It’s that time again to take a look and some longer time frame charts in order to evaluate the shorter time frame trading action.

 One of the things I love the most about the markets and trading is the repetition.  When I see the same patterns develop over and over again and recognize these patterns as the very same ones that have delivered profits in the past, I cant help but get excited about the profits to come.

 While some may feel bored by this, it is precisely this phenomenon that allows us to profit from the markets.

 Humans are creatures of habit, doing the same thing over and over, making the same mistakes over and over…. creating the same chart patterns over and over.

Below is one of my favorite that I have shared with you before..

 A situation, that if you were in our chat room in the last week you heard me caution you about the "retail rally" the "Johnny Come Lately"

 In short, a market cannot sustain new highs without broad market participation. The "Tardy to the Party" retail investor has been buying the highs since the beginning of time.. this time is no different

 The SP’s have been diverging on every new high since last August.

The  launch to 1,000 left us an untested relative low at around 980

The ADV-DECL reached its highs of approx. 2400 on that summer rally, but we have not been able retest the ADV-DECL highs on any of the subsequent highs…  There has been less and less participation on each new high! Guess who got is last…..

 

see my chart

I have been a member a little over a year. I am impressed with the dedication of Greg and his fellow Moderators in providing excellent guidance and support that pays off with profit and peace of mind. Bless you all. AND, the biggest plus is they keep adding new and exciting materials. The newest addition is the 5 X 5 scalper, which for me has been "the instant profit machine " Angel ( AKA Robert M)

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Learn more about TheTradingZone and the unique trading methods developed by Greg Weitzman, by listening to this intererview below.

This is a 3 part interview conducted with Ben Lichtenstein of Traders Audio.
Traders Audio, the leading distributor of squawk box audio for traders, provides live coverage of all the pit action as it unfolds throughout the trading day!

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The new year is here and the S&P 500 continued to push higher and test contract highs over the slow holiday trading sessions before the New Year.

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OPEX brings many new risks to speculative traders that most other trading days do not.
Simply put it is 1 of 4 days of the year (actually 3 days of 12 as the effects of roll over tend to last for 3 days) when all the larger institutional traders Must come to the market and adjust their positions.
On every other trading day the institutional traders can chose to trade or not trade, however on roll over / OPEX this is not the case. As contracts will expire and cease to exist, they therefore must adjust, or "Roll" their contracts forward into new contract months.

In addition, knowing that the institutions will be present and active, there exists a group of traders who specifically take advantage of this dynamic. They are called Spreaders.
A spreader will take a position in both the back month and front month, (the outgoing and incoming contract) in order to scalp or play the spread between the two.
Spread trading requires a very specific skill set and is not for the average day trader or fain of heart.

The 3 days leading ip to OPEX day (3rd Friday), will act differently than most other trading days, and the reasons why have just been explained above. The influence of large institutional trading coupled with spread traders makes navigating the landscape more challenging than other trading days.

Keep in mind that for futures traders the effect of OPEX witll hit the market on the Tuesday  or Wednesday prior to the Friday Expiration. Even though the actual contracts will expire on the 3rd Friday of the month, the institutions must plan ahead for this, and that means the 2 sided effect of OPEX will be seen a few days earlier.

For more information on trading futures contract rollover see this post

On Friday, the S&P 500 pushed to contract highs only to reject those levels and have a major sell off the remainder of the day.  Also to note, the dollar rallied to monthly highs and metals had a major sell off. 

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 The emini S&P market held value yesterday after trying to test lower value and did not find any interest.

Take a 2 week trial of our trading chat room.  Watch the Trading Zone methodology and trades called LIVE and REAL TIME. 

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Note: The 5 x 5 is set to be released 1^st wk of Jan 2010.
Get in today and benefit from 2009 pricing!

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