When Oil & Gas Sector XOP, pushed above last week’s high, it negated the breakdown scenario.
At the same time, it opened another potential opportunity that may set-up this coming Friday … The 13th.
We’ve shown over and again, markets tend to exhibit repeating patterns. Things like trading ranges, terminating wedges, breakouts and breakdowns, are not new.
However, there’s a lesser-known characteristic; the tendency for a market to go straight from a Wyckoff ‘spring’, into an ‘up-thrust’.
Currently, we’re about mid-way into the set-up as shown on the daily chart of XOP.
Oil & Gas XOP, Daily
Price action pushed below support (the spring set-up) and is now mid-way into that spring; potentially going straight into an up-thrust.
There was a reversal pivot on Fibonacci Day 5 (yesterday), which opens up the possibility of another time correlation at Fibonacci Day 8 … this coming Friday.
Before The Open
It’s about twenty-minutes before the regular open and XOP, is trading higher … further confirming we’re headed for a potential set-up and reversal (not advice, not a recommendation).
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
Was that the day where irrefutable evidence like this is going to stick?
Price action of Biotech Sector IBB, has posted a long awaited and anticipated reversal signal (not advice, not a recommendation).
We’ll look at that below.
The IBB, Up-Thrust & Reversal
As a reminder, in Wyckoff terms, an ‘up-thrust’ is where price action struggles above known resistance for some period of time and then reverses to the downside.
In the case of IBB, that ‘struggle’ lasted an incredible seven-weeks.
Biotech IBB, Weekly
Price action attempted to break above resistance for nearly two-months, before reversing lower.
Then we had an initial test during the week of 12/23/22 (on the daily for three days), and a secondary test last week.
Biotech IBB, Daily
The daily shows more detail on the struggle.
Point No. 1, was the initial test. Point No. 2, was the secondary test which appears to have decisively failed.
Pre-market action shows IBB, set to open slightly lower.
If it does, then expectation is for some (brief) attempt to rally as a test of the breakdown.
The Driving Force
For years, this site has not wavered in the assessment, what’s happening in this sector, will be the driving force for the entire market on a go-forward basis (not advice, not a recommendation).
Anything can happen.
It’s unknown if yesterday was ‘the day’.
What is known however, evidence is building on a massive scale. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day, we see the effects.
Positioning
This site presents the data, the insight and price action nuances. It does not give recommendations.
With that said, going short this sector is not as straightforward as the other major indices.
IBB, may be shorted directly but will likely result in a maintenance fee from the broker.
Of course, that puts one on the hook for the sector’s dividend payment (currently yielding 0.31%).
The other option is 2X leveraged inverse fund BIS.
However, this fund’s volume is thin … meaning it’s not nearly as liquid as the other inverse funds such as SDS, DXD, QID, SOXS and so on.
It’s up to the trader/speculator to participate or not.
We’re about fifteen-minutes before the open. Let’s see what happens next.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
Since the lows last November, to the close this past Friday, gold (GLD) has moved higher by a decent but modest 15.4%.
Naturally, the opportunists are out telling us ‘We’ve been warned’, ‘this is it’, ‘it’s going to the moon’ … yet again.
With that backdrop, we’re going to look at the precious metals facts, not the hype.
‘Precious metals’ because there are only four that have ‘currency code’ classifications, i.e., are classified as an asset with ‘currency like’ monetary characteristics.
Way back over a century ago, Wyckoff discovered the key to understanding the next likely move of the markets was the study the market itself (not fundamentals).
Wyckoff essentially ‘locked himself in a room with just a stock ticker and phone line’.
That’s not saying ‘money printing’ has no effect. There are a lot of moving parts. Intentional destruction of the food supply is just one of those parts.
Old School Analysis
Hypothetically, if you dropped an ‘old-timer’ into the markets at this juncture (without him knowing the ‘hype’), and showed him all four charts of gold, silver, palladium, platinum, and asked ‘what’s happening?’
What’s his response?
After a brief look at the charts, he would likely say:
‘Gold’s move higher is not being confirmed by the other precious metals’.
Note that all four metals peaked together during the inflation spike of 1980.
Ergo: At this juncture, something’s wrong.
Either the other metals are going to ‘catch up’ to meet gold or gold is going to come down to meet the others.
That is of course, unless this time is different … somehow.
With that, we’ll look at the chart of gold to see what it’s saying about itself.
Gold GLD, Weekly
We’re starting with the unmarked chart.
Note: Elder’s Force Index scale is expanded to show the nuances of GLD, price action.
Next, we see we’re at a test of the trendline in place for 16-months before the downside breakout of July, last year.
