Gold's Not Fooled By April's Dollar Dance

Your BEST Gold Buys [Morning Reckoning] April 02, 2024 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Gold's Not Fooled By April's Dollar Dance Baltimore, Maryland April 02, 2024 [Greg Guenthner] GREG GUENTHNER Good Morning Reader, The US Dollar index pushed toward its February highs during a strong April Fool’s Day rally. No, this isn’t an elaborate practical joke. The buck is on a tear again after bouncing off its March lows. It’s now threatening to sneak back toward its November highs, erasing the steady drawdown that helped trigger the melt-up rally in late 2023. If traditional market relationships hold true, these developments should be decidedly bearish for risk assets, including precious metals. Yet gold doesn’t seem to care. The shiny yellow metal refuses to yield to the dollar and continues to extend its historic breakout into the early days of the second quarter. Despite less-than-ideal conditions during a short training week leading up to the Easter holiday, gold broke free from a brief consolidation to post new all-time highs as it topped $2,200 for the first time. It’s now up more than 8% year-to-date with nothing but blue skies ahead… I always pay close attention when the market deviates from the script. Gold isn’t supposed to rally in these conditions. Therefore, we can only assume there are more than a few strong buyers defying market relationships and buying as this historic breakout unfolds. The action we’re seeing this week is once again working in favor of my 2024 prediction that the gold breakout will accelerate and run to $2,600. Here’s a quick recap: All the way back in 2023, we discussed the fact that most of the experts and forecasters believed gold would finally break out above $2,100 and stay above this mark into the new year. The only problem leading into last week was that gold’s first attempts at a generational breakout were anything but clean. Despite numerous moves above $2,000 since the Covid crash, gold couldn’t finish a month above the 2K mark until last November. Then, when it finally broke through, gold bulls were forced to endure several false starts toward all-time highs that developed into mean little pullbacks. The market is sending a clear message right now: gold is done messing around and is now resolving higher following more than a few months of cautious optimism. It’s finally time to get greedy. Here’s how… [$100K > $10,000,000 By 2030. (Ticker Revealed)]( Right now, James Altucher has $100,000 of his personal wealth invested in a single trade idea. He rarely put this much money into a single name… But he has never seen this much profit potential. If his prediction is correct, he will walk away with a $10 million fortune in 2030. [TICKER REVEAL HERE]( [LEARN MORE]( Your Best Gold Buys Whether we’re talking about gold, tech stocks, or crypto, you should always approach your trades with the same simple question: What’s my goal with this investment? Are you looking to hold for months, years, or decades? Will precious metals be a speculative or core portfolio position? What is your stop loss – or the price/event that will trigger a get out or take profits? You have plenty of choices. A trader can capitalize on shorter-term moves in gold via the futures market, mining stocks, or through gold funds. The environment for gold trades is improving by the day. For the first time in many years, you can now employ some shorter-term breakout strategies to potentially capitalize on upside moves in precious metals. Maybe you don’t feel like messing around with quick hits. If so, you could easily employ a “buy-and-hold” strategy with gold using various funds such as the popular SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) or the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS). These are all viable methods to gain exposure to gold’s big breakout. Remember, I believe the investment environment is at a critical turning point right now. Because gold has just recently exited a secular bear market, we’re going to begin to see greed-focused investors emerge in the space, as opposed to those holding gold as a form of disaster insurance. That’s right, the gold bug ranks are expanding before our eyes. That’s a good thing! The more buying pressure exerted on gold, the higher it goes. Even those hanging onto physical gold as a form of wealth protection against a doomsday event or unprecedented financial disaster will benefit. One final note about strategy: You don’t have to be “all-in” on one investment or trading goal. There’s nothing wrong with a physical gold owner who also trades mining stocks when the timing’s right. There’s plenty of room for gold in longer and shorter-term portfolios right now. Tracking the Next Metals Boom Gold isn’t the only metal flashing bullish signals right now. As more “mainstream” market watchers begin to climb aboard the gold bandwagon over the next several weeks, we’ll see additional opportunities emerge in the metals space. In fact, we’re already starting to see some key breakouts take shape. Last week, I explained that during ideal gold bull market environments, silver should be outperforming. Spoiler alert: silver has not been outperforming gold over any meaningful timeframes. As of right now, silver is still stuck below its December highs. But it is starting to look more constructive as it coils near this potential breakout zone… If silver can climb back above $26, we should see a quick breakout extension. The poor man’s precious metal has a lot of catching up to do… it can happen quickly! Looking beyond precious metals, opportunities are also cropping up in copper and uranium. Copper has successfully held its $4 breakout and industry pure plays are exhibiting impressive momentum. Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO) tagged new highs to begin the second quarter and is up more than 25% year-to-date. Meanwhile, uranium plays are popping again following a brief drawdown. