same boat at gold. Only time will tell if we get a bounce or a further test lower. Either way, the underlying trend is still up and we will be able trade it.

 

USO – Oil Exchange Traded Fund
Oil broke down out of its bull flag last week and is currently testing both trend line support and horizontal support levels. We could see a short term bounce here to the $37, 38 or 40 levels. Taking money off the table at each resistance level and raising your stop is an important money management strategy I use for this type of play.

This is a high risk type of play which I am not taking part in. But I do find it fun to track plays like this for educational reasons.

 

UNG – Natural Gas Exchange Traded Fund
The natural gas fund is a touchy topic with so many traders. I get emails every day asking why I trade UNG because of the contango and the fact that so many people have lost money with it; they don’t want to touch it again. My answer is very simple, it works perfectly fine for short term trading which lasts 1-20 days. “If it works, Don’t Fix It”.
I do agree UNG is tougher than other ETFs to trade, but it still makes money and that is what our goal is.

Anyways natural gas has found some support and is bouncing around. We could see it trend sideways or up until a test of our blue resistance trend line is reached. From there we can asses the situation for a possible trade.

The underlying trend is down on the monthly and weekly charts so do not get too excited about going long anytime soon.

 

ETF Trading Conclusion:
Overall the market feels a little top heavy and the price action on the charts are saying the same thing. My short term indicators are telling me the Dow (DIA fund) is over bought and ready for a couple days of selling. With any luck we will see a test of support which will flush out most short term traders this week, then a nice low volume rally going into Christmas. On the other hand, the market has been holding up well and prices could continue to drift higher from here. If that is the case we simply continue to hold our current long positions and enjoy the ride.

Silver and gold are testing support levels and if the market continues to rally here, I figure precious metals will follow. But if we see stocks pull back and test support, then we will most likely see the metals pull back further also.

Crude oil has formed a scary looking chart as it flushes out traders on this recent drop. My general rule for spec plays is to buy when the chart looks scary, but is trading at multiple support levels. It is very difficult to buy at these levels but as my good buddy David Banister from ActiveTradingPartners.com always says, “Buy when they Cry, Sell when it’s Loud”. Meaning buy when everyone is panicking out of their positions, and sell when everyone is buying into the move usually seen by high volume levels and much higher prices.

Natural Gas is jumping around like crazy. We continue to wait for a tradable price pattern to form in conjunction with a support or resistance level to help put the odds more on our side.