Are the Global Markets Shifting Away from U.S. Price Correlation?

Well over a month ago we warned our followers of a “capital market shift” that was taking place in the global markets. Nearly 3 months before that time, we warned that China’s economy was about to enter a sustained economic down trend cycle that could be dangerous to the global markets. Today, we offer further evidence that the global markets are, in fact, shifting away from a price correlation to the U.S. stock market and this move could be a warning sign that emerging markets and global markets could lead the world into an extended stagflation cycle.

Think about this for a minute, as we briefly discussed in our last article, what would happen if the U.S. markets continued to rally on a strong economy with strong consumer participation while the U.S. Fed was slow to raise interest rates while supporting a transitional shift of the US economy towards more manufacturing, technology, and expectations? How would the world’s economies react to such a shift given their current economic cycles and opportunities? Would they be able to keep up with the U.S. or would they start to trail further and further behind the U.S.?

It is our belief that any continued strengthening of the U.S. economy could, in fact, present real dangers for many of the world’s economies simply because they may fall completely out of sync with the U.S. stock market as their currencies, economies and consumer expectations fail to keep up with the U.S. capabilities. How all of this will play out over the next few months/years is our concern. We know it will result in some tremendous trading opportunities for investors, but it could also create a new class of undervalued assets that could present some real long term opportunity over the next 20+ years.

Let’s start by taking a look at our China/Asia custom index to show how the past 60+ days have more clearly shown this price disconnect happening. When you look at this chart, pay attention to how closely this custom index (the candles) have moved in relation to the SPY (the blue area chart overlaid onto the candles). Notice how the moves in the SPY were relatively closely mirrored by the custom index. This is a direct price correlation to the SPY over an extended period of time.

Now, focus on the last 6 - 9 bars on this chart and take a really close look at how the SPY has rallied higher while this custom index has stayed flat to lower over the same time frame. The only answer for this type of price disconnect is that a global capital shift could be underway that is driving capital out of certain markets and away from risk and danger. In other words, it is our opinion that the China/Asia markets are starting to be perceived as riskier and more dangerous in relation to the U.S. market and other more mature markets.

Now, let’s take a look at the BRICS custom index. YIKES!! What happened here? Through most of 2017, a price correlation can be seen where the BRICS index moved somewhat in unison with the SPY price activity – although in some cases a bit delayed. Yet, after March 2018, something dramatic happened. When the SPY rotated lower in late March 2018, the BRICS index stayed relatively flat near the highs. Then in May 2018, a price disconnect became very evident as the SPY began to rally while the BRICS index began to sell off – very dramatically. The BRICS index also broke through the BLUE price channel recently which is another sign that price trends/activities have shifted.

You should now be starting to see what we have been warning you about for months – the global capital market shift that is taking place. This is happening because mature nations and economies are capable of achieving great economic growth and stability than many foreign markets and because many foreign markets have squandered the last 10+ years attempting to expand externally and not support their fundamental economic needs. As we have used this example before, a flower only has two modes of operation – flower mode (expand) or survive (keep the core plant alive). We believe these foreign markets have been in “flower mode” for the past 10+ years and have failed to support the core elements of their economies.

Now, onto more examples, this time Western Europe. Again, this custom index is weighted with the SPY, so it should reflect some of the price support of the recent uptrend. Yet, we see the most recent few weeks of this chart have shown a dramatic downtrend? This would indicate that the European markets/currencies are disconnecting from the US majors at a much more dramatic pace, recently, that they have been over the past few years. Yikes!

What about India & SE Asia? Our custom India index has shown relatively FLAT recent price activity compared to the SPY. Overall, our opinion is that India has yet to completely diverge from the U.S. majors and we urge all investors to be aware that any further price breakdown in this India custom index will warn that the Indian/SE Asian economies are losing their battle to stay correlated to the U.S. markets going forward. Right now, there is evidence of weakness in the India custom index – yet there are limited signs of a broken correlation to the U.S. markets. It certainly shows that this price disconnect could be happening and likely is happening – yet we don’t have clear signs that this custom index is breaking to new lows (yet).

Lastly, let's take a look at our Russia/Eastern Europe custom index for signs of a price disconnect. This chart is somewhat similar to the India chart (above). There are signs of weakness and downside price rotation while the SPY has been rallying, yet there is not massive disconnect evident on the right edge of the chart. We believe the recent downside price rotation within this custom index are the early warning signs of a price disconnect in the early stages of setting up (just like in the India chart). We believe these charts clearly show that the US market (and other mature economies) are advancing beyond the functional capabilities of many emerging and foreign markets. What will come from this, if it continues to play out as we expect, is a huge number of opportunities for traders and investors.

The next 3 to 5 years are likely to be very interesting and exciting for traders and investors. These types of moves don’t happen too often and should these markets continue to rotate as we are expecting, we could see some very big currency and foreign market moves over the next few months and years. You owe it to yourself to stay ahead of this move and learn how to profits from the extended volatility that will likely result from this price disconnect.

We believe we have nailed this analysis as we have correctly called the weakness in China/Asia as well as the global capital shift that is starting to play out in the global markets. We already know what will likely move and when we should expect these opportunities to set up. We are preparing our valued subscribers for this move and protecting them by providing them even more detailed research and analysis than you are seeing here.

