Briefly: in our opinion, full (150% of the regular position size) speculative short positions in mining stocks are justified from the risk/reward point of view at the moment of publishing this Alert.
The key technical development of this week in the precious metals market is HUI's invalidation of the breakout above the 2016 highs. It will be particularly interesting to see where it closes the week, as an invalidation in weekly closing terms will be a crystal-clear bearish confirmation.
Gold miners reversed before the end of yesterday's session, but they didn't manage to take HUI back above the highest weekly close of 2016 - the 278.61 level. The HUI closed at 271.06.
On the daily chart, we see that a short-term breakdown is currently being confirmed.
The GDX ETF moved below the rising support line based on the previous April and May lows and it closed there for two consecutive trading days. If the GDX closes below the rising dashed line once again today, the breakdown will be confirmed.
And based on gold's 4-hour gold chart, it could be the case that the very short-term upswing that started yesterday, is already over.
Gold approached its short-term declining resistance line, and it's currently testing it. This line already held less than a week ago, so it favors lower prices at this time.
Of course, by the time you read this analysis, gold might already be after a breakout. In this case, we wouldn't be surprised to see gold futures at about $1,740 or even $1,760 before the next decline takes place. Again, that is IF the breakout takes place, but the entire point of creating resistance lines for gold is to detect gold's tops - places that are likely NOT to be broken. Or that are going to be broken, but then an invalidation will follow, leading to further declines.
The GLD ETF bounced from the rising support line yesterday, and it then moved to the above-mentioned resistance line - that's a relatively normal course of action. Based on HUI's invalidation of the breakout above the 2016 high, it seems that the top is already in for gold and gold stocks, and the price action yesterday and today in gold doesn't invalidate it.
And what can one forecast for silver?
The white metal is still showing strength on a very short-term basis, which further confirms the toppy nature of the most recent price moves. Silver tends to outperform at the very end of a given upswing, so we could even see more of that phenomenon - especially if the stock market moves even higher from here.
Silver is known (at least it should be known) for its fakeouts. Silver often breaks above certain resistance levels, only to invalidate these breakouts shortly thereafter. If silver's "breakout" is not accompanied by an analogous move in gold or miners, the odds are that it's a fakeout. The odds increase further if this action was preceded by a rally.
Therefore, if silver moves higher from here, and even breaks to new May highs, it might not be a bullish development at all. It could be a fakeout that only takes the white metal to about $18.50 or so - the declining resistance line based on the previous highs - and then starts the next huge downleg. Please keep in mind that silver already launched one huge slide from almost $19 this year, so another big move lower from these levels could definitely take place.
All in all, it seems that we're going to see one more sizable move lower in the precious metals market before they move much higher, and the odds are that the downswing has already begun or it's going to start shortly.
Summary
Summing up, despite the very recent moves higher, especially in silver, the outlook for the precious metals market is bearish for the next few weeks, and it's very bullish for the following months. Even if gold, silver, and mining stocks are not going to move to new 2020 lows, they are still likely to decline visibly when the USD Index soars. Based on silver's outperformance and the verification of the breakout in the gold to silver ratio by the move back to the 100 level, and invalidation of gold stocks' breakout above their 2016 high in intraday and closing price terms, it seems that the short-term upswing has already ended.
After the sell-off (that takes gold below $1,400), we expect the precious metals to rally significantly. The final decline might take as little as 1-3 weeks, so it's important to stay alert to any changes.
Most importantly - stay healthy and safe. We made a lot of money on the March decline and the subsequent rebound (its initial part) price moves (and we'll likely make much more in the following weeks and months), but you have to be healthy to really enjoy the results.
As always, we'll keep you - our subscribers - informed.
