A $100 Day

One hundred dollars. That was the distance the S&P futures
(
SPZ1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

traveled in a roller coaster ride that was one of its wildest of the year.
The contract opened by head-faking to the upside, pulling back, and then
testing the morning top. But in a move that has become common in the pit,
locals keyed off the early high, and when it did not break the morning peak
by more than 1.70, sold and did so with a vengeance.

The contract cascaded 60 handles ($60), but not
without providing other short-selling opportunities along the way. Besides a
play off the double top in the first 45 minutes, the SPZ also triggered an Off The Blocks
short, which you can review by visiting the Futures Education Strategy
section of TradingMarkets.com. The SPZ also provided at least three intraday
Pullback From Low shorting opportunities. Similar setups occurred in the Nasdaq 100 futures

(
NDZ1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and

Dow futures

(
DJZ1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.

After a three-year low in triple-digit territory, the
SPZ then zoomed an impressive 40 handles ($40) higher in a rack-to-rack run
totaling $100.

Poor earnings results from S&P 500 component
Eastman Kodak
(
EK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
exacerbated the downside. But players mindful of the
already oversold condition suggested by the five up-pointing signals from
the Market
Bias Indicators Page
, stood by ready to step on the gas when the market
turned up, forming a marked “V” shaped late rally. The S&P 500
cash fell to test its breakout level in January of 1998. The cash index has
retraced more than 78% of the low-to high peak.

Importantly, stock index futures led the downside-momentum
Implosion-5 List
.

One of the best-performing markets on the upside is the leader of the Momentum-5
List
. December silver
(
SIU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
has been playing catch up with
gold as a store of value in this uncertain market environment. The metal
made good on an Off The Blocks
long entry when it exceeded the high of the opening five-minute-bar range
and catapulted 27.2 higher to 474.5.

A slowdown in air travel, decline in demand for jet fuel, and prospects
for a more rapid slowdown in the US economy due to recent terrorist events
sent energies down sharply for a second day.

Heating oil
(
HOV1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
a contract that sometimes represents a proxy for “distillates”
such as diesel and jet fuel, scored a

New 10-Day Low
yesterday, making it eligible for an Off The Blocks
short entry. Notice how heating oil failed to break above the first
five-minute bar, triggered at the low of the opening, before closing down .0253
at .7190. Unleaded gasoline fared worse, dropping .0407 to .7525.

October sugar
(
SBV1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is another market that scored
a

New 10-Day Low
, and continued its nascent downside momentum by closing 5.2%,
or .40, lower at 7.28. Sweet for the shorts.