Visit The Technical Traders to learn how this could be the biggest opportunity of your trading and investing life and how you need a qualified and dedicated team of researchers to help you stay ahead of these moves over the next 2+ years with our long term discounted subscription plan and Save 39%. There will come a time when you will be wishing you had access to our proprietary research and member only trade alerts and investment positions. Become a technical trader today [just visit here] and prosper with us!

Chris Vermeulen
Technical Traders Ltd.

Here’s Why Nobody Understands the Markets

By Jared Dillian

I used to be a big astronomy nerd when I was a kid, locked up in my room, reading space books. I actually was once interested in planetary science. Now I study finance. How depraved. Nassim Taleb is right—finance actually is depraved. If you study finance, you study money, of course. But why is money interesting?  Because it doesn’t sit around in static piles that you shuffle and count. It can grow asymptotically, or else simply disappear.

This is true not just of stocks and bonds, but also of currencies, which are supposed to be worth something, and even commodities, which are really supposed to be worth something. Then you have gold, which is totally useless from a practical standpoint and whose value fluctuates dramatically.

Funny thing about money exploding or disappearing is that it’s so hard to understand that we hire physicists to figure it out.  And then they come up with these really mundane solutions, like an options pricing model that doesn’t work, or a way to forecast future volatility (that also doesn’t work).  None of this ever comes close to figuring out why money explodes or disappears.

Human Behavior is Unquantifiable

The reason we aren’t any closer to the answer is because we keep using the wrong methods.  You can get the math geeks to come up with equations to describe human behavior, but then human behavior changes or does something new, and you are back to square one. The study of money is the study of people, and people behave in sometimes predictable, but often unpredictable ways. Just when you think you have a rubric (like Nate Silver with elections, a related field), along comes a Trump who blows apart the whole model.

I’ve always felt that finance is a very qualitative discipline. You are no worse off hiring English or history majors. It’s no accident that all the heavy hitters in this business are also really great writers. The quants are starting to catch on, and a lot of the algorithmic traders are writing programs to mimic and predict human behavior… though it’s really just technical analysis and trend following in a computer program. Technical analysis has an uneven reputation, but when you can quantify and backtest it and it works, the reputation gets markedly better.

Hard to argue nowadays that even weak-form EMH holds when you have a cottage industry of very profitable systematic strategies. Of course, there is a lot of math behind the quant stuff, and the guys doing it are mathematical geniuses, but the best of them are also very sharp market folks with a nose for when trades start to get crowded.  The quant blowup of 2007 happened because all the smart quants were in all the same ideas. So even in the world of high level mathematics, you still have to deal with unquantifiable stuff: human behavior.

When someone like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman sees his portfolio get slaughtered by about 20% in 2015 and then double digits in the first month of 2016, that’s not just bad stock picking. This is what happens when crowded trades become un-crowded. Computers may be computers, but the people who program the computers are just human and utterly fallible.

Why I Believe in Behavioral Finance 

When I taught my college finance class last semester, I’d say the most consensus long among the students was Disney (DIS) because of Star Wars.

Of course, I had been doing a bunch of work on the short side for months.

Disney has some serious problems like declines in sports viewing and superhero movies and cable industry trends—secular stuff that’s completely out of their control.  Suffice it to say that by the time the MBA students in South Carolina get bulled up on a stock, it is probably pretty close to the end.

That’s behavioral finance in a nutshell.

This is what I do for a living. I watch the market, not the stocks, if that makes any sense. I am always collecting data. Every person I talk to on the phone, every chart I look at, every tweet or article I read, it all goes into the soup, and from that soup, I am trying to gauge sentiment. Sentiment tells you everything. Cheap things get cheap, and expensive things get more expensive. Markets are alternately rational and irrational because people are alternately rational and irrational. Seems like a crazy way to allocate resources, but it works better than all the alternatives. If you want to read more about my investment process, you can choose between the monthly version or the daily.

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A master in behavioral economics, Jared probes the mind of today’s market to gauge the trends of tomorrow. Following his intellectual adventures is a true thrill ride for every investor. Sign up for his weekly missive, and don’t miss another one of his captivating conclusions.

The article Here’s Why Nobody Understands the Markets was originally published at mauldineconomics.com.

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Is the “Easy Money Era” Over?

By Justin Spittler

It finally happened. Yesterday, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade. Dispatch readers know the Fed dropped interest rates to effectively zero during the 2008 financial crisis. It has held rates at effectively zero ever since…an unprecedented policy that has warped the financial markets. Rock bottom interest rates make it extremely cheap to borrow money. Over the last seven years, Americans have borrowed trillions of dollars to buy cars, stocks, houses, and commercial property. This has pushed many prices to all time highs. U.S. stock prices, for example, have tripled since 2009.

The Fed raised its key rate by 0.25%.....

U.S. stocks rallied on the news, surprising many investors. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ both gained 1.5% yesterday. The Fed plans to continue raising rates next year. It’s targeting a rate of 1.38% by the end of 2016. So, is this the beginning of the end of the “easy money era?” For historical perspective, here’s a chart showing the Fed’s key rate going back to 1995. As you can see, yesterday’s rate hike was tiny. The key rate is still far below its long term average of 5.0%.

