trading advantage

In 2002 a film entered movie theatres across the country and quickly became successful for its comedic value and charm: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Whats playing out on Fraud Street and in every political chamber of the world is not a comedy, but a tragedy. If this tragedy had a name it...

After the long weekend, its time to get back to reality. And reality can be quiet sobering. Last Friday the S&P futures closed at the lowest levels of the week. Last Monday's surge provided all the pump for what seemed a hopium filled few days. In addition, Fridays volume and volatility were...

One of the biggest moments for the markets can come when there is a key news release or fresh fundamental data. Buyers and sellers seem to wrestle with the potential outcome, and in the case of larger announcements, volatility goes through the roof. The problem that I see some traders struggle...

Sorry Fraud street bankers, your friends at the Treasury may be limiting your access to the golden goose. According to a report released by Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-treasuries-china-idUSBRE84K11720120521), China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S...

The world of trading has many parts that seem a little foreign to new traders. There are plenty of catch phrases, symbols, and other banter that can be intimidating or even confusing at first. One of the biggest sources of confusion includes the shorthand that you see for many markets...

The world of trading has many parts that seem a little foreign to new traders. There are plenty of catch phrases, symbols, and other banter that can be intimidating or even confusing at first. One of the biggest sources of confusion includes the shorthand that you see for many markets...

In my opinion, every trade you consider should be laid out ahead of time with a roadmap. A complete map should have an off ramp or a place where it makes sense to enter the market. It should also have exits for your destination (profits) as well as off ramps for emergency exits. This part of...

Before we get to the moral hazard piece, I have to mention rollover. Thursday is the first day of rollover, which is when the March ES futures contract changes (rolls) to June. We call it top step in the pit. In the past we would trade the new June contract on its first day (Thursday) but now...

On the heels of another MASSIVE European continent sovereign downgrade, plus the promise of UK & French downgrades, the market was saved again with a rumor. It wasn't just any rumor though, but the same old nonsensical Greek bailout rumor that never seems to grow old. With only a few minutes...

I think trading with a specific plan is one of the most sensible things a trader can do. It helps you learn and identify key areas to watch for in a market. More importantly, it helps you avoid sabotaging yourself because it helps keep your emotions in check. One of the key components of a...

The market continues to wait on the news of the next Greek bailout. Each day that something might happen, the market grinds higher. When that something falls flat, the market goes flat again. After an early slide this morning, the market received the headlines below from Bloomberg and resumed...

You have often heard me say that the market is rigged, which it most certainly is via the Federal Reserves overall interest rate engineering, as well as outright manipulations through quantitative easing (QE), backdoor bailouts, POMO, massive swap lines, etc. Many of you believe that...

Last Friday the European continent was (essentially) completely downgraded. Standard & Poors slammed the region with NINE downgrades some one notch and others two notches. S&P cut the ratings of Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal by two notches while the ratings of France, Austria, Malta...

The market is dead. Continuing with last weeks theme there was no volume, no volatility, and no action of any kind. If the market isnt dead, it sure is in a very deep slumber. The range has been so tight for so long that when it does wake up, or come back to life, it should do so with a...

I had high hopes for Mondays trade when I said Are enough traders home from their holidays to make for good trading Monday? Thats a close call in my opinion; however, there just may be enough scheduled economic data releases, including the Fed, to make our first day of 2012 a good one...

Fridays early trade was higher on general optimism. The early rally ran into resistance and started its normal sideways (lack of) trend. Shortly into this sideways zone the news hit: lawsuits. On the face of it you wouldnt expect the news to drive down equities, but this is the only thing...

The market fell again Tuesday and although three down days in four is nothing for central banksters to truly worry about (and there is plenty of lower support in the S&P) it nevertheless is not going according to plan. The Feds QE1 plan did work it saved the markets from total annihilation...

Understanding support and resistance levels is an extremely important technical skill in any market, and I think it's absolutely critical if you plan on trading the S&P E-Mini market. Professional Floor Traders are aware of an entire range of major and minor support and resistance levels before...

Let me introduce you to one simple technique I've used to pick intraday market direction with 80% accuracy. Would you like to know if a particular trade has an 80% probability of working? Would you like to know exactly where to enter that trade, and where to exit? Would you like to trade this...

Monday was another Ramp & Camp day: it ramped higher on very low volume and set up a camp site. The volatility was ridiculously low again. For the vast majority of the session, the ES traded in a scant 3.50 point range despite being up over 35.00 points. All of it happened on Globex...