Cryptojunkies: Beware the Ides of December

Source: Michael J. Ballanger for Streetwise Reports   12/11/2017

As Bitcoin futures are set to begin trading next week, precious metals expert Michael Ballanger discusses movements in gold and cybercurrencies.

It was two years ago this week that I proclaimed that we were witnessing the final lows in the 2011–2015 bear market in the precious metals as gold traded down to $1,045 amidst total capitulation by the Large Specs and after massive short-covering by the Commercial traders. The weekly COT for that week showed an aggregate short position of a miniscule 2,911 contracts down from the earlier highs of over 300,000 contracts. About six weeks later, despite the earlier bottom in gold, the HUI (NYSE Arca Gold BUGS Index) got mauled mercilessly and closed at 99.19 on January 19^th 2016. What followed was the best rally in a decade as the HUI peaked the following August at 286.05. The 2.88 times move in the HUI was paltry compared to the moves in the leveraged ETFs NUGT (Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF) and JNUG (Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF). The NUGT moved from $13.92 in January to $143.06 in August for an advance of 927%. Based on what I saw in the latest COT report, the set-up is in progress for a repeat performance. And it will be a BIG one.

( Companies Mentioned: CDA:TSX.V, SRC:TSX.V, )