David Banister- www.MarketTrendForecast.com

Interesting to watch all of the Silver and Gold Bears running out into the streets from their caves beating their chests due to the silver shellacking we just saw. Getting jiggy with the US Dollar rally is all the rage right now, and stomping on the precious metals Bulls is the hot sport. The only problem is calling for a crash after a crash is kind of like picking the winner of the NCAA tournament at your office the day after the tournament ends. It’s rare to get a crash on top of a crash, and trying to predict any crash is a fool’s game anyways.

The reality is the US can’t even keep their continually rising debt ceiling in check let alone run a normal break even budget. The constant calls for the end of Q2 are kind of funny, because in one form or another, we will see a Q3… call it what you will. Getting on board now with being bearish on silver or gold and bullish on the US dollar is probably going to be short lived near term. One of the confirmations I look for at bottoms is not just with my Elliott Wave patterns or charts, it’s headlines, forecasters, and erstwhile market seers are going the same direction and high fiving each other. When everyone stops trying to call the top in Gold and Silver, then we will probably have a major top in 3 years or so, but not yet.

The dollar should bounce a bit higher yet between 76.20-77 ranges on this chart below then resume the decline. . Giving the Bin Laden news credit for the Dollar rally is a bit silly to say the least; it was overdue no matter what the news of the day was.

The bottom line is that Silver was likely to top in the $45-$47 per ounce range after a huge rally from $26.50 whether or not the COMEX raised equity requirements. I had forecasted a run to the $45 highs way back in the mid 26’s for my subscribers. I had mentioned that as we approach those highs, predicting the next “D wave” correction would be very difficult indeed. Certainly the COMEX raising equity requirements made that D wave that much more difficult to assess. The fact that they did it four times in one week certainly sped up the correction and caused an “overthrow bottom”.

Now if we can step back and take a deep breath, we can see that Silver roughly retraced a Fibonacci 61% of the rally from 26.xx to $49.xx and this is typical of a major wave correction in sentiment and price. Gold has so far retraced 61% of its prior 3rd wave up, and that does happen as well. Investors and forecasters simply like to use the day’s headlines to explain the action, so they can feel justified with what just occurred.

I believe that the headlines don’t much matter during rallies or corrections. Instead what matters is typical crowd behavioral patterns and trying to outline pivot highs and lows as best as I can for my paying subscribers. With Gold’s recent bottom at 1462 being a likely “A Wave” of an A B C correction, we then saw a “B wave” rally as I forecasted would occur to “About $1520 or so”, and then a C wave so far to a higher low than $1462. I thought the pullback from the $1520 area would bottom at a higher level than $1462 and so far that is still the case. I am looking for Gold to rally past $1577 and complete a large 5 wave rally from October of 2008 at $1627 or higher. At that time, or close to that time, you will then be wise to take a fair amount of cash off the table.

Indeed, we have had a stellar rally in Gold and Silver from the October 2008 lows and there will be eventually longer periods of consolidations and corrective wave patterns to work that off. However, my theory has been that we are in a 13 year bull cycle for the metals and this is like 1997 in the Tech stocks, still a few good years left and probably one of those 1999 years is still in front of us for the better gold/silver junior exploration companies. Certainly after rallying from $681 in October of 2008 to the $1577 recent highs of April, we are getting a little long in the tooth on this multi-wave pattern to the upside. This next top at $1627 or higher will be followed by a multi-month corrective pattern, and I’ll keep my subscribers on top of the coming moves as best as possible. Consider joining us now and save 33% off the annual subscription covering Silver, Gold, and the SP 500 with a 24 hour limited offer at www.MarketTrendForecast.com and or sign up for occasional weekly reports.

by Tyler Durden

It’s official: the US credit card has officially been maxed out, just as we predicted on Wednesday, and througout Q1 and Q2. The United States is expected to reach the legal limit on its debt later on Monday and will start dipping into federal retirement funds to give the country more room to borrow, a Treasury official said. As Reuters reports further, The U.S. Treasury will settle $72 billion in maturing bonds on Monday, which will push the country right up against its $14.294 trillion borrowing cap, the official said. To all those who thought only the insolvent government of Ireland will plunder pension funds, our condolences.

