What Is The Value Of Trading?
An interesting question that arose during the Chicago trading seminar today was: What is the value of trading beyond making money?It's a question that arises for many traders. So many occupations derive their nobility from contributing to the welfare...
Morning Briefing: A Bit of Resilience
After falling below the overnight lows in pre-opening trade, the S&P 500 e-mini index (ES) has bounced back into that range and the NASDAQ (NQ) index is actually up from yesterday's close. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar has fallen off its morning high...
Four Consecutive Day of Consistent Strength: What Has The Next Day Brought?
With the recent market rally, we have seen four consecutive days in the S&P 500 Index (SPY) in which we have had higher highs, higher lows, and higher closes. That is consistent strength.Going back to 2000, we have had 39 such four-day periods of ...
Evening Briefing for July 16th
* MARKET THEMES FOR THURSDAY: The high momentum rise continued, fueled by positive earnings news, as averages challenged--and in some cases pierced--their prior bull market highs. The move was accompanied by a weaker U.S. dollar and firmer oil price...
When Range Trades Break to the Upside: What To Look For
Here we can see the upside breakout in ES; note on the Market Delta display how we had built volume in the price area between 926 and 929. As we broke higher, you can see within the bars that we expanded volume (and volume transacted at the offer pric...
Three Questions to Ask in a Trading Range
When trading in a range, one of the most decisions that a trader must make is whether the range will persist or whether we will sustain a breakout from the range.Here are a few things worth looking at:1) As the range trade proceeds, is volume (especia...
Morning Briefing for July 16th: Back in the Range
Note how the bounce on the morning jobless number reversed and took us back into the overnight range in ES (bottom chart), as we now trade near VWAP. That price rejection in the low 930s sets up an important resistance/reference point for the day's tr...
Consecutive Strong Momentum Days: What Next?
Bears who counted on a breakdown of a seeming head-and-shoulders pattern (another eloquent reminder of the folly of believing that shapes on charts dictate global capital flows) have been taken to the woodshed with a high momentum rise in stocks. Spec...
Evening Briefing for July 15th
* MARKET THEMES FOR WEDNESDAY: Follow-through strength on the heels of a favorable earnings report from INTC set off an upside trend day, as we moved well back into the May/June trading range. The basic risk-seeking themes were in force, with rising...
Questions to Ask While You’re Trading
When trading, you want to be in an active, inquisitive mode, watching how we're trading at the moment, but also the context of the moment's trade. This slide from my Friday seminar presentation summarizes some of the active questions that I pose throu...
Strong Upside Day for Stocks, VIX Higher
A few people have commented that today seems unusual in that stocks are strongly higher, but the VIX has also moved up from yesterday's close. Normally, option-related volatility tends to drop as stocks rise: since 1990, the correlation between one-d...
Midday Briefing: A Quick International Look
Here we can see the same pattern in the international stock indexes as in the U.S.: shares holding their May lows and now rebounding into the May/June trading range. Emerging market stocks (EEM; top chart) have shown impressive support in the 30 area...