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA) gained more than 4% yesterday to top its March highs. While it remains off its recent highs, it’s still up almost 10% year-to-date. Yesterday’s move should trigger some follow-up buying. I wouldn’t be surprised to see URA take out those early February highs in short order. Gold’s decade-long bear market has scared virtually everyone out of the metals trades. In 2024, they’re beginning to find their way back. This is only the beginning. As performance improves, investors will have to work to gain exposure to these emerging market themes. That’s when the real gains start to stack up… Best, [Greg Guenthner] Greg Guenthner Contributing Editor, Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com [Biden Admin Furious Over This New “Alternative” Currency]( [Click here to learn more]( [What you see here is a new “alternative” currency that’s taking America by storm…]( One which could ruin Biden’s CBDC plans. It’s already popping across the nation… including Utah, New Hampshire and Nevada. [If you’re worried about Biden Bucks then you must watch this short 2-minute video that breaks down how this “alternative” currency works…]( [LEARN MORE]( In Case You Missed It… Three No-Cost Ways to Improve Employee Morale Sean Ring, Editor [Sean Ring] SEAN RING Dear Reader, Good morning Reader, I gave you ten steps to build your [Free State of Me]( a few years ago. (Feel free to read or reread that article, as it’s been a while.) One piece of advice is to start an online business, but many people don’t know how to do that. With that in mind, I thought I’d briefly shift our focus to microeconomics. Microeconomics deals with the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions about allocating scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. It’s critical to understand many microeconomic concepts to run a successful business, but perhaps none more so than how to keep your employees or freelancers motivated. Daniel Pink authored a book called Drive, published in 2009. It’s not about cars but what drives us to do the things we do. There’s an [excellent YouTube video]( that summarizes his findings. I encourage you to watch it after you read this. In this Morning Reckoning, I’ll relay to you his excellent points. Just Pay People More! Not so fast! This works. Just not universally. Only in the right jobs with the right people. This is the most shocking finding among economists. For decades, the mantra was, “If you want higher performance, pay people more.” And this works for people doing mechanical jobs. That is, digging ditches or smashing rocks. However, this incentive no longer works once a job requires even basic cognitive skills. (As a former banker, I found this hard to believe. But bankers are a weird lot. Study after study replicates this finding.) Once the work task goes above rudimentary cognitive skills and into something like creativity, the motivation game changes. Innovative employees need something else: things that don’t involve money. Of course, you still have to pay people. But with intelligent employees, Pink says the trick is to pay them enough “to take money off the table.” Pay them enough so they don’t have to worry about cash. Once you’ve paid them well enough not to worry about their bills, what else do these employees need? The Three Things Smart Employees Need Autonomy, mastery, and purpose keep good employees motivated. I’ll explain each in turn. Autonomy According to Pink, autonomy is the ability to direct one’s work. Autonomy allows employees to feel empowered in their positions rather than like their success is out of their hands. Autonomous employees manage their time and decide how to do their work rather than having someone else dictate it. This sense of control gives them the freedom to be productive and engage in their job tasks. Anecdotally, one of the things I love most about my job here at the Reckoning and the Rude is that my publisher, Matt Insley, never tells me what to write about day-to-day. (Though he does give great advice, particularly about my headlines!) Mastery Pink discusses the second element of employee motivation as mastery. Mastery is the desire to get better at what you do. When employees are allowed to improve themselves and hone their skills, it creates a sense of satisfaction that leads to increased motivation and productivity. Why do people play musical instruments on the weekends for free? Because they want to master something (and enjoy their melodious tunes, too, I’m sure). When we focus on mastering a skill or task instead of just completing it, we often reach new levels of engagement and creativity that are essential for any organization’s success. Purpose Finally, Pink proposes that purpose is a crucial factor in motivating employees. When one feels connected with the purpose behind their job tasks and understands how their work contributes towards something larger than themselves, it gives them a sense of meaning. That can help drive them forward even when things seem challenging or boring. It helps them stay focused on long-term goals (rather than getting caught up in short-term frustrations) and keeps them motivated throughout the journey toward achieving those goals. Of course, purpose gets confused with wokeness sometimes. I’ve heard horror stories about developers getting hired at tech firms and immediately concerning themselves with hiring policies rather than writing code. That’s no good. Businesses must profit to stay in business. First, they must create revenue. Then, they must collect that revenue and convert it into cash. If you don’t have profits, you won’t have a business. But you don't have a business if you don’t have cash. So, the purpose and the business must intertwine to work well. Wrap Up Motivating competent employees requires more than just cash. Strange as it may sound, they need autonomy, mastery, and purpose to flourish. And this isn’t some kumbaya stuff. It’s core to a business's success and has been proven repeatedly. Motivation is an inherent part of any organization’s internal success strategy. To maximize your company’s potential, you’ll need motivated employees. I wish you a very Happy Easter! All the best, [Sean Ring] Sean Ring Contributing Editor, The Morning Reckoning feedback@dailyreckoning.com X (formerly Twitter): [@seaniechaos]( Thank you for reading The Morning Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [Greg Guenthner] [Greg Guenthner, CMT,]( is chief strategist at Forge Research Group. He has spent the better part of the past two decades developing long-term and short-term strategies with a single goal in mind: to help everyday investors generate outstanding returns and control their financial futures. Greg’s charts, analysis, and insights have appeared in Marketwatch, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and many other financial publications. [Paradigm]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2024 Paradigm Press, LLC. 1001 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. 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