Spent a lot of time at the end of the session, doing some data mining, as well as : some good old fashioned charting and applicable middle school math. — Good trades or bad trades, I am always relieved when the market finally stops moving, and for futures, this doesn’t happen until 4:15pm ct.
Today, we had another “flush” in the market, this time, it started last night, continued this morning, but didn’t really accelerate until after a quick headfake around Fed talk (Jeffrey Lacker) before the awaited Employment Situation to help “shake” things up.
The markets seem more confused than ever, as bulls can rip the ES up 30 pts in an hour or so at anytime, yet the bears have taken over the charts for the moment. I guess confusion =’s volatility, and that is a good thing for traders. If the Spoooos ES are moving, — the market is moving. So as we sold off almost 33-34 pts from the lowest point I can remember buying (or tweeting) — I looked around to see where did this spill into?
The RED ticker tapes, as we are getting more and more used to, took over the boards again. What started as a very “green” morning in a lot of products for me, ended up turning into another RED shake out. I say shake out, because this is futures, and as most of these products did not expire today and continue to trade towards their deliverable date — the market can still make it’s move.
I sat in Gold GC, (as I complain and will continue to complain regarding the yellow metal being a forgotten investment) — It still did hold / protect my money relatively – as the algos went out to offer EVERYTHING. Well, almost everything. (It wasn’t quite panic, it seemed quite orderly, but it was orderly selling) — as a general bull, I have a tendency to scalp or swing to the upside in positions, this is no place for me. *But with options and futures, I am able to protect and manage my risk, *as well as I can of course.
Overall, I think we had a classic little holiday shake out today — people are getting ready for the 3 day holiday weekend, as they shout “whoop whoop” at 3:33 on the trading floor of the NYSE. ***THIS WILL ALL BE OLD NEWS AND FORGOTTEN THE MOMENT WE START TRADING NEXT WEEK. — So might as well look to the future, in the futures— As far as the CME goes, these future products will be open Sunday and trade a half session, that will be trade date through Monday as well. I’ll be sitting in Gold, and a more than a few other commodities and markets that I consistently have been trading positions around. Most would anticipate since its Labor Day holiday trading schedule, maybe, “we won’t move”… But Crude Oil had it’s largest move over that sketchy stretched Thanksgiving holiday trading schedule last year — I wouldn’t be surprised to see some serious swings, so make sure you are there to manage your risk!
Most importantly, enjoy the weekend, the market will be back, it’s not going anywhere, saturday is the only day to truly “take a break”, so MAKE SURE you do so. — I am not a registered investment advisor, so I won’t tell you when or what to buy and sell, but I will tell you that taking a real break is the most important thing you can do for yourself. ***Because once the market opens back up Sunday — it will NOT take a break for you. The market is WON after-hours, not only in the fact that I am sitting here and working extra hours after the closing bell has already rang — but in the fact that I feel just as passionate about taking that break tomorrow.
Let’s try again next week. Have a GREAT weekend! – Happy Trading.
-Bret Rosenthal