The Bear Market in Commodities Is Over…Here’s How Casey Analysts Are Cashing In

By Justin Spittler

It’s official. The bear market in commodities is over. If you’ve been reading the Dispatch, you know commodities have been in a crushing bear market for more than five years. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, which tracks 22 different commodities, has plunged 58% since April 2011.

In January, it hit its lowest level since 1999. Then, commodity prices took off. According to the Financial Times, 15 out of the 22 commodities that make up the Bloomberg Commodity Index are up on the year. The price of oil is up 85% since February. Sugar is up 81% since August. Soybeans are up 33% since March.

The index is up 11%. It’s off to its best start to any year since 2008. And it’s up 21% since mid-January.
According to the popular definition, a bull market begins when a stock, commodity, or index rises 20% from a low. By that measure, commodities are “officially” in a bull market.

You can see how commodities have bottomed in the chart below:

For months, we’ve been saying commodities were close to a bottom..…
The 5-plus year bear market in commodities has slammed the world’s largest miners. According to accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s 40 largest publicly traded miners lost a combined $27 billion last year. To survive, commodity companies have cut spending to the bone. They laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. They sold parts of their business and abandoned projects. Some companies even cut their prized dividends.

This is classic behavior of a bottom..…
As you may know, commodities are cyclical. They go through big booms and busts. That’s because commodities like copper, natural gas, and oil have unique supply/demand dynamics. For example, when oil prices get too low, many companies that produce oil go out of business. Also, when oil prices are cheap, folks are likely to use more of it. You’re likely to drive more when gasoline prices are cheap than when they’re expensive.

Eventually, prices get so low that demand exceeds supply. Prices bottom out and begin to rise. That’s when a commodity bear market turns into a commodity bull market. When a commodity bull market gets going, the gains can be huge. During the 2002–2008 commodity bull market, the Bloomberg Commodity Index rose 172%. Shares of some of the world’s largest mining companies climbed many times higher. For example, Anglo American (AAL.L) returned 464% over the period. BHP Billiton Limited (BHP) returned 1,106%.

The weak dollar has also given commodities a boost..…
The U.S. Dollar Index has fallen 5% this year. This index tracks the dollar’s performance against major currencies like the euro and Japanese yen. The dollar is the world’s most important currency. Most investors “think” in dollars. If you look up the price of sugar, corn, or gold, you’ll see its price in dollars. So when the dollar loses value, it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of a commodity. That’s why a weak dollar is good for commodities.

Still, there’s at least one reason to be skeptical about the rally in commodities..…
Commodities are the “building blocks” of the global economy. And Dispatch readers know that economic growth has come to a standstill. China, the world’s largest commodity consumer, is growing at its slowest pace since 1990. The U.S. is growing at its slowest pace since World War II. Japan’s economy hasn’t grown at all in two decades. When the economy slows, developers build fewer homes, office buildings, and bridges. That means they use less copper, aluminum, steel, and other commodities.

If you’re buying commodities today, make sure to buy ones that can do well while the economy struggles..…
Some commodities depend more on economic growth than others. For example, lumber, which is used to build homes, benefits from the tailwind of a growing economy. Soybean prices, on the other hand, can rise no matter how well the economy is doing. That’s because people have to eat no matter what’s happening with the economy.

So while the Bloomberg Commodity Index is up 11% this year, not every commodity has rallied. Natural gas prices are still down 9% on the year. Copper is down 3%. Meanwhile, soybean prices are up 34% Although several Casey analysts have recommended commodity investments this year, they’ve been very selective about the types of commodities they recommend. This approach has paid off…..

➢ Nick Giambruno, editor of Crisis Investing, used the crash in oil prices to pick shares of a world-class oil company. This stock is up 13% since March.

➢ E.B. Tucker, editor of The Casey Report, used the turnaround in commodities to buy two gold stocks. One of those is up 47% since March. The other is up 31% since April. He also recommended a silver stock that’s jumped 36% since April.

➢ Louis James, editor of International Speculator, is cashing in on the commodity rebound too. One of his stocks has surged 162% since September. Another is up 122% since July. A third is up 63% since March.

Most investors would do well owning just gold..…
As we often say, gold is real money. It’s preserved wealth for thousands of years because it has unique set of qualities: It’s durable, easy to transport, and easily divisible. It has intrinsic value that folks recognize around the world. Like many commodities, gold “officially” entered a new bull market earlier this year. It’s in an uptrend, yet still cheap. It’s trading 34% below its 2011 high. Unlike many commodities, gold can do well even if the economy is struggling. It’s a safe haven asset that’s protected wealth through history’s worst financial crises.

Casey Research founder Doug Casey thinks we’re on the verge of a major financial crisis..…
Doug says the coming crisis will be “much more severe, different, and longer lasting than what we saw in 2008 and 2009.” When it hits, “paper currencies will fall apart, as they have many times throughout history.”
Doug says this will spark a “true mania” in gold. That’s why we encourage everyone own physical gold. Putting just 10% or 15% of your wealth in gold could help you avoid big losses during the next financial crisis.

Finally, an important announcement from Jim Rickards..…
Part of our job at Casey Research is to share interesting opportunities with you. That's why we're passing along this important news from our good friend Jim Rickards. You've probably heard of Rickards. He’s one of the most respected analysts in the business. He’s a gold expert and author of The New Case for Gold. Jim recently launched a new service to help readers take advantage of the coming gold boom. Because he’d like as many folks as possible to read his service, he’s arranged a special deal exclusive to Casey Research readers. You can learn more by watching this free video. In short, if you take Rickards up on his special offer today, he’ll send you two “G-series” gold coins in the mail.