Josh Brown, writer of the financial website The Reformed Broker, put the Fed’s rate hike in perspective.

The overnight borrowing rate…has now risen from “around zero” to “basically zero.”

In other words, interest rates are still extremely low, and borrowing is still extremely cheap. We’re not ready to call the end of easy money yet.

Cheap money has goosed the commercial property market..…

Commercial property prices have surged 93% since bottoming in 2009. Prices are now 16% higher than their 2007 peak, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics. Borrowed money has been fueling this hot market. According to the Fed, the value of commercial property loans held by banks is now $1.76 trillion, an all time high. The apartment market is especially frothy today. Apartment prices have more than doubled since November 2009. U.S. apartment prices are now 34% above their 2007 peak.

Sam Zell is cashing out of commercial property..…

Zell is a real estate mogul and self-made billionaire. He made a fortune buying property for pennies on the dollar during recessions in the 1970s and 1990s. It pays to watch what Zell is buying and selling. He was one of few real estate gurus to spot the last property bubble and get out before it popped. In February 2007, Zell sold $23 billion worth of office properties. Nine months later, U.S. commercial property prices peaked and went on to plunge 42%.

Recently, Zell has started selling again. In October, Zell’s company sold 23,000 apartment units, about one quarter of its portfolio. The deal was valued at $5.4 billion, making it one of the largest property deals since the financial crisis. The company plans to sell 4,700 more units in 2016. Yesterday, Zell told Bloomberg Business that “it is very hard not to be a seller” with the “pricing currently available in the commercial real estate market.”

Recent stats from the commercial property market have been ugly. In the third quarter, commercial property transactions fell 6.5% from a year ago. Transaction volume also fell 24% between the second quarter and third quarter.

Auction.com, the largest online real estate marketplace, said economic growth is hurting the market.

Both commercial real estate transaction volume and pricing have showed signs of softening over the past few months. It’s likely that what we’re seeing is the result of reduced capital spending due to some weakness in the U.S. economy, coupled with a highly volatile economic climate in China and ongoing financial issues in Europe.

Zell is bearish on the U.S. economy..…

On Bloomberg yesterday, he predicted that the U.S. will have a recession by the end of 2016.

I think that there’s a high probability that we’re looking at a recession in the next twelve months.

A recession is when a country’s economy shrinks two quarters in a row. The U.S. economy hasn’t had a recession in six years. Instead, it’s been limping through its weakest recovery since World War II.
Zell continued to say that the U.S. economy faces many challenges.

World trade is slowing. Currencies continue to be manipulated. You’re looking at the beginnings of layoffs in multinational companies. We’re still looking all over the world for demand…

So, when you look at those factors it’s hard to see where strength is going to come from. I think weakness is going to be pervasive.

Like Zell, we see tough economic times ahead. To prepare, we suggest you hold a significant amount of cash and physical gold. We put together a short video presentation with other strategies for how to protect your money in an economic downturn. Click here to watch.

Chart of the Day

The U.S. economy is in an “industrial recession”. In recent editions of the Dispatch, we’ve told you that major American manufacturers are struggling to make money. For example, sales for global machinery maker Caterpillar (CAT) have declined 35 months in a row. In October, CAT’s global sales dropped by 16%...its worst sales decline since February 2010.

Today’s chart shows the yearly growth in U.S. industrial production. The bars on the chart below indicate recessions. Last month, U.S. industrial production declined -1.17% from the prior year. It marked the 19th time since 1920 that industrial output dropped from a positive reading to a reading of -1.1% or worse.
15 of the last 18 times this happened – or 83% of the time – the U.S. economy went into recession.

The article Is the “Easy Money Era” Over? was originally published at caseyresearch.com.

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Here's Why Gold Will Be Priceless in Three to Five Years

Over the next few years as debt, currencies and countries start to fall apart and individuals will be looking to place their money where it will hold its value and buying power during times of extreme uncertainty.

If you eliminate fiat currencies which are created out of this air and are nothing more than a credit we are left with precious metals and stones. As much as we have evolved over time, we could be valuing things like gold, silver, platinum, and precious stones more so than our currency.

Let’s face it, currencies are swinging in value 20-50% regularly and while most people do not realize it their buying power often is not as strong as it was. Would you rather hold a large portion of your capital in say the EURO which is falling like a rock in value costing you thousands of dollars a month, or would gold and silver which rises in value as your currency falls be a smarter decision?

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Is Gold as Dead as Florida Hurricanes?

By Dennis Miller

It’s been over 3,280 days since a hurricane hit Florida. As hurricane season comes to a close next month, only Mother Nature knows how long the streak will last.

Like many Floridians, my wife and I stayed home and rode out a hurricane—once! We’d built a home on Perdido Key, a barrier island west of Pensacola. It was engineered to withstand 150 plus mph winds, and it was a beautiful home with a master bedroom spanning the entire third floor, looking out across the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Danny hit the Gulf shortly after we moved in. It was a fast moving Category I with winds gusting in the 75 - 80 mph range. Full of confidence and a bit curious, we decided to hunker down and ride it out. At the speed it was traveling, it should have been over in a matter of hours. Then, Danny caught everyone by surprise and stalled in Mobile Bay, pounding us for three days.

