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The day’s analysis took place with most of the vehicles tracked and traded by Rick’s Picks in limbo relative to bullish and bearish “trigger” thresholds I’d identified previously. We looked at the by-now astounding bear rally in the broad averages, finding a minor rally target that seemed all but certain to be achieved. Gold and Silver, while bullish, looked unpromising for trades that day, but we identified benchmarks in each that would raise our level of enthusiasm if achieved. Finally, in connection with a position we hold in Silver Wheaton, we delved into the art and science of trading options on the stock.

We found sufficient evidence of tiredness and timidity in the S&P futures to justify shorting the market speculatively, which we had already done in Rick’s Picks by buying Diamond puts. In Gold, we identified a midpoint support that subsequently provided a precisely tradable but short-lived bounce. Looking at T-Bond futures, we came up with a few more reasons to think that prices will continue to fall, and therefore interest rates to rise, in the weeks ahead. Copper and Crude looked bullish as all get-out, and we foresaw the possibility of an exhaustion spike in the latter that could take prices to as high $111 per barrel.

We forced a “camouflage” trade in March Gold during this session, and you should pay close attention to the reasons why, since the opportunity looked mediocre at best. The trade went on to achieve its ‘D’ target, hinting that the nasty correction under way in bullion this week may have run its course. We also took a close look at T-Bond futures, which have been falling hard enough to threaten Bernanke’s entire edifice. There were growing reasons for us to infer that U.S. Bonds have entered a long-term bear market, and we discussed them in detail.

Although gold and silver were both trading higher, the rallies were not strong enough to carry to the very bullish targets I’d given in that day’s touts. We therefore had a chance to analyze the two vehicles “in limbo,” as it were, and to attempt a March Silver trade in real time. The trade was stopped out, but it provided a useful learning experience nonetheless, since it was initiated not via a “camouflage” signal, but on a breakout buy-stop two ticks above a midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance. We also considered reasons why a strong rally in the E-Mini S&P that morning was sufficient to imply the stock market will remain strong into 2011.

Paying close attention to subtleties can yield analytical rewards, as it did when we noticed how a rally in Silver had failed to surpass some seemingly minor peaks on the 15-minute chart. The implication was that buyers were spent for the day, an observation that later proved to be correct. Gold and Silver were in tired but nonetheless bullish consolidations on this particular morning, but we still found ways to force trades in each via camouflage. We also discussed ways to exploit an expected 15-point rally in the E-Mini S&Ps – a goal fraught with danger, since the futures were already up 15 points, caught in a pre-Thanksgiving short-squeeze.

With Gold and Silver down sharply earlier in the week, we were keen to determine whether the correction had seen its worst. There was some evidence of this in Silver’s price action. The December futures, for one, were creating bullish impulse legs on the lesser charts even though Gold was languishing. The action in Silver Wheaton shares was especially encouraging, since SLW was moving robustly higher without having achieved a ‘d’ correction target. Even though the markets in general were quite sluggish, we were able to find subtle camouflage opportunities in several vehicles, including the E-Mini S&P.

The markets were severely constipated -- not only because it was the morning after a big, nastyy election, but because traders were waiting for yet another m-o-m-e-n-t-o-u-s announcement from Bernanke concerning quantitative easing to come. We pored over charts for the E–Mini S&Ps, gold and the dollar nonetheless, and we even tested the water with a real-time bottom-fishing trade in the S&P futures. (I won’t spoil the ending for you.) The day was interesting from an analytical standpoint because the E-Mini S&Ps had reached a very crucial threshold at 1196.50 the night before – an event that we deconstructed with due diligence.

The broad averages and bullion were being driven by news this morning -- soft speculation that the latest round of quantitative easing would amount to just a few hundred billion dollars rather than the $1Tr-$2Tr that had been rumored. Gold and Index futures were especially volatile as a result, and we had a ringside seat on the intraday charts to watch the action. This session also provides a good review of Hidden Pivot basics, since the room was packed with scores of observers who were guests of our broker affiliate, PFGBest.

Gold, Silver and the E-Mini S&P were in sharp rallies, recovering in symmetrical fashion from the previous day’s hard selloff. Although this gave us some sweeping patterns to look at, they didn’t translate into easy opportunities for “camouflage” trading, since well-defined trends draw crowds that we should prefer not to compete with. Still, there were lessons to be drawn, and opportunities to be gleaned, even from markets whose intentions were all too clear.