Gold Goes ATH Again, How to Work Pullbacks in Overbought Markets

Gold Talking Points:

• The massive move in gold has continued to yet another fresh ATH this morning, even with the US Dollar continue its own bullish jump.
• Trying to chase an overbought market like gold can feel like trying to jump on a rocket that’s already left the Earth, but that doesn’t mean that traders have the singular choice of fading it or avoiding it. There’s the potential for pullbacks such as I’ve been following in these articles over the past few weeks.
• I talk about gold in the webinar every Tuesday, and you’re welcome to sign up: Click here for registration information.

Gold continues its massive 2024 outing with yet another fresh all-time-high today. This might sound like Groundhog Day, but the yellow metal just continues to impress even with weekly and monthly charts in overbought territory. As I asked a few weeks ago, does that even matter? Well, by the looks of price it does not, at least not at this point.

As for explanations behind the move it’s been the Fed and other global central banks pushing towards rate cuts this year that’s propelled the breakout. And even in light of strong US data that, normally, would cause the FOMC to talk up rate hike potential, a hawkish Fed seems nowhere near, and markets are still leaning heavily on the expectation for the bank to cut through next year.

Making matters more interesting is the USD backdrop with which the recent trend has run. The USD was weak in Q3 and gold broke out in mid-August and continued to run. The USD has posed a stark turn-around so far in Q4 and still, gold has run higher.

At this point there’s no evidence to suggest that the run is finished. But that still doesn’t mean that chasing and hoping is a smart way to work with the move. There’s essentially two ways of working with the long side of an overbought market. One can use breakout strategies, which can be a challenge in and of itself. This opens the possibility of buying highs or selling lows, which can be painful ordeals. It’s not an impossible way to move forward, but traders need to have rigid risk management protocol to institute these types of strategies. Or – traders can wait and try to be patient, using pullbacks on shorter time frames. This still doesn’t guarantee success but at the least, risk can be managed in a more efficient manner by using prevailing price structure and if-then statements.

While the move in gold has continued to hasten, there have been pullback setups. There was a setup leading into CPI last week, and another shorter-term after the release of the data point but before the breakout was able to extend. And then this week, there was a test below 2650 and as I shared in the webinar, buyers holding the line there with a shorter-term higher-low opened the door for another extension of the move.

Yesterday saw bulls push all the way up to the prior ATH at 2685, again, leading to a shallow pullback to the first support listed in the article at 2670. And that has since run into yet another fresh higher-high.

Gold Four-Hour Price Chart

Gold Fresh Highs – What’s Next?

Human psychology has a funny role in markets as it often seems like the crowd gets most bullish at highs or near resistance and most pessimistic at tests of support. But there’s also the inter-play with psychological levels, as the price of 2600.01 can feel much more expensive than just two cents above 2599.99.

We saw that play out at the FOMC rate cut last month. Gold tested above 2600 after news of the cut made its way through markets, but that was brief and short-lived as a fast pullback soon developed. The pullback from that tested below a minor psychological level at 2550, with bulls soon returning to push price back above 2600.

At this point, we’ve seen continued reticence inside of 2700 so it seems as though bulls are shying away from a test from that price so far. But, if we do see that trade, that could be an open door for buyers to take profits, which can open the door for the next pullback. In that scenario, the prior ATH at 2685 becomes a point of interest for higher-lows. If that doesn’t hold and profit taking sets in a bit more, 2675 or 2667 become of interest. And technically, we could even see a pullback drive back down to 2650 while keeping the door open for higher-highs and lows on the daily chart.

Gold Four-Hour Price Chart

--- written by James Stanley, Senior Strategist