The waves on the Gulf were terrifying. We watched the rising tide bang boats against the rocks and sink others. Our front door had a double deadbolt with a keyhole on each side. Water shot through three feet into the room for 24 hours straight. Newly planted palm trees strained against support wires and toppled onto their sides.

We tried to get some sleep in our bedroom, but we could feel the house move with each gust of wind. We watched bits and pieces of our neighbor’s tile roof fly off and smash a few feet from our house. We were trapped and terrified for three days.

The no-hurricane record has been all over the Florida news, highlighting concern that people are becoming complacent. They don’t understand what adequate preparation entails. The storm itself can be horrific, but the aftermath can be equally disastrous, leaving people without food, water, power, and access to basic services for several days. Homes that survive a storm often have to be gutted because of mold and mildew. Without power, sewage immediately becomes a problem.

Plus, if your flood, wind, and homeowners insurance is not up to date, say hello to serious financial hardship. Many Floridians discovered too late that their policy limits had not increased with inflation and wouldn’t cover the cost of rebuilding.

Are You Crazy?—Part 1

Just for fun, I told a friend that I was thinking about selling my generator and dumping our emergency supplies. He looked at me in disbelief and finally uttered, “Are you crazy? When the next one hits, don’t try to mooch off of us. It’s every man for himself.”

Exasperated, he explained that hurricane-causing conditions had not gone away. Until the sun no longer heats the water, we no longer have large and fast temperature changes, and there are no trade winds, a hurricane is a constant threat. He was red in the face when he finished. I told him I was kidding and wanted to discuss something else: economic hurricanes.

Food, Water, a Generator, and Gold

Many financial pundits are shining the all clear signal, saying that our economy is fine. People are bailing on gold and mining stocks because they’ve dropped so low. To paraphrase my colleague, Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad, gold sentiment has dropped to zero.
Take a look at the price of gold over the last decade:

Precious Metals Fall into Two Camps

High inflation (Hurricane Danny) and hyperinflation (Hurricane Katrina) are two potential threats to all of our lives. While we hope neither hits, we should still prepare.

At Miller’s Money, we put metals into two categories. The first is core holdings. This is pure insurance against a catastrophe—much the same as our hurricane survival package. Not all storms are category V. Even if we don’t have hyperinflation, during the Jimmy Carter era we experienced double-digit inflation that devastated a lot of retirement nest eggs. Investors holding long-term 6% certificates of deposit would have lost 25% of their buying power during a five-year period, even after they collected the 6% interest.

What if the storm intensifies into hyperinflation and its inevitable aftermath? Many of the items we keep for hurricane emergencies may come in handy if the food supply is interrupted, electricity is cut off, or the currency collapses. Metals will protect us from the rising tide of inflation and protect our purchasing power.
The second category for metals and metal stocks is investment. These holdings are bought with the express intent of selling down the road for a nice profit. There is quite a debate going on in this arena. Some experts are touting the terrific buying opportunity. Others say gold is an ancient relic and there are a lot of better investment opportunities available. Should you take advantage of the buying opportunity or unload?

We set strict position limits in the Money Forever portfolio. When you’re investing money earmarked for retirement, which is our focus, the speculation portion is limited because preserving capital is the overriding consideration.

Gold stocks fall into two general categories. The first is established mining companies and the second is exploration and development companies. Stock in the first group is more directly related to the current price of gold. Every dollar fluctuation in the price of gold adds or subtracts from their net profit as their costs are primarily fixed.

For exploration and development companies, it’s a combination of the price of gold, their ability to raise capital, and a heavy emphasis on the economic viability of their discovery. In a large number of cases a major mining company buys them out and takes them into the production phase.

In both cases, there are certain events that can produce spectacular results; however, the risk is also high. The real question is do you have room to invest any more capital in the speculative portion of your portfolio? That’s up to the individual investor to answer. If you do have room, there are some incredible bargains in the market today. Our metals team travels the globe and has identified many candidates selling at true bargain-basement prices.

What about your core holdings? Should you buy or lighten your portion of metals? The first question to answer is: do you have ample core holdings at the moment? We recommend holding 10% - 20% of your net worth in core holdings, depending on your comfort level. (Mining stocks are generally not core holdings; they are speculative.) A lot of investors are slowly building to that target. If you think you should add more, then the current prices present a terrific opportunity.

Once you add to these core holdings, then the daily price fluctuations are no more relevant than the price of the case of beef stew we have stored in our closet. It’s insurance for a catastrophe we hope never happens. When the big one hits, we could probably sell our stew for an astronomical sum, but we won’t because it will help us survive. We would use some of our metal holdings, priced at current value, to buy things we need.

Are You Crazy?—Part 2

The same friend who was flabbergasted by my pretend plan to dump our hurricane supplies asked if I planned to sell any of our gold. I looked at him and asked, “Are you crazy?” Then I explained that the conditions that spawn inflation have not gone away either.