Again, this deal is only for Casey Research readers. Click here for the full story.

REMINDER: Casey Research founder Doug Casey will be in Poland next weekend..…
Doug will be presenting at the "Alternative for Difficult Times" seminar in Warsaw on June 18 and 19. Nick Giambruno, editor of International Man, will be there too. Doug and Nick will be there for the Polish launch of Doug's classic book, Crisis Investing. They will also be presenting at a seminar discussing the impending global financial hurricane, the state of freedom around the world, and how you can protect yourself and even profit from these trends.

Click here for more information.

Chart of the Day

Gold has been one of the best places to put your money this year. Today’s chart shows the performance of gold, commodities, bonds, U.S. stocks, and global stocks this year. You can see gold is up 17% this year. It’s crushed stocks, bonds, and even commodities as a group. For most of this year, gold was the top performing commodity. It was up more than 22% at one point. Then, it cooled off. It’s down more than 3% since late April.

We think gold is in the early innings of a major bull market. And, as we often say, bull markets don’t move in straight lines. It’s healthy for gold to take a “breather” after its red hot start to the year. If you’re looking to buy gold, we recommend using down days as buying opportunities. And again, for specifics on a coming opportunity in gold, we recommend you check out Jim Rickards' short video right here.

The article The Bear Market in Commodities Is Over…Here’s How Casey Analysts Are Cashing In was originally published at caseyresearch.com.

Get our latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

John's Short-Term Low-Risk Set Ups for Volatile Markets

Our trading partners at Simpler Options are back with another free webinar. This time it's "Precise Short Term Options Setups for Low Risk Profits in Volatile Markets" hosted by John Carter and Chris Belcher.

As always John and Chris have provided a free video to give you some hints as to what we will be covering....Watch that video now!

It all starts this Tuesday June 7th at 7:00 pm central.

Just visit this link to reserve your seat for this game changing webinar right now since all of these webinars get over subscribed.

Watch Todays Video and Sign Up for the Webinar Right Here

These two highly respected traders (with more than 50 years of combined experience) reveal low risk option strategies designed to catch quick explosive moves in volatile stocks. Get ready to take notes because we’re going to review results from actual live trades executed in real time during current market conditions.

Red Thumb Trades: Stop wasting time (and precious capital) on dud stocks. Discover how to find the right options to trade on the right stocks today.

Precision Exit Strategies: Finally know when to take fast profits intraday and when to let your position turn into a swing trade so you can get maximum gains.

Simple Option Setups: Cut through all the jargon and ‘Greek’ mumbo jumbo and learn how to follow a step by step process to create consistent income trading stock options.

The Ultimate Timing Secret: How to know in advance which stocks are likely to explode (in any time frame) and when to jump in with confidence

Miracle Grow Positions: Simple rapid growth strategies for small accounts. Discover why it’s possible to make a whole lot more money with options than you can with trading stocks. The key is to follow a few precise option setups.

Massive Mistakes Exposed: Learn why most traders will never be consistently profitable and discover how to actually profit from the most common (and costly) mistakes.

The Perfect Storm: Why the current volatile conditions are a trader’s paradise, and key catalysts to watch for in the coming months.

Case Study: Review one of John's live trades on TSLA that brought in $17k in 1 day (along with several other recent real money examples so you can see these setups in action).

As always, make sure you get your reserved seat now while you and make sure you log in early on Tuesday so you don't lose your spot.

Reserve Seat Right Here and Now

See you Tuesday evening,
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader


Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

Our Next Technical Price Targets for Gold & Silver

I have pointed out earlier, gold is forming a possible short term top. It is on the verge of completing a bearish ‘Head and Shoulder’ pattern. The pattern is confirmed if gold closes below $1220/oz. The downside pattern target for this setup is $1138/oz. 

If gold starts to rally and breaks out to the upside, then we should see the $1396 level be reached based on technical analysis.

I will open a new long gold position when the time feels right. With technical analysis strongly suggesting gold and silver have bottomed, New breakouts to the upside in metals and mining stocks can be bought.

On the other hand, silver has formed an almost perfect cup and handle pattern and has broken out of it. It has reached its first target objective; chances are that silver will either consolidate or pullback after having met its target or move up to $18.70/oz. levels, which is the pattern target of the ‘Cup and Handle’ pattern formation. However, new buying is not advised at current levels due to a poor risk-reward ratio.

If you have not read the post about what the Silver COT data is warning us about be sure to read this short post: Click Here

If we take a look and monitor the gold/silver ratio closely, recently, the ratio had touched its resistance of the past 20 years. Every time the ratio has returned from the resistance, the minimum it has retraced is to the levels of 45.

There are no reasons to believe that it will be any different this time around. Hypothetically, if gold were to remain at $1236/oz. and if the ratio corrects to 45, silver will reach $27.5/oz., which is a 62% increase from current levels.

Hence, it is prudent to stay with silver for a better return compared to gold once price has a pause to regroup before the next rally.

How to Trade Gold & Silver Conclusion:

Buying gold and silver offer different rate of returns to the investors. If an investor is able to time both the precious metals, then the total returns will be ‘astronomically high’ in the future.

My timing ‘cycles’ provide signals both for the short term and the long term. The price action of both gold and silver along with my cycles have been showing VERY strong “Cycle Skew”, which I explain in detail in my book “Technical Trading Mastery”. This cycle skew is telling us that precious metals are now in a strong uptrend and is another confirming indicator that support much higher prices long term.

