Gold has had a rough six months, with the gold ETF (GLD) dropping 20% since peaking in August 2020. While many consider gold to be an inflation hedge, concerns about increased inflation have not manifested themselves in higher gold prices.

The S&P 500 wrapped a rather volatile week by settling in at the upper end of the 3200-3600 range. One key breadth indicator shows clear similarities to the bull run in early October, and also provides a prescription for bulls looking for validation of further upside.

While reviewing the 11 S&P 500 sectors and identifying stronger charts in the pile, it’s hard to find a better setup than the Utilities sector. The XLU chart also provides a textbook example of big base breaking on improving relative strength.

Ratio analysis is a critical piece in my macro technical approach, as it helps to differentiate different sectors, styles, regions, and themes by gauging their relative performance to one another.

This past Monday, I asked three experts on the Presidential Cycle - Bruce Fraser, Jeff Hirsch, and Tom McClellan - to share their take on market trends around the election season. They delivered in a big way, and the result was a masterclass in how to learn from market history.

As I paged through the S&P 500 charts during my normal weekend review, I started to identify some consistent patterns in the leadership sectors of Consumer Discretionary and Technology. Today I’ll share with you how I bucket these charts by their patterns, and why the Consumer Discretionary Sector SPDR (XLY) is likely the most important chart to watch.

“This is a narrowly-led mega cap bull market.”

I can’t tell you how many times I heard myself saying those words at some point over the last couple years. I’ve repeated it so many times that I just assumed it has continued.

A consistent imperfect routine is way better than an inconsistent perfect routine.

When I've worked with investors that are new to technical analysis, I often find that they spend too much time trying to perfect their analytical approach on a particular chart, and way too little time determining which chart they should be looking at in the first place!

My broad market analytical approach is comprised of three main steps: Price, Breadth and Sentiment.

First off is price. If you ask me what chart I would look at to get a read on the S&P 500 index, my answer would be a chart of the price of the S&P 500 index! Price is king.

One of the key investment themes of 2020 has been the rotation from a stronger US Dollar environment to a weaker dollar through mid-September. However, signs are emerging that the downtrend in the greenback may be nearing its end, which will have implications for equities through year end.