From October 14 through settling out the week October 21 at 1267, Gold has continued to firm following its early October flushing to as low as 1243: over the past six trading days, price has risen out of the 1240s, through the 1250s, further still through the 1260s, indeed up into the 1270s. Therefore duly deserving of a tip of the cap by the Gold Longs is the 1280-1240 support zone: it has held, albeit Gold's 21-day linear regression trend remains down, as is the case (save for Oil) for every other one of our BEGOS Markets (Bond, Euro/Swiss, Gold/Silver/Copper, Oil, S&P 500).

Such trend being down implies the 1280-1240 support zone may simply be giving price a temporary reprieve, which is the unsettling news. Still, we see below  in Gold's weekly bars the containment of price within said purple-bounded zone, the young parabolic Short trend having completed its third week as depicted by the mildly descending red dots: it is a big test now for Gold to hold and be bold.

But wait, there's more, which is the encouraging news. For we're getting a buy signal from Gold's "Baby Blues". The following two-panel graphic presents Gold's daily bars for both the last three months, and to the right, the last 21 trading days (one month). Regular readers know the baby blue dots are indicative of the day-to-day consistency of the 21-day linear regression trend. We're displaying it in this fashion to emphasize the trend being down per the diagonal grey line. Yet therein lies one of our most favored buy signals: the curling upward of the dots, especially after their having gone below -80% on the blue scale.

While no quantitative trading signal is ever perfect, were you to go back through all the years of the third millennium-to-date, be it in applying this formulation to Gold, or to equities, or to points scored vs. points against in your weekend football analyses, when the blue dots turn the corner, the probability of whatever you're tracking to continue in the new direction is high. For the trader, the curling of the dots generally heralds/confirms a new leg is underway; the hard work is not so much in picking the direction: rather it is having a cash management plan firmly in place, especially should it not work out. Either way, as most of you know, the "Baby Blues" for all eight of the BEGOS Markets are updated daily on the website's "Market Trends" page. Here's the present picture for Gold:

The view is very similar as well for  Silver as it attempts to ward off having to wear its industrial metal jacket (in sympathy with a declining Copper) and instead stay adorned in its precious metal pinstripes. In fact, as those of you who read the daily Prescient Commentary know, we presently have a higher near-term Market Rhythm Target for Silver of 17.875 (last 17.530), but a lower near-term Market Rhythm Target for Copper of 2.0570, (last 2.0900) ... not that Copper isn't a worthy metal; it is just that some metals are worth more than others. Show us the way, Silver!

Speaking of "way", it would be a bit premature to state that our economy has lost its, given that it's been on a post-Labor Day run up. That said, our Economic Barometer encountered a few obfuscating metrics this past week, notably the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Empire State Manufacturing Survey for October more than tripling the drop it incurred in September, while the month-over-month growth in core retail inflation slipped by -0.2% (from +0.3% to +0.1%): that's the fourth time since June 2014 a -0.2% slip has been recorded, during which time annualized gross domestic product growth has gone from +4.6% to the most recent reading of just +1.4%. Still, our first peek at Q3 GDP comes next Friday (28 October), so stay tuned. In the interim, here's the Baro:

Further with respect to the above display, the red line is the track of the S&P 500 index from a year ago-to-date, the market since July clearly having run out of puff, direction and vicissitude. In fact, the Econ Baro itself is showing more alacrity than the underwhelmed S&P. And while that Index remains extremely over-valued on a price/earnings ratio basis, (our "live" p/e settling yesterday at 35.0x), the market's malaise is belied by its monetary inflow.

Direct from the "We Gotta Put The Dough Somewhere Dept." comes the following two-panel graphic. Its upper panel depicts the cumulative change in the S&P for the past 63 trading days (one quarter); the blue line is the cumulative money flow of the S&P's 500 components (volume x change x cap-weight) regressed into S&P points, (so it can be shown on the same scale). The lower panel is the difference of the money flow less the S&P ... and can you believe it? This analysis suggests the S&P "ought to be" 200 points higher than it is! Somebody's been throwing some serious capital into this market, (without it actually rising); let's hope they can move as adroitly when it all goes wrong:

But why would it all go wrong you ask?

Squire's rhetoric is really ramped up there? Still, we did have to chuckle when this past week featured a FinMedia piece entitled "Earnings hold the key to the stock market’s fate". Did they mean to say that such archaic measure of an earnings multiple was actually coming back into vogue? (No, for the content was void of such traditional valuation assessment; that baton was dropped in being passed from the prior money manager generation to that of today). But specific to Squire's question, allow us to repeat this graphic that we presented a few missives ago, as therein lies the catalytic answers. After which, at the end of the day, they'll say, "Well, earnings were never supportive of those lofty levels anyway..."Touché!

Remember: if your portfolio of air falls on your head, you'll never know what hit you (R.I.P.); but drop your standardized 12.4-kilo Gold bar on your big toe, and the pain shall remind you that you're still alive.

Indeed, speaking of bars, let's next go to the 10-day Market Profiles for both Gold on the left and Silver on the right. As a week ago we hopefully noted could happen, Gold has now wrested itself back up above the dominant 1257 "Golden Ratio Retracement" level, while Silver has at least regained her dominant 17.50 level. The near-term key is to still be north of those levels in a week's time:

And in turn, let's update the stack:

The Gold Stack
Gold's Value per Dollar Debasement, (from our opening "Scoreboard"): 2649
Gold’s All-Time High: 1923 (06 September 2011) 
The Gateway to 2000: 1900+
Gold’s All-Time Closing High: 1900 (22 August 2011)
The Final Frontier: 1800-1900 
The Northern Front: 1750-1800
On Maneuvers: 1579-1750
The Floor: 1466-1579
Le Sous-sol: Sub-1466
Base Camp: 1377
Year-to-Date High: also 1377 (06 July) or 1385 basis the December '16 contract
The Weekly Parabolic Price to flip Long: 1372
Neverland: The Whiny 1290s
10-Session directional range: up to 1276 (from 1247) = +29 points or +2%
Trading Resistance: 1267 / 1271
Gold Currently: 1267, (expected daily trading range ["EDTR"]: 13 points)
Trading Support: 1263 / 1257
10-Session “volume-weighted” average price magnet: 1261
Support Band: down to 1240 (from 1280)
The 300-Day Moving Average: 1214 and rising
Year-to-Date Low: 1061 (04 January)

Finally, a quick kudos to FinJournalist Myra Saefong, who in culling together an interview with State Street Global Advisors' head of Gold investment strategy George Milling-Stanley, and wrote "Why gold will rise no matter who becomes the next U.S. president", which sidles along nicely with that which we wrote back in 24 September edition of The Gold Update: "...should Mrs. Clinton/surrogate emerge victorious, 'twill be printing-heaven pro-Gold, period. Should it be Mr. Trump instead, oh woe will be the Fed in terms of its governance then ahead ... and uncertainty surrounding the world's most scrutinized central bank ought well be pro-Gold." And now as shown at the outset, the "Baby Blues" are giving us a buy signal for Gold. Can it get much better than this? Of course: Gold could cooperate and truly take off. How would that happen? Buy Gold!

And yes, using both hands is a good idea...