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This week has been playing out as we expected. Last week we saw the market rally on light volume into a resistance zone on the daily chart. Light volume rallies are always a warning sign, much like the “Calm before a Storm”.

The way I look at bearish price action:

The First Heavy Selling Volume Day – I see this as large institution selling massive amounts of investments (stocks & commodities) because prices have risen enough for them to book profits OR they know something we don’t and they are getting out before the majority of traders find out.

Light Volume Rally/Drift Higher – After a heavy volume sell off we tend to see prices drift higher on light volume. This is when the institutions stop dumping investments and allow the retail investors (Un-educated Traders) to buy the market back up.

Bear Market Trend – In a down trend we see these two phases enter and exit the market. These patterns happen on every time frame from tick charts to yearly charts. Trends vary in length from 1-2 cycles and sometimes 10-20 cycles and more…

Current Market Conditions

So far this week we have seen the market sell down on increasing volume which is bearish and is pointing to lower prices. On Wednesday we saw prices move up on light volume with volatility rising into the close with a short wave of selling. This was indicating to me that sellers were starting to enter the market again.

The daily chart below clearly shows the heavy selling and drift higher on declining volume. The market is now trading deep into a resistance zone and looking ready to drop.

SP500 Intraday 2 Hour Candle Charts

You can see the same selling patterns repeat themselves. Since the Feb 5th bottom we have been forming a much larger bear flag which makes me think a BIG drop is only days away.

SP500 Trend Trading Conclusion:

Both stocks and precious metals are trading with the same chart patterns and volume levels. So if you are wondering about gold, silver and oil, I am seeing a similar scenario playing out for them also.

The reason I keep bringing these bearish patterns up in my reports is because once you master trading in a down market then you can make money during some of the fasted moving times in the market. I have always preferred shorting the market because prices drop much quicker then they rise. So profits are made quickly.

Also, if the broad market does eventually roll over later this year, and I am not saying it is, but “IF” it does, then you will feel somewhat comfortable with the positions we will be taking.

If you would like to receive these Free Bi-Weekly Trading Reports please visit my service for TheGoldAndOilGuy at: www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen

Jan 31, 2010
The past two months have been tough on the precious metals sector. We saw precious metals lead the market higher all of last year until December 2009 when prices plummeted as the US Dollar started to bounce. The continued rise in stocks indicated an extreme overbought condition and alerted us that a sharp pullback was going to take place.

Many traders including myself were surprised that the broad market did not sell down with the metals. In December the market looked and felt ready for a sharp pullback but new money continued to flow into stocks, pushing the market higher. This slow and steady grind higher was very frustrating to watch because the market was making new highs day after day while obviously needing to take a breather at any time.

It’s this grind higher that sucks in the last retail buyers before prices collapse, unfortunately leaving many holding overpriced securities and commodities for sale another day.

Since gold lead the market up last year it should be the first to correct and also pullback quicker and deeper than its followers (stock market). This is what we are seeing now which I explain below using charts.

HUI – Gold Stock Index – Monthly Gold Trading Chart
I use this exact month chart for helping to time long term trends for gold and gold stocks. It looks as though we have temporarily formed a double top with this current breakdown. It will most likely take several months to repair the damage done to this chart and possibly more than a year.

There are two options for this chart:
1 – It will form a bullish flag or pennant then continue its move higher.

2 – Or will continue to slide, indicating sellers are in control and that we are looking at a multi year trading range as the market digests the 10 year rally in gold.

The HUI:GOLD Ratio – Weekly Gold Trading Chart
This chart goes up if gold stocks are out performing the price of gold and down if they are underperforming. From 2001 – 2006 the chart looked very bullish but as time went on the ratio really started to look weaker and weaker.

The 2008 meltdown crushed precious metal stocks and the recent rally back up to resistance looks very bearish. It looks like a large bear market rally (test of breakdown level). This also goes for the monthly chart above. I cannot say either chart is looking bullish anymore. Things really depend on how strong the next bounce/rally is so we can gauge the strength behind the move (dead cat bounce, or legitimate rally).

Gold GLD ETF – Daily GLD Trading Chart
The next three charts really pull things together in my opinion in terms of how much selling is left in the market on the daily chart time frame.

Here I have drawn on a daily chart showing what I figure will unfold over time. This is the same pattern that I have been talking about since early December. I love trading ABC retrace patterns because of their accuracy and follow through on trend reversals.

In short, if we see gold break this support level then traders are going to panic out of the market sending the GLD fund towards the $101-$103 level. This panic selling is exactly what is needed if we want to see gold continue a sustainable and strong bull market rally higher.

