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Rick Bensignor - Across-The-Board Risk On, Navigating the Massive Breakout in Gold and Silver

The KE Report Jan 22, 2026

Summary

Across 10 risk assets, broad risk-on positioning signals a strong economy and persistent inflation, Rick says.

S&P 500 sits near $690 with a $747 upside target; Ichimoku cloud support has held through three recent sell-offs.

Mag-7 trade (XLK, XLY, XLC) is exhausted; capital rotates into cyclicals (XLB, XLE, XLI) and staples (XLP).

Rick trimmed GDX and SLV today; he warns parabolic metals moves reverse as fast as they rise, so he manages risk by trimming.

Major banks reportedly sit on billions in short silver positions, raising squeeze risk; central bank gold demand and physical shortages add fuel.

Rick Bensignor's takeaways

  • Top takeaway He frames the current setup (as of January 22, 2026) as one of the most across-the-board risk-on environments he has seen, based on tracking 32 markets in his institutional report — a signal he reads as a solid economy with persistent inflation, and he doubts the Fed ever reaches its 2% target.
  • He is actively taking profits on metals for the first time in years: on the day of the interview he trimmed roughly 20% of his long-held GDX position (average cost around $34) and still holds 50% of silver he has owned since 2011 (SLV bought in the 20s, now trading in the 80s); he is not buying gold because the bullion chart is pressing against a DeMark monthly 13-cell risk level.
  • He attributes silver's roughly two-month doubling on the highest volume in at least a decade in part to a short squeeze on major banks holding large paper/futures short positions, citing talk of billions of dollars in losses and a potential European bank at risk; he sees $100 silver as plausible.
  • He sees the equity market broadening away from Mag-7-heavy sectors (XLK, XLY, XLC have materially stalled while the Mag-7's share of the S&P has dropped from a peak near 40–45% to under 35%) toward cyclicals like materials (XLB), energy (XLE), industrials (XLI), and even staples (XLP); he flags utilities (XLU) as the worst of the 11 sectors despite media hype, and points to a $747 S&P 500 upside target from around $690.
  • He flags a breakout in the U.S. 10-year yield from a months-long 4–4.2% range with an inverse head-and-shoulders measuring 4.4% (already hit 4.32 in the week of the interview), arguing that even if Trump installs a dovish Fed chair to cut short rates, the long end will not follow — a setup he says is bullish for banks earning on the curve.