Briefly: in our opinion, full (250% of the regular size of the position) speculative short position in gold, silver, and mining stocks is justified from the risk/reward point of view at the moment of publishing this Alert.

The USD Index took a dive yesterday and the precious metals sector rallied in response. USD's decline took it well below previous December lows and almost to its October lows.

USD Index in Hot Water

At the same time, the U.S. currency broke below two short-term support lines: the rising line based on the October and November lows, and the declining line based on the mid-November and early-December lows.

Based on the shape of the recent price movement, the declining support line is also the neck of the bearish head and shoulders pattern. Breakdown below it is therefore very bearish for the short term... If the breakdown is confirmed.

This might not be the case, because both above-mentioned support lines crossed several hours ago and the USD Index stopped declining approximately at that time. What does it mean? It means that the USDX might have just bottomed at its triangle-vertex-based reversal. It is usually the case that these reversals are based on support and resistance lines, but they can just as well be based on two support lines or two resistance lines.

If the USD Index has indeed reversed its course, then it would quite likely invalidate both above-mentioned breakdowns. Invalidation of breakdowns would be a very powerful bullish sign for the following days.

The critical price level above which the USD Index would need to get back above is 97.25. This would open the way to a strong rally from the current levels. And it would kick the door open for a sizable precious metals decline.

And you know what? That's not even the most important thing that happened yesterday.

The key development was how little - relatively speaking - gold, silver, and mining stocks rallied compared to how much the USD Index declined.

The Timid Reaction of PMs

The USDX declined about twice as much as it had rallied earlier this month.

And gold?

Gold is well below the most recent highs.

How about silver?

Silver's intraday high was not only below the December high - it was even below the corrective high that took place after the initial part of the slide.

Maybe miners showed exceptional strength?

Their strength appears to be visible at first sight, especially compared to the one in gold, but this is partially due to the fact that there are different stock and futures closing hours for both markets. And these show in the charts. The GDX closing price reflects the time when gold was higher than when it had closed on the gold futures chart below.

Consequently, yesterday strength in the miners should not be taken at face value.

As far as miners' closing price is concerned, please note that it didn't close at new monthly high and that we saw a similar double top at the end of October. What happened, fits the historical topping pattern, and it's yet another confirmation of precious metals sector's weakness relative to what's going on in the USD Index.

We can say something similar about gold - it also formed a double top just as it did in late October.

Yesterday's rally was beneficial in a way, because it helped to align several techniques for estimating gold's upcoming short-term bottom. Based on the price increase, we have moved the lines that are based on the previous declines by several days. They now point to a bottom close to December 23, which is in tune with silver's reversals and silver seasonality. It's also reasonably close to the end-of-the-year long-term turning point that we have in gold.

Also, please note that yesterday's rally - and reversal in case of gold futures - was in perfect tune with gold's cyclical turning point.

Naturally, the numerous other factors that we discussed previously continue to support lower precious metals prices in the following months. If you haven't read these analyses - especially the ones from the "critical" section, we strongly encourage you to do so. These are not quick reads, but they are really well worth the time spent reading them.

Key Factors to Keep in Mind

Critical factors:

• The USD Index broke above the very long-term resistance line and verified the breakout above it. Its huge upswing is already underway.
• The USD's long-term upswing is an extremely important and bearish factor for gold. There were only two similar cases in the past few decades, when USD Index was starting profound, long-term bull markets, and they were both accompanied by huge declines in gold and the rest of the precious metals market
• Out of these two similar cases, only one is very similar - the case when gold topped in February 1996. The similarity extends beyond gold's about a yearly delay in reaction to the USD's rally. Also the shape of gold price moves prior to the 1996 high and what we saw in the last couple of years is very similar, which confirm the analysis of the gold-USD link and the above-mentioned implications of USD Index's long-term breakout.
• The similarity between now and 1996 extends to silver and mining stocks - in other words, it goes beyond USD, gold-USD link, and gold itself. The white metal and its miners appear to be in a similar position as well, and the implications are particularly bearish for the miners. After their 1996 top, they erased more than 2/3rds of their prices.
• Many investors got excited by the gold-is-soaring theme in the last few months, but looking beyond the short-term moves, reveals that most of the precious metals sector didn't show substantial strength that would be really visible from the long-term perspective. Gold doesn't appear to be starting a new bull market here, but rather to be an exception from the rule.
• Gold stocks appear to be repeating their performance from 20 years ago, which means that a bottom in the entire precious metals sector is quite likely to form at much lower prices, in about a year

Very important, but not as critical factors:

• Long-term technical signs for silver, i.a. the analogy in terms of price to what we saw in 2008, shows that silver could slide even below $10.
• Silver's very long-term cycles point to a major reversal taking place right now and since the most recent move was up, the implications are bearish (this is also silver's technical sign, but it's so important that it deserves its own point)
• Long-term technical signs for gold stocks point to this not being a new gold bull market beginning. Among others, it's their long-term underperformance relative to gold that hint this is rather a corrective upswing within a bear market that is not over yet.
• Record-breaking weekly volume in gold is a strong sign pointing to lower gold prices

Important factors:

• Extreme volume reading in the SIL ETF (proxy for silver stocks) is an effective indication that lower values of silver miners are to be expected
• Silver's short-term outperformance of gold, and gold stocks' short-term underperformance of gold both confirm that the precious metals sector is topping here
• Gold topped almost right at its cyclical turning point, which makes the trend reversal more likely
• Copper broke below its head-and-shoulders pattern and confirmed the breakdown. The last time we saw something similar was in April 2013, when the entire precious metals sector was on the verge of plunging lower.

Moreover, please note that while there may be a recession threat, it doesn't mean that gold has to rally immediately. Both: recession and gold's multi-year rally could be many months away - comparing what happened to bond yields in the 90s confirms that.

Summary

Summing up, yesterday's upswing in precious metals happened in response to more than twice as significant decline in the USD Index and was yet another confirmation of the bearish outlook for precious metals sector. Our short positions remain profitable even despite yesterday's price action, and yesterday's price moves could be actually viewed as beneficial as they helped to clarify when the next local bottom is likely to be formed. The odds are that it will be formed in the final part of the month, close to December 23^rd or to the end of the month. It's quite likely (no promises, though, as it depends on what the market does) that we're going to take (partial or complete) profits from the current short position this month. We might also reverse the position, but - as above - it's too early to say with certainty at this time.

As always, we'll keep you - our subscribers - informed.

To summarize:

Trading capital (supplementary part of the portfolio; our opinion): Full speculative short position (250% of the full position) in gold, silver, and mining stocks is justified from the risk/reward perspective with the following stop-loss orders and binding exit profit-take price levels:

• Gold futures: profit-take exit price: $1,391; stop-loss: $1,573; initial target price for the DGLD ETN: $36.37; stop-loss for the DGLD ETN: $25.44
• Silver futures: profit-take exit price: $15.11; stop-loss: $19.06; initial target price for the DSLV ETN: $24.88; stop-loss for the DSLV ETN: $14.07
• Mining stocks (price levels for the GDX ETF): profit-take exit price: $23.21; stop-loss: $30.11; initial target price for the DUST ETF: $14.69; stop-loss for the DUST ETF $6.08

In case one wants to bet on junior mining stocks' prices, here are the stop-loss details and target prices:

• GDXJ ETF: profit-take exit price: $30.32; stop-loss: $44.22
• JDST ETF: profit-take exit price: $35.88 stop-loss: $11.68

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

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
Editor-in-chief, Gold & Silver Fund Manager