Silver SLV ETF – Silver Trading Chart
Silver has been a little more difficult to trade as the chart clearly shows the choppy price action. I feel that if silver breaks this level of support we should expect to see $14-$14.50 quickly.

US Dollar Trading – Daily Dollar Trading Chart
This chart pulls the above GLD and SLV charts together. Both gold and silver have more room to fall before reaching a major support level. Knowing that and looking at this chart of the Dollar you can see the Dollar has approximately the same amount of room to rally.

So in a perfect trading scenario, the dollar will continue to climb for a few more days to reach resistance and in return that will push gold and silver down for a few more days.

Precious Metals Trading Conclusion:
I think this week will be a pivotal one. I can see the dollar moving higher sending precious metals and stocks down enough to shake traders out of their long positions in gold, silver and stocks. Once the sentiment turns bearish we will begin looking for an oversold speculative trade and possibly a low risk trend trade setup.

As for the energy sector, both crude oil and natural gas look weak and I continue to patiently await a low risk setup for each.

If you would like to get my Gold Newsletter please join here:

Chris Vermeulen
www.GoldAndOilGuy.com

The stock indexes have been trading very choppy making it difficult for swing/trend traders. It’s during times like this when seasoned traders rise above the herd of average traders.

If you only trade one strategy like swing trading or trend trading then you are likely finding it difficult to make money right now. On the other hand, day traders are having a blast right now as they take advantage of the powerful intraday rallies and sell offs.

I personally like swing trading but during times like this, when I know it will not work, I have to switch my strategy to day trading and focus on the 60 minute and 5 minute charts.

SP500 Index Fund – Intraday Setup
I posted this chart earlier this week and I want to be sure everyone takes something away from this chart as I believe it shows a perfect low risk setup for shorting the market, or you could buy a reverse fund which goes up as the market moves down.

At first glance this chart is noisy, but if you simply focus on the all the different color analysis separately you will notice how simple trading can be and what you should be looking for.

Red Analysis:
1. Overall market trend is down so we are looking for a short trade, signs of weakness.
2. First we see a light volume test of the previous high set earlier in the day. The low volume indicates there are not many participants in the move up and that is a weak sign.
3. Between 14:30- 15:30 we notice the price start to drift higher on very light volume. Also, the price moved up into a resistance level. This to me is a perfect setup.
4. You would sell short or buy a reverse index fund at this point hoping for the market to start selling. You could also wait until it started to drop before taking a position but when a chart looks this good I try to get in at the highest price possible.

Blue Analysis:
1. The price starts to drop forming several small bear flags going into 14:30 before bouncing. Also note the volume began to rise as more selling was happening. This tells us that trading activity is predominately selling and that we should also focus on shorting when the time is right.
2. Again, the price starts to drop forming several small bear flags going from 15:00 – 15:45 before bouncing. Also note the volume began to rise as more sellers took part in this short term trend.

Black Analysis:

1. This shows more or less the resistance level, area to short the index and the nice trend down.

Gold GLD ETF Trading
Gold has been under selling pressure since early December. That powerful drop and the chart pattern it has formed will generally resolves itself after an ABC retrace pattern. I have drawn this on the chart which is what I think will happen in the near term. This daily chart of GLD ETF has a small 4 day bear flag and bearish reversal candle which is pointing to lower prices in the near term.

Silver SLV ETF Trading
Silver has a funky looking chart. It has formed a large megaphone pattern and possible head & shoulders pattern. Both are bearish and if we use the Head & Shoulders to calculate where silver could end up trading if it continues to break down, then $14.00 would be a level to look for a bounce.

Natural Gas UNG Fund
The natural gas fund UNG has been in a down trend for over a year and the recent drop looks to be the start of another sell off. This could possibly form a reverse head & shoulders pattern with this drop moving UNG down to the $8.75 – $9.00 area. We will have to wait and watch things unfold for now.


Crude Oil USO Fund

USO looks to be trading at support. I am inclined to patiently wait another session before possibly taking a position.

Mid-Week Trading Conclusion:
In short, I feel the overall market could bounce including stocks and possibly commodities, but the selling is not over yet in my opinion. The drop we have seen in the past week is the half way mark. So this bounce would be the starting of an ABC retrace for stock indexes. During choppy times I like to be sitting in cash and or day trading for short term profits.

Precious metals do look oversold and ready for a small bounce or sideways move; I do think they will head lower. Too many traders are still holding on to their gold positions and until a large number of them get scared out of their positions, we will not see gold rocket higher.

