Tag Archive for 'TF'

It’s time for a rollover!

Published on December 7, 2011, 8:30 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Yes, it’s time again to rollover those futures contracts. The Equity Indices: TF, ES, NQ, EMD and YM roll on Thursday at the open from the December 2011 contract to the March 2012 contract. The month code for March is ‘H’. So tomorrow and Friday will be a little rocky as traders move their positions. You can trade the ‘Z’ contracts through next Thursday, but by the end of the day tomorrow, the volume will move to the ‘H’ contract.

Today was a crappy day until the end when indexes moved up to their high of day. Seems like the bulls want to be Santa Claus!

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Rollover

Published on September 7, 2011, 10:37 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

It’s time to rollover all those September index contracts to December! Volume should shift tomorrow and Friday.

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Crazy OpEx Action

Published on July 14, 2011, 11:42 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , .

I’ve learned to trade lightly during OpEx week and stay away from trading on Friday. I also haven’t had much luck with Thursday’s of OpEx, but today was OK. A couple of TF trades that hit according to plan. So I’m doubly giddy because I followed my plan AND I made money…yippee :!:

But, that was all in the early morning…and like yesterday when Uncle Ben helped the market move up, today he removed the foot from his mouth and spoke clearly that the Fed wasn’t going to start up QE3 anytime soon. Traders disappointment started when Ben started talking and lasted all day. The down days still have the higher volume :-(

Options expiration…here we come. Be careful out there!

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Another low volume down day

Published on April 11, 2011, 9:47 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

The indexes xontinue to move down…except for the Dow. It again eeked out a small gain closing in the green. The Russell/TF and Nasdaq/NQ again led the way down….all on low volume, but we’re getting used to that now, especially Mondays.

By the end of the day I had closed all my short positions and am now kicking myself as I look at the futures continuing to move down all evening. Oh well….a profit anyway…just mad it could have been more!

AA earnings were mixed and traded down afterhours. And even though most of the indexes were down, the VIX was down as well…a bit unusual.

Guess I’ll go to bed and get up for the European open. G’nite!

Traders are saying the scariest moment of the second quarter will be on April 27, when Bernanke will hold the first ever press briefing following a monetary policy decision by the central bank.

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Did you feel that?

Published on April 7, 2011, 10:19 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: .

The government had another Jobless Claims report that revised last week’s numbers upward and then said we reduced the number of claims from last week…what a racket. Even so, markets were eager to go up before the market, but, it was a flat opening. And soon, the markets started swaying and prices started to drop into deep crevices. I think the Japanese aftershock was just an excuse for the market to go down.

I was in a long TF trade when the markets started to tank…and thank god for stops! It could have done some damage without them. Hope you use them. On the other hand the drop put my short hedges into the money and was able to grab some protection money. Overall…a good day.

No big economic data news for Friday and next week is a double whopper…the start of earnings season and also options expiration. Have a great Friday and happy trading.

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

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Another snoozer

Published on April 4, 2011, 9:00 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , .

Well, if you thought last Monday was low volume, today has you beat on even lower volume. At least most of the indexes closed in the green….barely. The S&P was up a wopping 46 cents.

Overbought continues to define the market, and oil continues to move up, and gold, and silver. They’re keeping a lid on this market. I’m still thinking a pullback will be beneficial for this bull…something a little lower than today’s little dip.

Not much economic data this week to rile the markets…nor any big earnings reports…all calm until the season kicks off with AA next Monday.

But the semi’s sure got a goose after hours today when TXN said they’d buy NSM. Should look good tomorrow as other techs try to figure out who to buy.

Still got a little long and a little short in equities. Spent half the day just scalping the TF for some pocket change and the rest trying to program an alert into one of my Tradestation indicators. Programming can be so frustrating! 8O

“President Obama spoke about our role in Libya. He’s not sure when the war will end, what happens when we win, or how much it will cost, but other than that it was quite informative.” — Jay Leno

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Dull day, interesting night

Published on February 15, 2011, 10:31 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

No exciting news today….so the market wasn’t either. But, don’t short a dull market. The markets came up off their lows near the end of the day and the future markets continued the up move in early trading after hours.

Also another low volume day, although the volume was higher on the down moves than on the up moves. Wish I could figure this out.

ES and TF hit new highs this evening. YM still lagging. Could be an interesting night as the ES tests a 100% move from the March 2009 lows…all in just 2 years! (666.79 x 2 = 1333.58)

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Sure looked exciting

Published on November 18, 2010, 9:35 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , .

You wouldn’t think of GM as a penny stock, but it sure looked like a pump-n-dump! But the markets were excited about the new IPO and seemed to rally around the government diluting its stake.

Still feeling a bit under the weather, I didn’t do much trading…just a few scalps in ES and TF futures…needed some cash for some cold medicine. 8O

Remember next week is Thanksgiving and usually an up week. Market closed Thursday and open just a few hours on Friday.

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Well, which is it?

Published on September 21, 2010, 8:03 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

One day after an official announcement from the NBER, that the recession ended last year, the FOMC says they are willing and able to do more quantitative easing to help us get out of the recession. So which is it?…are we in or are we out?

I tried trading TF, the Russell futures contract today to no avail…twice at bat and twice I struck out. I think greed got the better of me. My first trade was about a half hour before the FOMC came out. I went long with a tight 9 tick stop. I had made it up to a +5 ticks, but watched it go down to get stopped out.

Once stopped, I then watched TF take off after the announcement without me. I could have made +80 ticks easy if not more. I was still stinging from the stop out and took no action.

The second play was about a 15 minutes later after a small pullback….another long position with a 21 tick stop. This time I watched it go up +16 ticks, didn’t take profits, and watched it retreat before I stopped out. I may have timed it all wrong, but reviewing my trades I would have to blame it on greed…probably the worst emotion to deal with other than fear. Gotta get control of that stuff.

This evening the Q’s are hurting after ADBE came out with some ugly guidance…ADBE is down 16% after hours. Nasdaq was leading the rally, will it lead the pullback?

Oh well! Tomorrow’s another day. Happy trading.

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Smokin’

Published on July 7, 2010, 10:58 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Lots of trading today….all in S&P (ES) and Russell (TF) emini futures. What a fantastic day! And my oil play via UCO, although still under water, can actually see the surface of the water. :lol:

Okay, now what? We need to see some confirmation, but after a big move like today maybe a breather is in order. Some sideways meandering would not be a bad thing, nor would a small pullback.

My biggest problem, still, is DRYS, it’s been sinking for weeks, along with the BDI. The Baltic Dry Index has fallen for the 30th consecutive session. It is the longest decline in six years. During this swoon, the index has fallen 50% from May 26th.

Here’s some bullish thoughts:
Why Jeff Rubin still sees triple-digit oil prices by 2011

Altucher says S&P ready for 1500

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