Full release (no pun intended):

As US Reaches Debt Limit, Geithner Implements Additional Extraordinary Measures to Allow Continued Funding of Government Obligations

Click Here To Learn More About Chris’s Book “Controlling Your Trades and Discount Membership

We are about to see some fireworks across the board in the next few trading sessions and im leaning more towards lower prices…

Grab The Morning Video Here

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.
– George S. Patton -

Last week silver was the focus of incredible price swings which left many licking their wounds and shaking their heads at the trading losses they had incurred. This sell off was likely triggered by the increase in margin requirements for futures contracts, but the stunning price decline extended to all vehicles like exchange traded funds use to trade the glimmering metal.

I recognized the potential opportunity early in the week, and began to look at various position structures using options on Tuesday morning. In order to understand the thinking behind this trade, it is necessary to understand the concept of implied volatility of an option contract. Implied volatility, together with time to expiration and price of the underlying security, form the three primal forces that rule the world of option pricing. This measure of volatility is best described as the collective opinion of traders as to the future volatility of the price of the underlying. Implied volatility is the variable which determines if options are priced cheap or overvalued.

One of the fundamental behavioral characteristics of options is the reaction of implied volatility to rapid price change. As a general rule, implied volatility goes down as the price of the underlying increases and vise-versa. Another functional characteristic is that it tends to revert to its historic mean once rapid price movements have moderated and actual price volatility returns to its historic range. The chart below is from a historical database of SLV implied volatility. Note the dramatic rise, indicated by the blue line, beginning in mid April and reaching historically unprecedented levels in early May.

Books have been written to describe details of various option trade structures, and a discussion of all potentially useful strategies is beyond the scope of my mission today. Suffice it to say that individual trades can be structured to respond either positively or negatively to reductions in implied volatility. Given the extremely elevated state of the SLV implied volatility, which side would you want to take? Hint: Volatility doesn’t remain elevated forever. A well-established characteristic of implied volatility is its tendency to revert to its historic mean.

The trade structure I chose to use was that of a calendar spread. This two legged spread is constructed by selling a short dated option and buying a longer dated option. The options selected to construct each spread are at the same strike price and are of the same class, either puts or calls. Maximum profit of each spread occurs at expiration of the shorter dated option when the price of the underlying is at the strike price of the spread. The main profit engine for this spread is the more rapid time decay of option premium in the shorter dated option relative to the longer dated option.

My trade plan was to buy the May monthly option series which had 18 days of life remaining and sell the weekly options, an option series with only 4 days of life remaining when the trade sequence was started. An essential part of my plan was to adjust the spread as required by price movement to keep in the profit zone of the P&L curve.

It is important to recognize the “secret ingredient” of the spread that put the wind at my back; this special ingredient was the much greater implied volatility of the option I was selling compared to the option I was buying. In the language of the option trader, this situation is termed a positive “volatility skew”. This positive volatility skew increases our odd of success because we are selling a richly priced option and buying a more reasonably priced option; the old adage of “buy low, sell high” applies to volatility as well as price.

The trade that I will discuss began mid-morning on Tuesday, May 3 when SLV was trading around $42.50. My opening traded was to establish the calendar spread at the 42 strike, in options peak, this is known as an at-the-money calendar spread. The opening trade is displayed below:

Price continued to decline for the next several hours and by mid afternoon, SLV was trading around $40. This rapid decline was beginning to approach my lower breakeven price point at $39.24 and I felt I needed more room to allow for price action movement. At this point I chose to add an additional calendar spread at the 38 strike using puts to create a double calendar spread. The resulting trade lowered my breakeven point on the low side from the original $39.24 to $36.21. The new spread’s profitability curve is graphed below:

Price action the next day, Wednesday May 4, was a bit more subdued, and price remained within my profitable zone. Time decay of the short option premium was accelerating and no further action was required. All systems were “go”.

