MarketChess

05Aug3:18 pmEST

And Now Here Comes Gold

To follow-up on yesterday's piece about platinum and palladium , gold and silver are confirming the potential bottoming action today. On the GLD ETF (for gold bullion), below on the daily timeframe, note the surge in buy volume (bottom pane) accompanying the price breakout from the base bottom.  While it is certainly true that GLD remains...

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04Aug2:39 pmEST

New Beginnings

"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings." -Laozi Seasonality for the precious metals and miners continues to favor September. However, one can envision a scenario where the painful ending of these various multi-quarter corrections in the sector comes to a conclusion here in August before turning higher with sustainability next...

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03Aug2:29 pmEST

No More Taco! I Want French Fried Potaters

It seems like the algos are the only ones these days who do not recognize just how absurd the war "on-again, off-again" pattern is conveniently playing out around market hours and weekends. One has to wonder just how scary markets will become if and when the algos finally flip and begin to sell everything, regardless of perceived "TACO"...

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31Jul3:08 pmEST

Afternoon Update 07/31/26 {Video}

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30Jul2:12 pmEST

Sliding Down the Side

One of the best quotes about markets that I have seen (you will pardon me for forgetting who said it, and where I read it) was something to the effect of: Bear market moves typically do not happen in a linear way, the way we often imagine they do. Instead, they are often akin to tossing a ball down the side of a mountain, with numerous, random,...

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29Jul3:22 pmEST

Watch for the Revolt

Bulls initially celebrated The Fed choosing to stand pat today, even though the odds in the interest rate swaps market clearly favored no hike (nor cut). There were three dissenters favoring a hike. But without question the initial move off the Fed decision in stocks was higher, with the Nasdaq climbing back soundly in the green during Fed...

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28Jul3:27 pmEST

The Glowworm Turns

With the meat of a busy week still ahead of us, insofar as the FOMC tomorrow and various Mag7 (and other big ones like ARM KLAC LRCX) names reporting in the coming days, not to mention Thursday morning's loaded macro slate, we have a decidedly familiar trading session taking place today.  Specifically, the rotation game. Money is coming out of...

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27Jul1:52 pmEST

Bears Need the Prestige

Christopher Nolan's 2006 film, The Prestige (my personal favorite as his best work, as I am not as much of a fan as his more popular films) describes every great magic trick consisting of three acts: The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. Michael Caine's character walks throng each element several times throughout the film.  In the current...

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24Jul3:18 pmEST

Afternoon Update 07/24/26 {Video}

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23Jul3:27 pmEST

Gaps and Groceries

Led by sizable post-earnings selloffs in TSLA and GOOGL, and even NOW TXN flipping red after last night's initial bounces, the Nasdaq Composite Index is gapping down hard today. On the first daily chart, below, what stands out the most about the Nazzy is that the pattern leading up to the gap was widely seen as yet another in a long line of...

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