OT-

Always interesting to see royalty placing money at risk when a stock has recently broken to new highs-

LLL

3/22/2006 10:58 - L 3 COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS INC- [LLL] Filing:
COHEN PETER A Checked: Director
Common Stock 03/20/2006 P 80,000 $87.19

long- LLL

Bill is referring to Kiyosaki's front page article on yahoo finance with this post. Interestingly, Kiyosaki is advocating a specific alternative to cash: gold and silver. Funny that he's had gold and silver positions for years now and only recently has he really been sounding the horn. If nothing else, the lesson a novice should take from this isn't that cash is trash, but that you're swimming with sharks who may not always have conflicts of interest, but you cannot tell the difference when they do. Trust no-one, even the friendly Kiyosaki's, Cramer's, Cara's, and especially the Fools. Take lessons from these great resources, but their examples are not necessarily timed with your best interest.

-Jon

Well, readers are going to say I sound like a broken record. Gold is off $2.60 this morning as I write, a little before 6am EST.

g034 has correctly pointed out that this is the weak season for gold. I have been pointing out that volumes are falling. The metal needs increased volume to make any pushes. Open interest by long speculatrs has dropped 7 out of 8 weeks. Short positions have not decreased of note. High volume is only coming out on down days.

The metal's chart now clearly shows a third descending top. Each rally reached a lower point than the previous one - a high of near $580 on February 2 (April contract),the next rally high at only $575 (March 2) and so far the rise of the past week topped out around $558.
A decline and close below $534 would be a bearish downtrend channel. As would be expected with all this , the short term technical indicators have turned down in the past two days. The intermediate term indicators were already negative.

The defensive "line in the sand" I have mentioned appears in the daily charts at the $548 level. Traders have been vigorously defending this. Some very hard bounces have been taking place at this level. If it is pierced decisively then I expect a retracement to the $535 level. If it holds, that would be very good news.

There seems to be some speculation that the hoopla over the silver ETF will "save" gold here. I don't believe that. Headlines about Iran or Iraq or the many other places we seem to be vulnerable now may. But I think that gold's descent will drag the other metals and stocks back a bit and provide good entry or re-entry points. But then of course there's always stockman's TIE which soars on!

Sorry if I am such a wet rag.

"Sorry if I am such a wet rag."

Please. Like Bill C. and Barry Ritholz, you're honest and open about what you do, and why you do it. Anyone who expects more should question themselves. Personally, I appreciate your comments, and usually learn something new every time. As I'm doing by reading the rest of Bill C.'s site.

I'm not a trader (yet), and have mostly been investing in mutual funds over the last two and a half years. I've been very fortunate (even if I did do some research back then), but recently moved most of my holdings into a couple of money market funds. The platform I'm using doesn't allow for quick moves in and out of funds. So, I'm sitting, reading and learning as much as possible.

Which leads me to a question. Although I've read large parts of your site, Bill, I can't seem to find anything regarding trading platforms in Canada (e.g. for things like ETF's). Apologies if I've somehow overlooked it. Could you, or anyone else who reads this site, possibly say a few words about the trading platforms available? That would be much appreciated.

Cheers and good luck.

(one of the little people)

j/o-

Thanks for the shout out.

They started the game earlier this morning and are trying to break through again. If they have the volume, it's just a matter of time, the market is so thin. It's really NY's market to make. They can take it any way they want. JMHO.

The tools I use have all been pointed out by Bill and the pros who visit here. This is a great, sharing community.

Bill-

I am seeing a concerted effort on the charts to keep gold down this morning rather than allow the bounceback that has characterized the last three days of trading. The shorts seem to be serious here. They want this to open up $5 down to see what that'll spring loose in my opinion.

For full disclosure to those reading this, I am not one of the pros in here. I trade for my own account.

Your prediction came true I have it down $5.10@9:39AM