Moving in closer, we have a wedge formation prior to the up-move last week.
Is this a breakout to the upside or a throw-over?
At this point, it’s unknown.
We can see that Force Index is below where price action entered the wedge during the week of November 11th.
Less force up into resistance (trendline), paints a slightly more bearish than bullish picture.
The ‘Why’ Comes Out
As if on cue and in classic Wyckoff style, we have a ‘why‘ for the move off the lows of last November.
Classic Wyckoff, because he said the ‘why’ of a move comes out after the fact.
There you have it; China buying gold last November and December.
During this move from the recent lows, it was certainly a trading opportunity for the bulls … but from a strategic standpoint, what happens next?
The Non-Confirmation
Non-confirmations can last a long time.
For example, the Oil & Gas sector XOP, declined for eight months, from April 2019 to January 2020, before the price of oil (USO) finally broke lower.
With the ZeroHedge article just released a few hours ago, we can expect at least a blip higher at the next GLD, open.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
First, we’ll review oil; tomorrow, we’ll look at gold.
From an intuitive standpoint, you can almost feel it.
The oil and gas sector has launched to unsustainable highs.
Behemoths like Exxon (XOM) with its 63,000 employees have gone from below $30/share to above $110/share, an increase over 280%, in just two years.
In the history of the equity, going all the way back to 1984, that’s never happened.
Even in 1987, before the crash, XOM was up for the two-year period, a paltry 108%, by comparison.
Now, data is coming in nearly by the day about collapsing demand, layoffs accelerating, and inventories piling up.
The latest from Steven Van Metre, at time stamp 4:25, discusses just how fast the downdraft is, and will be.
Important Note:
Before we leave the Van Metre link above, at time stamp 8:50, the assertion is made of what the Fed will do when slower growth data comes in. i.e., interest rates will be halted or lowered.
Nassim Talib called this kind of thinking “Normalcy Bias”.
The opinion of this site is, it’s a trap. Thinking what happened last time, will happen this time.
Let’s mentally bookmark this post and come back six-months from now to see what happened.
We’re in uncharted territory and other agendas are at work.
Like ‘bread and circuses’, the ‘pivot’ discussion is a distraction … keeping the proletariat placated.
Demand Collapse
We’ve got demand collapsing on a daily basis right in front of our faces and yet, it’s a big mystery (to some).
What’s not known, is how the general population will react to undeniable truth when it finally hits, en masse.
We have a good hint of what’s in store as reported by Jerimiah Babe during the first minute of this report.
Moving on to the Oil & Gas Sector.
Oil & Gas XOP, Weekly
The weekly chart shows the multi-year resistance area that was tested (and rejected) back in mid-June, last year.
The next chart shows we also have a terminating wedge.
Price action has come back to the lower boundary; suggesting a breakdown is a probability.
If we get a breakdown, measured move support is identified at approximately -47%, below current levels.
Strategy & Trading
Obviously, the charts paint a bearish picture.
Over the past week, XOP was covered here and here.
The first link discussed how price action was very close to making a new daily high. That happened the next session (Friday) and indeed, it had Wyckoff ‘spring’ characteristics.
Price action moved higher and closed higher for the day, but it did not post a new weekly high … keeping the bearish case on the table.
A popular leveraged inverse fund is DRIP (not advice, not a recommendation).
At The Close
As this post comes to a close, a quick check on ZeroHedge turns up this: ‘Tipping Point‘
We’ve jumped over ‘recession’ and have gone straight into crisis and depression.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
That was Jesse Livermore’s assessment of the market just before The Panic of 1907.
That Was, Then
Back then, it was money spent on The Boer War, tight financial conditions and extreme overvaluations.
Looks more and more, like today
It’s been this site’s opinion for about a year (now supported by data), that we’ve gone straight past recession, into economic collapse and depression.
And Now, This
Another data point confirming the ‘depression’ scenario is this, just out from ZeroHedge: The Baltic Dry Index had its largest one-day collapse on record.
As if to drive it home; demand is in free-fall as Amazon, just announced plans to fire 18,000 workers.
From a strategic standpoint, collapsing shipping demand means collapsing fuel demand.
Which brings us to the sector of the day, Oil & Gas
Oil & Gas Sector XOP, Weekly
The last update, showed the weekly chart has reversed down and stayed down.
XOP is penetrating support, now at The Danger Point®.
The daily chart has more detail; we’re hovering at support, testing the right side trendline (again).
Providing some (minor) upward bias for the day is this report on WTI (West Texas Intermediate).
Oil & Gas Sector XOP, Daily
It’s 1:31 p.m., EST and XOP, has not posted a new daily high (it’s very close).
