All Star Charts Gold Rush Articles

In 2015 I was an entrepreneur, had my last knee surgery, and was still riding professionally from time to time—until my body finally gave out. 

I was also on the verge of starting my own fund while working for another one. 

In other words, I was busy.

My trading signals back then were based on 10-month highs which reflects how busy I was. 

We saw a new 10-month high by the end of the year, and that marked the beginning of one of the most legendary trends in financial history. 

When I first bought in, the backlash was intense. You were an “idiot” for investing in Bitcoin at that time. 

Then, the tide turned and Bitcoin skyrocketed from $300 to $20,000 in the following two years. 

Some mornings, I’d wake up in disbelief that some cryptocurrencies had doubled overnight. 

Digital gold has churned sideways at its prior cycle high, while gold and risk assets have enjoyed a sweet leg higher over the last half-year.

It would be strange for this bull market cycle to end without Bitcoin enjoying a blue-sky breakout.

So, if it's a bull market, shouldn't Bitcoin and friends be participating?

Yes. We're betting that crypto is about to reach escape velocity and have an epic catch up.

Let's talk about it:

Uranium stocks have been screaming higher and show no signs of slowing down.

As the AI Revolution demands more and more power, big technology companies are turning to nuclear energy.

The market is sending a very clear message... we (as investors) need to increase our exposure to uranium stocks.

Check out the recent performance from uranium stocks:

Each bubble's location is determined by its 10-day change on the x-axis, the trailing 3-month return on the y-axis, and the 14-day RSI is the size.

LEU, OKLO, and SMR are the stocks that stand out the most amongst their peers. Each of these 3 leaders is involved with nuclear energy for the AI boom.

The VanEck Uranium Energy ETF $NLR is decisively resolving a multi-decade base:

This fund holds large positions in the largest uranium stocks like Constellation Energy $CEG, Cameco $CCJ, and BWX Technologies $BWXT.

The breakout to new multi-decade highs is happening as breadth in the industry is expanding.

The GlobalX Uranium ETF $URA has a large Cameco...

Earlier this year we wrote about platinum futures gearing up for a breakout as gold futures were printing fresh all-time highs.

So far the trade has been a dud as the price action has been a rangebound mess.

But the former powerhouse is setting up for us to take another swing at it.

Let's talk about the little silver:

It has been two-years since the S&P 500 bottomed in October 2022 and stocks began a new bull market. 

During this time, many sectors and industry groups have enjoyed tremendous uptrends while materials stocks have gone sideways.

But materials stocks are starting to look interesting...

The SPDR Materials Sector ETF $XLB is making new all-time highs:

As you can see, the prior cycle high coincides with a major Fibonacci extension level going back to the Great Financial Crisis, which adds to the significance of this breakout.

This market-capitalization weighted fund has a large exposure to Linde $LIN amongst several other bellwether materials stocks.

We want to be long XLB if it's above 93, with a target of 139.

The Materials Sector holds a lot of the same stocks as the S&P Chemicals Index:

The S&P Chemicals Index is consolidating below a major Fibonacci extension level going back to the Great Financial Crisis and we're betting it will breakout to new all-time highs like XLB.

If CEX is above 985, the path of least resistance is higher toward 1,500.

Representing over 17% of the Materials Sector...

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about Silver futures attempting to emerge from a multi-year accumulation pattern and potentially retesting the former all-time high.

Last week,  Silver made a new multi-decade high in absolute terms and broke a multi-year downtrend line relative to Gold. 

And if the 47th element is about to blast off, we should look closer at the Junior Silver Miners.

But first, check out this chart of the Silver/Gold ratio:

Last week, we discussed China and Gold futures as potential catalysts for resolving a multi-decade basing pattern in Dr. Copper.

If we're in an environment where Copper futures are printing fresh all-time highs, then we should spend some time identifying opportunities in the equities market that benefit from rising base and industrial metal prices globally.

Over the last 6-months, the Steel $SLX, Copper $COPX, and Metals and Mining $XME ETFs have underperformed the S&P 500:

However, the weekly RRG is hinting at a potential rotation back into these stocks during this final quarter of 2024. All 3 of these ETFs are pointing higher and rotating out of the lagging quadrant and into the improving and leading quadrants.

Despite the recent volatility, gold continues its steady ascent, unaffected by the broader market noise. 

As seasonals have shifted and new leadership has come and gone this year, gold remains resilient, moving through market regimes with ease.

Whether stocks rally or risk-off sentiment prevails, gold thrives. The yellow metal has been red-hot all year.

In these times, the saying goes, "there is no fever like gold fever." 

But, is there any evidence of this kind of euphoria among investors yet?

While the COT report suggests sentiment may be overstretched, let’s talk about what we’re seeing on the ground.

There’s little buzz about gold in the financial media. No bold predictions of $10K gold on magazine covers, no headlines touting it as the ultimate safe haven in an impending crisis—signals that often show up at market tops. We’re just not seeing it.

For context, in 2011, fears of currency depreciation were rampant. The covers of TIME magazine and Smart Money allow us to remember this moment. They came right at the top.

...

Large Speculators haven't owned this much Gold since 2020. We have the data.

In precious metal bull markets, it's perfectly normal for Commercial Hedgers to offset their physical positions by shorting the underlying futures contracts.

We also tend to see the Speculators build massive net-long positions.

Check out the extreme Commercial Hedger net-short position in Gold and Silver futures:

This is as extreme as it gets. So, with the positioning so stretched, who is left to buy?

Let's talk about it:

Have you heard about China?

Chinese stocks just had their best week in history, following the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) announcement of rate cuts, among other stimulative actions.

In July, we talked about Copper and its base and industrial metal peers showing broad weakness. But that seems to be changing...

China is the world's largest consumer of refined copper, so base and industrial metals have benefited from the recent pivot from the PBOC.

Chinese stocks and copper futures have been positively correlated for years:

The 200-day rolling correlation flipped negative earlier this year but is positive again and has recently been screaming higher toward its highest positive correlation in history.

This week, the China Large-Cap ETF $FXI decisively broke a multi-year downtrend line and entered a new primary uptrend.

If the path of least resistance is higher for Chinese stocks, the 29th element should also catch a bid.

Earlier this year, Gold broke out to new all-time highs, but Copper...

Gold futures have been relentlessly rising and printing new all-time highs. The precious metal is now overbought on a 14-day, week, and month RSI. 

We've recently seen Palladium rip over 20% in a few days and momentum thrusts for the Junior Gold & Silver Miners ETFs.

With this new Gold bull market now almost 7 months old, maybe it's time for Silver futures to break out of their multi-year range.

Let's talk about it:

It has been over 1,600 days since Crude Oil futures traded below zero in 2020, which preceded one of its best 2-year bull markets in history.

Since the peak in early 2022, energy has been a tough trade for those with trend-following strategies and a favorable one for mean-reversion strategies.

Crude Oil futures are at the lower bound of a multi-year range, and the Energy Sector SPDR $XLE has the fewest percent of stocks above their 200-day moving average out of all 11 sectors. 

Energy has been a laggard recently.

However, it's important to remember where energy has come from. Crude Oil futures went from below 0 to 130 in less than two years, and the XLE is the second best-performing sector since Covid, lagging only Technology $XLK:

The outperformance has been in the energy sector. Just not recently...

But that could be changing soon with energy futures digging in at major levels of interest.

Crude Oil futures are bouncing off a key level of polarity:

This is what former resistance turning into support looks like...