Krull Leaves the Poker Game for a Quick Smoke Break
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Up 3% yesterday, even with all my hedges still in place, I must bow to the volcanic power of the precious metal rebound we experienced yesterday.

That doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my post on the 12th slippery rung of the main municipal sewer — the cosy seat next to the extrusion pipe but before the extrusion weld.   No, I’m still expecting a pullback today from yesterday’s Ode to Joy/Bunny Rabbit Massacre, unbounded. 

But the dollar (seen on the intraday as [[UUP]] or DXY) still continues to fall off here, and I’m wondering if we will ever get back up to that $80.10 or so pivot (on DXY)  I’d talked about as a trigger for another downturn last week.    I won’t be surprised, however, if we get another exogenous shock out of Davos, the PIIG’s or even President Obama’s recently unveiled near $4 trillion FrankenBudget. 

For now, I’m liking what works on the rebound, and thus far, it’s the fast movers of the junior golds like Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and “the X-factor” — Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] .   I also like IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] and Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] of course, and Lindsay made a nice rec yesterday on the nicely pivoting Taseko Mines Limited (USA) [[TGB]] .

Of course silver is my true Tsar Bomba play in 2010, as it has been lagging the 2009 move in gold, along with platinum [[PTM]] , Stillwater Mining Company [[SWC]] and palladium [[PAL]] .   Right now, in this first updraft, I like the double silver play [[AGQ]] a whole lot, and of course my core group of miners — in order — Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] , [[EXK]] , [[PAAS]] , [[CDE]] , [[SVM]] , Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] and the lowly Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] .

All of these should be gnawed at opportunistically, as one would a bread wheel from the boulangerie, deep under the steam pipes of Manhattan.

I am still not taking down my hedges (in  [[SPY]] puts and [[QID]] and [[BZG]] ), and will happily bleed money on them here, as that insurance policy has served me well these last weeks.   Nothing could please me more than taking them down at lower balances, however, as that would mean all of my other plays are working well, as they did yesterday.

Don’t forget about the banks, here, as they’ve never really suffered much of a pullback, even in last week’s deluge.  Today, they seem to be leading the red dogs, which may turn out to be an opportunity for you.   Again, I like BB&T Corporation [[BBT]] for the longer term hold, Fifth Third Bancorp [[FITB]] and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated [[HBAN]] for the Ohio pop, and Pacific Capital Bancorp [[PCBC]] for the lotto play (stay small and remember, it’s only a game).

Best to you all, First Amendment scholars.

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Exchanging the Secret Handshake
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The guy on the right in the picture above is counting on the stupidity of his majority peasant populace to pull off one of the grandest day-time thefts in recent years — the 50% devaluation of his country’s currency by fiat Executive declaration. Like the crazed-with-power dictator in Woody Allen’s classic comedy Bananas who declared “All children… under the age of 16 years old.. are now…. 16 years old,” El Pizza Face above is “declaring” that every unit of currency (the “bolivar“) is worth one half of what it was worth yesterday… just “because.”   

What’s even funnier is he’s now saying that retailers cannot raise prices in response to this devaluation, upon pain of seizure.  How long do you think retail businesses can stay open charging 50% under cost of goods?   One wonders also how long even the economically illiterate majority of Venezuela will stand for such blatent skulduggery?   I’m guessing for about as long as the food stores hold out.

Meanwhile back here in this country, we’ve got that pesky Constitution getting in the way of any similar grand plans to immediately double the money supply.   But our leaders want to get in on the free-gov’t-money-for-votes-racket too,  so they’ve got to come up with more creative methodologies.  

Luckily, they’ve got a compliant Federal Reserve whose number one priority is saving themselves and the badly damaged fractional reserve banking system.   That means the Fed’s alleged “guiding missions” of maintaining low inflation and a high rate of employment take a back seat to the Darwinian imperative — “survival at all costs.”   This is good news for the dear leaders in Congress and the White House.

What’s more, our leaders have got the rest of the world using our currency as reserves.   That means, for this brief shining moment in history, our leaders can do what Hugo Chavez only wishes he could do — print fresh new bails of cash via deficit financing with little to no apparent consequence to our national economic status.

For now. 

But Mother Economics is even more of a caustic wit than Mother Nature, and much like these soi-disant world governors who are being served flaming slices of “Humble Baked Alaska” with these record-breaking cold temperatures, so too will our Congressional and Fed Capos reap multiple facial hatchetings to their long beards for this extended abuse of global trust.   The dollar may not halve in value over night like the Meatball’s Bolivar did, but it’s breaking down all the same.  