Doing so, would weaken the downtrend case and point probabilities to a Wyckoff spring move higher.
Summary
Demand is rapidly collapsing on many fronts and the WTI report linked above uses the word ‘tepid’.
That may be completely inaccurate or misleading when considering the demand for shipping has seen its worst down-day, on record.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
If we use the S&P as the proxy, it hardly even lasted that long.
Going back to just four days ago, we had this (emphasis added):
“It’s well known, stocks tend to rise in the first weeks of January. Tax loss selling is over and there’s typically some type of ‘relief’.
Don’t count on it this time (not advice, not a recommendation).”
Market Meets Expectations
It was expected on the first trading day of the year, the market would continue its downtrend.
After this morning’s 15-minute blip, that’s exactly what’s happening.
We’ve already discussed real estate IYR, (here, here and here) as well as the Q’s (here).
Now, there appears to be another sign of impending price collapse … the oil sector; specifically, Oil & Gas Index XOP.
As is typical, we’ll begin the analysis with the longer time frame, the weekly.
Oil & Gas Sector XOP, Weekly
There’s no secret to the chart below other than Livermore’s admonition for going short; that is, he finds a market that ‘goes down and stays down’ (not advice, not a recommendation).
The prior two down-drafts were quickly retraced; one in mid-July last year and one in September.
Not so, this time.
If we go to the daily, we have an ominous look where a downtrend could be validated.
Oil & Gas Sector XOP, Daily
The right-side trend is drawn as a dashed line, revealing the attempted breakout on the last two sessions in December.
Attempted trend line and channel breakouts are normal market behavior.
It’s clear in the case above, price action has quickly got itself back into the trading channel.
Summary
Of course, oil prices are not supposed to go down, right?
At this juncture, look at all the conflict and potential supply disruptions that are possible.
However, the price of oil and the price of the exploration/production equities are two separate things.
The price of oil could skyrocket further, and yet, the equites still collapse. Bear markets are all about price, wealth, and credit destruction.
Typical short positioning trade vehicles for this sector are DRIP (-2X) and DUG (-2X), or to short the XOP directly (not advice, not a recommendation).
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
According to this link, it’s not only higher taxes, but retirement accounts being hi-jacked through rule changes.
‘The bulk of the wealth of the American people.’
Not to be outdone, the IRS will increase penalties for under and overpayment of taxes as reported by Fox Business via Jerimiah Babe (time stamp 22:16).
At least it’s nice to know, implementation of the ‘$600’ rule will be saved until next year. 🙂
So, we have the context for the year 2023; i.e., wealth destruction, asset confiscation, fines and fees.
It’s a straightforward plan on ‘their’ part.
What’s also straightforward as reported by Babe, a large number of Americans don’t even know what’s going on let alone be willing to take action.
Then, The Elephant
Let’s not forget the ‘elephant’ that’s likely to be the biggest driver for 2023.
We see that elephant every day now and sometimes multiple times a day. It’s starting to reach the fringes of the mainstream with articles like this one.
Scroll down to The List … It’s No. 2
That elephant and its subsequent lack of demand (less population, fewer buyers) as a result, will likely affect real estate in a big way … for decades to come (not advice, not a recommendation).
The last update showed the weekly trading channels in IYR. The next chart goes further out to the monthly and identifies a Fibonacci sequence.
Real Estate IYR, Monthly
So far, we’ve had IYR on the daily (link here), the weekly (link here), and now the monthly, below.
Major inflection points on the monthly have occurred at Fibonacci timeframes.
Original Forecast, October
The analysis of the current set-up started way back in late October. Using a weekly chart, a potential Fibonacci sequence was identified that ultimately proved correct.
Real estate IYR, had its print high during Fibonacci Week 8, as shown below in the original forecast.
The next chart shows where we are now, again on the weekly timeframe.
Real Estate IYR, Weekly
Original Analysis & Forecast
The updated chart shows the subsequent price action.
Real estate IYR, has pivoted lower and posted tight price action over the past two weeks. Tight action typically precedes a breakout or directional move.
Summary
Anything can happen in the markets.
Even though a good analysis has been presented to indicate further downside for IYR, this Tuesday’s action will let us know for sure.
Typical vehicles to go short the sector are leveraged inverse funds DRV (-3X) and SRS (-2X) or to short the IYR directly (not advice, not a recommendation).
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
Pick up almost any trading book like Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, and you’ll find, the big money was made on the downside.
In Livermore’s case from ‘Reminiscences’, he saw a big crash coming, went short in a big way, and was then squeezed out of his positions during market rallies in 1906.
The short trades were too early; he blew up his account.
