Gold Could Experience Significant Gains

Summary:

• Gold market Overview at the top of the post
• Positioning / Investment options at the bottom of the post
• Analysis: Short, Medium and Long-term analysis with rationale in the middle

Introduction

On April 4, 2017 we mentioned that the Gold rally could pause over here. At that point Gold was at 1263 and today its at 1245. Following chart shows the ~4 month sideways consolidation in Gold:

What happened to Gold was that it succumbed to excessive optimism among market participants and as a result wasn't able to muster enough strength or the wall of worry wasn't strong enough to allow Gold to climb beyond immediate resistance levels.

At the same time, stock markets around the world did pretty well, which dampened Gold's demand. As a result, sentiment turned extremely sour towards precious metals. for example:

• Daily sentiment Index reached: 10 out of 100
• Long Positions of major hedge funds reached lows not seen since late 2015
• Articles started coming out proclaiming much lower Gold prices and Bitcoin being the new Gold

Both of these development highlighted the fact that in July (after 3 months), wall of worry had again gotten stronger. And now we are at a different phase in Gold. We will evaluate Gold from near-term perspective to long-term to understand what is coming-up next.

Near -term:  Since July 11th  Gold has been stair-stepping higher without any major move, which is good because its moving under the radar. Secondly, it is tracing out a sequence of 1s and 2s, which can lead to a sharp move higher in wave 3 of 3. 

Medium Term: While Gold and Gold stocks prepare for acceleration on the short-term time frame, they are also positioned very well for a rally in medium term. Because at this time frame, Gold also completed a sequences of 1s and 2s. Even though following chart shows Gold stocks, bullish case for Gold is similar if not better.

Longer-term: Gold is tracing out an inverted Head and Shoulders pattern. This pattern, once broken can lead to 1400 price. Important thing to note is that this price target might will not be achieved in one day but will reach there over time.

Rationale: There are many reasons that can propel Gold to higher levels some of these include:

1. Potential correction in Stocks and Gold acting as the safety trade
2. Potential increase in geo-political tensions
3. Continuous weakness in US Dollar Index, which was one of the big trades at the start of the year but we mentioned in February on twitter (@survive_thrive) that this US Dollar rally might be over, so one should look for alternatives. We will discuss US Dollar index in greater detail in another post. 

Positioning

Markets are at a critical juncture. However, knowing that is one thing and acting on this information is totally different in our experience. We mentioned following big moves on this blog/twitter in 2017 but doubt if effective trading was performed around this analysis:

• March Top
• April Top in Gold
• April Bottom in Stocks
• Emerging Market buy in February
• Early July bottom in Nasdaq
• ...

At this critical time, we are using proprietary models to expose clients to positions that have the highest success probability.  Our strategies have generated consistent returns, while taking advantage of new market opportunities and minimizing existing risk. We provide Absolute Return Hedge Fund like strategies through Managed Accounts. Performance - H1 2017 

Contact

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Gold Rally Can Pause!

We started investing in Gold in 2016 April, after 4 years of being out of the Gold market. We again increased Gold exposure at the start of 2017, in our proprietary strategies (Jan / Feb

2017 Investment Strategies' Performance). Overall, Gold remains in an uptrend but recent development has made us wary of immediate upside of Gold. 

In this post, we have analyzed Gold's short-term prospects using multiple analysis techniques to showcase the rationale behind our caution:

Technical

After experiences a sharp decline in early March, Gold has rebounded nicely. It is now testing significant trend-lines (show below). These trend lines could act as resistance in the near-term and force Gold to consolidate.

Sentiment
While Gold could experience a pause, it will be a very constructive development. But what is not constructive is the fact that news media has recently turned bullish on the yellow metal. Following are some of the recent bullish Gold headlines:

Furthermore, other sentiment indicators also suggest that Gold and Silver are in for some turbulence. Following chart shows Silver positioning among large and small traders. Current positioning is at levels that have resulted in Silver going down or sideways.

One cannot believe the financial news media because they get behind a trend, once everyone is on board. A detailed analysis of 2016 news and market action is presented here. Therefore, investors need to remain objective in terms of their direction and action plan.

Short-term structure:

With sentiment picture on the optimistic side, its likely that the trend will experience some pause before really asserting itself in the next few days. Above chart shows a potential inverted head and shoulders pattern being formed in Gold. However, the right shoulders doesn't look complete. Some back and forth action will be ideal to complete this structure.  

Gold Influence

Gold is significantly influenced by USD and Euro. Strong dollar pressures the commodities complex. It looks like Dollar has completed a long-term correction since the start of 2017, and could rally for few weeks. Start of 2017 is the same time when Gold start rallying. Once US Dollar rallies, it would be negative for Gold and Silver markets.

Furthermore, Euro long positions are also very extreme, which means that Euro will soon experience correction. Euro decline will also fuel Dollar rise; another reason that could dampen Gold’s ascent.

Conclusion

Gold could experience some resistance around these levels because of technical, sentiment and influence from other areas. However, that doesn’t mean that Gold will not spring back or it has entered a down trend. In financial analysis, one needs to remain objective.

How are we positioning?

We have reduced our long exposure but maintain long positions because Gold remains in an uptrend, as per proprietary Market Classification Model. Details will be shared with subscribers by April 9th. Our conservative proprietary strategy has out-performed the market in 2016 and in Q1-2017 through objective risk-management and a combination of strategic & tactical allocation. Detailed performance analysis will be shared in next 2 weeks.

Want to Invest

You can invest in these strategies through “Managed Account” offering or by subscribing to some of the services like Market classification Model (subscription page). MCM serves as the backbone for our model and can help you develop an understanding of the markets.  If interested in investing, you can register below and we will send an update.