Natural gas looks like it’s about to head much lower this week while oil looks ready for a solid bounce off support.

We continue to wait for new low risk setups as different investment scenarios unfold.

Get my Free Weekly ETF Trading Reports at www.GoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Jan 18th, 2010

Whether you are trading stocks, ETFs or futures, technical analysis is the preferred choice for short term traders. Technical analysis in short is the study of price and volume movements on charts. It can be used for studying charts in any time frame whether you are a 1 minute chartist or a long term investor using monthly charts.

Using technical analysis in my opinion really opens the door for a trader to lower his/her overall risk when investing money. I always like to know if the investments I am watching are trading near a critical price level (support or resistance). During these times you can take positions that have very clear entry and exit points for trading. Also it puts the odds in your favor when a position is entered in the same direction of the underlying trend.

Price action is how we make money in the market, so I strictly follow price and volume when trading as they are the least lagging indicator on what the market it doing.

I have put together a few charts using commodity ETFs to show you what I am seeing in the market and what we should expect to see in the coming days.

GLD ETF Trader – Daily Trend Chart

The gold trading chart below shows two different types of trends. The initial timeframe of the chart illustrates what I call a Normal Trend. This is a series of higher highs and lows.

This type of trend allows an investment to continue profitably for a very long period of time. For example a daily chart like the one below can continue to trend like this for 6-8 months. The reason for this is because price appreciation is increasing at a rate which investors are comfortable with. Also, the pullbacks cleanse the investment vehicle of weak traders every few weeks allowing fresh money to enter at higher price.

Now if you look at the later timeframe of this rally we observe a rally phase I call an Extended Rally. An extended rally is when price appreciates without any pullbacks.

You can make a fortune with this trend very quickly, but you must realize that reversals are fast and sharp. And that, we observe, is how GLD performed in December. While some call December’s price drop a pullback, I call it a technical breakdown. The sharp price reversal and heavy volume associated with this type of move generally provides excellent short term momentum trades. A lot of damage is done to the investment on a heavy volume breakdown taking weeks for a recovering to occur.

Normal trend rally, extended rally, predictably fast and sharp technical breakdown followed by weeks of recovery.
Trade GLD ETF

DIA Exchange Traded Fund – Daily Trend Trading

The DIA exchange traded fund shows a very similar chart as gold above. First we have a nice Normal Trend that then evolved into an Extended Trend. The trend for the DIA index fund is not nearly as steep at the gold chart, so it could trend a little longer. But once the price breaks down, everyone is going to be selling out to lock in gains and cut losses before new positions are entered.

I have several tools and stats I use for helping me in timing turning points. Some are great short term indicators only predicting 1-2 days out like following small cap stocks, or gold stocks in relation to the broad index, and others are long term things like cycles, volume analysis, market internals and the volatility index.

My point here is to keep everyone alert and ready to take profits if we see things start to roll over. Friday there was BIG selling volume across the board – so don’t blink now.
Trading DIA ETF

Silver & Gold ETF Trading – Daily Charts

Below is the chart of the silver ETF SLV and I overlaid the GLD gold fund in green so you can see how they move in sync. The blue boxes on the chart show the pattern that I think is forming and what to expect in the coming days.

From looking at gold in both other currencies and with respect to gold stocks which have been underperforming, I feel we are going to see lower prices still. At the moment I am neutral on silver and gold for the short term time frame (daily & 60 minute charts).
Exchange Traded Fund for Silver

USO Crude Oil Fund – Daily Trend Chart

Oil has slid lower the past 5 sessions and is now nearing a support level. This has me looking for an oversold bounce with the potential to rally much higher. I am keeping an eye on this for any possible low risk setup.
USO Oil fund Trader

UNG Natural Gas Fund – Daily Trading Chart

While UNG is not a great intermediate and long term fund to invest in, I do find it trades very nicely for intraday and short swing trades. I am neutral on natural gas for the time being. It could go either way from here and I’m not willing to take on a 50/50 probability trade. Let’s wait for something exciting to form.
Natural Gas UNG Trader

Commodity Trading Conclusion:
In short, gold and silver have been underperforming the market recently which is not what we want to see. They have led the market higher all year but are now taking a breather.

The way I see gold, silver, oil and natural gas is that they are trading below their recent highs and still have more room to fall before landing on a solid support level.

The stock market is now over extended and looks ready for a sharp correction. If this happens we will see commodities drop and test lower prices also.

There is not much we can do right now other than protect our current long positions by tightening our stops. Depending on the strength of the breakdown, there could be a great opportunity for short term traders (60 minute chart traders) to make some quick money. I expect a sell off which will last 3-5 days at the least.