The following day, Thursday May 5, price movement resumed its rapid decline and price had moved beyond the profitable zone of our double calendar spread. Action was required; “wishing and hoping” in these situations is strictly not allowed The original position needed to be modified in order to re-establish a new zone of profitability surrounding the current price of SLV. Because SLV had moved well below the lower breakeven point of the double calendar, radical surgery was necessary. I chose to remove the entire position and re-center the spread. I closed both the 42 call calendar and the 38 put calendar and bought 2 put calendars at the 34 and 35 strikes. As Thursday ended, I had the position illustrated below:

Price movement during the next day, Friday, remained within the range of $33.60 to $35.57. These price extremes for the day were within our limits of profitability of the new double calendar. I closed the spread by mid afternoon when the time premium of the options I had sold short had largely eroded.

This trade had a profit of 15.9% net of commissions for trade duration of approximately 72 hours. I think the lesson to be learned from this trade is that a knowledgeable option trader can survive and prosper in a variety of market conditions. This demonstration is, I think, an example of the tremendous power of options to mitigate risk and provide controlled risk trading opportunities in fast moving markets.

This trade has been part of a strong period of performance for members at OptionsTradingSignals.com.Recent performance has been outstanding as 6 out of 7 trades have produced profits while the final trade remains open. The following returns are based on trade entry and executions. Commissions have not been factored in as option commission structures are different and members may have received a better or worse trade execution. With that said, the gross returns are listed below:

GLD Call Calendar Converted To Vertical Spread – 58%
RUT Call Calendar Spread – 12%
SPY Call Vertical Spread – 32%
SLV Call Calendar Spread Converted to Double Calendar Spread – 18%
AMZN Call Calendar Spread – 37%
SLV Call Calendar Spread Discussed Above – 20%

The cumulative return of the most recent 6 trades is 177%. Obviously the recent track record has been strong and the overall return for members would differ based on position size, risk tolerance, and account size. Since the beginning of the service in December, the overall win / loss record is 14 winning trades, 1 breakeven trade, and 8 losing trades. The overall successful trade percentage based on the trades that have been closed is just shy of 61%. In full disclosure, two trades remain open at this time.

Recently I have used a lot of calendar spreads due to the low volatility environment we have been trading in. The trade constructions that I use adjust based on volatility levels of underlying assets and the VIX index in general. Essentially the service does not use the same trades over and over unless the volatility environment is little changed. Recently we have had consistently low volatility levels and calendar spreads have been attractive. In the future, volatility levels will likely change and other trade constructions would be warranted at that time.

The special offer currently being presented to new members is an extreme value. Most long term members have pointed out that they would be willing to subscribe just for the daily technical analysis provided as well as the 2 – 3 weekly videos that members receive that contain technical analysis of key indices, futures, and ETF’s. My primary focus is to deliver value to members beyond just solid trade management and performance.

I am focused on performance, but my greatest thrill is watching novice option traders start to learn how to trade options in spreads effectively and for consistent profits. Options are one of the most overlooked trading tools in financial markets and the power they offer individual investors is consistently overlooked. Options are more than just hedging tools; they offer individual investors the power to diversify away from standard assets.

Come join me at http://www.optionstradingsignals.com/specials/index.php and learn to harness the power that options offer investors and traders alike!

JW Jones

This week we are seeing fear across the board from traders and investors as they dump their long positions is stocks and commodities. Just in the past two trading sessions alone we have seen extreme overbought conditions and extreme oversold conditions which generally mean another big move is brewing…

Fear (panic selling) has very distinct characteristics when looking at the intraday charts and we are seeing those price and volume patterns forming now. When waves of buying and panic selling start to take place back to back, I start to prepare for a trading setup which should form within a couple of trading sessions.

Keep in mind that fear is a much more powerful force in the market and once extreme levels are reached, we typically tend to see continued selling for 1-3 more days afterwards. This is the reason I tend to scale into oversold market conditions as I can potentially enter at lower prices within the next couple of sessions to build a position with a reduced cost basis.

