How Congestion Basing Can Present Incredible Opportunities

Our research team here at the Technical Traders wanted to alert our followers to the incredible opportunities that continue to present themselves in the current market. While many people have been overly concerned about a market top and price rotation in the US majors, the Energy sector and many others have seen incredible price moves.

Take a look at this XLE chart as an example. Yes, we know that Oil has rallied from about $60 to closer to $70 recently, yet we want you to focus on the price pattern that setup this move in XLE. Specifically, we want you to focus on the Multi-Month Base pattern in price between early February and early April of 2018 as well as the upside breakout that followed.

In true technical analysis theory, price tells us everything and indicators assist us in relating current price movement/action to historical price movement/action. This simple chart illustrates how price setup a top/resistance zone near $78 in early January 2018, broke lower in early February, then setup a multi-month price support base for nearly 60+ days. This price support base because an extended bottom formation and a “price support zone” by testing and retesting the critical $65~66 price level while establishing a series downward sloping high price peaks. When it finally broke free of this support zone, near mid-April, price skyrocketed higher (+17% or more).

With the stock market showing all the signs that it is in the late stage of a bull market this is when traders need to start identifying the hot sectors or high probability continuation patterns. Why? because we have entered a stock pickers market. It’s simple really, it means all the stocks are not going to be rising together and if you put your money into the wrong sector you could lose money while the markets rise.

So where is the next hot sector? We believe a very similar pattern is setting up in the IYT (Transportation Index) just like we saw on the first chart of the XLE. We feel an upside breakout move is likely to happen within the next two weeks.

The setup of this price pattern is a bit broader and more volatile than the XLE Multi-Month Basing pattern – which means the IYT upside breakout could be more volatile and dramatic in form (possibly driving price +10% to 20% over an extended period).

Additionally, the high price peaks are setting up in a similar format with lower high price peaks over the span of the base. Support near $182.50 to $185 is critical and we believe the eventual upside breakout will be an incredible opportunity for traders.

This breakout will coincide with much of our other analysis of the US major markets which we have been sharing recently.

Our other recent trade alerts, that are up well over 10% each are UGAZ, FAS, and TECL. These have been rocketing higher – as we predicted. On Friday we closed our TECL position which hit our resistance level and we locked in the 18.3% gains with our members. The single point of success for all of us is to manage our assets well in an attempt to achieve greater long-term success.

If you have not seen or read much of our recent analysis, please visit The Technical Traders to learn more and review our work. Our exclusive members are already positioned for many moves like this in the markets and more continue to form each week.

We urge you to consider joining our Wealth Building Trading Newsletter as a member to receive our incredible insight, proprietary research, and trade alerts to assist your own trading success. We have delivered insights and research to our members that have clearly informed them of where we believe the markets are headed for many months in advance. Imagine how powerful that kind of research could be for you?

53 years experience in researching and trading makes analyzing the complex and ever-changing financial markets a natural process. We have a simple and highly effective way to provide our customers with the most convenient, accurate, and timely market forecasts available today. Our stock and ETF trading alerts are readily available through our exclusive membership service via email and SMS text. Our newsletter, Technical Trading Mastery book, and 3 Hour Trading Video Course are designed for both traders and investors. Also, some of our strategies have been fully automated for the ultimate trading experience.

Chris Vermeulen

The Iron Rule of the Financial Markets

This math formula that can literally predict the market:    dxt=θ(μ−xt)dt+σdWt

John Bogle the founder of The Vanguard Group, calls it the iron rule of the financial markets. Jason Zweig from the Wall Street Journal says it’s the most powerful law in finance.

Legendary trader James O'Shaughnessy says that historically, we have always seen it driving stocks. And over the last 8 years it could have paid you well in consistent reliable profits.

Now I’m Going To Show You How It Works ← Click Here

If you trade it with options it could produce rapid two week individual trade profits like....

  *  204% on XLU Put Options

  *  124% on XLE Call Options

  *  And even as much as 998% on XLE Put Options

  *  All in precisely two weeks - no more, no less.

Get The Facts ← Click Here

My trading partner Todd Mitchell has recorded a three video series explaining how it works. He’s making it available to you now - 100% for FREE.

