One might have wondered how much more the price of natural gas futures would fall when they matched 2020 lows of 1.58/MMBtu a few weeks ago. That seems to have been the worst of it. Gas made a higher high last week, inspiring us to buy 2,500 MMBtu for April delivery at 1.87. We're happy to let it run to the upside, but would close with a small loss on a...
We like the weekly price action in cable futures and would flip from short to long. (Did you at least trim your short position when daily PA started getting hot the other week?) Keep an eye on the monthly chart too.
Ethereum has had quite a run over the past six weeks. Yesterday's tiny pullback seems to have just set the stage for a further advance. This echoes the price action that prevailed until late summer 2022. From Labor Day 2022 until the end of January 2024, sideways price action gave Ethereum traders almost as many opportunities to be whipsawed as to make...
The 10-year Treasury note interest derivative contract has been ticking down for a few weeks. We expect to see it bottom out well below 4%. Our inclination is to go short on a close below 4.1.
When the calendar turns to March, gardeners get itchy to plant things. Experience teaches that it's often a good idea to hold off. The above chart shows that corn traders who were willing to wait until late April 2023 stood a much better chance of profit, both on the long and short sides, than those who jumped in during March. The weather markets of late Spring...
NQ futures have painted a fairly steady regression trend channel since Hallowe'en 2023. It is comforting to consider that 4 out of 5 channel breakouts fail. With this in mind you'd You'd have done especially well buying all the channel bottoms over the past 4 months. On the other hand, unless NQ can push above 18200 and stay there, the next channel bottom...
If you're looking at corn futures waiting for the price to bottom out, you might have a while longer to wait. Recall that prices didn't firm last year until the end of May. Yes, prices are lower now, but they've only just breached the high end of the USD3.00-4.50 range where they spent most of their time for several years after 2013. For now, we'd leave it in...
The left-hand chart suggests that, having failed to establish support at its previous low of 2022, the near-month gold futures contract has further to decline. On this basis we would be more ready to add to an existing short position than to start a new one. The right-hand chart highlights the recent moving-average crossover as a sell signal. We might hold out...
For the past several months the Australian dollar / U.S. dollar forex pair has been painting a model Cup-with-Handle pattern. The pattern isn't done forming yet, but if AUDUSD breaks above the handle channel, we expect it to advance nicely.
The Russell 2000 small-cap index having failed to maintain support at 1968, a short futures position might be worth adding to. We wouldn't start one here, though.
If you trust the recent 9/20 day moving average crossover enough to short copper, today's bounce back toward the 9MA might be a good one to sell. When setting a profit target to the downside, a harmonic trader could project a shark with its C-point (D-point in the diagram) in the neighborhood of 3.5365 (red circle), for about a USD0.25 profit per contract. This...
On the left we see in formation the final leg of a nice ABCD harmonic pattern in copper futures— if it forms. The moving average crossover suggests otherwise. For further guidance, we can examine Dr. Copper's price pattern since commodity prices started to settle down in early 2022. Your move. We would find it acceptable not to do so for at least a few days.
Since September 2023 the price of WTI crude futures has been painting almost a textbook wedge into the 68/69 support zone. Aggressive traders might find the current price to be a good buy point, depending on their drawdown tolerance.
This past Monday, we opened a short position in the December micro gold futures contract. We were counting on a customary seasonal decline this time of year to put a damper on gold's news-driven rebound. As can be seen, that turns out not to have worked so well; the trade has hit our daily mental stop and, unless there is a significant retreat this afternoon,...
FX:VOLX is still trading in the middle of the downtrend channel from its peak the week before Memorial Day. Watch for a breakout, but it hasn't happened as of this writing.
Traders who think silver will retreat a bit from recent overbought levels could short the July contract here.
Somebody whispered "new bull market!" into our ear overnight. Bull or no, we think DJIA futures have a bit further to pull back from recent overbought levels before the stampede begins in earnest. Traders who agree can either short the September Dow futures, as here, or pick up some AMEX:DOG or $SDOW.
The Market Ear recently teased a swoon in S$PX/$SPY, noting at the end of last week: "The absolute cost of a 2 month 5% put in $SPX is trading at one of the lowest level in ~2 years." Puts cost too much, but when $VIX is low, so are put premiums (relatively). If you think the market could see a 5% swoon from here in the short term, there are a couple of ways...