Emini Futures | Learning To Trade The New Markets
March 26, 2012 at 6:24 PM (QQQQ)(DIA)(SPY)(GLD)(AAPL)
The E-Mini S&P 500 Emini Futures broke through the $1408.00 previous high and climbed to $1415.50! Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke today about continuing the central bank’s accommodative monetary policy to further improve the US job market. Chairman Bernanke addressed the National Association for Business Economics further confirming the ‘extended period’ was still in place for some time to come or the projected 2014. The National Association of Realtors reported that the Pending Home Sales Index decreased by 0.5% to 96.5. Forecasts had been for an increase of 1.0 % in February after the 2.0 % increase in January.
Tomorrow, the Conference Board of Consumer Confidence forecasts 66.0 – 70.3 while the prior reading came in at 70.8 which would be a modest decline. The risk assets gained the allocations for today weakening the US Dollar and the US T-Bonds. The E-Mini S&P 500 has risen since December 2011 with no healthy retracement. It may now be a matter of following the volume to see that the market is supported at these levels. $1437.00 may be the next substantial resistance.
S&P500 Emini Futures
S&P 500 Emini Futures (ES) 03/26/12
As we ended the Daily Live Broadcast today we suggested that the path of least resistance could very well be up once again. We drew a horizontal line on the Emini Chart above @ 1406.00 and suggested that buying on a stop at that level might set the stage for participation in a move higher.
Learning To Trade The New Markets
While we certainly don't think of the S&P500 as a new market, traders around the world are now being forced to rethink the methods they've used for many years to successfully daytrade this market. So while it's still the same beast, its behaviour has certainly changed. Unlike the back and forth swings we've become accustomed to over the years, we are seeing more of a multi-hour low range consolidation followed by a very fast pop or drop that often doubles or even triples the range thus far inside of an hourly candle or two.
Do we have BATS in our belfry? Perhaps we do.... As you may or may not know, BATS is an exchange that caters to HFT (High Frequency Trading). During its IPO last Friday, BATS flash crashed Apple as well as its own stock, knocking it down from its IPO price of $15 per share to less than 4 cents at one point. The NASDAQ quickly erased all those trades and allowed BATS to cancel their IPO.
Last year BATS accounted for 10% of all US stock trades, processing an average of 29,000 trades per second. Investors are becoming suspicious because whenever these "fat finger" or "false print" trades happen, they do so on the downside and benefit the hedge funds running computer driven algorithms through high frequency trading platforms like BATS, the largest of the independent exchanges.
So what's a 5 lot trader to do? The answer to that question is yet to be answered. For now we keep our eye on the chart and our ear to the ground. Join us in our Live Emini Trading Room as we await the next installment of the Vampire Diaries. (garlic cloves provided)
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