The reasons to own gold have compounded over the last decade. The U.S. government has printed trillions of dollars, our country’s debts are out of sight, and the Chinese and Russians are doing everything they can to oust the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. When the world no longer needs or wants to hold dollars, they will fly out the door faster than any hurricane wind mankind has ever seen. The value of the dollar will drop like a two-ton anchor and the price of gold will soar.

Precious metals are insurance against the ultimate financial hurricane. Fiat currencies eventually collapsed; the U.S. dollar will not get a free pass. Just as sure as the sun heats the water, we have large and fast temperature changes, and there are trade winds, an overly indebted government will experience a currency collapse.

We have all had ample warning and should be prepared. Don’t be fooled by the short term thinking.

For more up to date economic analysis and time-tested tips for protecting your nest egg, sign up for our free weekly e-letter, Miller’s Money Weekly

The article Is Gold as Dead as Florida Hurricanes? was originally published at millers money

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Why the Resource Supercycle Is Still Intact

By Rick Rule, Chairman and Founder, Sprott Global Resource Investments

Natural resource based industries are very capital intensive, and hence extremely cyclical. It is not unreasonable to say that as a natural resource investor, you are either contrarian or you will be a victim.

These markets are risky and volatile!

Why Cyclicality?

 

Let's talk about cyclicality first. Some of the cyclicality of these industries is a function of their being extraordinarily capital intensive. This lengthens the companies' response times to market cycles.

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Strengthening copper prices, for example, do not immediately result in increased copper production in many market cycles, because the production cycle requires new deposits to be discovered, financed, and constructed......a process that can consume a decade.

Price declines—even declines below the industry's total production costs—do not immediately cause massive production cuts. The "sunk capital" involved in discovery and construction of mining projects and attendant infrastructure (such as smelters, railways, and ports) causes the industry to produce down to, and sometimes below, their cash costs of production.

Producers often engage in a "last man standing" contest, to drive others to mothball productive assets, citing the high cost of shutdown and restart. They fail to mention their conflicts of interest as managers, whose compensation is linked to running operational mines.

Interest-rate cycles can raise or lower the cost and availability of capital, and the accompanying business cycles certainly influence demand. Given the "trapped" nature of the industry's productive assets, local political and fiscal cycles can also influence outcomes in natural-resource investments.

Today, I believe that we are still in a resource "supercycle," a long-term period of increasing commodity prices in both nominal and real terms. The market conditions of the past two years have made many observers doubt this assertion. But I believe the current cyclical decline is a normal and healthy part of the ongoing secular bull market.

Has this happened in the past?

 

The most striking analogy to the current situation occurred in the epic gold bull market in the 1970s. Many of you will recall that in that bull market, gold prices advanced from US$35 per ounce to $850 per ounce over the course of a decade. Fewer of you will recall that in the middle of that bull market, in 1975 and 1976, a cyclical decline saw the price of gold decline by 50%, from about $200 per ounce down to about $100 per ounce. It then rebounded over the next six years to $850 per ounce.

Investors who lacked the conviction to maintain their positions missed an 850% move over six short years. The current gold bull market, since its inception in 2000, has experienced eight declines of 10% or greater, and three declines—including the present one—of more than 20%.

This volatility need not threaten the investor who has the intellectual and financial resources to exploit it.

The natural-resources bull market lives…

 

The supercycle is a direct result of several factors. The most important of these is, ironically, the deep resource bear markets which lasted for almost two decades, commencing in 1982.

This period critically constrained investment in a capital-intensive industry where assets are depleted over time.

Productive capacity declined in every category; very little exploration took place; few new mines or oilfields replenished reserves; infrastructure and processing assets deteriorated. Critical human-resource capabilities suffered as well; as workers retired or got laid off, replacements were neither trained nor hired.

National oil companies (NOCs) exacerbated this decline in many nations by milking their oil and gas industries to subsidize domestic spending programs for political gain. This was done at the expense of sustaining capital investments. The worst examples are Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, and Iran. I believe 25% of world export crude capacity may be at risk from failure of NOCs to maintain and expand their productive assets.

Demands for social contributions in the form of taxes, royalties, carried equity interests, social or infrastructure contributions, and the like have increased. Voters are not concerned that producers need real returns to recover from two decades of underinvestment or to fund capital investments to offset depletion. Today this is actively constraining investment, and hence supply.

Poor people getting richer…

 

The supercycle is also driven by globalization and the social and political liberalization of emerging and frontier markets. As people become freer, they tend to become richer.

As poor countries become less poor, their purchases tend to be very commodity centric, especially compared to Western consumers. For the 3.5 billion people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, the goods that provide the most utility are material goods and consumables, rather than the information services or "high value-added" goods.

A poor or very poor household is likely to increase its aggregate calorie consumption—both by eating more food and more energy-dense food like meat. They will likely consume more electrical power and motor fuel and upgrade their home from adobe or thatch to higher-quality building materials. As people's incomes increase in developing and frontier markets, the goods they buy are commodity-intensive, which drives up demand per capita. And we are talking billions of "capitas."

