Holiday publication schedule
Nat will not publish any market analysis during Christmas week. We’ll resume the regular schedule after January 1, when we will also be offering Nat’s annual half-price sale, as well as some important improvements in the way she prepares her analysis. You won’t want to miss it!
Last week
Gold futures prices – week ending Dec. 16, 2016
The Fed raised the interest rate by 0.25% this time, and proposed three more hikes in 2017. GOLD sold off after the Fed Policy announcement and broke below the $1150 level for a lower close.
Last week’s trades
Gold futures, Dec. 16, 2016. 60-minute bars.
Another predictable — and profitable — week for gold futures traders.
As Nat warned in last week’s Gold post, the price action this week was mainly determined by the Fed policy announcement Wednesday afternoon. In the event the gold futures stalled in a narrow range in the early part of the week and made three failed attempts to reach the pivot level around $1170. The third failure was just before the Fed rate increase announcement, and that was a clear signal to get short.
Once the rate increase was announced the gold futures dropped sharply, and the question for traders was where to cover the short. Nat’s post last week gave a clear answer. The price dropped quickly to the second support level, and the next day continued to Nat’s second buy level, where the decline halted, and retraced a little.
The traders who held their positions to the second buy level made a profit of about $3500 per contract. A few also captured the bounce back to the broken support level, which was worth an addition $1000 per contract. A very nice Christmas bonus for those who followed her calls.