During the first half of a bull market trading price patterns and upside breakouts tend to work very well. Because interest in the sector is growing and more buyers continue to enter that market, price pattern breakouts are the last chance to get a position before price has its next rally higher.

I will continue to inform my subscribers of new swing trades, and even more importantly the long term investing "Set it and Forget It" ETF trades to ride out the new bull and bear markets for massive profits.

Keep following me to know more at: www.The Gold and Oil Guy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Don Kaufman shows us how to "Protect & Profit" in any Market

Today we want to introduce the newest member of our team, Don Kaufman. Don has made quite a mark in the last couple months with the introduction of his new TheoTrade program. Truth is, some of our readers have stated they are getting more from his free videos then some of the more expensive programs they have purchased.

Don will be bringing us a free webinar monthly to keep us on the cutting edge of these extremely volatile markets. Just take advantage of any one of his free items. Getting his free eBook or even just watching his most recent free video will guarantee that you will get notified of the free webinars.

So what's in the "How to Protect & Profit in Any Market" eBook?

This 50 page eBook [visit here for free download] will teach you what you need to know to start playing the markets instead of the markets playing you.

Your Portfolio Deserves More Than a 50/50 Chance 
It has been shown statistically, over the long run, that fundamental and technical analysis is right about 50% of the time. Flipping a coin will give you the same percentage. As the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Malkiel states, “Technical and Fundamental analysis is a science giving astrology a good name.” Why flip a coin when you can use high probability options strategies?

Diversification is Dead
As a Wall Street saying goes, "When they raid the house they take everyone." Professionals consider diversification as a hedge for people who don’t know how to hedge. Think about it - would you protect the value of your own home against a potential fire by diversifying, that is, buying two houses so if one burns down, the appreciation in the other offsets your loss? Of course not! You insure your home so if it burns down, the insurance covers most of the loss. Welcome to one aspect of using options. Real professionals know how to use options to protect their portfolio from any shock to the markets.

Be The House 
Today, investing in the stock market is a big gamble, almost like going to Vegas and playing the slots. And we all know what happens with slot machines. The House always wins. It may take a loss occasionally, but the overall strategy assures that the House will always come out on top. Options let's you turn the tide and be the house. Find out how you can put the odds in your favor.

Get Don's FREE eBook "The Rebel's Guide to Trading Options"....Just Visit Here!

See you in the markets,
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

About Don Kaufman 
Don is one of the industry's leading financial strategists and educational authorities with 18 years of financial industry experience. Prior to co-founding TheoTrade, Mr. Kaufman spent 6 years at TD Ameritrade as Director of the Trader Group. At TD Ameritrade Mr. Kaufman handled thinkorswim® content and client education which included the design, build, and execution of what has become the industry standard in financial education. He started his career at thinkorswim® in 2000 (acquired by TD Ameritrade in 2009), where he served as chief derivatives instructor, helping the firm progress into the industry leader in retail options trading and investor education services.

The Answer to the Biggest Question in the Markets Right Now

By Justin Spittler

Are we in a bear market or a bull market? If you’ve been reading the Dispatch, you know that U.S. stocks have had a wild ride this year. The S&P got off to a horrible start in 2016, plunging 11% in just six weeks. But since mid-February, stocks have staged a huge bounce, climbing 13%. Regular readers know we’ve been skeptical of this big rally. We’ve argued that until the S&P 500 sets a new high, there’s little reason to be bullish. And we just got another clue that this rally is “suspect”.

The initial public offering (IPO) market is at financial-crisis lows.....
An IPO is when a private company goes public by selling stock to investors. The health of the IPO market can say a lot about the state of the stock market. Buying stock at its IPO is typically a high risk, high potential move. IPOs have a lot of potential because they’re often involved in a new or exciting business. Many investors who buy are hoping to get in early on the next Starbucks, Facebook, or Google.

However, IPOs are also very risky. The companies are often based on new or unproven business models. Many companies with an IPO are losing money every quarter. Some barely earn any revenue at all. More often than not, investors who buy IPOs are buying hopes and dreams, not stable, profitable business. When markets are healthy, investors are more willing to take a chance at buying an IPO. But when markets are shaky, IPOs tend to do poorly, as investors seek safer, more stable investments.

The number of U.S. IPOs plunged to a seven-year low last quarter.....
Investor’s Business Daily reported on Wednesday.

Just eight IPOs got out the door in Q1, down 76% from 34 in Q1 2015. That was the fewest IPOs since Q1 2009, which had just one. The $700 million in proceeds raised was the lowest total in 20 years, down 87% from the $5.5 billion raised in Q1 2015, according to Renaissance Capital, which manages two IPO-focused exchange traded funds.

Like us, The Wall Street Journal thinks this is a bad omen for the rest of the stock market.

[I]f the pace of IPOs doesn’t accelerate, it could be a warning sign for the rally.

The U.S. IPO market is heading toward its worst year since the financial crisis.....
On Tuesday, VentureBeat reported that just 24 companies have filed for IPOs this year. You can see in the chart below that the IPO market is on track to have its worst year since 2008.

We warned that the IPO market was slowing in October.....
Back then, the IPO market was just starting to show cracks. The S&P 500 was coming off its first 10% decline in four years. Companies are hesitant to go public when markets are volatile, because nervous investors are less likely to buy shares in an IPO. We also noted that several high profile companies either cancelled or postponed their IPOs. Supermarket chain Albertsons, which delayed going public in October, still hasn’t had its IPO.