Today’s action has us back in the congestion zone again, which is a sticky swamp as of late.   This means good news for commodities and other real things as the clarion bell of inflation is being rung once again.   Answering the call is your one and only “Stock of the Year” pick Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] , now clearly BTFO’ing to new 52-week highs.   I like it on a pullback, as it has a reputation for filling gaps.

While [[GLD]] is moving up in a stately patrician manner, [[SLV]] and its turbocharged brother  [[AGQ]] are playing catch-up, and will likely out-perform in the near term.   Same holds true for the other precious non-gold varietals like [[PTM]] and the two platinum-palladium miners [[PAL]] (which is a rocket ship headed to the sun, Icharus-style) and Stillwater Mining Company [[SWC]] .

Don’t forget all the junior burritos I’ve given you in the past.   Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] , Eldorado Gold Corporation (USA) [[EGO]] and IAMGOLD Corporation (USA) [[IAG]] head the list, but the “Nth Factor” — NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) [[NG]] , New Gold Inc. (USA) [[NGD]] and Northgate Minerals Corporation (USA) [[NXG]] are roaring too, along with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (USA) [[IVN]] , Rubicon Minerals Corp. (USA) [[RBY]] , Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] and many others.   

If I had to pick another “launch to the sun” like Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] I think it would probably be [[EXK]] .   It reminds me of SLW in the old days.     Hold on to your capital people, they will try to appropriate it in multiple fashions going forward.  

Best to you all.

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“The Check Is in the Mail, Inshallah”
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The Turkey Gods are punishing Europe and Asia for not properly honoring Thanksgiving, as is proper and righteous.  

If you think, however, that we will escape the “surprize!” news that Dubai may default on all those re-donkulous island developments with which they were blotting the Arabian Sea during the height of the funny money period, well… have another bowl of stuffing and steel yourself for a margin call.

There was massive selling on strength in the [[SPY]] yesterday (close to $700 mm) and I thought that would mean Fly would get his 10,500 and “done” on Friday.   With the Euros getting emasculated in early Turkey Day trading (down anywhere from 3.2% to 3.4%), however, all bets may be off, and our sweet tongued friend may remain “family friendly” till at least the end of December.

In other non-surprising news, I sold even more Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] and Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] yesterday, 2k shares each, and to my horror, at prices well below their close.   That said, I am feeling more and more comfortable with my cash horde, and with my taking money off the table in these high falutin’ $HUI stocks.  

On Friday, I expect I will take the final step of getting rid of the rest of my [[AGQ]] (only 600 shs left, so not much) and selling some [[SLV]] and [[GLD]] for the first time in 14 months. 

I will not sell Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] or Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] only because I have not yet built full positions in those, and will take this pullback as a gift.  I have trimmed every other position anywhere from 30-50%, however.

I plan to celebrate tonight with some nice turkey and egregious amounts of California cabernet.  Caymus Special Reserve is my favourite (sic), but I’ll also bring some Freemark Abbey, as it’s a friend’s winery, and I’m partial.

Please have a Happy Thanksgiving, and try not to think too much about how cranes in Arabia (or other wealthy developing nation enclaves) nearly always designate a market top for most of the Western World.    

Best to you all, my friends, and watch the drinking and driving.

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Don’t Mind Me…
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I have already bot small amounts of [[EXK]] at $3.20 , Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] at $5.56 and now Royal Gold, Inc. [[RGLD]] at $49.97 today…

Why?

Because that’s what I said I was going to do, no?

What the heck good is this blogging stuff if one doesn’t act on one’s own discipline?

It’s weurth (sic) nothing, that’s wot.

Note, we are over $1,000 in the price of gold.
Note, we are over $1,100 in the price of gold.

Note, we are in “breakout to the next level territory,” the next level not being close to here.

In other words, it has begun, my friends. Pullbacks should be taken as gifts, and silver under $20 an ounce should be bought.

[[CDE]] at these levels is a golden basket of twinkies from the Turkey Gods. Do not disdain that gift, heathens. 

Their wrath– once disdained — will bring stuffing from the sky, that will occlude your carbureutor (sic) and make you late for work.

I will take other requests, and other queries, but do not test my good humor. 

Just know this —  if you have not taken advantage of the Grandmother Gold Stock (RGLD) upon this retest of the breakout, you have no one to blame but your old dodge-ball coach.

He foolishly allowed you to take one too many to the bean.

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Some have grown fretsome and sold their gold miners to me in short sighted paroxysms of “management.”  They — these “some” — feel they are “managers” and therefore must “manage,” long term values be damned.

