Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - A Little Flight to Safety

Gold caught a little 'flight to safety' today as stocks fell out of bed in the last hour of trading.

Silver cannot seem to get out of its own way, but managed to post a little gain in the aftermarket.

As a reminder, this Friday is a stock option expiration, so let's be on the lookout for the games Wall Street people play.

There was no real economic news in the US for Columbus Day holiday, but we have some news later this week, and as always earnings reports.

I don't know if it is the November elections effect or what, but the commentary on American television is going from silly to absurd. The Very Serious People in New York and Washington must be living in some alternate universe.

Let's see what happens when the adults come back to work tomorrow. We will probably see some follow on selling in overseas markets, although it was not quite clear what triggered the big selloff this afternoon. Just skittish, perhaps.  And some pre-option expiration hijinks.

As J. M. Keynes observed, it is not a good policy to allow your investment allocations and price discovery to be decided by a casino.  And that is exactly what is being done in the West.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - A Whiff of Panic - Option Expiration on Friday

Stocks were weak all day, but then turned decidedly south in the last hour of trading.

I posted the Year-To-Date stock market performance earlier today here. Jim Rickards also made a 'crash call' yesterday and I note it in this post. Marc Faber is pretty much there as well. His video is worth seeing.

I am a bit cynical, considering that there is a stock option expiration on Friday. We'll see more selling overnight most likely, and perhaps some follow through tomorrow. The NDX and SP500 futures charts don't have much room to go lower and stick a close without some technical damage. And the 200 DMA on the cash SP 500 is now shot to hell.

Let's see if the bots and the Fed can manage to turn things around later this week, and make for a happy options expiration having cleaned out the bulls, and then whipsaw the put buyers.

There will be more economic news later this week, and also earnings reports.

But as I said the markets are skittish.

Someone sent me a message last week with a link to some stock advisor who dismissed my cautions about an exceptionally edgy stock market, telling his followers to stay fully invested. After all, I am just a 'metalhead.'  Well, how did you like that VIX today? As Dr. Phil says, how's that working out for you?

I am keeping an open mind for now.   This is still a very technical market.  No crash calls here, yet.

But I own no stocks, just gold exposure. I am laying off silver until it figures out how to get out of its own way. As always, none of these comments touch upon my long term investments which are just 'there.'

Protect yourselves. 

Have a pleasant evening.

US Financial Television, a Crash Call, and Year-To-Date Stock Market Performance

Larry Kudlow was just ranting on Bubblevision that we should put tough economic sanctions on China to punish them for hacking our computer systems. The US certainly doesn't do anything like that.   And they cannot push back because they need to keep buying our debt, since they have no other choice.   Its remarkable.  Every time he opens his mouth.  He must have a lot of it stored up.

Speaking of shams, nonsense, and hypocrisy, here are the Year-To-Date stock market returns.

The Dow Industrials is for the tourists, the SP 500 for stock robots, the NDX for tech weenies, and the Russell 2000 tells the tale of the broad market.

Jim Rickards apparently made a 'crash call' yesterday, with quite a bit of timing wiggle room, fwiw.

I don't like to forecast financial crises, because the timing is often very difficult.  But I was able to forecast the tech crash and the housing crash, but not the exact timing.  And playing a rigged and robotized market is not easy, even when you have the trend right.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

As a reminder you should be able to 'right click' on any of my pictures and charts and select open in new tab or window to open them in a full screen original size.

Silver is still a bit weak historically in comparison to gold.

The PSLV premium is a bit enthusiastic as it is often wont to do. Their cash level is quite low at about .155% of assets suggesting that they will do a shelf offering of shares to raise cash levels once silver shows some market strength.  That shelf offering generally knocks the premium down about two or three hundred basis points.  I am surely not the only person with an eye to the spreads.