The Energy Report: Energy prices are very sensitive to international events, especially conflicts in the Middle East. Do your charts factor in the periodic crises that impact oil and gas prices as buy and sell moments? How do you factor in inflation and interest rate movements into your calculations about which energy juniors look like good buys at any given time?
Clive Maund: The charts do factor in periodic crises that impact oil and gas prices as buy and sell moments, but often in a contrary way. The trick is to gauge when a crisis is at its moment of greatest tension, and while this is not at all easy, the charts can often be a great help in defining such a moment. I will give you an example using a recent call on CliveMaund.com, where the top in oil was pinpointed a day after its occurrence. Some readers may remember an old saying used on the London market many years ago, "Buy on a strike." This refers to a strike by labor, not an oil strike. The underlying psychology of this was that the time of maximum tension and uncertainty, which was when labor unions called the workers out on strike, was the best time to buy stocks, because they would have been falling in anticipation of this, and as tensions later eased as the situation headed to resolution, they would rise again. So it is with conflict and tension situations in the Middle East and their impact on the oil markets. Continue reading "Technical Analysis Toolkit for Energy Investors"