SPY 10 Minute Chart of My Market Sentiment Readings
Panic selling, coupled with oversold NYSE market conditions and fearful options traders makes for an extreme reading in stock prices.

GLD 10 Minute Chart of My Market Sentiment Readings
Sentiment readings many times carry over into the precious metals sector and can be used as a gauge also for tightening stops, adding to long positions etc..

Mid-Week Market Trading Update:
In short, I feel the market is at a major tipping point along with the US Dollar. It is just a matter of time before we get another low risk setup and take a position for the next move in either direction.

Get My Weekly Reports Free Here: http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/trade-money-emotions.php

6 months of detailed trading guidance, pre-market videos, low risk alerts, and trading education for less than 50 cents a day!

Chris V.

Gold Scents

Despite my bias to see new all time lows in the dollar index, I think the dollar probably put in the three year cycle low last week. Sentiment at the time had reached multi-year lows and as of yesterday the dollar had moved back above the 50 day moving average.

If I’m right then this should usher in the next deflationary period just like the rally out of the `08 three year cycle low signaled a coming recession, the next leg down for stocks in the ongoing secular bear market, and a collapse of the CRB into it’s 3 year cycle low.

This should also drive gold down into it’s D-wave decline. Yesterday the miners made a lower low and this morning silver made a lower low. It’s probably only a matter of time before gold breaks below the $1462 pivot. That would confirm that gold is now in an intermediate decline and this late in the C-wave that would almost certainly turn out to be a D-wave correction.

The good news is that sometime in late June or early July we are going to get the single best buying opportunity we will ever get for the rest of this bull market.

At this point the goal is to preserve capital and get to that major D-wave bottom with plenty of dry powder.

My one-of-a-kind trading service offers individual traders – just like you – consistent, accurate and profitable trading alerts.

Courtesy of Tyler Durden

Once again someone forgot to tell gas station operators that the CME is doing all it can to generate a feedback loop which kills commodity prices and general price stability (price plunges, vol surges, leading to margin hikes, leading to more plunges, leading to even more vol and even more margin hikes, etc). After gas prices rose by about a cent yesterday, the rise according to AAA continues, with average gas prices on the verge of a post 2008 high, even as crude prices have taken a nearly $20 hit in the past two weeks. Yesterday the average regular price was $3.984, up from $3.962 yesterday, and unchanged from a week ago.

Yet for all fools who believe the administration will buy such nonsense as “sticky prices” we have a message for you: it won’t. After Holder was removed from his carbonite cryogenic bath, when over 3 years we heard absolutely nothing from him, and is now running around shooting oil “speculators” (but not the money printer, never the money printer) with impunity, NBC Washington reports that the DC AG has launched a criminal investigation into a “suspicious” 25 cent price jump. Because there are no trillion dollar crimes on Wall Street….

The “Golden Trading Vehicle” that has nearly 100% accuracy CLICK HERE

by Karl Denninger

Oh my….

Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund tycoon and Galleon Group LLC co-founder at the center of a nationwide insider trading crackdown, was found guilty of all 14 counts against him in the largest illegal stock-tipping case in a generation.

The jury did not buy the argument that he was just “smart”; they instead found him guilty of trading on inside information and violating the law.

Rajaratnam used inside information to trade ahead of public announcements about earnings, forecasts, mergers and spinoffs involving more than a dozen companies, according to the evidence at the trial.

That never actually happens, right?

Oh wait, it appears it does.  Indeed, I’ve been writing about apparent violations of this sort pretty much since The Ticker began publication.  The Crime on August Expiration in 2007 anyone?

Have any material number of these been prosecuted?  No.  But that one guy who was accused has now been found guilty across the board is a clear indication that when the government bothers to look for illegal conduct they don’t have much of a problem finding it, nor in winning the cases they bring.

My one-of-a-kind trading service offers individual traders – just like you – consistent, accurate and profitable trading alerts.

By David Galland, Managing Director, Casey Research

Today I’d like to share a couple of thoughts on the matter of the correction in commodities about which we have been so vocally warning, and which has now occurred.

