Briefly: in our opinion, full (250% of the regular size of the position) speculative short positions in gold, silver and mining stocks are justified from the risk/reward perspective at the moment of publishing this alert.
Wait, what?! Isn’t the inverse head-and-shoulders a bullish pattern that was supposed to take gold miners much higher? Indeed, it is. But it didn’t take gold miners much higher and all that the completion of the above-mentioned pattern generated was a corrective upswing that didn’t even take gold stocks back above their December 2016 lows. And we warned that this is the likely outcome as the more important, long-term factors continued to favor lower mining stocks values. Why is there a sell signal based on the inverse H&S pattern? Because the breakout above its neck level was just invalidated and this invalidation by itself is a strong sell sign.
Let’s take a closer look at the charts for details:
The HUI Index closed the day visibly below the neck level of the formation – we marked it with a red dashed line. But, at the same time, the gold miners index closed below the October 10th session. Why is this important? Because that was the last daily close before miners strongly rallied. This means that the entire mid-October rally is now more than erased.
Comparing the value of the HUI Index to gold provides us with an even more bearish picture. The golds stocks to gold ratio closed well below the neck level of the inverse H&S formation and at the same time it closed below the both lows that created the “shoulders” thereof – the mid-August and late-September lows.
When gold stocks underperform gold to a considerable extent, it’s a major sell signal. Yesterday, we saw them not only underperform in an extreme way, but also we saw an outstanding technical sign based on it – the invalidation of the inverse H&S pattern.
This is a very strong sign that the recent upswing was nothing more than just a correction within a bigger downtrend and that it’s already over – at least in case of mining stocks.
Some may say that the decline is temporary and that it took place only because of the very bad earnings Q3 report from Goldcorp. We disagree. Please note that multiple mining stocks declined very significantly, it was not only Goldcorp. Besides, in case of many other companies (i.a. Barrick, and Newmont), the reported earnings beat analysts’ expectations despite reporting losses. All in all, it seems that the decline really shows the weakness of the mining stocks and should be viewed as an important bearish sign.
Before moving on to the long-term implications of yesterday’s decline, let’s discuss the usefulness of relying on the inverse head-and-shoulders pattern despite multiple bearish signs.
The Long Inverse-H&S-based Trade in the Miners - Summary
The breakout took place on October 11th and the first HUI Index closing value after the breakout was 154.20. Waiting for the confirmation would have one go long at about 155, depending on what interpretation of “confirmation” one takes. The price moved back and forth, but it was trading at about 155, so using this level for this simulation seems justified. At that time gold promoters were cheering and many investors and traders “felt” that the bottom is in and that the rally has just begun. On a side note, be sure to pay extra attention to differentiating between the facts that can be verified objectively and “feelings” about the price or market – the latter are almost always deceptive. Or get assistance of someone who will focus on the facts on your behalf, saving you a lot of sleepless nights.
Now, after the breakout, we only saw back and forth trading – looking at the short-term perspective only would have one think that this is only a pause after the breakout and that higher prices are going to be seen shortly. It was not until yesterday that it became apparent that this formation was invalidated. Looking at the short-term only, the initial decline during yesterday’s session didn’t appear anything more than just a small correction within a rally. The realization only came once it was too late to exit the market – after the closing bell. Yesterday’s closing price was 143.41. The loss on the hypothetical long position (the one that traders could realistically open based on the inverse head-and-shoulders formation) is now about 7.5% (in just 2 weeks).
The problem is that there are many gold investors and traders that will refuse to acknowledge that the inverse H&S formation does no longer provide any bullish implications and that we just saw a sell signal based on it. These are not feelings, but facts, and yet, many investors and traders will want to believe that the situation didn’t change, and they will keep holding on to the losing long positions. Naturally, we respect such decisions as every investor can do with their savings what they want, but we strongly encourage all investors to always re-evaluate the current positions based on the facts that are available today, not in light of what made one originally open a given position. When the outlook changes, the position should change as well, even if it’s a losing one. Why increase the losses instead of changing the position to the one that’s likely to gain in light of the current outlook?
The invalidation of the short-term breakout above the neck of the inverse head-and-shoulders formation is one thing, but the key signals come from the long-term charts.
In our previous analyses, we emphasized that the current situation (including the short-term upswing) remained similar to what happened in 2013 before the biggest part of the decline. In both cases, miners corrected, but failed to rally above the previously broken lows. In 2013, it was the 2012 low that was not broken, and this year, it was the December 2016 low. Yesterday’s session and the strength of the decline makes is likely that the corrective upswing is over and that the corrective upswing is over without invalidation of the breakdown below the December 2016 low. In other words, both cases remain very similar and the outlook remains very bearish for the following weeks.