Rising incomes and savings among certain cultures in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia—places with a strong cultural affinity for bullion—have increased the demand for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion. Bullion has been a store of value in these regions for generations, and rising incomes have generated physical bullion demand that has surprised many Western-centric analysts.

Competitive devaluation

 

The third important driver in this cycle has been the depreciation of currencies and the impact that has had on nominal pricing for resources and precious metals.

Most developed economies have consumed and borrowed at worrying levels. The United States federal government has on-balance-sheet liabilities of over $16 trillion, and off-balance-sheet liabilities estimated at around $70 trillion.

These numbers do not include state and local government liabilities, nor the likely liabilities from underfunded private pensions. Not to mention increased costs associated with more comprehensive health care and an aging population!

Many analysts are even more concerned about the debts and liabilities of other developed economies—Europe and Japan. In both places, debt-to-GDP ratios are greater than in the US. Europe and Japan are financing themselves through a combination of artificially low interest rates and more borrowing and money printing. This drives down the value of their currencies, helping their exports.

But which nations' leaders will stand firm and allow their export industries to wither as their domestic producers suffer from cheap competing foreign goods? If Japan's Abe is successful at increasing his country's exports at the expense of its competitors like Taiwan, Korea, or China, then his policies could lead to competitive devaluation. And how will the European community react, for that matter?

Loss of purchasing power in fiat currencies increases the nominal pricing of commodities and drives demand for bullion as a preferred savings vehicle.

The factors that have driven this resource supercycle have not changed. Demand is increasing. Supplies are constrained. Currencies are weakening. Thus I believe we remain in a secular bull market for natural resources and precious metals.

With that in mind, I would call the current market for bullion and resource equities a sale.

Where to invest?

 

Let's talk about a type of company most of us follow: mineral exploration companies, or "juniors." We often confuse the minerals exploration business with an asset-based business. I would argue that is a mistake.

Entities that explore for minerals are actually more similar to "the research and development" space of the mining industry. They are knowledge based businesses.

When I was in university, I learned that one in 3,000 "mineralized anomalies" (exploration targets) ended up becoming a mine. I doubt those odds have improved much in 40 years. So investors take a 1-in-3,000 chance in order to receive a 10-to-1 return.

These are not good odds. But understanding the industry improves them substantially.

Exploration companies are similar to outsourcing companies. Major mining companies today conduct relatively little exploration. Their competitive advantage lies in scale, financial stability, and engineering and construction expertise. Similar to how big companies in other sectors outsource certain tasks to smaller, more specialized shops, the big miners let the juniors take on exploration risk and reward the successful ones via acquisitions.

Major companies are punished rather than rewarded for exploration activities in the short term. Majors therefore tend to focus on the acquisition of successful juniors as a growth strategy.

Today, the junior model is broken. Many public exploration companies spend a majority of their capital on general and administrative expenses, including fundraising. Overlay a hefty administrative load on an activity with a slim probability of success, and these challenges become even more severe.

One response from the exploration and financial community has been to put less emphasis on exploration success and focus instead on "market success." In this model, rather than "turning rocks into money," the process becomes "turning rocks into paper, and paper into money."

One manifestation of that is the juniors' habit of recycling exploration targets that have failed repeatedly in the past but can be counted on to yield decent confirmation holes, and the tendency to acquire hyper-marginal deposits and promote the value of resources underground without mentioning the cost of actually extracting them.

The industry has been quite successful, during bull markets, at causing "sophisticated" investors to focus on exciting but meaningless criteria.

Being successful in natural resource investing requires you to make choices. If your broker convinces you to buy the sector as a whole, they will have lived up to their moniker—you will become "broker" and "broker."
We have already said that exploration is a knowledge-based business. The truth is that a small number of people involved in the sector generate the overwhelming majority of the successes. This realization is key to improving our odds of success.

"Pareto's law" is the social scientists' term for the so-called "80-20 rule," which holds that 80% of the work is accomplished by 20% of the participants.

A substantial body of evidence exists that it is roughly true across a variety of disciplines. In a large enough sample, this remains true within that top 20%—meaning 20% of the top 20%, or 4% of the population, contributes in excess of 60% of the utility.

The key as investors is to judge management teams by their past success. I believe this is usually much more relevant than their current exploration project.

It is important as well that their past successes are directly relevant to the task at hand. A mining entrepreneur might have past success operating a gold mine in French speaking Quebec. Very impressive, except that this same promoter now proposes to explore for copper, in young volcanic rocks, in Peru!

In my experience, more than half of the management teams you interview will have no history of success that shows that they are apt at executing their current project.

Management must be able to identify the most important unanswered question that can make or break the project. They must be able to say how that question or thesis was identified, explain the process by which the question will be answered, the time required to answer the question, how much money it will take. They also need to know how to recognize when they have answered the question. Many of the management teams you interview will be unable to address this sequence of questions, and therefore will have a very difficult time adding value.

The resource sector is capital intensive and highly cyclical, and we expect that the current pullback is a cyclical decline from an overheated bull market. The fundamental reasons to own natural resource and precious metals have not changed. Warren Buffett says, "Be brave when others are afraid, be afraid when others are brave." We are still "gold bugs." And even "gold bulls."