This series will only be available for a very limited time. If you want to watch…

Visit Here to Check it Out Right Now

See you in the Markets!
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

When Will They Bottom? Crude Oil, SP500, then ExxonMobil

A full blown bear market in energy resources and energy stocks has been underway since mid-2014. History shows that the price of crude oil typically bottoms before the broad stock market. And oil related stocks bottom at the same time or later than the broad market. The monthly chart below shows how oil bottoms several months before the stock market does. This provides us with some insight on when we should start to expect a bear market to end in the US stock market.

Many traders follow and trade shares of Exxon Mobil. And while the are big money maker I do feel their share price is going to underperform oil for some time. Based on my research XOM has acquired many new oil operations, which many require $70+ per barrel to be profitable. This has cost XOM a considerable amount of capital and is now left holding and operating business that are losing money with the current price of oil sub $40 per barrel.

Base on my analysis, economic data and forecast I feel as though oil will remain low for another 3-9 months below $60 per barrel. It will do this for several reasons but what matter to us is that it forced the majority of oil producers to cap and close off well and go out of business. While this is taking place stocks and the economy will rebalance through a strong economic recession and a bear market in equities that will last most if not longer than 2016. Take a look at the US stock market average (SP500 index) in the chart below. While this chart is a very basic and simple looking forecast understand that the stock market internals and market breadth have completely collapsed just s we saw in 2000 and again in 2008 months before the index collapsed and started bear markets.

Oil, XOM, and Stock Trading Conclusion:

In short, I expect oil to find a bottom during the next 1-3 months. Oil services stocks on average are likely to trade sideways and build a basing pattern. These oil services stocks will not breakout and rally until the broad stock market has bottomed which I expect to happen late in 2016 or early 2017. Unfortunately, oil and oil stocks collapsed so fast without any retest or pause for us to get short and enjoy the ride down for profits. I feel trading oil and oil stocks will be choppy and tough in the near year. Last week subscribers and I played the energy (XLE) for a quick two-day pop of 2-4% return depending on entry and exit. These types of plays will continue, but the big trend trade in oil and energy are a long way away yet.

The easier money will be likely be shorting the stock market (buying inverse ETFs) to profit as stocks collapse which is what I provide subscribers to my ETF trade alert newsletter.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL – GET 12 MONTH OF TRADE ALERTS FOR THE PRICE OF ONLY 6!

Chris Vermeulen – www.The Gold & Oil Guy.com

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Closed Another Winning Trade And New Forecast

Our trading partner Chris Vermeulen just sent over an email detailing his last trade of this holiday shortened week. Make sure to sign up for Chris' holiday special.....

Yesterday December 23rd we closed out a nice winning trade in XLE energy sector. If you have not yet closed the trade can should do so today and will locking an even larger gain of 4-5% return in only three days. The stock market closes early today at 1 pm ET. Today volume will be light and its not worth sitting around watching or trying to trade in my opinion. The best trade for today is to spend quality time with your family and friends.

Attached are couple charts that show where the market is currently trading with my short term analysis and why XLE position was closed yesterday. The market is primed for a sharp correction which may start Monday and if possible, we will take action, but volume will likely remain light for the rest of the year and first couple days of January, so the top may drag out a few more days. Let’s wait for a technical breakdown first before buying inverse ETFs.

I would like to thank all my followers and subscribers for their support and kind words throughout the year. It has been an extremely difficult market to trade with the broad market trading in a Stage 3 Distribution pattern. Hedge funds, mutual funds and those who hold individual stocks in their portfolio are all down sharply for reasons I have explained and warned about all year.

Early in 2015 I published a short book talking about how the US stock market was showing significant signs of a topping along with many timing cycles and events that were also unfolding and pointed to a new bear market that will likely last through 2016 and into 2017. Thus far, everything has unfolded as expected and once this Stage 3 Distribution pattern breaks down a new bear market will have confirmed and all kinds of huge trades will start to unfold. It will be a VERY DIFFERENT year than 2014 and 2015.

Chris Vermeulen – www.The Gold & Oil Guy.com

HOLIDAY SPECIAL – GET 12 MONTH OF TRADE ALERTS FOR THE PRICE OF ONLY SIX!

Jared Dillian is Pulling Out All the Stops

By Jared Dillian

When I was a teenager, I had a different sort of part-time job. I was a church organist. Actually, it was the best job ever because I was something of a piano prodigy as a child. Around age 12, my parents and I had to make a conscious decision about whether I was going to pursue a career in music. I decided not to, which has greatly reduced the amount of Ramen noodles I have eaten over the years.At age  13, I decided I wanted to play the organ. I took lessons from the organist in the big Catholic church downtown. What an incredible instrument!

