Can The Silver Bugs Alter The Macro?

As to the post’s title, they sure are trying. Despite doubts that the stodgy old likes of me may have.

Silver

But for two days at least dem bugz is successfully battlin’ dem boyz on da COMEX. The result is that the Silver/Gold ratio (weekly futures chart) has been rammed to a new high for the post-crash move. If we back completely away from the #silversqueeze punchbowl, this is an indicator guiding the way for forward inflation.

silver gold ratio

So again, can the silver bugs alter the macro? Are the silver bugs altering the macro or is silver just doing what it has been technically capable of doing all along? Since well before #silversqueeze (a ‘me too!’ operation to the famous Reddit plays of late) was promoted by its originator, gold had been trending down vs. silver. Continue reading "Can The Silver Bugs Alter The Macro?"

Gold Miners: Beautiful Pictures

After a well-deserved correction of nearly 3 months, the gold stock sector is still flashing positive signs beneath the surface, as the correction matures.

The correction that began in August amid the ‘Buffett Buys a Gold Stock!‘ tout has now ground on for nearly 3 months. As noted in the NFTRH 626 Opening Notes segment:

“Thus far the correction in gold, silver and the miners is perfect, where perfection means long, drawn out and maddeningly frustrating to bulls (and bears thus far). That’s what corrections are, remedies to excitement, confidence and of course, greed.”

We are managing the technical details (and associated strategies) of the correction in HUI and individual gold stocks each week in NFTRH, but as a gold stock investor, it has not been a time for making money since August. As a trader, it has been a difficult time for making money as well, because of the lack of a definitive drop that the sector’s corrections are known for. It has been a grind, and in that annoying, time-consuming process, it has been perfect.

Below are some pictures that we have maintained front and center during the correction in order to disqualify or more likely, confirm the macro bull view for gold and the miners. This was so that subscribers could sell, buy or hold as they see fit, but more importantly so that we could know the status of the backdrop all along the way to make better-informed decisions.

Meanwhile, the perfection has been in the cleaning of the investor base, a large portion of which thinks that inflation is good for gold miners. Often it is for the stock prices, but rarely is it good for the bedrock sector fundamentals. One of the best measures of the real price of gold is the Gold/CRB ratio, which is in part of the measure of the gold mining product vs. gold mining costs, especially energy costs. Continue reading "Gold Miners: Beautiful Pictures"

Following The Gold Stocks Leaders As The Fed Prints

Gold stocks have led the market for a year, and with economic deceleration and Fed policy response that leadership looks to continue [edit: today’s ‘in the bag’ bounce-back Jobs report does little to alter the economic deceleration theme]

We have been on a bullish gold mining view for over a year now. Over that time there have been three interruptions, the downward-biased consolidation from August to November 2019, the flash crash (and very constructive gap-filling mission) in March and most recently the pullback that logically began in May as broad stock market relief started to fan out to more and more momentum chasers who’d finally gotten the hint that the Fed means to devalue the US currency (in competition to a degree with its global counterparts seeking to do the same), making cash a non-viable investment position (other than for risk management to the bullish asset market atmosphere).

The daily chart of HUI shows a successful support test, purely up trending moving averages, all gaps filled but the breakaway gap (a ‘breakaway’ does not need to fill any time soon as it changes or reasserts a trend; there is also an old gap from 2016 near 100 that we need not worry at this time), RSI now positive and trending up above its EMA 20, MACD triggered up and positive and neither of them showing overbought readings. Ah, the beauty of a routine correction within an uptrend. All systems on this daily chart are technically ‘go’.

Gold Stocks - HUI

What’s more, the HUI/SPX ratio is now on an uninterrupted 1-year uptrend. With the come-lately players (institutions, hedge funds, black boxes, Ma ‘n Pa and knee-jerking herds of all stripes) having moved on to perceived greener pastures due to the broad stock market’s May-June outperformance the gold miners are again taking leadership. Continue reading "Following The Gold Stocks Leaders As The Fed Prints"

Gold Stock Correction And Upcoming Opportunity

Before updating the status of the gold miner (HUI) correction, let’s take a quick review of the Macrocosm because it’s always a good time to be clear on important macro considerations.

The graphic makes the following points that are the foundation of the NFTRH view on the right/wrong times to be fundamentally bullish on the gold-stock sector. In order of priority, a bullish view needs:

  • A contracting economy, which…
  • Drives counter-cyclical gold higher vs. stock markets (and many other assets), and…
  • By extension, sees a general decline in economic and market confidence.
  • When an economic boom phase ends, yield curves bottom and start to steepen.
  • Gold rises vs. commodities and materials, some of which represent mining costs.
  • Gold rises vs. all major currencies, which is also a sign of declining systemic confidence.
  • Inflation expectations can be constructive for gold and especially silver, which drives ‘inflationist’ bugs into gold stocks, but this is not fundamentally positive if the inflation is cyclical and drives commodities like energy and materials more than gold. This is when gold stocks rise against their proper fundamentals. *
  • Cyclical inflation, as in 2003-2008 can see the sector rise strongly (HUI was approximately +300% in that period) but the end will be bloody, as per the Q4 2008 sector cleanout.
  • China/India “love trade”: Hahaha… when you see this in writing, run away from it.

Continue reading "Gold Stock Correction And Upcoming Opportunity"

Gold Miners Show The Way

[edit] It goes without saying that gold miners and the royalty companies that live off them will be shown to have been impaired like many other companies by the coming Q2 numbers due to shutdowns. An emailer questioned my view on this and it has been one of my personal caution points. Markets should be looking ahead, but during this euphoric sentiment release across broad markets maybe they’re overlooking some things. The other caution point is that a big bullish expression on the heels of the Fed announcement is also a setup for short-term disappointment. So with respect to the daily chart below, maybe Friday’s gap will fill after all. But as noted in the article below “the gold stocks lead and their fundamentals and value proposition will have improved by leaps and bounds as we exit the COVID-19 global lockdown”.

It’s a good Friday because I get to start my weekend work earlier. Many people temporarily have no weekends because they are huddled at home as one day bleeds into the next amid the global pandemic. Monday is Thursday is Saturday. Good Friday is Halloween is Festivus.

But when times are normal I have no weekends, working 7 days and most intensely on the weekends (with more freedom than the average worker on weekdays). When times are abnormal like now, I work hard on weekends but the more intense days are during the week. As one subscriber put it:

“What a wild ride lately… Thanks for busting your ass for us all lately. As always, you’re the only reason I can handle being in this game.”  -Tom A  3.25.20

That was in reference to the massive amount of in-week effort we (I write “we” because it takes effort to be an NFTRH subscriber because they are tasked to work, not just receive instructions from some clown dressed as a guru) put in to manage volatile markets with formal subscriber updates and in particular, more dynamic in-day updates (with charts as needed) at the Trade Log Notes page. I believe you must be at your best and most interactive when most needed, especially during a crisis, not sitting on autopilot hoping no one notices.

When you’ve got a tiger by the tail you may not know exactly how it is going to react but you sure as hell don’t let go! Continue reading "Gold Miners Show The Way"