Casey Research founder Doug Casey said to avoid one of the year’s most anticipated IPOs.…
The Italian carmaker Ferrari (RACE) went public on October 21. Days before the IPO, Doug urged readers of The Casey Report to not buy the stock.

Ferrari is going to have an IPO on its stock soon. A smart move on their part; when the ducks are quacking, you should feed them. I wouldn’t touch it if your broker offers you some…

Doug’s call was spot-on. Ferrari’s stock has plunged 25% since its IPO.

Most of last year’s IPOs have been huge disappointments..…
Investor’s Business Daily reports:

Among all IPOs of 2015, their stocks are down 18% on average from their IPO price and down 28% after the first trading day, Renaissance says.

Instead of buying IPOs, investors have been buying “defensive” stocks..…
For example, utility stocks have jumped 13% this year. The S&P 500 is up just 1%.
As Dispatch readers know, utilities tend to perform well when markets are shaky. No matter how bad the economy gets, folks still need running water, electricity, and gas to heat their homes. Investors often pile into utility stocks for safety.

Consumer staple stocks, which sell things like groceries, toothpaste, and laundry detergent, have also done well this year. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP), which tracks 39 consumer staple stocks, is up 5%. It hit an all-time high on Wednesday. Like water and electricity, folks buy these items no matter what’s happening with the economy.

Investors are also buying gold..…
As we often say, gold is money. It’s preserved wealth through economic depressions, currency crises, and every other kind of financial disaster. Investors often buy gold when they’re concerned about the economy or stocks. This year, the price of gold is up 16%. Yesterday, gold closed its best quarter since 1986.

Gold is the ultimate defensive asset.....
Even though utilities and consumer staple stocks are less risky than most stocks, they’re still stocks. They generally move with the rest of the market. During the 2008 financial crisis, the S&P 500 plunged 57%. Utilities fell 49%. Consumer staple stocks fell 34%. Gold only fell 29%. And in the aftermath of the crisis, gold recovered much more quickly than stocks. It went on to surge 167% from November 2008 to September 2011.

Today, gold is coming off a five-year bear market.....
It’s down 36% from its 2011 high. But as we mentioned earlier, gold has taken off this year. In case you missed it, Casey Research founder Doug Casey recently wrote an essay explaining why gold could easily triple. You can read it here.

There’s more risk than opportunity in U.S. stocks right now.....
The S&P 500 has climbed 205% since March 2009. That’s far more than the average gain of 136% for U.S. bull markets since 1932. The S&P 500 is also 56% more expensive than its historic average, according to the long term CAPE valuation ratio. U.S. stocks have only been more expensive three times in history: before the Great Depression...during the dot-com bubble...and leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Investors who buy U.S. stocks today are betting that the market keeps breaking records. That’s not a gamble we want to make. On top of owning gold, we encourage you to set aside cash. This will help you avoid major losses should U.S. stocks fall. And it will put you in a position to buy stocks when they get cheaper.

You could also make money “shorting” one of America’s most vulnerable industries.....
“Shorting” a stock is betting that it will go down. E.B. Tucker, editor of The Casey Report, recently recommended shorting a major American airline.The airline industry has been booming since the 2008–2009 financial crisis. But E.B. thinks the good times are coming to an end. In short, E.B. thinks the industry boomed on cheap credit, and that it will suffer huge losses when the easy money stops flowing.

E.B is targeting the most vulnerable U.S. airline. The company’s stock has surged an incredible 1,600% since March 2009. That’s eight times the return of the S&P 500. But like most stocks, it’s gone nowhere this year. It hasn’t set a new high since May. E.B. thinks this stock could plunge more than 50%. You can get in on this trade by signing up for The Casey Report. Click here to begin your risk-free trial.

Chart of the Day

Investors have turned bearish on biotech stocks. Today’s chart shows the performance of the iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB), which tracks 189 biotechnology companies. Biotech companies develop or manufacture new drugs. Some of these companies are trying to cure diseases like cancer, HIV, and Alzheimer’s. Because a successful new drug can be worth billions of dollars, biotech stocks can soar hundreds of percent in short periods.

But they are also very risky. Most young biotech companies only have one or two products. And many biotech companies don’t make any money. Biotechs are the type of stocks investors like to own in a strong bull market. Between March 2009 and July 2015, IBB surged 574%. The S&P 500 gained 215% over that time. Since July, IBB has plunged 34%. It’s trading at its lowest price since October 2014.
The selloff in risky biotech stocks is more proof that investors have gone on the defensive.

The article The Answer to the Biggest Question in the Markets Right Now was originally published at caseyresearch.com.

Get our latest FREE eBook "The Rebel's Guide to Trading Options"....Just Click Here!

Believe It or Not, It’s Happening to Gold

Last night as I was going over my charts and running my end of the day analysis the charts jumped out at me with a trade setup and wanted to share my cycle chart for gold with you. The price chart of gold below is exactly what my cycle analysis told us to look for last week WELL ahead of the today’s news and its things play out I as I feel they will then we stand to make some pretty good money as gold falls in value during the month of April.

If you have been following my work for any length of time then you know big price movements in the market like today (Tuesday, March 29th) based around the FED news ARE NOT and SHOULD NOT be of any surprise. In fact, this charts told use about today’s pop 2 weeks ago and we have been waiting for it ever since. The news is simply the best way to get the masses on board with market moves and gets them on the wrong side of the market before it makes a big move in the other direction, most times… not always, though.