Playing the organ is a lot harder than it looks. In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a whole keyboard at your feet—yes, you play with both your hands and your feet. And since you can’t possibly learn all the hymns, you have to be really good at sight-reading three lines of music at once. It takes a great deal of coordination. Plus, you have two or more “manuals” (keyboards) and dozens of stops, which activate the different sounds in the organ. This is where the phrase “pulling out all the stops” comes from.

So I got a job as the organist at the Unitarian church down the street. For the first and only time of my life, I was a member of a union—the American Guild of Organists. I received my union-protected minimum wage of $50 per service, which is a great deal of money if you’re 16 years old in 1990. $50 a week definitely put gas in my car. And there was a girl in the congregation that I dated a couple of times.

I felt sorry for my poor schlep classmates who were bagging groceries for $4/hour. They had to work 12 hours to make what I made in one. I felt pretty smug.  The high point was when I transcribed the theme from “A Clockwork Orange” and played it as the prelude for one of the church services. You can see where the subversive streak comes from.

I Got Skills

So why did I make more than 12 times what my high school classmates made? Because my skills were worth 12 times as much. Bagging groceries is kind of the definition of unskilled labor. Literally anyone can bag groceries. The supply of labor that has those skills is limitless.

Church organists are in slightly higher demand. But not by much! I think a church organist these days—if you are hired by the church to play every week, plus run all the choir and music programs, probably pays about $35,000 to $50,000 a year, depending on the church. So not a lot!

It’s a decent living if you like playing the organ, but you also have to deal with church politics. The wages of an organist not only depend on the supply of labor but the demand for labor as well. And church construction has gone way down in recent years. Not to mention the fact that the latest fad in religious services is “contemporary music.”

However, the fact that church organists make more money than grocery baggers does reflect the level of skill the occupation requires. Before I became a church organist, I had been playing either the piano or organ for six years. Six years of practicing 30 minutes to an hour a day, every day.

Nobody practices bagging groceries for 30 minutes a day, every day.

I don’t particularly like manual labor (though I have done it on occasion). That’s why I do my best to acquire skills that are rare and marketable so I don’t have to do things like chip paint. In this country (and others), we have this unhealthy obsession with manual labor. Politicians talk about “working Americans” all the time. We say things like “putting in a hard day’s work.” The most popular car is the Ford F-150. Who wants to put in a hard day’s work? Not me! Instead, I will put in a hard day’s thinking.

Hate and Discontent

A lot of people spend too much time thinking about what other people make. It’s unproductive. Everyone thinks Wall Street guys are overpaid, for example. Okay, so let’s take your average ETF option trader at a bank. Say he makes $500,000 a year (which might even be generous these days). Let’s examine one trade of many that he is confronted with on a daily basis. A sales trader stands up and yells to him, “20,000 XLE Jan 75 calls, how?”

What’s happening here is that a client is asking for a two-sided market on the January 75 call options in XLE, which is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF, 20,000 times, which means options on 2,000,000 shares, or about $140,000,000. It’s a big trade, definitely, but there are bigger ones. So let’s think of all the things the option trader needs to know. He needs to know what an option is, starting from scratch.

He needs to know what XLE is, that it’s an energy ETF, and he should have a good idea of what stocks are in the portfolio. He might have a cursory knowledge about factors affecting supply and demand for crude oil. In order to come up with a price for these options, he has to have an idea of what implied volatility should be and what realized volatility might be going forward.

This requires a knowledge of an option pricing model like Black-Scholes and many, many years of college mathematics, including probability theory and differential equations. He needs to know how he is going to hedge this option. Will he hedge the delta all in the stock? Will he hedge with other options? How will he dynamically hedge the trade until maturity? Will he lay off some of the risk in other strikes? Will he buy single stock options on some of the names in the index, like XOM, CVX, or COP, to effect a dispersion trade?

This means he has to know what a dispersion trade is. More math. He also needs to understand liquidity. What will be his execution impact by trying to sell 800,000 shares of XLE? This affects how wide he makes his market. And best of all, he needs to think about all of these things in a split-second, without hesitation. If he is off by even a penny—he loses money on the trade. I would characterize that as “skilled labor.” And we haven’t even talked about the emotional fortitude it takes to take that kind of risk. $500,000 a year seems low.

CEOs

People get the most upset about executive pay. Here you have some dillweed CEO who is the direct beneficiary of the agency problem. If company XYZ does well, he gets paid millions. If it does poorly, he gets fired and loses nothing, personally. We say that he has no skin in the game.

