Tag Archive for 'YM'

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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Coming this week…

Published on February 27, 2011, 10:22 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

I went small into this end of month, mutual fund and merger Monday with a couple long-term longs and short-term shorts. Cash is a position….as I am unsure with what is happening at the marketplace. 8) Oscar

Lotsa employement news this week, with Challenger and ADP on Wednesday, Jobless Claims and Monster Index on Thursday and the BLS Employment report on Friday. Of course they’ll mix in some PMI, ISM, construction spending and the Beige Book to keep the week jumping.

Futures on Sunday evening are down but not by too much…ES down by 5 and YM down by 40…nothing drastic…yet. US dollar and oil not very active at all. I’ll wait for Europe to open. Guess I’ll check on Oscar.

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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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Rollover

Published on December 8, 2010, 9:33 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

I wish I was writing to say that the market was rolling over. But, not yet. If you are an index futures trader, you know exactly what I mean….the index futures December contracts will rollover on Thursday. That is, the March 2011 contract becomes the front month. So if you are trading ES, YM, TF and/or NQ, it’s time to change to the ‘H11′ contract.

Back to today…did you see those banks/financials takeoff? Wow! Explosive type move. But even with the financials taking off, the markets themselves were pretty tame. The last half hour of trading were strong and it looks like the futures have continued that move well into this evening….YM up +40 and ES up +5. Of course we still have 12 hours before the U.S. cash open.

My net short position is gasping for air and Thursday may be the day to get out…Friday at the latest. Weekly jobless claims tomorrow, China inflation info Thursday night, and consumer sentiment on Friday. Not a whole bunch of economic data but enough to rile markets. And Options expiration next week is upon us again!

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Another disappointing day

Published on August 18, 2010, 10:43 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Sure we ended in the green…and we rallied early in the day with the Dow coming from a 75 point deficit up 142 points! But, there’s always a but, the Dow closed at +9 and the Dow futures (YM) continued to sell off after the cash close. All the index futures closed in the red. These end of day selloffs are getting consistently ugly. :(

We have two chances tomorrow of making some news that moves: Initial Claims and Leading Economic Indicators. I think I’ll sit and wait.

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Wow, that was unexpected!

Published on August 11, 2010, 10:20 pm in Tools and Trading. Closed Tags: , , .

Markets sucked today, diving overnight and then continuing at the open. By the close they erased all their year’s gains! And then CSCO came out with a crappy report, missing expectations and futures crashed…again…going down another 12 points on the S&P (via ES) or 90 points on the Dow (via YM) afterhours. What a pile of bear poopy!

So the Dow is down 1000 points from last week’s high, and feeling a bit uncomfortable. A wise old sage told me the best trades are made while your finger is shaking when you hit ”enter”. So, while that finger was shaking I nibbled on some TNA afterhours for maybe a 3-6 day hold. I’m looking to do some shopping tomorrow (Thursday) to pick up some long positions.

Initial Claims in the morning will be the catalyst for a gap down or just a boring breakeven kind of day. The Stock Trader’s Almanac still gives tomorrow a bear face, but Friday and most of next week gets a bull face.

So I hope you didn’t get hurt too badly today, but better days are in store. Of course, if you’re bear, today was heaven. Thanks for reading and good luck tomorrow!

Oh, and here’s an interesting statistic to keep in mind….

The latest survey shows that three out of four people make up 75% of the population!

Really? 8O

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Here we go!

Published on June 20, 2010, 8:26 pm in Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Now that June options and future contracts have all rolled over, time to move on.

Volume was very low for an options expiration Friday. That USA vs Slovenia soccer match really took a lot of traders out of the mix! :D    Actually, the entire week was a low volume boring time for an opex week. :-(

This week should be a bit more news driven than last. A Fed rates decision is due on Wednesday. During the week we’ll see New Home sales, Durable goods orders, GDP and consumer sentiment…plus a rash of treasury bill auctions.

Futures are taking off Sunday evening!! Dow e-mini (YM) is already up +140, the S&P e-mini (ES) is up +17…if this holds up overnight we will get a big bang at the open! Oil is up almost 2 dollars and other commodities are following suit. Get ready for a rip roarin’ Monday! :mrgreen:

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Got Oil?

Published on May 16, 2010, 7:55 pm in Opinions and Trading. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

With oil so much in the news, I would think that it should be hitting bottom soon…say, $70 maybe? I don’t trade the crude oil futures, so like I said a couple days ago, I’ve added USO UCO into the watchlist….I even nibbled a bit on UCO already. It looks like $10 has been a resistance/support area before.

Here’s a note on USO: Is This Oil ETF Ready For a Bounce? USO

After doing my scans this evening I see a lot of “evening star” setups, which generally means those particular stocks are going down. On the other side, I also found a greater number of hammers, looking for a reversal up on those stocks. Of course, as in all candlesticks signals, we need confirmation in the next candle, no matter which direction you think they may go.

Futures this evening are looking tired with ES down 6 points and YM down 60 points, and oil futures just about where they closed Friday. I went into the weekend on the long side, but in very small positions of UCO SSO and C. Remember, for the past year a down Friday is followed by an up Monday. :mrgreen:

I got some additional reading material for you today:
Impossible Wall Street Fixes

Fear of a Double Dip Could Cause One

The Huge Difference Between The “Flash Crash” And The Crash Of ’87

5 things we still don’t know about the market plunge

Happy trading and I’ll see you in the market!

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