After having written in early April about the possible market response to the end of QE2, specifically about it knocking the legs out from under the overbought precious metals and other commodities, the metals continued higher, causing some readers to express concern that we had led them astray. And any number of analysts opined that the market had already priced in the end of QE2 and thus, even after Bernanke’s press conference, had decided it was go, go, go for higher commodity prices.

Yet, I think it is always a mistake to credit “the market” with any real predictive value. Reactive, yes. Predictive, no. Benjamin Graham had it right when he first penned the profile of Mr. Market as being a maniac, as likely to overpay for an asset as he is to sell too soon.

Put another way, if Mr. Market were actually in possession of a crystal ball, then gold would already be at $2,000 and silver at $75, and higher – because that’s where the underlying fundamentals of the economy will eventually drive them. Just not quite yet.

So, what do I think about the current sell-off? First off, it was way overdue, and anyone who wasn’t leveraged to the wrong side of the sell-off and who had built some cash should be thrilled that it has happened.

Silver, in particular, has been hammered – down over 30% at one point. Now that’s what I call a proper correction. Is it safe to go back into the water? I have to believe that the speed and depth of the sell-off makes it all the more likely that we’ll see a pretty quick bounce back.

While no one can know when, or perhaps because no one can know when (and we still have yet to see the actual economic consequences of the end of QE2), my suggestion would be to start buying in weekly or bi-monthly tranches of somewhere between 25% and 33% of the total cash you intend to reinvest in the metals and related investments. Already, the metals appear to stage something of a comeback, but that doesn’t mean it’s all blue sky from here.

By buying in tranches, you might not hit the exact bottom – but trying to hit the bottom is a fool’s game.

If you didn’t raise cash as the metals spiked higher over the month of April, or even paid up for gold, silver etc., don’t kick yourself (unless you were leveraged to the upside, in which case I can only empathize and wish you luck). Even if you paid $50 an ounce for your last ounce of silver, you will come out just fine in the end, because the monetary system of the U.S., and the world, is corrupt and degraded beyond redemption. It will falter and likely fail, and in time everyone will be scrambling to pick up their precious metals at substantially higher prices.

We’ll have more on this topic, and on what the future holds, in the brand-new edition of The Casey Report, which will be released this week. Renowned financial experts like John Williams of ShadowStats, James G. Rickards, Mike Maloney and others give their take on what to watch for. You can read it fresh off the press with your risk-free 3-month trial, with full money-back guarantee.

by Tyler Durden

This one is just too good to pass by: the latest critic of US monetary, and budget policy, is none other than… Iran. From PressTV: “Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strongly criticizes US economic policies, saying that the paper currency created by the American government is taking a heavy toll on the global economy.” In an address to the fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, Ahmadinejad said that the cash injected into the global economy in the form valueless US dollars amount to over USD 32 trillion, IRNA reported. “This is while the US budget deficit for the 2011 fiscal year is expected to reach a figure above USD 1.6 trillion,” he added. Who would have thought The Onion reality of our centrally planned times would get to a point where Iran speaks more truth than our own politicians…

More from PressTV:

The Iranian president also pointed that the US foreign debt now approaching over USD 14.6 trillion, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States stands at around USD 14 trillion.

President Ahmadinejad stated that such figures clearly explain the plunder of national wealth in many countries, and the upsurge in poverty and underdevelopment across the globe.

He noted the certain countries rob less developed states to pay their international debts.

“Most of international economic organizations either defend the existing situation or serve the interests of certain states,” he said.

President Ahmadinejad further said the era of colonialism is coming to an end and the management of world issues should be reformed.

Lastly, if Iran gets its way, the US may soon follow Weimar not only in infinite printing, but in paying reparations:

He also proposed the formation of an independent commission to assess the extent of damage inflicted on oppressed nations during the era of colonialism, and to oblige former colonialist powers to pay indemnities.

There is little one can add to this gem. Pretty much says it all.

h/t Temp Flashback

6 months of detailed trading guidance, pre-market videos, low risk alerts, and trading education for less than 50 cents a day!