@wombat53 your kind words but I feel I am unable to live up to...

@wombat53 your kind words but I feel I am unable to live up to your expectation! I am a student of another trader/guru I follow that has turned my thinking and analysis upside down for the better, more objective oriented and based on reasoning on price action.

I fully agree from your view of charts and especially gold which is such a complex metal that at times display 'schizophrenic' reactions. This makes it difficult sometimes to measure the correlation to USDX. Take for instance the Dec 2015 rate rise, on paper is gold unfriendly since it is a play on USD strength and yet we had one of the biggest rally % terms in recent years.

I admit I don't understand the complexities that drive gold up or down but I can see it on the chart. This means I don't have the informed view to anticipate the price reactions to certain outcome. I suspect a lot of analyst out there in the corporate world have not been able to understand fully the nature of gold. In fact if anyone can understand how the capital markets all fit in then he/she must be a genius worth following. Just like anyone taking a trade or investment, you are only as good as your last decision. It does not however measure what your future performance really is.

A lot use chart the 'wrong' way and are therefore stigmatising the TA community with such foolish actions as to pretend they can predict where price is going. There is a plethora of tools aiding this section of the TA community and equally a big following seeking to peek into the future. Futile exercise IMO but folks are always wanting more exotic way of predicting. I use charts to look left to see price reactions etc and manage my trade management. I do not profess to know where price will head to and neither do I want to spend anymore time looking right of the chart. Hence I can be blunt sometimes with post which is the reason why I have build up a following of haters. It doesn't bother me since it encourages me not to post BS unless I am in a funny mood! I really hate those one liners like prices will be at a certain level and time in the future or praying and wishing for market crashes etc. The classic is the Shmitah/Jubilee or whatever kitchen sink bible codes they throw at the conspiracists thinking God will take away someone's good fortune to replace with some other all in the process of encouraging the worship of mammon (gold=money).

Ok, I am back down to earth and watching carefully the gold price. Good solid discussions here with rationale.