The Gold And Silver Checklist
To be able to time the precious metals market you need to take into account a lot of things. Here is a checklist.
1) Gold Forecaster Index
The gold forecaster index is a leading index for the gold price.
Always make sure that the gold forecaster index is in positive territory when buying gold/silver.
2) Taylor Rule Rate
Inflation starts to appear when the Taylor Rule Rate is above the Fed Funds rate. Only buy gold when the chart is in positive territory.
3) Misery Index
Another correlation is that between the misery index and gold. The more misery, the higher the gold price. High unemployment and high inflation are good for gold.
4) Real Output
Productivity is negatively correlated to inflation. Whenever productivity slows down, efficiency drops and goods become more expensive to make, resulting in higher inflation, which is good for gold.
5) Supply and Demand
Always check that gold and silver demand is higher than the supply of gold and silver. When mine supply goes down, precious metals typically move higher.
6) Gold Demand
Gold demand can be witnessed from many places. Watch the GLD stock level. If the stock level goes higher, the price goes higher.
Watch the COMEX gold numbers. They need to go up.
China gold demand can be found from the SGE deliveries. Make sure this number goes higher each month.
7) Silver Demand
Silver demand can be witnessed from the SLV stock level. If the stock level goes higher, the price goes higher.
Watch the COMEX silver numbers. You want these to actually go down because that would mean there is a shortage.
8) Central bank gold demand
Make sure to check if central banks are buying gold.
List of countries: Gold Reserves
China central bank: 请开启JavaScript并刷新该页.
9) U.S. Mint Sales
U.S. Mint sales are a proxy for demand. You want this to go up.
10) Gold and Silver Premiums
When the premiums to spot price are high, this typically tells us that precious metals will go higher. You can watch the APMEX silver premiums.
Shanghai gold premiums can be found here.
11) Open Interest
The COT report gives indication of the short term moves. You want to see open interest come down and you want to see a low amount of commercial shorts.
Gold COT report.
Silver COT report.
12) Managed Money Shorts
The COT report also gives info on swaps and managed money. You want to see a lot of managed money shorts, which will result in a short squeeze. You want to see the swap dealers being long the market (positive swap number).
13) Backwardation
Make sure to buy gold when there is backwardation. That means there is an accute supply problem. You want a negative GOFO rate.
Gold Forward Rate GOFO = LIBOR - Gold Lease Rate GLR
LIBOR is close to zero.
Lease rates are negative.
That means we don't see backwardation yet today.
Moreover, gold/silver bottoms out when the lease rate curve inverts.
14) Gold Futures Vs. Gold Spot Price
Watch the gold futures price. If this price diverges from the spot price, then gold is going higher.
15) Swiss Franc Vs. Gold
Watch the Swiss Franc for short term movements. A strong Swiss Franc is good for gold.
16) Seasonality
Gold is more likely to rise during the months of January, April, July, August, September and November.
17) Technicals
Besides all these fundamental reasons above, you need to check the technical picture as well. Buy gold when there is a breakout. (Jesse Livermore: "Follow the path of least resistance")
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.