Take a look at this chart below. You’ll see two cycle indicators, one pink and one blue. The pink cycle line is a cluster of various cycles blended together which allows us to view the overall market trend of biased looking forward 5 – 30 days. The blue cycle line is a cluster of much shorter time frame cycles in this tells us when we should expect strong moves in the same direction of the pink cycles or counter trend pullbacks within the trend.

One quick point to note with cycle trading is that the height and depth of the cycle does not mean the price will rise or fall to those levels, it simply tells us if the market has an upward or downward bias. The current cycle analysis for gold along with the current price is telling us that today the short term cycle topped which is the blue line and our main trend cycle is already heading lower. The odds favor gold should roll over and make new multi-month Lows in August.

Gold Trading Conclusion:

In short, we have been waiting for gold to have a technical breakdown and to retrace back up into a short term overbought condition. Today Tuesday, March 29 it looks as though we finally have the setup. Over the next 5 to 15 days I expect gold to drop along with silver and gold stocks. There are many ways to play this through inverse exchange traded funds or short selling gold, silver or gold stocks.

This year and 2017 I believe are going to be incredible years for both traders and investors. If treated correctly, it can be a life changing experience financially for some individuals. Join my pre-market video newsletter and start your day with a hot cup of coffee and my market forecast video.

Sign up right here > www.The Gold & Oil Guy.com

Chris Vermeulen

This Weeks Webinar: Don Kaufman's "No BS Guide to Making Money Trading"

Our trading partner Don Kaufman is back this week with another great free webinar on Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. est. And Don is cutting through the BS....literally. He is calling this weeks live presentation a “No BS Guide to Making Money Trading”.

Get Your Reserved Spot Here and Now

During this free webinar you will learn....

• Why options are NOT all about market direction and timing. How you can give yourself the gift of time without paying extra so you can give your trade as much time as it needs

• Why volatility is not the account killer the media portrays it to be. How you can create a trade with zero exposure to volatility so you never have to worry about volatility again.

• The myth that options are risky. How you can set your limited risk before you put on the trade so you know exactly what you're risking. Making this strategy the safest way to trade.

• Why you don't need a lot of money to trade. How you can generate big returns from small moves in a stock

• How you can use this strategy whether you have a $2,000 account or a 6 figure account

As always make sure you log in early so you don't lose your reserved spot since Don is limiting seating to this free presentation.

Sign up Right Here, Right Now

What time for you?

8 p.m. New York Time

7 p.m. Central Time

6 p.m. Mountain Time

5 p.m. Pacific Time

Bonus: All attendees receive "TheoNight" - the only free daily video newsletter of it's kind with trade ideas ideas

See you Tuesday night!

Ray C. Parrish

aka the Crude Oil Trader

Get Don's latest FREE eBook "The Rebel's Guide to Trading Options"....Just Click Here!

Don Kaufman

Bursting the Biggest Myths in Trading - Don Kaufman's Next Webinar

Our trading partner Don Kaufman is treating us to a free trading webinar this Tuesday evening March 29th at 8 p.m. est. Don't put off reserving your spot since Don and his team are only opening up this up for 1,000 traders.

Reserve Your Spot Here

During this free webinar Don will cover....

• How you can give yourself the gift of time without paying extra so you can give your trade as much time as it needs

• How you can create a trade with zero exposure to volatility so you never have to worry about volatility again 

• How you can set your limited risk before you put on the trade so you know exactly what you're risking. Making this strategy the safest way to trade. So much for the myth that options are risky.

• How you can generate big returns from small moves in a stock

• How you can use this strategy whether you have a $2,000 account or a 6 figure account

There will be a waiting list of traders for this free class so make sure you log in 10 minutes early so you don't lose your spot.

Click Here to Get Your Reserved Seat

See you Tuesday night!
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

Don Kaufman

Four Trading Strategies That Work

If you have been following us this year you already know that our trading partner Chris Vermeulen has been spot on in 2016 and has helped our readers make profitable trade after profitable trade this year. We have followed and worked with many traders over the years so we know what trading information is useful and what is just junk information.

Chris' connects with most readers through his complimentary stock trading and education newsletter which includes simple trading strategies to use with stocks, options, futures or forex.

Get Chris' newsletter "The Four Trading Strategies That Work" right HERE!

We hope you enjoy the free content and learning from some new tips and tricks for your own trading toolbox. To further add value Chris has put together a way for you to learn some of his trading strategies which cover stocks, options, futures and forex.

Bookmark this link since you can only select one free trading strategy at a time when you optin to the form on this special webpage below. But I should note, if you want a second or third strategy you just need to revisit the optin page, optin, and select another strategy.

These strategies are only available for a couple days then Chris takes them down so click the link below and optin to be presented with the four trading strategies.

Click here to get the free "Four Trading Strategies That Work"


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

Join us for Private Training and Live Trading Sessions with John Carter

It’s no secret that most traders are getting wrecked by this year’s volatile market conditions, but not John Carter. Just this week he proved once again that his safe and simple option setups are crushing it. He texted his traders a live trade on TSLA that pulled in $42,750 in just 90 minutes. And consider this, his account was already up over $101,000 this year. Clearly he’s doing something right.

What’s his secret? It's the extremely powerful option setups he’s refined over 25 years. It’s simple, really High leverage, limited risk, precise timing and it's all equals explosive profits. I’m telling you this because John’s doing a private online training tomorrow and there are a few spots left. And if you hurry, you might still be able to attend his live trading sessions next week. This class is not open to the public and space is limited.