If you would like to receive my Free Technical Trading Newsletter for ETFS  and Futures please visit my website: www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Dec 6th, 2009
The first half of last week started out strong with stock and precious metal ETFs moving higher. The week ended with less certainty of direction. The energy sector underperformed the market with crude oil and natural gas moving lower.

Below are some ETF charts showing where the broad market and commodities are trading with some analysis showing what could transpire going into the year end holiday season.

DIA ETF – Daily Trading Chart
The DIA ETF that I am using to represent the Dow Industrial Average looks to be over bought and ready for a pullback. The broadening formation indicates volatility is rising and that the bulls are losing control. This pattern occurs in all time frames and in stocks, commodities and exchange traded funds. Remember this pattern when looking at charts as it could save you some money.

Using simple analysis we can see where the Dow is likely to test. With any luck this could happen quickly and be followed by a nice low volume rally going into to the holiday.

DIA ETF Trading

DIA ETF Trading

GLD Gold Exchange Traded Fund – Daily & Weekly Charts
Gold had a huge rally the first half of the week but gave it all back and then some on Friday. I have been warning about this sharp profit taking correction for a few days making sure everyone had tightened their stops or started to trim their positions. We locked in a nice 11.9% gain on Friday as our stop for GLD was triggered.

GLD fund is likely to trade in one of two scenarios this week:
1. Move side-ways after last week’s sell off
2. Or continue moving down as investors and short term traders review Friday’s action and place their sell orders for Monday.

Take a look at the small weekly chart which is located within the daily chart below. We had a very big volume week and a reversal candle indicating a shift in momentum. If we are lucky this could be a quick pause before another move up, but I am thinking gold will need several weeks to gain its footing. Only time will tell, and either way we will be ready.

GLD Exchange Trade Fund Alerts

GLD Exchange Trade Fund Alerts

SLV Fund – Daily & Weekly Charts
Silver had a sharp pullback with gold on Friday but because silver did not have investors tripping over each other trying to buy it like gold, the sell off was much more controlled. Silver breached the lower trend channel line but closed back above it to end the week.

Silver is trading at the lower level of its trend channel and at a support level. There is a good change it will bounce Monday or Tuesday. But until we see what gold is doing at the open Monday morning I would not be jumping into anything at this point.

The weekly chart shows a reversal candle signaling strong selling pressure and this is the reason I would not be buying here. Let’s watch for a few days and see what happens.

SLV Trading Analysis

SLV Trading Analysis

USO Oil Fund – Weekly Charts
Crude oil has been weak the past 2 months as it drifts sideways from the October breakout. Not much to say here other than let’s wait for some action and a low risk setup.

USO Oil Fund

USO Oil Fund

UNG Natural Gas Fund – 60 Minute and Weekly Chart
This year I think natural gas has taken more money from traders than any other fund. Virtually everyone has been burned by this extremely over sold commodity. The 60 minute chart shows three resistance levels. But if you combine all of them there is significant resistance from $8.80 – $9.25. That is the test of the August lows.

We reached the August lows and that is what triggered the bounce and short covering rally 2 weeks ago. We have now seen prices slip below that level on rising volume which is bearish. With prices below this major resistance level I think we will see sellers step in on each bounce to push prices back down.

UNG Natural Gas Trading Fund

UNG Natural Gas Trading Fund

Stocks and Commodity ETF Trading Conclusion:
The broad stock market looks ready for a small correction. That being said the tape does not lie and we continue to see money flow into stocks which is why the dow, sp500 and Russell 2000 are holding up well. These crossed signals are the reason money/position management is so important for traders. Scaling in and out of positions during oversold and overbought conditions is crucial for pulling money out of the market consistently.

I do this by tightening my stop to lock in a gain on 25-50% of my position, while holding a core position in the event prices continue to rise. This way I make a premium on part of my trade and have my stop moved to break even or higher for the core position allowing it some wiggle room as prices consolidate before the next leg higher.

Gold and silver could go either way quickly this week. We have locked in some good money last week and now we hold our core position. From here I expect the gold and silver to play out in one of three ways:
1. Prices continue higher and we ride our core positions for larger gains.
2. Price continues to correct and we get another low risk entry point to add to our core position, then prices rally.
3. Or, precious metals have a melt down and we take a small 5% gain on our core position.

Crude Oil and Natural Gas are not tradable at this time. We need to see more price action before a high probability setup will develop. Let’s watch and wait these out some more.

If you would like to receive my Free Weekly ETF Trading Newsletter visit my website:

Chris Vermeulen
www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com