Chart Review: Stock Recoveries, Critical Resistance, and Emerging Breakouts

The current extended overbought period has produced many amazing chart patterns. In this chart review, I am highlighting some charts I find particularly interesting and compelling. There are impressive recoveries, stocks dancing with critical resistance, and emerging breakouts. Some charts are quite telling in that they completely contradict the presumed economic disaster from an imminent … Read more

The Japanese Yen May Finally Begin Peaking As Finance Minister Encourages Buying Spree

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 22, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Via an extremely strong Japanese yen, the world is offering Japan a steep discount on its assets. On January 19, 2011, Japanese Finance Minister, Yukio Edano, seemed to indicate that Japan … Read more

Opportunities From the Crash In Natural Gas

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 17, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last year I wrote a two-part series leveraging the work of Jeremy Grantham to develop a strategy for profiting from a crash in commodity prices (see “Profiting from Physical Assets in … Read more

Buying Opportunities Arrive As Agricultural Stocks Limp Into 2012

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on January 1, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) In my last post updating the current list of buy candidates for the “commodity crash” portfolio, I neglected to include fertilizer stocks. Phosphate and potash producers – like Mosaic (MOS), Potash … Read more

Molycorp CEO Doubles Down On Shares Even As the Market’s Doubts Increase

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 29, 2011. Click here to read the entire piece.) On August 15th, Mark Smith, the President and CEO of rare earth producer Molycorp (MCP) made one of the strangest insider purchases I have ever observed. {snip} Two weeks ago, on … Read more

2012 Will Begin with Several Candidate Trades for the Commodity Crash Playbook

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 28, 2011. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Federal Reserve’s second phase of quantitative easing (QE2) is slowly becoming a distant memory…{snip} The stark contrast between winning and losing stocks (S&P 500 index versus many commodity stocks) leaves … Read more

From Destocking to Restocking, Joy Global Weakens Case for a Commodities Crash

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 20, 2011. Click here to read the entire piece.) Last week, Joy Global (JOY) reported its fourth quarter and 2011 operating results and provided some valuable details on the outlook for commodities in 2012. JOY blames inventory destocking for the … Read more

Gold Breaks Down Even As Global Monetary Policies Ease

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 16, 2011. Click here to read the entire piece.) Eventually, the broken clocks calling for another massive sell-off in gold could be right. I sure hope so. I need to add to my current holdings at cheaper prices. The latest … Read more

Chart Review: Molycorp’s Downtrend Persists

2011 has turned in to a tough year for rare earth producer Molycorp (MCP). After increasing almost 4 times in 2010 from its opening price, MCP has suffered a slow and steady decline since hitting all-time highs in early May. MCP is now down 44% for the year. Source: FreeStockCharts.com Molycorp’s weakness comes on the … Read more

Time to Moderate Bullishness on the Australian Dollar

This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on December 5, 2011. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Australian dollar was a particularly strong beneficiary of last week’s bullish euphoria. Although the dollar index has only lost about 1% since its most recent peak on Friday, Nov 25, … Read more