If You Are Bullish On The Dollar
It’s worth reading this https://www.fgmr.com/heading-toward-the-tipping-point/
It’s worth reading this https://www.fgmr.com/heading-toward-the-tipping-point/
I first posted the ‘curved base’ chart pattern in September/October last year, and it’s been developing and building out ever since. The pattern is still valid though. There are a couple of very definitive statements that you can make at this point #1 We are in a very long term gold bull market until/unless the red line on my chart is broken to the downside (currently somewhere near $1225) #2 All this recent price action is just ‘noise’ – the real bull market case isn’t proven until we break above huge overhead resistance between $1360 and $1400.
It looks to me that we need to go lower to complete this move and have a shot at that breakout. I’m confident my red line will hold. It goes without saying that if it doesn’t we can forget PMs for a very long time. Those that have been saying gold is going to go sideways to down for years to come will only be proven right if the curved base and wedge patterns in my chart fail to the downside. Until then (or an upside breakout), neither the bulls nor the bears can declare victory.
Look at the support immediately below where we are now. Take a look at those Fib levels. If you set the ‘1’ level at the $1900 top, and zero at the $1050 low, you can see significant price action at every Fib retracement level. The lid on our curved base is provided by the 0.382 Fib level. The next one down (0.236) is just above $1250 and pretty much right on the curved base support. The default moving average on goldprice.com charting software on this monthly view is 9-periods. It seems to have provided some very good support in the last main bull phase, pre-2011 and in each ‘up leg’ since 2016. This is also just above $1250. Coincidence ? Below all of that, and a possible target for any ‘spike lows’ is my FINAL RED LINE. It’s time to sit back and watch the market reveal itself – nothing we can do but wait. Have a wonderful Easter everyone.
The rising channel is hitting hugely significant overhead resistance now. That TRIX indicator (trend and momentum) is coiling just like it did before the last big move. In my view this is hugely significant and is telling us a major move is about to unfold…
GSR rose on breakout at 1. GSR fell on breakdown at 2. What will happen at 3 ? My money is on GSR dropping like a rock…
Silver didn’t follow gold lower today. Could be nothing, could be something.
The more I’ve been looking at this over the last few days, the more it amazes me. It’s almost too perfect.
1 – 2008 – Golds 8 year cycle low embedded in the middle of the 16 year cycle
2 – 2016 – Golds 16 year cycle low
3 – The support/resistance line from recent price action connects back to important support which was established between 2006 and 2008 (on this log chart).
4 – Perfect curved basing support centred above the 16 year cycle low (a repeat of the pattern at the start of the bull market in the early 2000’s).
5 – Resistance line drawn from the topping pattern in 2011 and 2012.
6 – False breakdown flowed by an ‘around the apex’ breakout (rising support in the $1275-$1280 region).
7 – Horizontal resistance.
Just look at those Fib retracement levels ! If that’s not perfection, I don’t know what is – 0.382 Fib retracement equates to $1055. The 0.618 level is just below $1400. A move above $1400 would set up a target somewhere just above $1600, which fits in with some of the other work/methods I’ve been looking at. Also very interesting is the level above that – $2810. Time is the missing piece of this puzzle. I know where the cycles are. I know where price is now, and I know the target areas. It’s just a case of when. If you’re a gold bear, you’d be eyeing that 0.236 Fib level at $848 of course. As you know, I’m not bearish at this point in the cycle, but a break below $1223 and I would throw in the towel.
Possibly the fly in the ointment at the moment for PM bulls. Close examination of some of the indicators suggests DXY has time (just) to put in a final spurt (perhaps to the 103 area). MACD and TRIX both suggest a ‘zero line crossover’ in December if timings are consistent. The behaviour of the Stocharstic indicator is anomalous. What I mean by that, is having begun its downtrend, it has just shown a bullish cross. This is unlike the previous 2 occasions and cannot be ignored. My take on this is that we are in uncharted territory here. I believe the Dollar is stretched and has responded to some very unusual monetary policy. Others, of course, believe the Dollar Cycle will fail this time. In my view, that’s not the case, but whether this can be extended long enough to break above 100 again is probably going to make the difference between gold breaking out successfully from that lovely rounded base formation (falling no lower than approx. $1265), and the second possibility (shown on my second chart), where gold falls to test the red hot line that CANNOT be broken for a bull market. That would mean the rounded base pattern ‘morphs’ into a flat topped wedge.