Click Here to Claim Your Spot

Why all the buzz about John’s high profile trades that ended with astonishing gains? Here's why......

  *  Turning $3,300 into $119,202 in GOOGL

  *  Turning $6,600 into $36,450 in AMZN

  *  And making $1 million in ONE day on TSLA

If you can still get in, this training is a rare opportunity for you to learn from a very successful trader who is 100% transparent and loves to teach others how to succeed. I highly recommend you check this out, even if you are a newer trader with limited capital. His training is easy to understand and a lot of fun, too.

Get the Whole Story Here

See you in the markets,
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader


Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

Never Get Crushed by Volatility Again, How to Safely Use Volatility to Make Extreme Gains

Did you catch John Carter’s webinar the other night? It was all about how to safely make extreme profits, even in volatile market conditions. If you didn’t make it, then you really missed out and here’s why. As promised, John revealed the setups he used recently to turn $3,300 into $119k in just 3 weeks on GOOGL and a million dollars in one day on TSLA.

No doubt those are astounding case studies. But this simple ‘bread and butter’ trade is what got everyone’s full attention. Right after John started his presentation he put on a live trade following one of his simple setups. As the webinar continued, John calmly managed the trade while he explained in detail how he’s been able to rack up more than 48% gains already this year.

Let’s just say that John proved that he’s cracked the code and is beating Wall Street institutions at their own game. He spelled out how he’s able to get on the right side of this volatility again and again. Everything was super easy to understand, and even newer traders should be able to take advantage of these simple setups.

Just before John wrapped up the webinar, he sold the last of his position with more than $500 in gains. Like he said, not every trade is a winner, but seeing him put real money on the line for thousands of attendees to see was pretty impressive. Listen, you’ve really got to see what John’s doing for yourself.

Most traders are getting wrecked right now with all this volatility, but John’s adapted the setups he’s refined over 25 years to take advantage of these crazy conditions. The good news is that you now have a second chance. By popular demand, next Tuesday March 8th John’s doing an encore webinar on how he is pin pointing these major reversals in advance for such massive gains.

Click Here to Register

You do not want to miss this!

From now on, you won’t fear volatility… It could become your best friend!

See you in the markets,
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

P.S. If you’re a newer trader with a smaller account, John’s simple setups are especially powerful. Find out how it’s possible to pinpoint major market reversals in advance and safely rack up massive gains while strictly limiting risk.

Click Here to Register Now



Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

The Secret Behind the $1 Million Option Setup....Here’s Your Private Replay (expires soon)

If you missed John Carter’s special training Tuesday night then you are in luck. The limited replay is online now.

Watch the Private Replay Here [Expires soon] 

Get ready to take notes! Unfortunately, I have no idea how long this replay will be up, so watch it while you can. But I can tell you the feedback from those who attended live is beyond awesome. This was not just another ‘webinar’ featuring ‘hypothetical results’.

John detailed, step by step, how to be consistently profitable in these volatile conditions using just a handful of very simple options setups. There was ZERO hype and total transparency. He showed actual trading accounts with winning AND losing trades for all to see. You gotta see this for yourself.

Here’s just some of what John revealed....

•   Why extreme volatility is the new normal. If you don’t want to crash and burn, you MUST adapt

•   The setup John used to turn $3k into $119k in just 3 weeks (and how to spot these rare, explosive moves)

• The simple signal that allowed John to make $1 million in a single day on TSLA options

• How to pinpoint major reversals in advance by legally ‘spying’ on Wall Street Insiders

• The publically available intel that allowed John to catch the Nasdaq’s historic January collapse, AND then get long for the February rally

• The braindead simple option system that turns crazy market volatility into potentially giant gains (sometimes literally overnight , with strictly limited risk)

• How it’s possible to consistently pull in $100 to $1000 a day by trading from your smart phone (even if you have a job)

Like I said, you don’t want to miss this training. John’s refined these simple strategies over more than 25 years. He shows you what’s really working now and the account killing mistakes that you want to avoid like the plague.

Watch the Limited Replay Now

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


Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

How to Spot Big Market Reversals in Advance and Beat Wall Street Silly

Thinking about living a ‘dream lifestyle’ is tough for a lot of traders right now, because they’re getting their faces ripped off. And there’s no doubt, these conditions are some of the craziest that we’ve ever seen. Stocks were down 9% in January, that’s the worst market performance in history.

Predictably, some expected the world to end and loaded up on the short side. Of course, then the market reversed in February and is already up 1.4%. Take a look at the Nasdaq roller coaster that traders just rode for nasty losses or pretty awesome gains.

It’s clear that the bulls got destroyed in January, and then bears gave back all of their profits and then some in February. In other words, both sides got creamed. Classic Wall Street shenanigans, right? In case you were wondering, the markets are designed to deliver maximum pain to the most traders possible. How would you like to turn the tables and finally beat those guys at their own game?

Well, on Tuesday, March 1st at 7pm Central, John Carter is going to show you why his account is up 48% already this year.

For starters, he’ll show you the signal that told him to get short the NQ on the way down, and then buy for the ride back up. As you can imagine, spotting those kinds of reversals in advance would give you an almost unfair advantage. Well, it’s easier than you think and you don’t have to be a psychic. What John is doing isn’t magic. He is just trading simple setups that have passed the test of time.

