Why Now is the Wrong Time to Smoke THC

Tenet Healthcare (THC), a publicly traded company focused on providing quality healthcare via hospitals, has been on a tear this year. Its stock price has risen by over 300%, and the trend is clearly upwards. The rise in price may be partially attributable to improvement's in the company's financials: while the company did post a loss in the second quarter of 2009, its revenue continues to grow. Moreover, if discontinued operations were excluded from financials, the company would be profitable. This suggests the company may be on the right track.

Economic woes, however, affect all industries -- including healthcare. Will the Obama plan for creating more health insurance options help companies like THC? Perhaps, although government handouts typically come at the expense of greater regulatory scrutiny. Government handouts also increase the likelihood that political connections will impact how regulations are structured. Given that Tenet Healthcare has not been the best friend of the US government -- in 2006, the company settled on charges that it was overcharging the US federal government for Medicare expenses, paying $725 million in cash to the government while foregoing an additional $175 million in fees -- the company may not have the political connections needed to get the most out of proposed government-led healthcare reforms. Moreover, Trevor Fetter, CEO of THC, has expressed skepticism towards the Obama administration's healthcare plans, suggesting that hospitals will be forced to bear too much of the burden.

Fundamentally, I think the picture is a bit mixed, and is dependent much upon pending government legislation. Technically, however, I think THC, which has been on a strong uptrend, is due for a correction. The chart below, a weekly chart of THC, shows RSI overbought and declining, the price near the upper Bollinger band, and a doji as the most recent candlestick. With this in mind, this may be an opportunity for short-term short sellers. Alternatively, those bullish on THC may benefit from waiting for a pullback before going long.

Disclosure: No position.

Six Things for Gold Traders to Watch

Here are six things I'm personally keeping an eye on to gauge the direction of the price of gold:

1. COT report. AceFX shared with us gold COT data. This report shows that commercial traders -- generally believed to be "smart money" traders involved in day-to-day operations of the commodity in question -- are short gold. The commercial traders are increasingly short while others are increasingly long; in such a scenario, when the non-commercials run out of fuel in their trend, they will start liquidating, and the commercials can see this as an opportunity to add to their short positions and push the market further down.

Below is the chart Ace shared with us in the thread he started on this subject.

Click to See Enlarged Chart

2. Consolidation on daily chart. Below is a daily chart. We see consolidation via a pennant formation -- a formation that often precedes a sharp breakout. Accordingly, I think there could be a sharp breakout if the market can break above resistance at $980 or support near $925.

3. US banking system still under stress. US banks are still failing, and more may be on the way. Bank failures increase the need for safe havens, which gold, with its long history of serving as a stable monetary commodity, can provide.

4. The Federal Reserve is still aggressively monetizing. The Federal Reserve has stated they will continue to print money and buy assets through the end of October. Additional money creation without the creation of additional productivity stands to devalue the currency, and is the kind of event that can precipitate a run on a currency. Currency devaluation, particularly when it stems from monetary policy put forth by governmental/quasi-governmental agencies, is bullish for gold, as gold is regarded as a hedge against currency devaluation resulting from central banking policies.

5. Financial fraud rising. Courtesy of Jesse comes the chart below, which shows that financial fraud is rising in the US. Fraud weakens the US dollar and the political economy it stems from, and thus could be seen as bullish for gold.

Click to View Enlarged Chart

6. Financial Fraud in Comex. Comex recently permitted gold futures contracts to be settled not only with physical delivery, but with delivery of shares of gold exchange-traded funds like GLD. GATA explains how this inflates the amount of paper gold, much of which may not be backed by real physical gold. This may result in a split in the gold market -- prices for physical delivery and prices for paper gold.

I personally am a big fan of Bullion Vault, a broker who sells physical gold. Click the button below to learn more about them.

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The Case for Shorting BAC (Bank of America)

Should the bear market in US equities resume in the coming months, which I think it will, BAC (Bank of America) may be an excellent shorting opportunity. Here's why:

1. The stock has a beta of 2.41 -- quite high. High beta stocks will be appealing to short for those who are very confident in a forthcoming bear market, as a higher beta suggests greater volatility and a more powerful move in the direction of the overall market trend.

2. A P/E ratio of 38.18, more than twice that of the S&P 500, seems a bit excessive in my opinion -- doubly so when one considers that BAC is a mature company in a troubled industry (banking). Based on P/E ratio alone, I would expect price to fall by 50%.

