Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Gold – Commitments of Traders – hedge fund longs liquidate

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2016 Oct 10, 2016 - 10:10 AM GMT

By: Dan_Norcini

Commodities

Fortunately for we traders, the Commitments of Traders report did at least catch the big move lower on Tuesday of this week so we were able to get a peek inside the market to see what happened to those massive hedge fund long positions during this week’s meltdown in the gold price.

Here is the first chart. Hedge fund outright positions.


We had a sharp drop in hedge fund long positions ( a bit more than 42,000) in the plunge from $1330 the previous Tuesday to $1269.70 this past Tuesday.

We also had this category of traders begin moving into the short side to the tune of adding 14.6 thousand new short positions.

As is the pattern during these events, Swap Dealers and Commercials were busy covering short positions into the hedge fund selling.

The problem that I see for gold is the size of the net long position of the small traders, or the general public.

By a nearly 2:1 margin, they remain net long even after Tuesday’s sharp drop of some $42.

Those are weak hands. With the gold price now making two consecutive closes below its 200 day moving average, the technical picture has deteriorated significantly.

That June low is going to be the location of the battle for control of the market.

Price pushed down through that level and managed to close right at it for the purpose of the settlement price but I noticed that it did move higher later in the session and rebounded up to reach closer to $1258. Whether this rebound continues Sunday evening and into Monday morning remains to be seen; it could very well have been a round of short covering by shorts ringing the cash register after a very good week.

On the Heikin Ashi chart, you can see the chart remains in a negative posture. These charts are composed slightly different than your standard bar charts or candlestick charts but you can still see the significance of that June low. That low was formed on the day that gold staged an upside breakout above $1320 so you can rest assured all of those longs that bought in on that day near those lows are going to try to either defend those longs if they have the financial wherewithal to do so, or if they do not, hoping that their allies can rescue them.

There is no doubt that a substantial number of margin calls are going out or have already gone out to those small specs.

There is one bright spot in this recent gold and gold-related debacle that I have seen however and that concerns the giant gold ETF, GLD.

It actually witnessed an 11 ton increase in reported gold holdings today. I must admit that I find this extremely odd given the deluge of selling that hit both the Comex gold futures this week and especially the mining shares.

One does not often see the GLD holdings moving in the opposite direction to the gold price and the gold mining shares. That it did should offer some consolation to gold bulls as it shows that Western-based specs were interested in buying the metal over at the ETF even if the hedge funds were busy selling it over at the Comex.

One last chart for now… this is the HUI/Gold ratio. Close observers of this chart might have noticed that I LOWERED the line I had been watching. The previous level that I was monitoring was the low made in the ratio on September 1. That was crushed this week.

Now I am watching the May low in this ratio, which also cratered this week.

Why is that important? Because in looking at the chart of the HUI, the low made by the index was made that same month.

That low is under serious attack at the moment with the HUI having bounced off of it on Friday. If the ratio of the HUI to Gold could not hold, there is the real possibility that the index will not be able to hold those lows. This, plus the fact that the HUI also has now had two consecutive closes below its 200 moving average paints a rather sour picture technically of the longer term view by investors of the gold sector.

Bulls have their back to the wall and will need to perform next week to at least stabilize the damage and try to stem the bleeding. If they can keep the index above the May low, there is a chance the ratio could reverse higher. Perhaps the addition of those 11 tons to GLD will spur some buying early next week. We will have to wait and see but for now, I will feel much better about the mining share prospects if they can at least push it back above the 200 day.

A climb back above 220 will be needed to provide some glimmer of hope for the bulls.

Dan Norcini

http://traderdan.com

Dan Norcini is a professional off-the-floor commodities trader bringing more than 25 years experience in the markets to provide a trader's insight and commentary on the day's price action. His editorial contributions and supporting technical analysis charts cover a broad range of tradable entities including the precious metals and foreign exchange markets as well as the broader commodity world including the grain and livestock markets. He is a frequent contributor to both Reuters and Dow Jones as a market analyst for the livestock sector and can be on occasion be found as a source in the Wall Street Journal's commodities section. Trader Dan has also been a regular contributor in the past at Jim Sinclair's JS Mineset and King News World as well as may other Precious Metals oriented websites.

Copyright © 2016 Dan Norcini - All Rights Reserved

All ideas, opinions, and/or forecasts, expressed or implied herein, are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to invest, trade, and/or speculate in the markets. Any investments, trades, and/or speculations made in light of the ideas, opinions, and/or forecasts, expressed or implied herein, are committed at your own risk, financial or otherwise. The information on this site has been prepared without regard to any particular investor’s investment objectives, financial situation, and needs. Accordingly, investors should not act on any information on this site without obtaining specific advice from their financial advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Dan Norcini Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in