Gold & Silver: Stuck In The Middle Covered ad nauseam last week, neither a tradable breakout nor breakdown has presented a low risk trigger for entering new calls, nor exiting current calls. Therefore, let's be faithful to a money management stop on the Mar $55C, a close below $11.00 (closed Friday at $12.72). Note the Gold chart in particular, as it should lead Silver one way or the other: Current Premium SLV Position If stopped out, we will immediately start monitoring for new entries. I know, its sounds crazy, but in reviewing the Gold and Silver trades from 2025, that kind of money management generated a lot of profits throughout the year: 2025 GLD & SLV Review. Gold Daily Key Support Zone $4,300- $4,250 Silver 180 Minute Key Support Zone: $70-$68 If Silver breaks into the $80's next week, expect a special trade Alert for new calls. The Big Picture - Stock Indices There is a reason for the SPX chart posted in the abbreviated, Into The Close, yesterday. The topping chart pattern that has kept this service on the bearish side of stock indices for most of December and it remains the single best pattern recognition set-up across all of the various trading sectors. When it triggers, it will be our first big trade winner of the new year, carrying the market lower for weeks to months. Below, I zero in on shorter time frames via QQQ and SPY, highlighting price action to key off of for a shorter-term trigger, along with select option selections best situated to appreciate as the decline unfolds. As always, utilize a hard -50% hard stop on any new option positions, that then morphs into a 50% trailing stop once the option appreciates 100%. SPX Weekly: Big Picture Set-Up Key trendline touches all the way up and then all the way down. Next thrust should be down, toward the lower trend line, into the 1st quarter of the new year. QQQ Daily Most vulnerable stock index: If QQQ falls to <600, then <550 likely; therefore, if index declines to 605-600 zone, assume it has begun and buy the Feb 20th 575P. SPY A rare Triple Top formation is showing up in the canned pattern recognition software of Trading View, projecting a 10% drop coming, sooner rather than later. Friday low print was 679.82 and a close lower can be used as a trigger to buy SPY puts. SPY Feb Puts Any of the shown SPY strikes works as an alternative to above QQQ put. I've highlighted the SPY 660P basis Friday's close. The Year Ahead - For Bulls Only Top Three Bullish Picks for 2026: Silver TSLA SpaceX (IPO sympathy plays) We have covered already covered Silver and TSLA extensively into the end of 2025 and both will be a major focus going forward. For starting out the new year, a new name: Planet Labs, a SpaceX IPO sympathy play, with calls projected to go up 5X basis the EW structure on the Daily chart. Expect more space-themed picks throughout the year excitement builds surrounding SpaceX and the rush to jump into anything connected to the biggest IPO on record, now being valued at $1.5 trillion, surpassing the prior record set by Saudi Aramco IPO in 2019. PL 2-Day Pattern recognition strongly suggests another leg up. Look for any close above last week's high print, $21.99, as a buy trigger for Feb or Apr PL calls. Target: $25-30 in the 1st Qtr 2026, with low $30's doable. PL was up 388% in 2025 and is positioned to be one of the leading, albeit unknown, "Space stocks," in 2026. It describes itself as "AI Powered Earth Intelligence" on its website which is reason enough to own shares, but as the EW structure above implies, there is room to spike even higher in the months ahead. Anything less than a deep dive in the market would allow for the shares to go from the low $20's to the mid $30's through the first half of the new year. Accordingly, the April calls look cheap, damn cheap, for highly leveraged bet on its future. A screenshot from Planet Labs website that says (and implies) it all, but digging deeper note this Google Research article that describes GOOGL's partnership with PL that lays the foundation for an eventual buy-out. PL Feb 20th $20C PL Apr 17th $22C Active Option Trades A strict adherence to the -50% hard stop rule has resulted in low number of Active Option Trades starting out the new year. That will not stand for long as there are a number of attractive triggers pending just above and/or below current prices. Expect more Action Trade Alerts to be forthcoming starting as early as Monday with more likely into January. PRO Service Premium Service
