Because I'm just a hick and no more'n a nat'ral born durn fool from Tennessee, I have learned to pay 'tention to what I call "Old Dawgs." Old Dawgs are men who have worked for years in any industry or market, & so know it from the inside out. Old Dawgs don't talk a lot, but when they do, every word counts, and you'd best listen.

One of the great Old Dawgs of the stock market is Al Thomas, who wrote a book called "If It Doesn't Go Up, Don't Buy It." Al has been around. Today he wrote about the current market:

"From the few smart sources I keep being warned we are going over the cliff (economic crash) in 2017. The market action now LOOKS very bullish. Markets always look their best at the top and the bulls are screaming very loudly. Whatever you think, always keep a trialing stop to protect your cash."

Read, mark, learn, & inwardly digest: "Markets always look their best at the top."

Stock indices gainsaid each other today, Dow rising but the Nasdaq, Nasdaq 100, S&P500, and Russell 2000 all down,

Dow "rose" 1.98 to 19,123.58. S&P500 honestly fell 5.58 (0.27%) to 2,198.81. S&P500 has fallen out of a wedge & is treading thin air. How long can that persist?

Interest rates rose (bond prices fell) again today. Epochal change grinding out there.

Silver clipped off 25.5¢ (1.5%) to land at 1640.6¢ on Comex. Gold skidded $17.10 (1.4%) to $1,170.80.

Oddly enough, silver's 5-day chart shows a double bottom yesterday and today at about 1640¢. That now becomes the must hold line in the sand.

No such luck with gold, but today's big slide might have exhausted the selling. However, only by turning & busting through $1,200 will gold make anybody believe it's serious.

While the market is grinding gold, silver, & platinum's faces in the mud, palladium has reached a new post low, post February 2015 high. Chart's here, http://schrts.co/dEjr1m

I have no idea what's driving it, unless it's an expected recovery of auto sales. Palladium has many uses, but as I remember about a third of it is used in automotive catalytic converters.

On 30 November 2016 in Sylacauga, Alabama, Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house. The rock weighed eight and a half pounds.

On 30 November 1864 the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee) was fought between John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee & Union forces under Gen John Schofield. Hood had lost a leg at Gettysburg and was reportedly taking opium for the pain. He had conceived an animus against the brave men of the Army of Tennessee. Some think that to punish them he ordered frontal assaults against more than a mile of open ground against Union entrenchments. After a conference before the battle, Confederate General Pat Cleburne ("the Jackson of the West"" remarked to an associate, "Well, it's a good day to die." At one point that day, six Confederate generals were laid out dead on the Carter House porch: Patrick Cleburne, John C. Carter, Hiram B. Granbury, States Rights Gist, and Otho F. Strahl.

A few days before in the advance on Franklin Cleburne had stopped at St John's Episcopal Church in Mount Pleasant and remarked that this was a beautiful place to be buried. He was last seen advancing on foot toward the yankee line, Sword raised. His body was found just inside the yankee line, picked clean of all valuables, including sword, boots, and pocket watch. He was buried at St. John's, and later moved to his adopted hometown, Helena, Arkansas. (St. John's is still standing, a glorious building & cemetery, but with no congregation. It's about 45 minutes from where I sit.)

Hood uselessly wasted his men at Franklin, then moved on to waste more again at the Battle of Franklin. His folly destroyed the Army of Tennessee.

Argentum et aurum comparanda sunt —
Silver and gold must be bought.

— Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger

Copyright Notice

© 2015 Little Mountain Corporation, d.b.a. The Moneychanger. All rights reserved. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission.

Warnings and Disclaimers

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary trend is up, targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stock's primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 16 ounces of silver. US$ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

Be advised and warned:

• Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short-term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.
• NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.
• NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.
• NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.
• What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. For additional information, please see our Ten Commandments for Buying Gold and Silver.
• One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose.

Explanation of Terms

The US DOLLAR INDEX is the average exchange rate for the US dollar against the Euro, Yen, Pound sterling, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, and Swedish Krona, weighted for each country's trade with the US. It gives a general measure of the US dollar's performance against all other currencies.

The DOW IN GOLD DOLLARS measures the Dow Jones Industrial Average in gold dollars (0.048375 troy oz. by law). The DiG$ depicts the Primary (20 year) Trend of stocks against gold. When the DiG$ is dropping, gold is gaining value against stocks in a trend that should last 15-20 years. The DiG$'s chart is identical to the Dow in ounces of gold, but gives us one unvarying measure all the way back to 1896. Because it shows the primary trend ("tide") of gold against stocks, for investors it is the single most important financial chart in the world today. Since its August 1999 high at G$925.42 (44.8 ounces), the DiG$ has trended down, targeting a G$80-G$20 (4-1 oz. of gold will buy the whole Dow).

The DOW IN SILVER OUNCES shows how many ounces of silver are needed to buy the entire Dow. The DiSoz is trending down with a target of under 36 ounces.

The GOLD/SILVER RATIO is the gold price divided by the silver price, and shows how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. The Ratio shows us the Primary (20 year) Trend of gold's value against silver. When the Ratio's trend is dropping, silver is gaining value against gold. This trend targets a gold/silver ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one of gold within the next 5-10 years. That implies that silver will massively, vastly outperform gold before this bull market ends. When both metals are rallying, the ratio often (but not always) drops, confirming the rally.

Other Important Information

This is not an offer to buy or sell. Prices subject to change without notice. To enter an order, call us at (888) 218-9226 or (931) 766-6066. Sorry, no sales to Tennessee.

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