3. The technicals are particularly appealing, in my opinion. Below is a daily chart. Note the RSI divergence -- prices make new highs, but RSI does not. This suggests the uptrend is running out of strength. We also see a doji and an inverted hammer in the last two candles -- this fact, coupled with the rangebound price action, also suggest the uptrend is running out.

On the weekly chart (see below), we also see RSI divergence. The weekly chart also shows resistance at around 18.30, with support at 12.30. This creates an opportunity to short at a favorable risk/reward ratio -- the stop-loss order can be placed just above resistance, with the profit target being support.

Disclosure: No position.

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The Case for Shorting Google

Today's sharp drop in US equities has permabears asking: has the next leg down for US equities begun?

From a fundamental perspective:

1. Google is a mature company in an industry of questionable growth potential. While the company is in a league of its own, its league -- CPC/CPM advertising -- is on the way out, and Google's size and maturity hinders its ability to adapt accordingly. I expect new ad networks and publishing networks to slowly eat away at Google's primary revenue source -- text link advertising -- while revenue from text link advertising declines due to macroeconomic woes. New ad networks that can find ways to deliver engaging promotional material without relying on CPC/CPM pricing fit into the context of a disruptive innovation, in that they compete on a dimension that the incumbent -- Google -- cannot compete on. Specifically, something like a gaming company that offers in-game advertising, is the kind of model that could disrupt Google's position as emperor of online advertising.

2. The company's P/E ratio is currently at 30.87 -- the average of the S&P 500 is currently 16.93, according to Robert Shiller. As bears do what they do best -- put the smackdown on overvalued assets -- I expect Google's P/E to fall noticeably, so that it is closer to the S&P 500.

From a technical perspective:

The daily chart is interesting. While volume is low -- attributed to seasonality, and the lower volume that typically comes with August -- we do see a doji candle from several days ago. We also see MACD just turn bearish, which could signal the onset of a new short-term bear trend.

The weekly chart is a bit more sobering for permabears, and suggests bears may need to wait a bit longer before dining on bulls. A rising wedge suggests the market is still bullish on Google, and MACD remains bullish.

Ideas for Trading Google

More conservative bears may wish to wait for a pullback to the upper trendline on the weekly chart, which would happen at around 500. However, such a pullback may not occur. Alternatively, bears may wish to short now, with a protective stop loss order right above the high of Monday's candle which gapped down. The target profit would be the trendline drawn on the daily chart. This would only be a risk/reward ratio of 1:1, so perhaps not the best trade. However, if we are ready for the next leg down, we may see a break below that trendline. As a result, traders who scale into positions may wish to enter some now, and add to their position on a close below the lower trendline.

Disclosure: No position.

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In Spite of Prolonged Rally, Top Permabears Still Sticking To Their Story -- Here's Why

As a permabear, my natural inclination is to be bearish on US equities. However, even hardcore permabears like myself are forced to acknowledge an uptrend, and clearly an uptrend exists on the S&P. Below is a weekly chart of SPY, an ETF that tracks the S&P 500. Since March of 2009, we've been in a clear uptrend.

However, let's look at some arguments why it may not last:

1. You will hear many arguments about recovery will be W-shaped, U-shaped, V-shaped, etc. Personally, I agree with fellow permabear Eric Janzsen, who noted that we need to look to the Cyrillic alphabet to find a letter whose shape corresponds to the current economic cycle in the US. Janzsen argues for a Cheh-shaped progression. Basically, that while we may have some seemingly strong bull trends, as we did during the Great Depression, the ultimate trend is still bearish.

2. Stefan Karlsson notes that stocks are still overvalued from a fundamental perspective, noting that earnings of broad baskets of stocks are down 30% while prices are down just 20%.

3. Strict adherents to Austrian economics will note that a recovery cannot really happen so long as malinvestments are not liquidated. Bailouts prevent the liquidation of malinvestments and the return of asset prices to appropriate levels; so long as this situation maintains, a recovery seems unlikely. I agree with this notion from a philosophical perspective, although from a financial perspective, it does not seem to be particularly meaningful. We can have a rally in the stock market and a plagued economy; the two are not mutually exclusive.

Personally I focus on trading the US dollar, though my bias is to short the S&P as it approaches strong resistance levels.