The additional bearish sign of critical importance comes from the USD Index.
The Critical USD Index Sign
For two consecutive days, the USD Index closed the day visibly above the neck level of its inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. This is a critical development as it’s the key step in breakout’s verification. Ideally, we would like to see three consecutive closes, along with a weekly closing price above the neck level, in order to say that the breakout is truly confirmed. The week is ending today and at the moment of writing these words, the USD Index is trading above 96.80, so the odds are that we’ll have this third (and weekly) close today.
The almost-fully-confirmed breakout in the USD Index is particularly bullish given the fact that it took place on very bearish news (Trump’s criticism of the Fed’s interest rate decisions). The USDX should have declined on it, and instead it moved to new short-term highs. This is a very bullish combination for the US currency, and since the precious metals market generally moves in the opposite direction to the USD Index, the implications are very bearish for the PMs and mining stocks.
Important Analyses
Before summarizing, we would like to emphasize that we have recently posted several analyses that are very important and that one should keep in mind, especially in the next several weeks. If you haven’t had the chance of reading them previously, we encourage you to do so today:
- Dear Gold Investor - Letters from 2013 - Analogy to 2013, which should make it easier to trade the upcoming sizable upswing (if enough factors point to it, that is) and to enter the market close to the final bottom.
- Gold to Soar Above $6,000 - discussion of gold’s long-term upside target of $6,000.
- Preparing for THE Bottom in Gold: Part 6 – What to Buy - extremely important analysis of the portfolio structure for the next huge, multi-year rally in the precious metals.
- Preparing for THE Bottom in Gold: Part 7 – Buy-and-hold on Steroids - description of a strategy dedicated to significantly boosting one’s long-term investment returns while staying invested in the PM sector.
- Gold’s Downside Target, Upcoming Rebound, and Miners’ Buy Plan - details regarding the shape of the following price moves, a buying plan for mining stocks, and a brief discussion of the final price targets for the current decline.
- Gold: What Happened vs. What Changed - discussion of the latest extreme readings from gold’s CoT report
- Key Factors for Gold & Silver Investors - discussion of key, long-term factors that support the bearish outlook for PMs. We are often asked what makes us so bearish – this article is a reply to this question.
- The Upcoming Silver Surprise - two sets of price targets for gold, silver and mining stocks: the initial and the final one.
- Precious Metals Sector: It’s 2013 All Over Again - comparison between 2013 and 2018 throughout the precious metals sector, the general stock market and the USD Index. Multiple similarities point to the repeat of a 2013-style volatile decline in the PMs.
- Changing One's Mind - Why, When, and How – discussing the way of analyzing the market that helps to stay focused on the growing one’s capital while not being influenced by the loss aversion bias. This essay might be particularly useful in light of the recent upswing in the PMs.
Summary
Summing up, yesterday’s mining stocks’ plunge confirmed the bearish outlook and the breakout in the USD Index and completion of the local inverse head-and-shoulders pattern suggests that the next big rally in the USDX has just started and that the opposite is very likely for the precious metals sector. All in all, it seems that the profits on our short positions will increase significantly very soon.
As always, we’ll keep you – our subscribers – informed.
To summarize:
Trading capital (supplementary part of the portfolio; our opinion): Full short positions (250% of the full position) in gold, silver and mining stocks are justified from the risk/reward perspective with the following stop-loss orders and exit profit-take price levels:
- Gold: profit-take exit price: $1,062; stop-loss: $1,257; initial target price for the DGLD ETN: $82.96; stop-loss for the DGLD ETN $49.27
- Silver: profit-take exit price: $12.72; stop-loss: $15.76; initial target price for the DSLV ETN: $46.97; stop-loss for the DSLV ETN $27.37
- Mining stocks (price levels for the GDX ETF): profit-take exit price: $13.12; stop-loss: $20.83; initial target price for the DUST ETF: $80.97; stop-loss for the DUST ETF $27.67
Note: the above is a specific preparation for a possible sudden price drop, it does not reflect the most likely outcome. You will find a more detailed explanation in our August 1 Alert. In case one wants to bet on junior mining stocks’ prices (we do not suggest doing so – we think senior mining stocks are more predictable in the case of short-term trades – if one wants to do it anyway, we provide the details), here are the stop-loss details and target prices:
- GDXJ ETF: profit-take exit price: $17.52; stop-loss: $31.23
- JDST ETF: initial target price: $154.97 stop-loss: $51.78
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
Important Details for New Subscribers
Whether you already subscribed or not, we encourage you to find out how to make the most of our alerts and read our replies to the most common alert-and-gold-trading-related-questions.
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
Founder, Editor-in-chief, Gold & Silver Fund Manager
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