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Grandich Letter Special Alert
Gold, Mining Shares and Oil

Peter Grandich
Grandich Publications
October 19, 2005 9:00PM ET

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Ever since returning back to the gold bullish camp in the spring of 2003, I have witnessed the crowd cycle mentality to be pretty much the same when it comes to gold. An air of disbelief that a recent rise to a new trading level can hold gives way to a belief that this time the move up is real. The crowd grows even more bullish as the rally continues, and the enthusiasm spills over to mining stocks. Then, the inevitable sharp (but short) correction comes and the crowd becomes deflated and disenchanted - only to see gold not fall as far as before, recover in less time and move to a higher trading range yet again. The cycle of excitement builds again, the correction hits... you guess it, sad faces again. It's truly hard for this 20+ year veteran to fathom how so many people, who called, emailed or I read their commentaries online over the last two days, can be so down with gold at $464. You would think it was $364 or, God forbid, $264 an ounce. IF A BULL MARKET DOES INDEED CLIMB A WALL OF WORRY, THE MOOD I FELT TODAY TELLS ME WE'RE GOING MUCH, MUCH HIGHER.

I've said it before and I'll likely keep saying it as we get to, surpass, and move substantially above $500 an ounce on gold: the gold market takes two steps forward and one step back- and the recent action is just another one step back. This type of trading is typical in a secular bull market and keeps many people on the wrong side much of the time. It's important to note how many "experts" recently dramatically increased their gold price targets after either being cautious or outright bearish as prices rose these past few years. Throw in the fact that TOUT-TV (CNBC-TV) and it's maniac member of the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" crowd on Wall Street, Jim Cramer, actually covered gold in a bullish manner. If that isn't a "kiss of death," what is? LOL

Special Note - One of the few gold pundits who has been far more right then wrong these last few years has been Bill Murphy (www.gata.org). I subscribe to his newsletter and so should you if you are really interested in gold.

I used this chart back in our September 26th update http://www.grandich.com/docs/alertGL_09-26-05.pdf to illustrate back then how overbought gold was (please note how much of the overbought condition has now been corrected- RSI was well above 70, now below 50). I have continuously mentioned since then that a correction and some consolidation could be expected, but said not to lose sight of the major uptrend. Well, the correction has happened and while it still can reach $450-$455 before it's all over, I hope readers at least can get through this short period without succumbing to the fear and disenchantment expressed by many in the last 48 hours.

Please read the following recent commentaries of mine regarding gold. The factors mentioned remain in full force.

http://www.grandich.com/docs/alertGL_10-07-05_updates.pdf
http://www.grandich.com/docs/mw_10-07-05.pdf
http://www.grandich.com/docs/res_investor_10-14-05.pdf

Mining and Exploration Shares -
Most mining shares are at or below levels they were when gold was considerably lower. One way to look at this is to say the metals have outperformed the shares. Another is to think shares are much more attractive now vies-a-vie the underlying metal price. Actually, I think part of the emotional disappointment in gold bullions decline the last two days is the fact that those expressing it own lots of mining shares and not bullion itself. They've hoped that rising metal prices would lift their shares. In some cases it did, but across the board on average, mining shares, and in particular, junior resource exploration plays, have greatly underperformed. Knowing the mental make-up of the typical player of these stocks, I suspect that my belief we can witness a fairly tough tax-loss selling period is more paramount now.

While the next eight weeks or so can continue to see mining and exploration stocks under perform the metals themselves, we seem to be setting the stage for a market that could look a lot like 2003.

I began to speak this past summer about an increase in mergers and acquisitions upcoming in the mining and exploration industry. Sure enough, we've witnessed a marked increased in M & A. I expect this to last well into 2006 and beyond as mining companies are in real need of new reserves and ways to reduce operational costs.

Among the companies I believe can be targets are:

Bema Gold
Cambior
Kinross Gold
Meridian Gold
Northern Dynasty Minerals *
Nova Gold

* Please note Grandich Publications provided compensated services to Northern Dynasty Minerals in the last 12 months.

Oil -
What few fans I had, all but left after I issued my http://www.grandich.com/docs/alertGL_08-04-05.pdf special alert, daring to suggest the oil party was coming to an end and if we were fortunate enough to see oil rise to $70, it should be used as a time to lower exposure, not increase or maintain. No one general market comment I ever made in 20+ years ever caused more people to react (some in a not so nice way, to say the least). I actually took these reactions as a sign that the crowd was overwhelming bullish and the Johnny-come-lately players have indeed already showed up. This was occurring while Hurricane Katrina and Rita were front page news, causing even more to question my "blasphemy" to the oil gods.

After briefly rising above $70 a barrel, crude has been in a fairly steep retreat. While the overwhelming consensuses remains bullish, the crude chart is at a most interesting crossroad. After $64 resistance was taken out to the upside in August, it failed to hold $64 after testing it a couple of times in September. It has now become resistance again, with the $60 level both important technically and psychologically.

While I don't expect us to see $20 or $30 oil again, I do think we've seen the cyclical highs and can see a walk down to $50 or below in the next 12-18 months. The fact that most reading this right now are saying things like "you're nuts," will give me strength to handle the calls and emails that this thought is near certain to produce.

A break below $60 a barrel is almost certainly going to give the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" crowd on Wall Street ammunition to exclaim, "Buy the stock market!" It may work for a short period but a resumption of the bear market is upon us and I believe we'll see the lows made in 2002 tested and even broken to the downside before it's all over.

Please Note - Peter Grandich will be on "Market Call" with Jim O'Connell on Monday, October 24th from 12:30PM ET to 1:30PM ET www.robtv.com

Peter Grandich
Grandich Publications
P.O. Box 243
Perrineville, NJ 08535
phone: 732-642-3992
email:
Peter@Grandich.com

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