Undaunted, he took drastic measures to raise capital (hawked his car), got back in, shorted, and cleared over $1-milllion in profits near the bottom on October 24th, 1907.
The Ukraine War & The Boer War
As spectacular as his profits were, for us that might not be the most important part.
Take a look at the list below, paraphrased from Livermore’s account of The Boer War and overall economic conditions; see if it doesn’t match up to today.
The British were just coming off the Boer war, having spent hundreds of billions (in today’s Pound-Sterling), and money was tight.
There was significant wealth destruction world-wide.
The San Fransico earthquake of 1906, was causing economic disruption and the need for even more cash.
Note: As reported here, seismic activity is picking up. We’ve just had a major quake (again) in California.
There were plenty of warnings of an impending collapse but as Livermore puts it, the masses paid no heed as they were more concerned with baseball.
Fabrication & Fact
There’s some scuttlebutt, The Panic of 1907, was a fabricated event, used to usher in fractional reserve banking.
Is this all starting to sound familiar?
Now, we have the potential of Neo Feudalism, going right along with Universal Basic Income and Digital Currency.
That should be enough intro to get us to the chart at hand, Real Estate IYR, but first, this just out, on MarketWatch:
Worst Year, Since 2008.
It’s already the worst since 2008, and as Jerimiah Babe puts it, ‘we haven’t even got started’.
Reference time stamp 12:07, in the link and see if it does not match exactly with Livermore’s observations.
All of which brings us to real estate.
Real Estate IYR Weekly, Close
The chart shows the most conservative (modestly declining) trading channel
The next chart, is where it gets scary.
The second (potential) channel is declining at approximately -62%, on an annualized basis.
Weekly timeframes are presented here on purpose.
Doing so, gets us away from the everyday, every blip, analysis and looks at things strategically. It’s obvious, barring some kind of intervention, real estate’s in trouble.
The January of No Effect
It’s well known, stocks tend to rise in the first weeks of January. Tax loss selling is over and there’s typically some type of ‘relief’.
Don’t count on it this time (not advice, not a recommendation).
Even as this post is being created, IYR, is pivoting lower and possibly confirming the more aggressive right-side trendline (second chart, above).
Summary
We’ll end with more paraphrase from Livermore’s account of the panic.
He describes being in Ed Harding’s office (his broker), telling him that ‘now is the time’, ‘today is the day’. All the while, stocks were drifting, everything was quiet.
Livermore said to Harding:
‘The longer that stocks delayed, the bigger the break will be when it comes.’
Let’s see if that applies to us, exactly 100-years later (Reminiscences, published in 1923).
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
There tends to be a period of consolidation and organized chaos, before price action enters and exhibits channel behavior.
Of course, the problem from a trading perspective, be able to wait through the chaos getting to the set-up and that’s no small feat.
Several of the major indices are in a channel right now. Those are (ETF symbol) SPY, QQQ, IYR and IWM.
We’ll discuss the Q’s farther down but first, this just out, on ZeroHedge, concerning the overall economic conditions.
That is, we’re already in full scale economic collapse and they have the data to prove it.
As incredible as it may be, there are still sectors of the population that believe, ‘the consumer is strong’.
A big wake-up call is coming for them. Oh wait, is that a telephone ringing off in the distance 🙂
The media lies appear to be crumbling at an exponential rate; there’s no guarantee it’ll all hold together into late January, or mid-February as presented only yesterday.
From a Nasdaq (QQQ), technology sector perspective, we have the following.
NASDAQ QQQ, Weekly
The Q’s began the week with a lower open and within the range of the prior week.
It’s a subtle clue the direction remains down and the market’s not volatile … just yet.
Next up, is the channel
It has the right ‘look’.
Moving in closer; the right-side trend line verification (hits).
There are no fewer than four weekly hits (including today) that verify the right side. The attempted push out of the channel is identified as the ‘Throw-Over’.
Attempted breakouts (and failures) are common market behaviors. We see that price action quickly got itself back into the channel.
Get In … Get Out
At this juncture, price action remains in the channel.
A short position (via QID, or equivalent) is a viable choice for the trader/speculator (not advice, not a recommendation).
For the reasons described above (the collapse), we appear to still be in the early stages of the down channel.
Obvious discretionary exit points for a short trade would be left side contact of the channel i.e., the ‘demand’ side or a decisive right-side breakout i.e., the ‘supply’ side (not advice, not a recommendation).
Summary
In a separate market, Netflix (NFLX), may have hit the right side of its own tend line as well.
Note: Posts on this site are for education purposes only. They provide one firm’s insight on the markets. Not investment advice. See additional disclaimer here.
The Danger Point® 