These commodities have been among the biggest rises in prices in the past few months, and coupled with the bond market, give an interesting inter-market view on the global financial markets.
Stock Market
The latest rally has been in a great part, lead by gold/oil groups. Interestingly, bonds have been falling for the past month (interest rates rising) after a climax top, which means there is going to be a shift from interest-rates driven stocks to inflation-driven stocks. Tech stocks, the former stock market leaders, are now laggards, with NASDAQ lagging behind S&P and Dow Jones. Financial stocks, which also lead much of the bull market, have also been weak, despite the stimulus from the Fed and ECB. Getting on defensive/commodity stocks, or staying on the sidelines altogether, it’s probably the best course of action to take at the moment.
Gold
After showing persistent demand between the $1050-$1100, and breaking the long-term down trendline, it didn’t stop until major supply hit the market again. It’s good to note that there is an important resistance at $1306, and the supply here might come from the fact that there are major traders taking profits before it gets there.
On the H4, we can see the current action more clearly – a trading range, with a slight uptrend. $1270 has been a key resistance in the last weeks, with significant supply showing every time the prices approach it. Last Wednesday on FOMC’s announcement, the prices got near this price again, and VSA showed another supply signal (purple dot), along with an high volume (red) later, with prices reversing afterwards. The key levels are therefore this resistance, and the up trendline below. In M15 there is a down trendline at $1260 right now, and as the background there is weak, this will be a good timeframe to look for shorts while prices are kept below $1270.
Brent Crude Oil
Brent Crude Oil uptrend didn’t pick up so fast as gold’s in the beginning, but it has been steadier. Looking at H4, it has been showing supply and down reversals at fresh 3 month highs, and it’s getting to the ‘overbought’ part of the trending channel, so I’d prefer to wait for the prices to reverse to the trendline first. If there are low volume down bars or a bullish test in this area, it’d be another long opportunity, because that would show the supply before was overcame.
Trend and Supply Brent Crude Oil
After a break-out of an important support at around 9300 on 8th February, DAX, along with the other European and American indices, made a significant retracement and rallied above the break-out price. The chart of M15 below shows the second rally, with prices reaching the previous high.
Trend and Volumes on Dax
During this uptrend the background was strong, and any supply signals that appear need confirmation for a short to be taken. These can mean various things – some traders taking profits, short stop-losses being hit at important levels, or just selling that had no follow-through among other institutional traders. Counter-trend trades should be taken on a lower timeframe, using VSA signals from the above timeframes, so you’re more likely to spot an exit bar, such as a demand signal.
Over the next week, it’ll be interesting to watch if there is more supply at this level, with DAX breaking the up trendline on the intraday with good volume. On the more long-term side, to watch if prices falls below the break-out price.
After the high volumes that was noted on the last post (zone 1), I wrote that if prices failed to continue the rally soon, this would be a sign of too much supply hitting the market and would be a probable reversal point. In the Asian session the prices failed to rise, and a bit more supply showed up as a churn bar (green bar) after a small rally. When the London session opened, the prices went down to re-test the previous area of demand.
In (2), we can see that the volumes picked up again, and VSA showed a demand signal. The volumes were also higher than the last top, which was a good indication of renewed interest in the up move. As the background was still strong at the time, Alert System indicator sent out an alert to go long on the high of this demand bar.
Prices continued to rally afterwards, and upon reaching a medium-term resistance at 1.138, Supply signals from the current timeframe and from D1 halted the move.
In (3), we can see a successful test (the test is the dark blue bar, 3 bars ago) near the prices of the previous demand, as the prices broke its high. The background is weak though, and so taking a long right now, while possible, is risky and would have to be with a tight stop-loss. Other EUR pairs such as EURJPY are looking better, since it’s just now emerging from a double bottom with demand as the current prices.
EURUSD H1 Demand Signal + Background
EURUSD has been in a strong uptrend after breaking out from a base last week. The prices also broke an important down trendline in a furious up movement, on high volume and wide range up bars. It’s now in a critical area that will be characterized by a high volatility.
In areas of previous resistances, this volatility and volume spikes are normal, and can be somewhat tricky to understand, but using VSA and Reversals this job is simplified as they’ll show the most important bars. We should first look at the background: it was strong during these movements, and so we should look for up reversals. In the hourly chart, the first one (zone 1) appeared at the same time as major supply, which is something to avoid. The other two (zone 2) were in an area of previous demand, and were soon confirmed by another strong VSA signal. Down reversals on the other hand, signaled less significant movements that lasted for a shorter amount of time.
EURUSD H1 – VSA, Volumes and Reversals
On to the current action (zone 3), Reversals showed a down Reversal, which marked almost the absolute high of this correction. Apart from that, after these such high volumes, I’d expect prices to continue further with small or no retracement. If they don’t keep advancing, it means much of that volume was supply hitting the market. The market has to show it’s not being conditioned by the supply anymore, with low volume bars or a successful bullish test, above the previous resistance.
Demand Near Support Failed Trade
- The background was weak – one should only look for short trades
- Prices had just broken a support. This is important because near a support, there will always be increased volumes from locked-in traders, which means any demand signals could just be from stoplosses being hit. You should wait for confirmation for the prices to break-through upwards again.
- A bit later there was a test bar (blue bar), testing for supply at lower prices (hence the lower low). As the prices failed to rally afterwards, it means the test failed and there was still too much supply in the market, namely from the big traders who sold before this movement started (where the Major Supply signals are present). This was an opportunity to close the trade earlier.
Euro/Yen has been ranging since the beginning of January, when looked at from a 4-Hours perspective. Volume-wise though, it has been very active, and understanding this activity is essential to know what the major players are doing.
- First there were several demand signals just as 2016 was starting. This halted the down move. Afterwards there stopping volume when reaching 129.0 area (red bars).
- More recently, there was a major shake-out, painted as Major Demand by VSA – there was a lower low made, yet prices closed on the highs of the bar, and above the previous support. This was a move to hit stop-losses which provided plenty of liquidity for professional buying.
- Approaching the down trendline, there was a no-demand test (pink bar) – as prices penetrated the trendline, the volumes didn’t keep up, which means there wasn’t much demand. On the next bar, prices refused to close down though, on a relatively high volume. This could mean renewed interest in an up move, and the confirmation will be the trendline break on good volume (checking the hourly might be the best). If the bearish test succeeds, as in a failure to seeing a breakout of the trendline and/or test’s high in the next bars, I’d expect prices to drift downwards onto the support. The ultimate level to watch for is the resistance at 129.074.