The last great bull market move in gold really got going after a confirmed breakout in 2002. Gold went on to multiply by a factor of 6, moving from a little over $300 an ounce to a little over $1900 an ounce. Many miners saw their share prices rise by thousands of percent (the HUI rose by a factor of 10). It’s hard to imagine a repeat, after all, that would mean gold at nearly $10,000. I really don’t know if that’s remotely possible, but the charts will give us advance notice. That’s because we have a timeline – we know when the peaks and troughs of the gold cycle are due, so if we are already near the old highs, with years of bull market to go, we can plan accordingly. Anyway, I digress. First things first – we need that confirmed breakout at around $1355, then $1400 to be certain. How did it look back in 2002, versus today ?
I don’t know about you, but I’m really liking the way this looks. As always – watch that curved, base support. It needs to hold.
Unfortunately I can’t see Rambus thoughts on whether PMs and PM stocks can do well if the global stock market rises. However, here’s a quick glance at the worlds largest gold miner, Barrick and the S&P going back a good number of years. If global stocks rise, and PMs are due to outperform, that’s very good news for us here in the ‘tent’
Goldtent friends – Three charts for you today, which help to reinforce where I think we are. I recently posted my downside levels to watch, so now here’s another look at Dollar Index behaviour over the last 50 years or so…
Looking at this there are a whole host of things that jump out at me from a scientific/pattern point of view. Firstly the cycles themselves. The two complete cycles since this paradigm (post gold standard) began have displayed perfect wavelength repetition. The period of time from low to low was duplicated beautifully. Secondly, the amplitude (peak to trough, shown by the vertical red arrows) is steadily declining – we are in a 50 year bear market. Next, the target area for a final low and new cycle beginning (red rectangles) are equal in size, shape and positioning. Turning to the TRIX (which I find very useful, as it combines trend and momentum), we can make some very useful factual statements. Number 1 – During each of the 3 cycles, the early ‘bull’ phase was characterised by TRIX moving from -40 or less through zero (shown by red up arrows and orange circles). Number 2 – ‘bear’ market confirmation in each cycle comes when TRIX falls from above 40 and passes through zero. So what is going on right now ? We appear to have fallen from above 40 and bounced at the zero line. The black arrows show where TRIX has ‘wobbled’ close to the zero line. The important point for me here, is that it doesn’t mean a change of trend. In the past when this happened, the TRIX resumed its previous path, which in this case will be down, thus giving final confirmation of the bear trend, targeting the third red box which covers the period 2023 to 2026.
So if the Dollar is displaying a decay of it’s price range and therefore a decay of energy, where is that energy going ? Lets take a look at the largest gold miner in the world and plot its share price on a chart with the Dollar Index…
Great Scott ! – the Dollar is displaying a decreasing amplitude (energy) and Barrick is doing the exact opposite – the distance between each low and following high is increasing. For anyone with a science background, that’s entirely unsurprising. It’s exactly what you would expect if there is an exponential component to Dollar ‘devaluation’. I used Barrick because it goes back further than HUI etc, but a mining index would be the same. The million (or multi-trillion) Dollar question here is why ? What is it that’s causing the Dollar to follow an ever downward path ? The index is showing the Dollars relative worth compared to a basket of currencies from its main trading partners. It peaked just above 160 in its first cycle, just above 120 in its second cycle, and just above 100 this time. I know some here believe the cycle will fail here and we won’t head into that low between 2023 and 2026 – instead breaking upwards and making new highs. I beg to differ. It goes back to that fundamental question – why is the Dollar losing its grip, and is there something that will reverse a 50+ year trend of Dollar decay ? I believe the wheels that were set in motion in the early 1970’s will continue and ultimately lead to the Dollars demise as world reserve currency. Probably not for many, many years yet, but once a trend like this is in motion, the momentum is huge and usually irreversible. It keeps going until a ‘tipping point’ is reached – that when a new paradigm begins. It’s not a particularly ‘scientific’ concept – it’s just another way of saying ‘birth, growth, vitality, maturity, decay, demise, death, rebirth…’
…here are some downside levels to watch.
I strongly suspect that $1255-$1260 will hold (maybe a quick spike below that). The first chart even gives a possible target time for a breakout, because the moving average crosses the curved ‘bowl’ support line in 2-3 weeks time (depending how you draw it). Could that be a ‘target’ we need to hit and bounce off ? Very important is that ‘red hot’ line on my last 2 charts, just above $1200 – it’s clearly of vital importance. It’s been pivotal to price action for nearly 20 years. A break below that would be a disaster in my view. I say that, not because I’m expecting it (I’m not), but because an enquiring mind considers every possibility, no matter how small, and prepares accordingly.
