Good Morning Traders,
As of this writing 5:15 AM EST, here’s what we see:
US Dollar –Down at 80.430, the Dec US Dollar is down 22 ticks and is trading at 80.430.
Energies – November Oil is up at 102.41.
Financials – The December 30 year bond is up 1 tick and is trading at 132.27
Indices – The December S&P 500 emini ES contract is down at 1687.00 and is down 48 ticks.
Gold – The December gold contract is trading up at 1275.20 and is up 72 ticks from its close.
Initial Conclusion: This is not a correlated market. The dollar is down- and oil is up+ which is normal but the 30 year bond is trading higher. The Financials should always correlate with the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow and vice versa. The indices are down and the US dollar is trading lower which is not correlated. Gold is trading higher which is correlated with the US dollar trading down. I tend to believe that Gold has an inverse relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you aware that when we don't have a correlated market, it means something is wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your eyes wide open.
Asia closed mainly higher with the exception of the Singapore and Aussie exchanges which closer fractionally lower. Please note the Japanese Nikkei was closed for a holiday. As of this writing all of Europe is trading mixed.
Possible challenges to traders today is the following:
1. Columbus Day Bank Holiday.
2. No Major Economic News.
3. Lack of economic news.
Currencies
On Friday the Swiss Franc made it's move at around 11:10 AM EST and I suspect the reason for this was the European exchanges close at 11:30 AM. This is the second Friday that we've seen this situation occur. This was a shorting opportunity as the USD hit a low at around that time and proceeded to rise, the Swiss Franc dropped at the around the same time. The key to capitalizing on these trades is to watch the USD movement. The USD dropping only lent confirmation to the move. As a trader you could have netted 20-30 ticks on this trade. And you thought markets weren't correlated? And this is with a government shutdown which means these rules will work regardless of what else is going on....
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| 6S - 12/13 - 10/11/13 |
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| USD - 12/13 - 10/11/13 |
Bias
On Friday we said our bias was neutral as the futures wasn't giving us any direction. However the markets elected to forgo the lack of a debt deal and go higher. The Dow rose by 111 points and the other indices rose as well. Today we are not dealing with a correlated market and our bias is to the downside. Could this change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.
On Thursday we learned that the President rejected the GOP notion of a six week reprieve on the debt ceiling, so one might think that the markets would react negatively to this on Friday. This wasn't the case as the Dow climbed by 111 points, the Nasdaq rose by 31 and the S&P gained 10. You might be wondering "well how could this be"? No debt deal and the market rises? A few things that bear consideration: first, we haven't any real major economic news in over a week. Anything that would be coming from the Federal government isn't. As such, the markets will draw their own conclusions. What did the markets see on Friday? It saw Asia rise, Europe rise higher and the US futures pointed slightly higher on Friday morning. So what did it do? It rose higher. With no major economic news it is difficult to gauge the markets. The other aspect to bear in mind is the meeting held Thursday evening between the GOP and the Dems wasn't confrontational. Unlike 2011 which was. It seems that both parties want to solve this problem and put it to rest. Time will tell as we only have 4 days left...
Many of my readers have been asking me to spell out the rules of Market Correlation. Recently Futures Magazine has elected to print a story on the subject matter and I must say I'm proud of the fact that they did as I'm Author of that article. I encourage all viewers to read that piece as it spells out the rules of market correlation and provides charts that show how it works in action. The article is entitled "How to Exploit and Profit from Market Correlation" and can be viewed at:
http://www.futuresmag.com/2013/08/01/how-to-exploit-and-profit-from-market-correlation
As a follow up to the first article on Market Correlation, I've produced a second segment on this subject matter and Futures Magazine has elected to publish it. It can be viewed at:
http://www.futuresmag.com/2013/08/16/how-to-exploit-and-profit-from-market-correlation?ref=hp
As readers are probably aware I don't trade equities. While we're on this discussion, let's define what is meant by a good earnings report. A company must exceed their prior quarter's earnings per share and must provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company's shares. This is one of the reasons I don't trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with futures and we don't have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals, malfeasance, etc.
Anytime the market isn't correlated it's giving you a clue that something isn't right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is to the downside. Could this change? Of course. In a volatile market anything can happen. We'll have to monitor and see.
In May, I spoke with John Karnas, CEO of Trend Following Trades. John has an interesting background as he was a trader for a number of years prior to buying Trend Following Trades. John is a believer in Trading Plans and has a very precise method of developing aspiring traders. To download the article I've written, go to: http://www.traderslog.com/john-karnas/
Please note the video is about a half hour in length and we plan on producing more in the near future. Also note that in the near future we will have other videos where we will interview various trading leaders.
As I write this the crude markets are trading higher and the US Dollar is declining. This is normal. Think of it this way. If the stock market is trading lower, it's safe to assume that the crude market will follow suit and vice versa. Crude trades with the expectation that business activity is expanding. The barometer of which is the equities or stock market. If you view both the crude and index futures side by side you will notice this. On Friday November crude dropped to a low of 100.62 a barrel and held. We'll have to monitor and see if crude either goes lower or holds at the present level. It would appear at the present time that crude has support at $100.17 a barrel and resistance at 102.58. This could change. All we need do is look at what happened last fall when crude was trading over $100.00 a barrel. We'll have to monitor and see. Remember that crude is the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump.
Future Challenges:
- Budget Battle - ongoing.
- Debt Ceiling - ongoing.
Crude oil is trading higher and the US Dollar is declining. This is normal. Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the course of any trading day: around 7 AM EST, 9 AM EST and 2 PM EST when the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest that something is not quite right. If you feel compelled to trade consider doing so after 10 AM when the markets give us better direction. As always watch and monitor your order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why monitoring order flow in today's market is crucial. We as traders are faced with numerous challenges that we didn't have a few short years ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I'm not an advocate of scalping however in a market as volatile as this scalping is an alternative to trend trading.
Recently Published Articles:
http://www.barchart.com/headlines/story/12650453/are-the-markets-rewarding-poor-performance
http://www.traderplanet.com/commentaries/view/164874-trader-tips-the-case-for-fundamental-analysis/
Remember that without knowledge of order flow we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money will have no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for trading purposes you need to make sure it's monitoring order flow. Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the various market correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.
Nick Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a free, daily newsletter that discuses and teaches market correlation. Market Tea Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at www.markettealeaves.com Interested in Market Correlation? Want to learn more? Signup and receive Market Tea Leaves each day prior to market open. As a subscriber, you’ll also receive our daily Market Bias video that is only available to subscribers.
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