If you’re getting your clock cleaned by this volatility, we can all relate. It took John years to figure this stuff out. If you join him this Tuesday, March 1st at 7 pm Central, he’ll show you how to use a simple indicator to spot major reversals and piggyback your trades on what the biggest Wall Street institutions are doing. He’ll cover that and a whole lot more.

And let’s take advantage of this "once in a decade" volatility. The next twelve months could offer the best opportunity to rapidly grow your accounts since the 2008 crash. Don’t buy into the myth that volatility automatically means high risk. John will show you how to strictly manage risk and still position your account for major gains.

Put this special webinar on your calendar....Sign Up Right Here!

See you Tuesday.
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

P.S.   John gave us a video primer earlier in the week......Watch That Here



Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

Strategies to Profit in this Volatile Market - John Carter's Next Free Webinar

Join our trading partner John Carter this Tuesday evening March 1st at 8 pm est for the next of his wildly popular free webinars. John will walk us through his favorite strategies that he is utilizing to remain profitable in today's volatile market.

Just Sign Up Here

Earlier this week John gave us just a sample of how he uses these methods to trade everything from crude oil to Netflix in this short video....watch it here. Spend an hour or more with John Tuesday night to get a detail explanation on how to find and execute these trades exactly like John does.

John is having another banner year in 2016 and as always he is showing us how to get this done no matter what the size of your account.

Seating is limited so Sign Up Now

See you Tuesday night,
Ray @ the Crude Oil Trader



Get John's latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!

New Video: John Carters Strategy for Trading Everything from Crude Oil to NFLX

Our trading partner John Carter of Simpler Options is back with another amazing new video. Join John as he walks us through his favorite strategies to utilize in today's volatile market. Get a sneak peak on how he has already grown his account by 48% in 2016.

Visit Here to Watch John's New Free Video

Learn John's favorite strategy for trading everything from Crude Oil to NFLX and why John believes that decades from now investors will look back at 2016 as the best trading ever. You will also get an insider look at.

•  The reasons why volatility can be your best friend even for newbies with small accounts

•  Why options are the best trading vehicle on the planet right now

•  Why down markets are better than up markets

•  How to make successful trades on your phone while you are at work

Watch John's free video then put his methods to work right away. Take advantage of his ability to help you find your own trading style and how to recognize your own psychological limits. In the process John will help you dispel all of your fear of this volatile market. In fact you will welcome it.

Don't wait any longer.....Just Click Here to Watch John's Free Video

See you in the markets,

Ray @ the Crude Oil Trader

P.S.  Get an even better understand of John's trading methods by downloading his free eBook "Understanding Options".....Get it Right Here

Steve Swanson Shows Us How to Trade This Volatile Market

Steve Swanson's 4D technology [which you'll read about in a minute] predicted everything about January's sell off and subsequent rally way back in December. If you want to know the future too, just click on the video link below. An up to date chart of the S&P 500 Price/Time Continuum is posted below the video. See for yourself the precise day the next big rally will begin then use the profit magnifier detailed in this free eBook to earn 3 times more profits.

A revolutionary profit magnifier quietly introduced in November 2008 had the power to essentially change the fate of millions of beleaguered investors. Yet, to this day hardly anybody knows about it.  Do you? In his highly acclaimed new book, Steve Swanson [the brilliant trader and inventor who predicted every intermediate market top and bottom for more than two decades] reveals a safe and easy way for you to utilize the powerful Thanksgiving gift of 2008 to earn 3 times more money on every trade.  

This is something you really deserve to know about. And you can download his tell all new ebook this week for free. Just for starters, see how you can take that profit and triple it! See how this one simple change can earn you 3 times more money I was shocked. And I think you will be too when you see how ridiculously simple it is to make one minor change. Easy for anybody. And turn a boring 25% a year strategy into an exciting moneymaker that averages 108% a year with no compounding!

FREE Download:  Take That Profit and Triple It!

And that’s not all. When you download your FREE eBook, you’ll also gain instant access to Steve’s paradigm shifting video 

How TIME Controls Every Market Turning Point.

Steve Swanson actually invented a program that plots every intermediate market high and low. Past, present, and future on what’s called the “Price Time Continuum”. That’s how he’s been able to predict and profit from every market turning point for more than 2 decades. Some are calling Swanson’s 4^th Dimension breakthrough the “Discovery of the Century”.  

So you might want to at least take a peek.  Click Here Now.

See you in the markets,

Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

P.S. As with most free things, Steve Swanson’s generous offer is limited.  So, even if you don’t have time to delve into anything new right now, I’d encourage you to grab your free ebook while you can.  That way you’ll have it to look through whenever you like. Click Here Now.

The #1 Question About 20/30 Wealth Trader

It's only been a couple days since Bill Poulos announced the official opening of The 20/30 Wealth Trader program.

But the questions are already pouring in.

"How do I know this will work for me?"

"Do I need a large account to use this system?"

"How much time do I need to use this program?"

"Can this make me rich?"

Bill made this quick video to answer your questions. Have a look:

Your Questions About The 20/30 Wealth Trader
Answered Here

See you in the markets,
Ray C. Parrish
aka the Crude Oil Trader

p.s. Be sure to mark your calendar because The 20/30 Wealth Trader program opens at 1pm Eastern on Monday, December 14th. And watch your inbox over the weekend for a surprise announcement.

Watch "The #1 question about 20/30 Wealth Trader, a bold question and a surprising answer"....Just Click Here!