Well, do you have what it takes to run one of the 500 largest companies in the world?

Pretend we’re talking about McDonald’s. Many people think McDonald’s is doing a terrible job. There’s a lot of evidence that they are. They’re losing market share to Chipotle and lots of other “fast casual” restaurants.

But running a company is hard enough. You have 50,000 odd restaurants, you have to manage supply and distribution for this massive network, you have to do all the managerial science behind what is on the menu and how much it costs, you have to directly negotiate, and I mean meet with leaders of foreign governments, you need to go on CNBC from time to time and not be a mutant, and above all, you need to lead inspirationally.

Not many people can do all that. I can’t. Maybe I’m smart enough, but I don’t have the emotional maturity or even the desire for that kind of responsibility. Everyone wants to be the boss, but nobody really wants to be the boss. If you think you are underpaid—maybe you are. The labor market is not perfectly efficient. Anomalies can persist.

Take a look at people who you think are overpaid. What are they doing that you aren’t? Maybe you just aren’t willing to do those things (like kiss lots of ass). The responsibility is yours and yours alone. And that, my friends, is something nobody wants to hear.

Jared Dillian

If you enjoyed Jared's article, you can sign up for The 10th Man, a free weekly letter, at mauldineconomics.com. 

The article The 10th Man: Pulling Out All the Stops was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.

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Is this ETF Laying the Foundation for a Rally in Crude Oil?

Picking bottoms is not something one should do if you're going to be a successful trader. But looking at market that may be forming a bottom is a good exercise, and one that you should be doing on a regular basis. I had done this before gold reversed to the upside traded over $1300 an ounce. Maybe it's time to look at crude oil and see if it's beginning to set itself up for a move to the upside.

Technically, the Trade Triangles remain negative on crude oil, so there is no reversal showing up with those technical tools. The story is a little bit different with the RSI indicator. This particular indicator is showing that there is a big positive divergence on the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (PACF:XLE), and it is one that spans months.

Today I'm looking at the ETF XLE and the fact that if it closes higher for the week, it will be a positive sign. The previous week saw a very important Japanese candlestick formation call a "Dragon Fly Doji" this can be interpreted as a strong indication of reversal. It all depend's on how XLE closes this Friday.

Should XLE close higher than ($76.56) the market will have created a "Bullish Engulfing Line" confirming that the previous weeks, "Dragon Fly Doji" was indeed a reversal to the upside.

Take a look at both charts, one is a daily graph showing a large positive divergence on the RSI indicator. The other graph is a weekly Candlestick chart highlighting the “Dragon Fly Doji” and the potential for a “Bullish Engulfing Line” to occur this week.

So here is my 3 step strategy for the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (PACF:XLE):

1. I'm going to watch this market closely and have it on my radar.

2. I want to watch the 50 line on the RSI. A close over this line will be another important clue and strong indication that this market is bottoming or has bottomed out.

3. I'm also watching the weekly Trade Triangle on crude oil, should this Trade Triangle turn green, you'll want to BUY XLE, as it closely tracks crude oil.

Now let's see how the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (PACF:XLE) does in the future.

Every success with MarketClub,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

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WTI Crude Oil on the Move $112 Next Stop

The energy sector has surged during the last two months which can be seen by looking at the XLE Energy Select Sector Fund. If crude oil continues to climb to the $112 level, XLE will likely continue to rally for another few days or possibly week as energy stocks are considered a leveraged way to play energy price movements.

Another way to look at this info is through the USO United States Oil Fund. This tracks much closer to the price of oil. The only issue is that many ETFs that “try to track” an underlying commodity is in how the funds are built. They own multiple contracts further into the future which does not exactly provide us with the short term news/event driven price movements in the current front month contract as they should.

What does this mumbo jumbo mean? Well, it means funds like USO and the highly respected UNG, and VIX ETFs… (just joking about the highly respected part), fail to track the underlying commodity or index very well when it comes to short term price movements. This means, you can nail the timing of a trade, and the commodity or index will move in your favor, yet your fund loses money, or goes nowhere...

Let’s Focus on the Technicals Now….

 

WTI crude oil has formed a bullish ascending triangle pattern from March to May of this year. The breakout to the upside is bullish and should be traded that way until the chart says otherwise. This breakout and first pullback must hold, or I will consider it a failed breakout. So if price dips and closes 2 days below the breakout level, it will be a major negative for oil in my opinion.

