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The clock is ticking on the gold breakout. Gold stocks have been in a tight
consolidation range now for over two full weeks. The bollinger bands are growing
narrower and narrower by the hour and this situation simply will not go on
much longer. When volatility contracts like this it is always a prelude to
a large move.
But how can I say that with such certainty? It's simple.
When volatility shrinks the selling and buying pressure becomes more and more
equal. Imagine pressing two sides of a book with your hands as hard as you
can. If you let the pressure off of one side of the book it will fly out of
your hands in that direction.
This is exactly what happens in the stock market. Low volatility looks like
inactivity. But it isn't. It is a fierce battle between longs and shorts which
ends with one side giving up control of the market to the other side.
There are two important signs that tell me that this consolidation phase is
going to soon end with a massive upside breakout.
First - the smart money is going long and the dumb money is getting shaken
out. According to the latest Commitment of Traders report commercial traders
actually went long 15,215 contracts last week and covered 5,245 contracts.
At the same time non-commercial speculators (read hedge funds) liquidated 26,255
contracts.
This is important because it was a frenzy of momentum chasing hedge fund panic
buying that created the September top in gold. Too many people got into the
gold market and the supply of buyers got exhausted. That is what led to the
dip we've seen over the past six weeks. Dips like this end when the dumb money
gets shaken out and the smart money buys. The commitment of traders report
is telling us that this is exactly what is happening now.
What we have seen is a classic bull market correction. They are sharp, fierce,
and they scare people. They say bull markets climb a wall of worry and you
can certainly see it in the gold market now. Go to any of the leading gold
websites and it won't take you long to find an article from a gold newsletter
writer predicting a big correction like the one we saw after last November.
I've gotten at least a half a dozen emails a day over the past week from people
worried about the gold bull market. For instance people are worried that the
dollar going up is going to make gold crash. The thing is the dollar has been
going up since May and so has gold. That shouldn't be a concern right now.
Someone else pointed out that Warren Buffett announced that he is covering
some of his dollar short positions for a loss. But so what? He should
have bought gold. He is one of the world's largest owners of silver, so I guess
that is close enough.
Right now I am fully invested in gold stocks. The truth of the matter is that
nothing is happening with gold stocks or the gold market to make me think about
selling any of my positions. People are just becoming impatient with gold during
this consolidation phase. It hasn't dropped. It hasn't gone up. But the fact
that it hasn't gone up big yet has people scared. Don't watch your investments
so closely. You don't need to watch the minute by minute ticks go by.

Just evaluate things after the close everyday. Take a look at yesterday's
close. Notice how tight the bollinger bands are and how the XAU is just points
away from closing above its downtrend resistance line.
The chart tells a simple story. The XAU has support on its lower trend line
and resistance on its upper trend line. When it breaks through one of these
trend lines it is going to make its next big move.
That's all you need to know. You don't need to figure out every tick of the
gold market or interpret every news item. Gold stocks will tell you what they
are going to do when they move out of this triangle. Just listen.
I think it is going to breakout for the reasons I just stated. If that doesn't
happen and we break down then I'll revaluate. You have to always have a back
up plan, but this isn't the time to worry. Every day that gold stocks consolidate
means that the frenzy that inevitably comes on a breakout will be even greater.
To find out what gold stocks Mike Swanson holds and plans on buying subscribe
to his free Weekly Gold Report at http://wallstreetwindow.com/weeklygold.htm.
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