{"id":23946,"date":"2025-05-13T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/?p=23946"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:57:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:57:48","slug":"the-annual-gouging-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/the-annual-gouging-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annual Gouging Is Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Memorial Day weekend is just two weeks away. And you know what that means\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Gas prices are going higher.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the annual gouging of the American consumer. It happens just about every year \u2013 starting in late April and going into Memorial Day. Oil prices rise. Gas prices rise. And, we empty our pockets in order to fill up our tanks.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t start so early this year. Indeed, the price of oil actually fell during the first week of May. But, don\u2019t let that fool you. The annual gas gouging will happen.<\/p>\n<p>And, if the chart is any indication, the price of oil looks ready to make a big move higher. Take a look\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5.13.25-JMU.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-914802\" style=\"width:900px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5.13.25-JMU.png 624w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5.13.25-JMU-300x274.png 300w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5.13.25-JMU-431x394.png 431w, https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/5.13.25-JMU-525x480.png 525w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>The price of oil fell hard in early April \u2013 dropping from a high of just over $71 per barrel to the recent low near $57. Fears of a trade war causing a global economic slowdown had traders hitting the \u201csell\u201d button on oil.<\/p>\n<p>But, that action created positive divergence on the chart. In other words, as the price of oil fell to a lower low, the momentum indicators at the bottom of the chart made higher lows. This sort of positive divergence is often an early warning sign of an impending rally.<\/p>\n<p>Even after last week\u2019s bounce, the price of oil is still down about 15% since early April. It\u2019s down more than 20% from the January high. And now, we\u2019re starting the summertime driving season.<\/p>\n<p>Bearish\u00a0traders might argue that we have a supply glut. OPEC is opening up their spigots. And, President Trump\u2019s \u201cdrill baby drill\u201d policies will keep the oil price low.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0All of that is true. But, the seasonal tendency is for oil to rally this time of year.<\/p>\n<p>When you combine that seasonal factor with the positive divergence on the chart, the odds favor the\u00a0bulls\u00a0on this trade. So, get ready to be gouged at the pump over the next few weeks\u2026<\/p>\n<p>It looks to me like the price of oil is headed higher.<\/p>\n<p>Best regards and good trading,<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 200px; width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/files.jeffclarktrader.com\/global\/signatures\/jeff-clark-signature.png\" alt=\"Signature\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Clark<br \/>Editor, <em>Market Minute<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"card card-body bg-light mb-4 mt-4\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Free Trading Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Have you checked out Jeff\u2019s free trading resources on his website? It contains a selection of special reports, training videos, and a full trading glossary to help kickstart your trading career \u2013 at zero cost to you. Just <a href=\"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to check it out.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It looks like the price of oil is headed higher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"0","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"service":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication":[10],"person":[7],"newsletter-type":[],"ticker":[],"class_list":["post-23946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-minute","publication-market-minute","person-jeff-clark"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23946"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24926,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946\/revisions\/24926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-type?post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"ticker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ticker?post=23946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}