But let me ask you this:  if you were given a goose that laid — quite literally — golden eggs,  would you sell said poutlry for a handful of beans and a wide screen TV tube?

Would you wring it’s neck for a quick meal of pate and buffalo wings?

No, of course not.   You’d husband said semi-aquiferous creature and feed it only the best seed corn and malted beverages from the Villages of St. Ides.  

You’d sing to it.

Two charts I’m featuring  tonight are a perfect illustration of the opportunity we have before us.   The first, I’ve been mentioning for weeks.   A “latter day Jackson,” Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] is perhaps my strongest gold pick at the moment.  

It may pull back some more here, but there’s no question that this weekly chart is showing a trip to uncharted territory, on uncommon strength:

My second chart is a newcomer, courtesy of The PPT, and perhaps as strong as ANV at this moment.   Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] is a new favourite of mine, and an irony to boot.

I appreciate irony, almost as I appreciate break-outs in trending stocks who also happen to be in super bull segments.

Look at this chart — this weekly chart remember — and ask yourself again.   Why would I want to concern myself with any other sectors at this point?   Why would you?

As they used to say on President & 5th — down in my old neighborhood in Prospect Park, Crooklyn — are you fookin’ kiddin’ me??

Be well.

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I’m really juicing my returns!

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I know, I know, so few of you even watch baseball anymore… It’s more than likely that this reference is something of a stretch.

Better I should stick with the metaphor of football, with its place of honour (sic) and royalty amongst great American sports, and it’s apt illustrations of long bombs and crashing sprints to the goal line.

But for now, humour (sic) me, and act like you know what I’m talking about when I describe an increasingly obscure sport played by men in tight knickers carrying large whittled  pieces of timber, who seek to knock a tightly wound and sewn sac of leather onto a perfectly mown lawn, preferably with no interference by opposing knicker-clad men who have handicapped themselves with enormous envelopes of leather appended to one hand .

It’s not unlike “the jai-alai,” in that respect.

In recent years these men, perhaps grown jealous of their larger athletic compadres playing in the NFL, have taken to augmenting their physiques with such muscle enhancing chemicals as horse hormones and testicular steroids.    One such famed participant was Mark McGwire,  a now near-forgotten and disgraced performer for the St. Louis Cardinals, who put on so much additional mass via home chemo-therapy that he began to resemble the famed Michelin Man of French tire hocking renown.

Then he broke Yankee Great Roger Maris’s single-season home run record and marked the beginning of the end for American baseball.  

But enough of that funeral oratory, as I only bring up Mark McGwire to remark upon how easy it seems to have gotten to knock home-runs in the precious metal space.     So easy, in fact, that I remarked in The PPT yesterday that it was like watching the aforesaid McGuire hitting warm up fungoes in batting practice, or better yet — easily winning the Major League All-Star Game Home Run Derby almost every year he entered it.

But in the market, things are not supposed to come this easily, and so my mind has strayed to areas of oncoming resistance much like a hobo seeking lights at the far end of a train tunnel.   Remember, there will be pullbacks, and I think our friend “Baby $HUI”can be our guide again in this regaurd (sic):

My best guess is we run to that first line of resistance as depicted on the weekly above, and then fall back to the trend line.   So if you are looking to unload phat options positions that have grown unwieldy with greasy profits, your window may be approaching.

There’s also a chance that the dollar dumps with the ferocity of an aging bull elephant beset with cholera.  If that happens we may run all the way back to all-times highs as featured on Saint Paddy’s day of 2008 (and illustrated in red above), when oil was peaking at $147 a barrel.   

 Word to the wise — oil is half that now.  Act accordingly.

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For specifics, silver is still lagging gold, which as we’ve discussed, has broken to all time highs and is now over $1,061 an ounce.   Silver remains below $18, and it’s all time high is  $49.45an ounce.      That’s why I’m on those stocks like Woodshedder on a corn-dog. 

In order of immediacy,  I like [[PAAS]] on the sell-off, Silver Standard Resources Inc. (USA) [[SSRI]] on the pullback, [[EXK]] , Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) [[SLW]] and finally the dog, Hecla Mining Company [[HL]] .

Also, on the gold side, I have to make a shout-out to favourite Allied Nevada Gold Corp. [[ANV]] and new The PPT find Exeter Resource Corp. [[XRA]] which is up about 25% since being singled out by The PPT early last week.

Last, I am accumulating [[TBT]] for the near inevitable rise in interest rates.  I added 1,000 more yesterday.

Best to you all.

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