Rick Rule is the chairman and founder of Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd., a full-service brokerage firm located in Carlsbad, CA. He has dedicated his entire adult life to different aspects of natural-resource investing and has a worldwide network of contacts in the natural-resource and finance worlds.

Watch Rick and an all-star cast of natural-resource and investment experts—including Frank Giustra, Doug Casey, John Mauldin, and Ross Beaty—in the must-see video "Upturn Millionaires," and discover how to play the turning tides in junior mining stocks, for potentially life changing gains. Click here to watch.

The article Why the Resource Supercycle Is Still Intact was originally published at Casey Research.com.

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Less then 24 hours to enroll in our “Spread Trading Strategies for Growing a Small Account” class this Saturday

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Enroll now for our “Spread Trading Strategies for Growing a Small Account” class this Saturday

Can you get the same training hedge fund managers get for their traders? Now you can. Whether you are trading stocks, crude oil, commodities or currencies John Carter of "Simpler Options" has put together an easy to understand course that will show you how you can use the same trading methods he teaches fund managers and it can be done in any size account. No matter how big or small.

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*     How to trade spreads “end of day” so you don’t go bug eyed looking at charts all day

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See you in the markets,
Ray @ The Stock Market Club

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Gold still has downward pressure to look forward to.....right?

Outside of a late week Currencies surge, there were very few fireworks to report in last week’s business. This week however, may be a different story.

Thursday and Friday of last week provided some decent movement in the Dollar and Euro, but it appeared things began in the Japanese Yen, then spilled over. Throughout the last several weeks, there have been multiple attempts to push the Yen to new lows for the year, but it always seemed that somehow the plan was foiled. After the selling pressure triggered stop-orders below support, all other Currencies had to react. There was a firm rebound in the US Dollar and an inverse move in the Euro Currency. Surprisingly, the swings in the Currencies had very little impact on outside markets. In fact, most other sectors of the markets were rather stale and choppy. A Treasury Bond auction had some impact on the 30 year bonds and 10 year Notes, but there was little else in the week that provided any excitement. The same goes for the Gold Futures. Normally, traders would use the direction the Dollar or the Stock Indexes as a guide for what to expect in the Metals, but those former relationships are no longer in play on a day to day basis.

This week, there are a few decent reports in the US and Europe that should provide some decent movement. In the United States, Retail Sales, CPI, PPI, Empire State Manufacturing, and Philly Fed reports will be worth watching. In Europe, traders will be following economic data out of Germany along with European GDP figures to provide sustained market direction in at least the Currency sector, but I am unsure whether or not it will carry over into the Metals.

The Weekly Chart of June Gold shows the Futures prices consolidating around $1425. I still believe that Gold Futures may have some further pressure ahead while the US stock indexes remain stable and strong. One thing that will be interesting to watch would be if the Gold Futures ever return to being a “flight to safety” vehicle if the stock market corrects. I will keep a tight watch on that former relationship as the stock market continues its questionable rally into uncharted territory.




Posted courtesy of our trading partner Adam Hewsion at INO.Com


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President/CEO
The Stock Market Club


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Gold, Silver and Stock Prices at their Tipping Points

Over the past year we have been learning more about the financial situations across the pond in Europe. With international issues on the rise, investors are panicking trying to find a safest haven for their capital. This money has been bouncing from one investment to another trying to avoid the next major crash in stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities. It seems every 6 months there is a new headline news issue at hand forcing the smart money to withdraw from one investment class too another hoping to avoid the next meltdown.

To make a long story short, I feel the market (stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities) are about to see another major shift that will either make you a boat load of money or you lose a lot of money if you are not positioned properly.

So the big question is “Which direction will these investments move?”

Let’s take a look at the charts…...

Gold Weekly Chart – Long Term Outlook

Gold has just finished seeing a strong wave of selling this summer so it’s early to give any real forecast for what is next. That being said this long term chart may be telling us that gold’s rally could be nearing an end or a 12+ month pause could take place. If you have followed the market long enough then you realize that when everyone is in the same trade/position the market has a way of re-distributing the wealth to those who are savvy investors. Over the next 4-6 weeks there should be more price action which will allow me to get a better read for what is going to happen next.

Silver Weekly Chart – Long Term Outlook

Silver has been showing strong signs of distribution selling. Meaning the big money is moving out of this industrial and highly speculative metal. The interesting part here is that silver topped out much sooner than gold. Many times in the past silver has topped and or bottomed before the rest of the market reverses direction. So it is important to keep an eye on silver as we go forward in time because it tends to lead the market 1-2 months in advance some times.

SP500 Weekly Chart – Long Term Outlook

Stocks in general are still looking ripe for another major bull market rally. But if we do not get some follow through in the coming 1-2 months then this almost 3 year bull market could be coming an end.

Mid-Week Trend Trading Conclusion:

In short, the market as a whole is trying to recover from a strong bout of selling over the past few months. In my opinion the market is ripe for another leg higher. The reason I see higher stock prices is because decisions are being made across the pond to deal with their issues. Looking back it is similar to what the United States did in late 2008 – early 2009 just before the market bottomed.

