Emini Futures | How To Read Emini Charts

(QQQ)(DIA)(SPY)(GLD)(SLV)

by DeWayne Reeves

The S&P 500 Index SPX dropped 19.64 points, or 1.5%, to 1,338.35, its lowest close since Feb. 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA  fell 125.25 points, or 1%, to 12,695.35, its lowest close since Jan. 31.

The Globex session gapped open lower Sunday night and as the gap closed we issued a Tweet to look for a potential reversal on the S&P Emini Futures @1350 and 12790 on the Dow Emini Futures -

SP 500 Emini Hourly Chart 05/13/12

Dow Emini Hourly Chart 05/13/12

You did get the Tweet - Right?

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How To Read Emini Charts

Emini Futures Charts are clearly confusing at first glance. With a little time and practice they do become readable. There are many flavors and varieties from Candlestick, to Bar, Hourly to Range, and even the more esoteric ones such Heikin-Ashi.

Don't be overwhelmed by the many choices. Start with a basic Daily or Hourly Chart.

Basic Daily Emini Chart

Basic Hourly Emini Chart

On both charts you are given 2 important pieces of information -Price and Time. The first step in learning to read an Emini Chart is understanding where price is now, relative to where it has been. On the Daily Chart each candlestick represents 1 day. The above charts are Globex charts so you are looking at a 24 hour session not just the Wall Street session. On the hourly chart each candle represents 1 hour of time.

On both charts you can clearly see 4 important pieces of price infomation in regards to the unit of time you are observing:

• Open
• High
• Low
• Close

The purpose of learning to read a chart is to determine the current trend or if one even exists, and to understand with some degree of probability, where price may move next. Each chart style and time frame will exhibit unique characteristics which can only be learned over a period of time.

Before you begin to layer on indicators, simply observe price in real time as it unfolds. As the markets are fractal in nature you can watch much smaller time frames down to 1 minute. In the beginning I suggest that you only go as low as a 5 minute chart. With patience and screen time, what appeared initially to be random chaos, will start to emerge as a language the you can understand and read and be excited about.

Every chart tells a story! Go read a few...

Over the next few days we will talk about specific chart types other than the Daily and Hourly.

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