The charts of oil and gasoline point to higher prices ahead at the pump, just mere months away.

For starters, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has coiled up into a symmetrical triangle pattern since last July. This pattern will most likely break out within the next 60 to 90 days or less.

Additionally, Brent crude oil just broke its downtrend line as the calendar rolled over to 2013. Right now, it’s retesting the topside of its downtrend line and is primed to launch higher from here. That will place upward pressure on WTI crude and cause it to break out of its tightly wound triangle and prices will jolt higher over the following months.

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Then there’s another pattern that is even larger and spans an even greater length of time. It’s a “double bottom” pattern on WTI crude. These patterns look like a big “W” on the chart.

The first leg of the W formed from August through October of 2011. Then the second bottom formed in June of 2012. Both of these legs in the “W” halted oil’s decline at around the $78 per barrel area.

The peak in the W went as high as $110 per barrel. So to get a price target on this pattern, you measure from the low of the W to the peak in the middle. So $110-$78 = $32. Add that to the point of breakout, which would be the $110 level, and you get a price target of $142 per barrel.

Now it would probably take 12 months for that to be reached, if not a bit longer. But it’s very likely coming. So prepare your monthly budgets now, because these projections from the chart of oil will lead to higher gas prices at the pump.

Additionally, I’ve taken a look at what gasoline futures have done and I’ve drawn some observations there too.

Gasoline futures (not the price at the pump) have ranged between $2.50 and $3.40 for the last two years. Note: when the gas futures got to $3.40, the price at the pump was over $4 per gallon when taxes are added into the price.

This sideways range that gasoline futures have been in has formed a rectangle pattern on the chart. You can get a minimum price target for where gasoline futures will go by taking the depth of the rectangle and add that amount to the point of breakout.

So $3.40-$2.50 = a depth of $0.90. Add that to the breakout point of $3.40 and you get a minimum price target for gasoline futures of $4.30. Once gasoline’s price breaks out and hits that target, we’ll be seeing $5 per gallon gasoline prices at the pump.

In addition to these chart patterns, I’m also seeing that gasoline futures broke their weekly chart’s moving average convergence/divergence downtrend line in latter February and early March of this year. This tells me that the next uptrend in gasoline’s price is likely now coming sooner rather than later.

In addition to this, the weekly chart’s relative strength index (RSI) continues to put in higher lows, which is a sign of coming strength in the price of gas. Therefore, gas is very likely to break out to the upside in the months ahead too.

So I know I’ve been technical here and you haven’t had the benefit of seeing the visuals I talk about. But the bottom line is that chart patterns on oil say oil is going to head higher, which will translate into higher gasoline prices at the pump.

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Gasoline futures directly show a price spike coming soon due to a chart pattern on its chart and improving technical indications, which point to higher prices coming in the months ahead.

On top of all of this, it looks like the U.S. dollar is about to rollover and head southward for the first time in a few months. The buck has broken an uptrend line on its daily chart and its daily and weekly chart’s RSI readings are both in the overbought region. This means that the greenback is very likely to take a tumble very soon.

When that happens, that will only egg it all on and cause the rise of oil and gasoline to happen that much quicker.

What can you do ahead of time to defend yourself? Cut the excess fat out of your budget. Save up some cash ahead of time. But in addition to this, it would be a great time to own some oil stocks.

We own some in the Ultimate Wealth Report that even have 4.5 to 5.5 percent dividend yields. So if you’re not sure which stocks to pick, come join us at www.ultimatewealthreport.com and you can see the oil stocks that we’re holding in our portfolio.

About the Author: Sean Hyman
Sean Hyman is a member of the Moneynews Financial Brain Trust. Click Here to read more of his articles. He is also the editor of Ultimate Wealth Report. Discover more by Clicking Here Now.