Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pre-Market Global Review - 4/11/13 - Interview with Algo Futures' Carl Weiss

Good Morning Traders,
 
As of this writing 5:15 AM EST, here’s what we see:
 
US DollarDown at 82.450 the US Dollar is down 184 ticks and is trading at 82.450.      

Energies – May Oil is down at 94.49.
Financials – The June 30 year bond is up 2 ticks and is trading at 146.00
Indices – The June S&P 500 emini ES contract is up at 1585.25 and is up 11 ticks.
Gold – The June gold contract is trading down at 1554.50 and is down 43 ticks from its close.

Quick Note: Unless otherwise shown the above contract months are now June.   

Initial Conclusion: This is not a correlated market.  The dollar is down- and oil is down- which is not 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 up and the US dollar is trading lower which is correlated.  Gold is trading lower which is not 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 with the exception of the Shanghai exchange closed higher.  As of this writing all of Europe is trading higher.
 

Possible challenges to traders today is the following
1.  Unemployment Claims are out at 8:30 AM EST.  This is major.
2.  Import Prices are out at 8:30 AM EST.  This is not considered major.   
 
3.  FOMC Member Bullard speaks at 8:30 AM EST.  
4.  Natural Gas Storage is out at 10:30 AM EST.  This will move the Nat Gas market.
5.  30 Year Bond Auction starts at 1 PM EST.    
 
Yesterday we said our bias was to the upside because the Bonds were correlated with the indices.  The net result?  The Dow closed 129 points higher.  Today we do not have a correlated market and our bias is neutralUnemployment Claims are out at 8:30 AM EST and this is the major report of the day.  This could serve to drive the market in any direction today.  Could this change? Of Course.  Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.

  
On the political front, Obama released his budget yesterday as scheduled.  If you believe some of the headlines that were out yesterday, you would think that sequestration was replaced by this budget.  Let me make this clear.  Nothing has been approved yet and nothing has been "replaced".  Any budget must pass both houses (House of Representatives and the Senate) and then gets sent to the President for signature.  Enough said.
   
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 neutral.  Could this change?  Of course.  In a volatile market anything can happen.  We'll have to monitor and see.  

Last Friday I had the opportunity to interview Carl Weiss from Algo Futures.  We talked at length about his thoughts on the future of the markets and new and upcoming endeavors.  Ultimately this is the story of an American entrepreneur and what he had to go thru to create a solution that can be used by any trader.  If any reader wants to know and is curious about what it takes to self-made in America, then you need to listen to this.  Additionally our friends at TradersLog.com have graciously published my article on this subject.  It can be viewed at:

 http://www.traderslog.com/interview-with-carl-weiss/

My interview with Carl can be viewed at:


 

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 lower and the US Dollar is declining.  This is not 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. Yesterday crude dropped to a low of 93.40 a barrel and held.  We'll have to monitor and see if crude either goes lower or holds at the present level.   It seems that at the present time crude's support is at 92.00 with resistance at 98.00 a barrel.  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 to Start April 10th.
- Debt Ceiling in the May time frame.      
- European Contraction - happening now 


Crude oil is trading lower and the US Dollar is declining.  This is not 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.investing.com/analysis/usd:-why-is-it-so-high%20-159009        
http://www.investing.com/analysis/the-sequester-and-its-impact-on-the-us-economy-158526










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 blogs.













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