Gold vs…
The pullback is on in the gold sector. We have very clear parameters for what would constitute another flash pullback and what would be a healthy correction. The former can…
The theme is that the pullbacks and/or corrections, will come. The terror attack in Brussels may have been the flashpoint for such a pullback. As noted in a public post, gold’s rise on the fear or ‘safe haven’ bid (I shorted it) is not a good thing for the gold price beyond the flashpoint. The only terrorism that matters for gold is Central Banking terror committed upon currencies and financial systems.
Silly, hyperbolic title aside, that is my gain for 2016 when backing out the fact that I have been generally around 90% cash and Treasury bond equivalents while being long and short stocks with the other 10%. It does not include a long-term gold position, which I don’t count as a capital appreciation (or loss) vehicle. I count it as long-term value, whether it’s marked up or marked down.
During a week when I am being compelled to evaluate whether the ‘market bounce termination’ view will be correct (it has exceeded target, after all, though I am giving it wiggle room) and hence, whether my short on SPY will be correct, let’s take a look at one specific sector, Healthcare, which includes Medical Devices, Services, Pharma and Biotech.
[edit] Not to minimize a tragic (and sick) event that sees a rising death toll, but this is a financial site and so comments are thus related... Yen and Swiss…
The February book-to-bill data for the Semiconductor Equipment sector is out and both bookings and billings declined in February. From Semi... "The book-to-bill ratio has remained at or above parity…
Jordan Roy Byrne and Steve Saville are people that I think are highly knowledgeable when it comes to gold and the gold mining sector. So this is not a post taking a shot at anyone. Jordan focuses nearly exclusively on the gold sector and in my opinion does a good job either being right, or getting right when adjustment is needed. He moves forward without hype, bias or ego. Steve Saville is more diversified and a real sharp pencil in the drawer in his own right.
This morning Saville highlights Jordan’s video discussion of the gold Commitments of Traders alignment and why it is not necessarily to be feared in the manner that a certain hyperbolic technical analyst out there (30,000 [CoT] coffins anyone?) would have enthralled gold bugs believe. Jordan’s video is here.
I purposely keep my public writing about the gold sector limited because there is enough noise out there in this overly noisy segment of the market. But in NFTRH, we have been noting that if this is a bull market (folks, it’s not technically confirmed no matter what the pompom brigade would have you think) that “bear market rules are different than bull market rules” and so it is very possible that the current bearish CoT does not have to mean anything near what it has meant during the 2011-2015 bear market. Indeed, in my opinion the worst thing about it is not the net short Commercials or the net long Specs, it is the over bullish little guy (small Specs).
While having all due caution in the face of the negative CoT buildup, the graphs below and the comments after them were when we began speculating about a possible change to “bull market rules” with respect to the CoT. We reached back to the start of the bull market early last decade for reference. It should be noted that Jordan subscribes to NFTRH, I assume for its coverage of the overall macro markets.
I am trying to avoid sounding territorial, but in this racket sometimes it’s about not being too shy to toot your own horn. Toot toot…
From NFTRH 384 on February 28:
If I may affix my tin foil hat for a moment, let’s recall that in 2012 as the Fed announced full on un-sanitized QE(3) to take over from the expiring Operation Twist, the precious metals complex exploded higher. Many, including myself thought this policy would prove bullish. But that view was wrong because the CoT said it was wrong.
Some subscribers have experienced a delay in receiving this morning's NFTRH 387 email. Okay, the internet is broken! I wish I could say it was the first time something like…
The opening segment from this week’s edition of Notes From the Rabbit Hole has a little fun with the post-FOMC market situation. Unfortunately, there is all too much reality in this clowning around. From NFTRH 387:
Our main theme has been that the ironclad post-2011 confidence in the Federal Reserve among conventional market participants would slowly but surely start to fade because macro parlor tricks, so vigorously employed by the Bernanke Fed, were only tricks or in some cases (Operation Twist) borderline magic, after all.

At biiwii.com (still unsure if or in what capacity the site may reappear) we used to have fun with clown car videos, as the various Fed members piled out honking horns, doing somersaults and shouting incomprehensible phrases and announcements.
Like Rosco’s clown car above, that is all fading away now. The pretense that the Fed is the steward of a sound financial system and currency has been stripped away. We are no longer anticipating a waning of confidence. In rolling over last week and playing dead, the Fed announced for all the world to see that it is no more secure or respectable than the clown known as ‘the Draghi’, Kuroda the Klown or the troupes in Canada, Australia, England and China’s Central Planning.
The US Fed, through no good work of its own was the beneficiary of a Goldilocks environment in which global economic pressures resulted in capital flight into the US.
No time for a promo today. A good report, and a lot of editorial commenting to boot (incl. the coolest old clown car you'll ever see!). Subscribe to NFTRH Premium…
There is a bigger picture situation, the bottom of which we caught right on. That would be per this monthly chart at the green long-term support line to the channel…
As corporate profits have decelerated over the last year the S&P 500 was left with little more than the monetary base, which had been ramped like crazy by post-2008 monetary…
Because I like overly simple pictures to help me counteract hype everywhere I see it, especially in the Silver Bug, Inflation Bug and Commodity Guru communities... This chart (and its…
I read an article at Bloomberg the other day that focused upon a former mathematics professor who now runs his own Mom & Pop ‘quant’ shop (his home) from the desert plains in New Mexico. The article noted that there are big, powerful quants in New York City and there is a constellation of little guys out there writing their algos and skimming the markets with the precision that mathematical codes instruct.

Meet the DIY Quants Who Ditched Wall St for the Desert
It was a cute story as our little quant gets to step outside and breathe the desert air when he gets stressed. These little satellites even have their own quant superstore of sorts called Quantopian. Some guys go to home depot or the local hardware store (to the extent they still exist) for their tools. These guys go to Quantopian for their tools and software to build out their own unique quant strategies.
This got me thinking about the markets in general and the S&P 500 in particular. I have called the vast global markets an amalgam of investors, casino patrons, day traders, substance abusers, black boxes and algos because it seems on any given day or week to be a hyper frenetic, emotion-driven mess.