To summarize:
Trading capital (supplementary part of the portfolio; our opinion): Full speculative short positions (150% of the full position) in mining stocks is justified from the risk to reward point of view with the following binding exit profit-take price levels:
Senior mining stocks (price levels for the GDX ETF): binding profit-take exit price: $10.32; stop-loss: none (the volatility is too big to justify a SL order in case of this particular trade); binding profit-take level for the DUST ETF: $231.75; stop-loss for the DUST ETF: none (the volatility is too big to justify a SL order in case of this particular trade)
Junior mining stocks (price levels for the GDXJ ETF): binding profit-take exit price: $9.57; stop-loss: none (the volatility is too big to justify a SL order in case of this particular trade); binding profit-take level for the JDST ETF: $284.25; stop-loss for the JDST ETF: none (the volatility is too big to justify a SL order in case of this particular trade)
For-your-information targets (our opinion; we continue to think that mining stocks are the preferred way of taking advantage of the upcoming price move, but if for whatever reason one wants / has to use silver or gold for this trade, we are providing the details anyway. In our view, silver has greater potential than gold does):
Silver futures downside profit-take exit price: $8.58 (the downside potential for silver is significant, but likely not as big as the one in the mining stocks)
Gold futures downside profit-take exit price: $1,382 (the target for gold is least clear; it might drop to even $1,170 or so; the downside potential for gold is significant, but likely not as big as the one in the mining stocks or silver)
Long-term capital (core part of the portfolio; our opinion): No positions (in other words: cash
Insurance capital (core part of the portfolio; our opinion): Full position
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Please note that the in the trading section we describe the situation for the day that the alert is posted. In other words, it we are writing about a speculative position, it means that it is up-to-date on the day it was posted. We are also featuring the initial target prices, so that you can decide whether keeping a position on a given day is something that is in tune with your approach (some moves are too small for medium-term traders and some might appear too big for day-traders).
Plus, you might want to read why our stop-loss orders are usually relatively far from the current price.
Please note that a full position doesn't mean using all of the capital for a given trade. You will find details on our thoughts on gold portfolio structuring in the Key Insights section on our website.
As a reminder - "initial target price" means exactly that - an "initial" one, it's not a price level at which we suggest closing positions. If this becomes the case (like it did in the previous trade) we will refer to these levels as levels of exit orders (exactly as we've done previously). Stop-loss levels, however, are naturally not "initial", but something that, in our opinion, might be entered as an order.
Since it is impossible to synchronize target prices and stop-loss levels for all the ETFs and ETNs with the main markets that we provide these levels for (gold, silver and mining stocks - the GDX ETF), the stop-loss levels and target prices for other ETNs and ETF (among other: UGLD, DGLD, USLV, DSLV, NUGT, DUST, JNUG, JDST) are provided as supplementary, and not as "final". This means that if a stop-loss or a target level is reached for any of the "additional instruments" (DGLD for instance), but not for the "main instrument" (gold in this case), we will view positions in both gold and DGLD as still open and the stop-loss for DGLD would have to be moved lower. On the other hand, if gold moves to a stop-loss level but DGLD doesn't, then we will view both positions (in gold and DGLD) as closed. In other words, since it's not possible to be 100% certain that each related instrument moves to a given level when the underlying instrument does, we can't provide levels that would be binding. The levels that we do provide are our best estimate of the levels that will correspond to the levels in the underlying assets, but it will be the underlying assets that one will need to focus on regarding the signs pointing to closing a given position or keeping it open. We might adjust the levels in the "additional instruments" without adjusting the levels in the "main instruments", which will simply mean that we have improved our estimation of these levels, not that we changed our outlook on the markets. We are already working on a tool that would update these levels on a daily basis for the most popular ETFs, ETNs and individual mining stocks.
Our preferred ways to invest in and to trade gold along with the reasoning can be found in the how to buy gold section. Additionally, our preferred ETFs and ETNs can be found in our Gold & Silver ETF Ranking.
As a reminder, Gold & Silver Trading Alerts are posted before or on each trading day (we usually post them before the opening bell, but we don't promise doing that each day). If there's anything urgent, we will send you an additional small alert before posting the main one.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Przemyslaw Radomski, CFA
Editor-in-chief, Gold & Silver Fund Manager
