by Pater Tenebrarum
Acting Man
Options Expiration Ante Portas – Just as a Resistance Level is Reached
After we had penned our little missive on the breakout in gold stocks on Monday, it dawned on us that an options expiration takes place this week. Normally, gold stocks decline into the expiration date. Don’t hold us to this, but the last time we remember call writers being forced to delta-hedge their way out of trouble in gold and silver stocks right at the end of an expiration week was sometime in 2006.
Given this backdrop and the recent breakout, we decided to take a look at weekly lateral resistance levels in the HUI – not least because by Monday’s close, it had actually reached one of those. Here is a chart showing all the important medium term support and resistance lines, plus a possible future path for the index if the breakout actually holds up (obviously, this path is pure guesswork).