Meanwhile, a lot of previously hot areas of the market, such as rare earth metals which have benefitted from announcements of investments by the U.S. government, creating extreme FOMO moves to the upside. It is dangerous to chase these as the buying is likely due to massing crowds of retail investors piling into call options. Once their buying power dissipates, air pockets can develop underneath these stocks, and if one is in too late for too long, disaster can strike.
A similar phenomenon is seen with strategic metals, including lithium and antimony producers. Note the air pockets forming in these three strategic metals producers, Lithium Americas (LAC), Perpetua Resources (PPTA), and U.S. Antimony (UAMY), all three of which have rallied sharply in October thanks to news of U.S. government investments and orders for their respective lithium and antimony, as the case may be.
News flow has also been responsible for big moves in quantum computing names, but the strength is often fleeting. Note the strong pocket pivot breakout move in IonQ (IONQ). The stock quickly failed and triggered a short-sale entry on Thursday as it broke below 20-dema support. A similar occurrence was seen in Arqit Quantum (ARQQ) which posted a pocket pivot on the same day that IONQ did (all due to news on the same day) before triggering a short-sale entry as it busted 20-dema support on Thursday.
Nuclear power, including both small modular reactor maker and uraniums, has also been a hot area as of late, but these are breaking down sharply as well. While NuScale Power (SMR) and Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) are failing on recent breakout attempts, Nano Nuclear Energy (NNE) on Wednesday reversed at the prior week's high to post a mini-DTSS short-sale entry at that point.
Similar breakdowns have been seen in previously hot Drone and VTOL related names as well. Drone leader AeroVironment (AVAV) triggered a Century Mark short-sale entry on Wednesday as it failed along the $400 Century Mark and broke below 10-dma support. On Friday it continued lower to bust 20-dema support on heavy selling volume.
And, finally, space-related stocks have been another FOMO-like area of the market and that ebullience is also running its course. Note that AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) posted a Century Mark short-sale entry trigger on Thursday as it reversed along the $100 Century Mark after clearing it for the first time earlier in the day.
Big-stock semiconductor and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) is now a potential Late-Stage Failed-Base (LSFB) short-sale set-up in progress. The stock failed on its recent breakout two Fridays ago and then on Tuesday busted 20-dema support to set the LSFB in motion. It is now bouncing between 50-dma support and 20-dema resistance, textbook action for an LSFB as it just begins to evolve. Only a re-breakout from NVDA would negate this set-up.
Oracle (ORCL), another big-stock AI tech, this time in the software side of the AI data center business. The stock gapped higher in September when the company hyped up nearly $500 billion in orders for its data center business, but as Gil has pointed in several Market Webinars held since then, the company has not been explicit with respect to the expected ROI or even any timeline for an ROI. Most recently, analysts challenged profit expectations, citing 14% profit margins for the data center business, far below the 30% normally seen in other ORCL business lines. The company then responded coyly by referring to gross margins and again failing to provide any solid ROI expectations. On Friday, ORCL busted both the $300 Century Mark to trigger one short-sale entry and then quickly busted 10-dma and 20-dema support to trigger two more before closing below the 20-dema. This remains a potential short as close to the 20-dema as possible, using the line as a covering guide.
Gold was up over 9.2% as of Friday morning before finally backing down with Spot Gold ending the week at $4,250.59. It started the week at $4,013.25 an ounce and has certainly exceeded analysts expectations as $4,000 was seen as a likely line of resistance for the yellow metal. We would look for gold to establish a support level somewhere around the $4,000 level where the 20-dema is now coming in.
Silver hit a new all-time this week with Spot Silver peaking Friday at $54.45. A sharp -4.28% sell-off saw Spot Silver bounce off 10-dma support before settling in to close the week at $51.88.
Given how extended most leading areas of the market have become, with certain speculative FOMO-prone trading straight up, it is difficult to find fresh long entries with a high probability of working. As we have noted previously, one can throw mud at the wall and hope something sticks, but the failure rate of long set-ups, particularly when chasing upside momentum is starting to rise rapidly, a clear cautionary flag.Even strongly-acting precious metals miners, considered one of the most fundamentally sound areas of the market currently as precious metals prices rise to all-time highs, have their share of difficult. We report on pocket pivots in Barrick Mining (B) and NovaGold Resources (NG) Wednesday and both stocks have reversed course as breakout attempts fail quickly.
Bitcoin ($BTCUSD) is living the life of a beaten-down, speculative tech stock as wave after wave of selling continues to pummel Big Crypto. While some may wish to act as perma-bull cheerleaders for $BTCUSD, the reality is that if you were looking for the perfect Model Stock as a short-selling example of a 2x combination Double-Top Short-Sale (DTSS) and Late-Stage Failed-Base (LSFB), $BTCUSD fits the bill almost too perfectly. The first DTSS/LSFB combo occurred in August, and the second in October, and we have annotated the salient action on these charts where short-sale entry triggers have occurred on the way down both times. On Sunday morning, as we write, $BTCUSD is attempting to retake the 200-dma from a deeply oversold position. Weakness and credit stress fears in US regional banks created risk-off sentiment, leading to significant recent selling pressure in Bitcoin. This retreat from Bitcoin also coincided with a surge in demand for gold as a safe-haven asset amid economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. Central banks and large institutions have been increasing gold purchases, while Bitcoin faced sell-offs from investors seeking safer positions during market turbulence. 
A noticeable deterioration in names outside of the few remaining index-influencing big-stock techs is raising yellow flags for this market. Review selling guides and stay alert!The Market Direction Model (MDM) remains on a BUY signal.