Friday, February 15, 2013

Dow Theory Update for Feb 15: Precious metals in free fall



 Primary bear market re-confirmed for GLD and SLV


Let’s get started with our daily Dow Theory commentary in this blog.

The “Pragmatic Capitalism” blog posted yesterday an interesting article concerning historical drawdowns for stocks and bonds. The figures displayed in Pragmatic Capitalism should make any serious investor think it twice before committing one's life savings to buy and hold.

If one is serious about protecting wealth (“return OF investment”), one should heed technical analysis in order to be endowed with some kind of market timing device. 

Readers of this Dow Theory blog know that I have already discussed this issue in my posts “How often does the Dow Theory outperform buy and hold?” and “Dow Theory’s performance during the secular 1966-1981 bear market," which you can find here and here.
 
The conclusiĆ³n of such posts is clear: The Dow Theory (as, IMHO, one of the best technical analysis devices) excels at protecting the investor from what I call “killer draw downs."  

Furthermore, such significant risk reduction is achieved while increasing 2% annual performance versus buy and hope, sorry, hold.

Today the SPY and Transports closed down. The Industrials closed up. The primary and secondary trend remains bullish.

Today’s volume was higher than yesterday’s. Since globally it was a down day, it has a bearish implication.

GLD (gold) and SLV (silver) displayed abject weakness again. SLV made a lower low, as it violated the lows hitherto made since the primary bear market got started. By making a lower low, SLV has confirmed the lower low made by GLD yesterday. Under Dow Theory, the primary bear market has been reconfirmed. The primary and secondary trend remains bearish. Here you have an updated chart showing recent price action. the read line superimposed on SLV is the SLV/GLD ratio, which as you can see denotes stronger gold:

Primary bear market in GLD and SLV reconfirmed

 
The gold and silver miners ETFs (GDX and SIL) jointly made lower lows for the move. So, the primary bear market in both ETFs has been reconfirmed. Furthermore, if you observe the charts, you will see that all price action has been occurring below the level that defined the primary bear market signal (horizontal pink lines). Not a good omen. The primary and secondary trend remains bearish. Here you have an updated chart.

SIL and GDX also reconfirmed primary bear market

 So much bearishness among precious metals makes me wonder whether we are witnessing a selling climax? Are we nearing a bottom? If so, soon we will know as bullish patterns will emerge from the charts. Until then, I'll wait for the verdict of the markets.

Here you have the figures of the markets I monitor for today.

 

Data for February 15, 2013





DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR SPY




SPY
Bull market started
11/15/2012 135,7
Bull market signaled
01/02/2013 146,06
Last close
02/15/2013 152,11
Current stop level: Bear mkt low

135,7




Unrlzd gain % Tot advance since start bull mkt Max Pot Loss %




4,14% 12,09% 7,63%




DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR GOLD (GLD)



GLD
Bull market started
05/16/2012 149,46
Bull market signaled
08/22/2012 160,54
Exit December 20
12/20/2012 161,16
Current stop level: Sec React low
11/02/2012 162,6




Realized Loss % Tot advance since start bull mkt





0,39% 7,83%





DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR SILVER (SLV)



SLV
Bull market started
06/28/2012 25,63
Bull market signaled
08/22/2012 28,92
Exit December 20
12/20/2012 29
Current stop level: Sec React low
11/02/2012 29,95




Realized gain % Tot advance since start bull mkt





0,28% 13,15%





DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR ETF SIL



SIL
Bull market started
07/24/2012 17,08
Bull market signaled
09/04/2012 21,83
Exit January 23
01/24/2013 21,69
Current stop level: Sec React low
11/15/2012 21,87




Realized Loss % Tot advance since start bull mkt Max Pot Loss %




-0,64% 26,99% 27,81%




DOW THEORY PRIMARY TREND MONITOR ETF GDX



GDX
Bull market started
05/16/2012 39,56
Bull market signaled
09/04/2012 47,77
Exit January 23
01/24/2013 44,56
Current stop level: Sec React low
12/05/2012 45,35




Realized Loss % Tot advance since start bull mkt Max Pot Loss %




-6,72% 12,64% 20,75%



Sincerely,
The Dow Theorist.

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