Everyone right now seems to be saying Europe is screwed and that they are going about things in the wrong way, but if you think back that is exactly what took place in America not that long ago. And back then it was all over the news that the resolutions to fix the US would not work…. In the end, life continued, businesses continued to operate. Soon after decisions were made the stock market and commodities rallied and are still holding strong today.

Over the next week or two I am anticipating the market will provide some solid trade setups which I plan on taking advantage of using leveraged ETFS. During the volatile sideways market in August through till now I have navigated my subscribers using both bull and bear funds pocketing over 35% return in two months. If you would like to receive my pre-market morning videos, intraday updates and trade alerts visit my newsletter at: The Gold and Oil Guy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Chris Vermeulen: Gold & Silver Pullback as Forecasted ..... Now for the Big Opportunity

A few weeks ago I wrote about how gold was starting to top and that everyone should expect a very sharp drop to the low $1600 area. How I came to this conclusion was though the use of inter-market analysis combining price patterns, gold futures volume, the dollar index and market sentiment. This allowed me to understand what the majority of other traders/investors were thinking and feeling. By knowing each of these market variables and crowd behavior I can accurately see into the future a few days with a high probability of success and most importantly with low downside risk.

Click Here to view part-1 on how I properly forecasted that gold would fall sharply in August "Dollar’s On the Verge of a Relief Rally...... Look Out!"

At the time when I forecasted gold to reach the low $1600 area gold was still building the top pattern so I could not say how long a recovering would likely take nor did I know exactly when to re-enter a long position. But now that we have seen how gold arrived at my target price I can form a new forecast.

Spot Gold Price Forecast – Daily Chart:

The gold chart below clearly shows rising volatility along with my topping pattern of three surges to new highs. It was August 31st when I warned subscribers and my followers that gold was about to top and that everyone should be taking profits or at least tightening their stops to lock in gains. Only three days later gold topped and it has not stopped falling since.

On August 8th gold had a large opening gap to the upside. This means the price opened the next day much higher from where it closed the previous session. It’s important to note that gaps especially for gold almost always get filled within a couple months. Seeing this gave me a solid reason to think that gold should pullback to this level during the next big correction in price.

Also during the month of August gold had to pullbacks only to continue to make the third and final high. This told me that when the top is put in place was a very high probability that we see the price of gold drop below both of Augusts’ lows and that would trigger stop orders sending the market sharply lower.

Now that we are seeing the stops being flushed out of the market it means the majority of speculative traders have exited their positions. So speculative traders who caused the large surge in gold to take place are now out. Once all the speculative traders have exited which should take place in the coming weeks or two we can expect some type of bounce or rally. I will keep a close eye on the intraday charts for subscribers as we near a potentially major trade setup.

Where are we in this gold bull market?

Well I feel gold is more fairly priced between $1632- $1660 area. Currently gold is trading at $1660 but if things play out like I have seen in the past we just may get one more dip this week to the $1600 area before gold truly puts in a bottom. Because gold went from a new high all the way down to Friday’s panic selling washout instead of a controlled ABC correction I feel a bottom will be more of a one day event. This type of bottom carries more risk and is more difficult to time and trade. So scaling in with a small position at this level and adding on a drop to $1630 then $1600 could prove to be the safest way into a gold position.

Forward looking I see gold bottoming over the next week or two then a nice relief rally to the $1775 area. Depending on how gold arrives there will alter my next gold forecast so let’s wait and see how things unfold.

Spot Silver Price Forecast – Weekly Chart:

Silver I call the "un-Safe" haven because to me it’s not a safe haven in the way everyone’s believes it be. I hear and see everyone including friends and family selling all their stocks and putting their money into silver. To me buying large amounts of silver with your retirement money is just ridiculous. I m sure my statement here will trigger an inbox of silver perma bulls (silver bugs) to send me hate mail but that’s fine as my assistant filters my emails so I don’t have to keep being reminded how rude some humans can be over an simple opinion........

Investments that can lose 25% in value within 2 days or lose 40% of it’s value in 5 months should not be traded nor invested in with large portions of anyone’s life savings, especially if you are over the age of 50 and have not proven to be a constantly profitable trader. No one can stomach losing that much of their nest egg.

That being said I do feel silver is in a similar situation as gold. I do feel a bottom is near. Silver has formed an ABC correction and the price and volume patterns seem to be in line with a typical bottoming pattern. After Friday’s massive selloff I feel silver may slide a little lower yet before putting in a bottom.

One thing to keep in mind with silver is that it is very thinly traded; there are a lot of speculative traders involved which push and pull the price to extreme levels on a regular basis. So if the broad stock market continues to sell off sharply then I expect silver to follow suit.

Pre-Week Precious Metals Trend Analysis Trading Conclusion:

The price action we have seen this year for both gold and silver indicate were are just warming up for something really big to happen. It could be a massive parabolic rally to ridiculous new highs in 2012 or it could be a large unwinding of the safe havens as countries sort out their issues and the big money starts moving out of metals and into currencies and stocks.

Only time will tell and that is why I analyze the market multiple times per week to stay on top of both long term and short term trends. So if you want to keep up with current trends and trades for gold, silver, oil, bonds and the stocks market check out TGAOG at The Gold and Oil Guy.com