GOLD/HUI Divorce ?
by Eric Hommelberg
April 30, 2005
The correction in Gold stocks never seems to end and gets more frustrating day by day. Even on solid up days in Gold the HUI manages to go down. On Tuesday April 26 the HUI went down 4.35 points despite the $3 rise in Gold. Emotions are running high, panic is kicking in,investors are running away in droves losing faith in the once almighty HUI. Some Gold advisors are jumping onto the bearish side as well leaving the gold share holders confused about what to do. But there’s light at the end of this long dark tunnel. Extreme under valuations never persist for ever and it’s my strong believe that we might be close to a bottom here.
Now what to expect from the HUI coming weeks ?
A continued crash towards the 160's or even 150's area as some analysts do suggest ? Or a rebound triggered by rising Gold prices ? Well, I just don’t see the HUI crashing further without a severe decline in the price of Gold. Why not ? A price of Gold above $420 and a HUI at 150 just doesn’t make sense, it would lead to the greatest spread ever between Gold and HUI which of course CAN happen but very unlikely to happen imo since pushing the extreme undervaluation of the Gold shares into even higher extremes is like pushing a car hill upwards by hand on a road getting steeper every single feet. Needless to say that resistance will increase by every single step you take and at some point you’ll reach the limits of your muscle power and have to give up thereby surrendering the car to natural forces (gravity) which guarantees the car a downhill ride. The car starts rolling down thereby gaining speed and momentum. Nobody in his right mind is going to step in front of this rolling car in order to halt it. People willing to push the car by hand again will wait until its speed and momentum are reduced to zero. Same analogy can be applied to stocks. Short sellers can push the undervaluation of shares to extremes but resistance will grow. At some point the short seller will be overwhelmed by bargain hunters (new longs) and has to capitulate. Now the price starts to rise and will attract more new longs. The short seller won’t think twice and starts to cover his established short positions in order to guarantee his profits. The shorts themselves are adding fuel now to the rise in the depressed shares thereby attracting even more fresh buyers (momentum players). Now this whole thing is gaining momentum and no short seller on the side line will get it in his right mind to step in front of these new long-players in order to halt the rise. No, the short seller patiently waits until upward momentum fades away before attacking again.
This article will show that current under valuation of Gold shares (related to Gold) is at such an extreme that it’ll be hard for short sellers to push these extremes to even higher levels. So the only option for a continued HUI crash seems to be a severe decline of the Gold price itself. Therefore it’s useful to take a look at the Gold charts first and see what they have to tell.
The chart below shows Gold in a classic triangle pattern.