The range of the ascending triangle provides us with a measured move to the upside which is $112. Typically the first pullback after a breakout can be bought. The first short term target to scalp some gains would be $109, and at that point moving your stop to breakeven is a wise decision. Trading is all about managing capital and risk, if you don’t, then the market will take advantage of your lack in discipline.

Looking further back on the chart, you can see the double bottom formation also known as a “W” formation. Once the high of the “W” formation is broken the trend should be considered neural or up.

Also note that the RSI (relative strength) has been trending higher for some time now. This means money is rotating into this commodity. This is in line with my interview this week with Kerry Lutz and my recent article talking about the next bull market in commodities and the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange).

 

WTI Crude Oil Trading Conclusion:

 

In short, oil has some extra risk around it. The recent move has been partly fueled by news overseas. So at any time oil could get a lift or take a hit by news that hits the wires. I tent to trade news related events with much less capital than I normally do because of this risk.

Happy Trading,
Chris Vermeulen

WANT MORE TRADE IDEAS? GET THEM HERE: THE GOLD & OIL GUY.COM

 

Mish's Mid Week Market Minute $SPY $IWM $DIA $QQQ

Michelle "Mish" Schneider gives a quick run down of this market like no one else can. Here's her Free Market Minute for Wednesday....

Flat has several meanings. 1. Smooth and even, without marked lumps or indentations. I wonder how many can say that about their equity after Tuesday’s session? 2. Lacking interest or emotion; dull and lifeless. That’s a yes! 3. In or to a horizontal position. Describes the market internals or McClellan Oscillator.

The S&P 500 is flat. Flat as a word has several more urban definitions; but I will leave that to your own curiosity to look up online. Speaking of, Google (GOOG), far from flat, did make new highs.

Volume equally flat with an exception to the small caps, Russell 2000s, which posted a rather small distribution day. Remember, when you’re flat on your back, everything looks up!

S&P 500 (SPY) Held the fast moving average, which by the way, is flat.

Russell 2000 (IWM) Broke the fast moving average with 111 an important support level

Dow (DIA) Closed just shy of the fast moving average but also on support. Also have to mention that IWM SPY and DIA did not make new highs recently while QQQs did

Nasdaq (QQQ) Marginally worked off overbought conditions

XLF (Financials) Volcker rule announcement had an impact. Sitting on support

SMH (Semiconductors) Holding the runaway gap

XRT (Retail) With a 6 day correction, 85.60 is pretty much the risk should this start to turn up

IYT (Transportation) Marginally held 128.40

IBB (Biotechnology) Held 219 and still digesting

IYR (Real Estate) 63.20 is the place to hold now

XHB (Homebuilders) Floundering around above the 50 DMA

GLD Gapped up so that reversal candle was good after all-now, 122 great resistance

USO (US Oil Fund) Cleared the 200 DMA-and baby, it’s cold outside!

XLE (Energy) 2 inside days-good one to focus on for range break

TBT (Ultrashort Lehman 20+ Year Treasuries) TLTs doesn’t believe taper talk it seems

EWG (Germany) 30.33 is the low of the island top to clear to negate that pattern


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Get our "Gold and Crude Oil Trade Ideas"

3 Surprising ETF Ideas for a Possible Oil Rush

 From Gary Gordon at Seeking Alpha.Com

When is the last time that crude oil closed as high as $81.64 per barrel? You’d have to look back to 2008. At that time, crude was on its way down. This time, commodities like oil are trending higher! There are plenty of exchange traded investments for rising crude oil prices. Perhaps the most popular is United States Oil (USO), an ETF that endeavors to capture the the spot price of West Texas Intermediate Light Sweet Crude.

It should be noted, however, that USO has struggled immensely at tracking its intended index due to contango and backwardation. And the iPath Crude Oil ETN (OIL) hasn’t fared a whole heck of a lot better. Other folks hope to benefit from the corporations that explore for, produce and sell the commodity. Yet share prices of big energy companies have been hit from everything from oil drilling moratoriums to taxation and regulatory uncertainty.

ETFs like SPDR Select Energy (XLE) and Oil Services HOLDRs (OIH) have been under-performers regardless of reasonable share price valuation. So what’s an oil investor to do? Can you march to the beat of the oil drum....and actually achieve over sized returns? Yes you can. However, you might want to look in a slightly different direction.....Read the entire article.


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