Hurting metals still have a bright future.

Gold and silver prices holding above important support

2012-MAR-30

Gold and silver are holding above important support levels, despite selling pressure yesterday. The gold pricemoved back above $1,660 this morning, after flirting with $1,650. The silver price sunk below $32 briefly yesterday afternoon – hurt indirectly by talk from the US, Britain and France about releasing petroleum reserves, thus temporarily lowering oil prices – but has moved back above support at $32.James Turk discusses the significance of this price action in his latest King World News Interview.

Though the gold market has been struggling for direction in recent weeks, this price action in combination with increased chatter about “QE3” in America and Spain’s debt problems may help the bulls. Though there have been times in recent years – notably during the spring of 2010 – when gold performed well during periods of EURUSD weakness, a lot will depend on how the dollar performs. The Dollar Index has again fallen below 79.00 in trading this morning, and is struggling to maintain the kind of upward momentum seen at the end of last year, when euro fears were dominant. Further dollar weakness will encourage gold buying.

During your lunch break today you might want to read “Four Numbers Add Up to an American Debt Disaster” by Bloomberg’s Caroline Baum. A key point she raises: “The U.S. is more dependent on short-term funding than many of Europe’s highly indebted countries, including Greece, Spain and Portugal”. Not enough attention is paid to the US Treasury’s reliance on short-term financing – something that could easily backfire in the years ahead.

This dynamic is not limited to the government either, given the precarious state of so many overly indebted companies and households. In the words of Peter Schiff: “America is on the mother of all adjustable rate mortgages”.

Tags: buy gold, debt crisis, dollar, gold price, silver price

Author: The GoldMoney News Desk

How To Trade Binary Options

How to trade binary options...without losing your shirt.

Do you trade stocks and options? Or thought about it but it seems out of your reach?

You may or may not have stumbled across binary options trading over the last 4 years. If binary options are entirely new to you, don't sweat it. For one thing binary options trading has only recently come on the scene and were not listed on an exchange until 2008. However, institutional investors and the big banks have been trading binary options "over-the-counter" for decades. In addition binary options are quite easy to get the hang of. One of the big advantages they have over traditional options. If you haven't yet learned how to trade binary options you just may want to give them a look-over.

To understand what binary options are and how they are traded, it will help us to understand what the meaning behind "binary" is in this case. And just in case you're unfamiliar with the word "binary" itself here's the definition:

"Characterized by or consisting of two parts or components."

One or the other. When applied to learning how to trade binary options this simply means that there are only two possible outcomes; win, or lose. If you are correct in your trade you get paid out the agreed upon (known ahead of the trade) amount and if you are wrong you are also paid out a pre-agreed upon amount. Though often this may be $0.
For the reasons above binary options are often called "all-or-nothing" options. However, many brokers will pay out some small amount on losing trades so not quite "nothing" in some cases.

As mentioned above one of the best things about trading binary options is that risk/reward is perfectly transparent before you ever place a trade. No matter what happens in the market if you meet your contract specifications the broker will pay out the pre-agreed upon return rate. This trading structure makes binary options trading very simple to learn (though it may be somewhat more difficult to master). You won't have to worry about making emotional decisions regarding when to sell or when to buy either. Another great thing that some brokers offer is "early exercise" of your options if they are "in-the-money" (ITM). Allowing active traders to pocket profit at any time their option reaches the ITM level.

In summary, you would buy a binary call option if you think the underlying asset will go up in price by the time the expiration rolls around. And, of course, a binary put option if you think it will be going lower in that time. See, when you trade binary options you don't have to worry about the size of the move at all and if it is so much as 1 tick ITM at expiration your broker pays the same return as if it was 1,000 ticks ITM at expiration. As such this form of trading can be simpler for those who don't have access to large amounts of capital or the knowledge to analyze the complexity of the traditional stock market. All you have to do is to decide whether a trade will do better or worse for the time that you hold it. That's not necessarily easy to do, but it is certainly much simpler than the alternative method of trading stocks or options. This is one of the reasons why learning how to trade binary options can be better for the beginner and part of why it has been rapidly gaining in popularity since its introduction.

I got into binary options trading less than six months ago and it has been a lot of fun and even moderately profitable. I only make small trades or I'd be a lot more profitable but I follow my own advice...don't speculate with what you can't afford to lose. Even if you think you won't lose.

If you enjoy trading then you may just want to check out binary options trading. Learning how to trade binary options is relatively painless, and potentially quite profitable.

Has the US become European?

Is the United States Headed Down Europe's Financial Road?

The recent Greek debt deal produced a big collective sigh of relief, plus some cheers for that massive liquidity injection into Europe's banking system.

It was time to grab a glass and offer a toast to the coming economic recovery of the European Union, right?

Alas, it turns out that Europe's private sector economic activity is contracting faster than expected.

The latest Markit composite purchasing managers' index fell to a three-month low. And the survey for that index was conducted in Germany and France, two of the eurozone's bigger economies.

Markit's chief economist told Marketwatch (3/22) "The euro-zone economy contracted at a faster rate in March, suggesting that the region has fallen back into recession..."

Citigroup's chief economist told CNBC (3/22) that Europe's financial problems have merely been delayed for another day. "We have really just paused for breath," he said. "It [the long-term refinancing operation] really hasn't solved the problem, and for Europe the worst is still to come."

Our Financial Forecast has said for years that the bailouts and the European Union itself would come to grief, even as other observers were optimistic.

Case in point, this excerpt from the December 2006 Financial Forecast:

Much of what's come together in Europe will come apart in coming years.
The crux of the forecast dates back to 1999, when the inclusionary force of the Great Bull Market was at its peak and The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior argued that the post-World War II transformation toward a harmonious and borderless Europe had reached its limit:
"[The] European Union was consummated following 1,500 years of repeated conflict in the region...This multi-year pageant of apology, concession and agreement and the concurrent wonderful atmosphere of international peace and cooperation are consistent with my Elliott wave case that an uptrend of Grand Supercycle degree is ending."
That year, euro-phoria hit peak pitch, as 11 European countries surrendered their currencies to adopt the new euro and a shared monetary authority, the European Central Bank. For the next eight years, the European Union focused on expansion. This trend was perfectly consistent with the positive social mood trend, which reached its extreme in 2007. As the long and winding global financial topping process completes its final upward surges, the pageant of concession and agreement has desperately focused not on expansion but on rescue and preservation.
...The current level of unpayable debt is too big to bail.

So we're not surprised that Citigroup's chief economist just said that "...for Europe the worst is still to come."

And in the United States, the national debt has already climbed to $15.6 trillion; the federal government's own projections forecast a rise to $25-trillion by 2022. Moreover, we also know that many states and municipalities today suffer major financial woes.

Is America headed down the same financial road as Europe? And what about the future of the European Union itself?

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What the European Debt Crisis Could Mean for YOUR Investments Elliott Wave International has been anticipating and tracking the credit contagion across the European Union. Read this FREE report from EWI, The European Debt Crisis and Your Investments, with commentary and analysis from February 2010 through today, to gain a unique perspective on the European debt crisis and get ahead of what is yet to come. Download Your Free Report Now.

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline Is the United States Headed Down Europe's Financial Road?. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.