How The Best of Intentions Destroyed Liquidity

By Jared Dillian

I just got done grading the final exams for my class (took me 12 hours). It’s 100 short answer questions and two essays. One of the essay questions is about the Volcker Rule. “Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman, as part of the rulemaking process for Dodd-Frank, included a provision prohibiting proprietary trading by banks, known as the Volcker Rule. Do you agree or not agree with the Volcker Rule? Explain.”

The funny thing about asking someone what they think of a law is, if you leave the question open ended and you don’t really describe what the law does, the response is generally favorable. Out of a class of 20 students, only two or three opposed the Volcker Rule. Most of them were in favor of it, as they were in favor of Glass-Steagall when I asked them to write a paper on that.

Seems pretty straightforward. If you have these banks that you call “systemically important,” such that they could go out of business and get rescued by taxpayers, then you don’t really want them taking risks with their own capital, right?

I mean, look how this worked out in the past.

Milton Friedman once said that laws should be judged by their results rather than their intentions. Liquidity has disappeared, and it is directly attributable to the Volcker Rule. If you hear someone try to make an argument that it’s not, that person is probably a journalist or a professor with no first hand knowledge of the situation.

I remember when the Volcker Rule first passed, years ago, someone senior in the equity derivatives market asked me, “Do you really think they will have regulators going through your trades, one by one, line by line, asking you if it was your intent to make money?”

“That seems very unlikely,” I told him.....But that is what we got.

In addition to confiscating cell phones and monitoring phone conversations, chats, and emails, the vast army of compliance officers at investment banks really will go through a trader’s blotter line by line and determine if each trade was a bona fide hedging transaction or if he was trading for his own account. In single stocks, this is pretty straightforward—either you were buying GE for a client or you were buying it for yourself. But in derivatives, it’s not. If you get hit on the GE Jan 30 calls, you’re not going to be able to turn around and sell them—you have to sell something else.

For example, if you’re long too much vega, you may want to sell some short-dated stuff against it, putting on a term structure trade. Is that a hedge, or prop trading? It’s impossible to make that distinction. But the compliance guys try. The interpretation varies. In equity derivatives, traders generally get the benefit of the doubt. In credit, they don’t. You can’t sell bond B to hedge bond A. You literally have to sit there and try to sell bond A. This is why the bond market is such a mess, which we have talked about in this space before.

Of course, none of this gets us any closer to preventing an investment bank from blowing up, because the guy trading 500 call options on GE was never going to blow up the bank in the first place. On the other hand, the Volcker Rule never would have prevented Jon Corzine from blowing up MF Global with European sovereign bonds. If a CEO really wants to do something like that, is some compliance dork really going to stop him? To say that this regulation is a catastrophic failure would be an understatement. Liquidity has disappeared, with no discernible benefit. I’m a middlebrow market commentator, and I’m not supposed to say things like “This is dumb,” but this is really dumb. It doesn’t take an Austrian economist to figure out the unintended consequences.

In the old days (10 years ago), banks were the big liquidity providers. Let’s look at this a different way: do we want banks to continue to be liquidity providers, yes/no? Banks were not always liquidity providers. In the ‘90s, in equity options, it was the physical trading floors where all the risk was handled. Stocks, too. But the bond market has always been an upstairs phenomenon.

If banks aren’t going to be liquidity providers, then we need non bank entities to provide liquidity, and we need to encourage it. Some large hedge funds and some second tier (i.e., not systemically important) broker dealers are starting to do this. But it’s not enough.

The goal was to take a bank and turn it from a risk taking institution to a toll taking institution, where everything is traded on an agency basis, with a commission applied. The FX markets, which were once all risk, are starting to look like this. In equities, traders don’t do much aside from maintain relationships and plunk orders into auto trader, where they are preyed upon by the algorithms.

This is unsustainable, because how can you hire all these smart people from fancy schools and pay them all this money just to push a button—while all their communications are monitored? Nobody is happy with the current state of affairs. 10 years ago, you could sell 250,000 shares on the wire. Or $25 million of bonds.

I have two radical solutions. Here they are:

1. Repeal the Volcker Rule
2. End decimalization

When I came into the business, stocks still traded in fractions. On the options floor, I had to learn to add and subtract fractions in my head. Seriously—I ran drills on this, testing myself for speed. When I got to Lehman, to the program trading desk, I noticed something remarkable—we could send our orders to “wholesalers” like Spear, Leeds & Kellogg or Knight Trading. They would auto execute the orders up to 2,000 shares on the bid or the offer—for free.

Then decimalization happened. The preferential treatment lasted about another month, then they started charging us a penny a share. Market making went from being a profitable business to an unprofitable one.
Guess what—if market making is profitable, a lot of people will want to do it, and you will have a lot of liquidity. If market making sucks, nobody will want to do it, and you will have no liquidity.

Did the retail investor benefit? Maybe. Now he could go into his E-Trade account and execute something for a penny instead of 1/16. But if he was a shareholder in a mutual fund, the mutual fund portfolio manager now had to drop 250,000 shares into auto trader, getting preyed upon by the aforementioned algorithms, instead of getting it done for 1/8.

Then SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt led the charge for decimalization. More unintended consequences.
It’s not likely we’ll go back. Levitt was having conniptions about the length of time it was taking for the options market to decimalize, even though the computing power didn’t even exist.

Ask any portfolio manager today: Liquidity is the number one concern. That’s bullcrap. It’s like buying a house and having plumbing be your number one concern. It should just take care of itself.

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: How The Best of Intentions Destroyed Liquidity was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.

Get our latest FREE eBook "Understanding Options"....Just Click Here!