… and you can’t go too far wrong. It’s when you start to look at views and opinions that things start to go wrong. As a scientist, it’s only the facts that I believe. Anything else is debatable, especially when it comes to trying to predict the future. My career in weather forecasting has taught me that. So how does that apply to the PM markets ? Well, actually, there is a very strong correlation. Many things in the natural world have a cycle. Cycles usually change in a slow and predictable way over time. They can slowly extend or shorten, or indeed tend to become more or less energetic. In scientific terms, the amplitude and wavelengths of the cycles can vary. I hope you’re still with me. That works unless/until there is a paradigm shift. What’s that ? if there is a sudden (often unforeseen) shock to the system, then your ‘predictability’ goes out of the window until a new pattern, or cycle emerges from the apparent chaos. In my field of expertise, this is what happens during an Ice Age or rapid global heating event. Eventually the Earths feedback systems (oceans and ice sheets) play their role in locking up or releasing heat energy, thus returning a balance of energy.
It appears to be much the same with global financial markets. I think we’re probably all familiar with the business cycle (a quick ‘Google’ will help if you’re not). Here are some examples of cyclical behaviour…
Sunspots, payroll, sales, real-estate, business cycle, heartrate and atmospheric CO2. The list goes on, but you get the idea. As a side-note, the last graph (atmospheric CO2) is somewhat contentious – it goes back almost a million years, using derived data from fossilised living matter to extract CO2 data. Many argue that the Earth warming and cooling is a natural process. It is. It’s also true that if you go back further in time the Earth had much higher CO2 (and other greenhouse gas) levels its atmosphere. Modern man didn’t have to contend with it though. The concern is that we may cause a ‘paradigm shift’. In this instance it could happen very quickly (100 years or less), giving us very little time to prepare. Anyway, that’s a whole different discussion. Back to PMs and sticking to facts…
The US Dollar has ‘floated freely’ in relation to gold price since the 1970’s and within a few years, things settled down, and the ‘heartbeat’ of this new paradigm established itself. Because the price of goods and services (in US Dollars) has continually risen over time, you would expect a graph of any commodity price to show 2 things. Number 1 – a trend from bottom left to top right. Number 2 – a discernible ‘heartbeat’ – what we all refer to as it’s cycle. In the financial space, this is a natural result of supply/demand and investment fluctuations. Here’s a look at gold…
Theory seems to work fine then.
How about the Dollar itself ?
Exactly as you would expect with any FIAT currency. They are all losing purchasing power (see Dollar v Oil, Dollar v Gold etc) and trending towards precisely ZERO. The index shows relative performance v a basket of other currencies of course. The Dollars dominance is in decline (as with every reserve currency ever). The Dollars dominant position is demonstrably reducing. Lower lows and lower highs since the 1970’s means that unless we see a higher high (above 120) then the pattern continues, and the Dollar becomes less and less relevant on a global stage. How likely is 120+ with the Dollar heading into a cycle low in 2023/24 ? The Dollar cannot escape being worth ZERO. It’s simple mathematics. If you think otherwise, show me a long term graph of a FIAT currency which is gaining purchasing power.
The Gold/oil ratio chart was interesting, but it tells you nothing about what the price of gold/oil is about to do. oil has gone up a lot, down a lot or nowhere a lot in the past when gold has moved very little. Here’s a gold chart, with some notes pointing out oils more notable moves…
Here’s a long term chart of oil price. Like gold it is trending bottom left to top right (towards infinity) at the same time the Dollar is trending top left to bottom right (i.e. towards ZERO)
These are all facts (please comment and prove me wrong if you disagree – I’m always happy to accept a well proven point). Here’s something that isn’t a fact. The UK may be edging towards a much softer Brexit, with some form of customs union, a new ‘peoples vote’ and possibly even, no Brexit at all. All of these are likely to be very Euro positive. That would put downward pressure on the Dollar at a time when it’s moving towards a major cyclical low. Unless there is a paradigm shift, these patterns and cycles will continue. My game plan remains the same – watch that $1250 support area, and wait for the $1350 to $1400 region to be broken. Nothing is proven until then. Good luck all 😉
Beneath the surface, all is not well. The indicators are all fading, and have been for a long time now…
So the Index is rising and the indicators are showing declining strength and momentum. So what ? why should that matter ? Let’s have a look at the last cyclical Dollar top in 2001/2002…
Negative divergence is an early warning. Put this together with CHF/USD chart arriving at its cyclical low right on the very long term support line, Gold/Silver ratio chart at a rare level of over 85 and the upcoming completion of the ‘gold bowl’ basing pattern. What do you see as the most likely outcome ?