How To Confirm Intraday Strength

  • September 4, 2003
  • Chris Curran

The September S&P
futures (SPU and ESU) opened Wednesday’s session with a +2.25 point
gap to the upside, on follow-through strength from Tuesday’s close.  lthough the
closing PREM was positive, the size of the gap pointed to a good probability of
a gap fill.  Despite some good broker selling at the open that filled the gap,
with First Chicago selling over 800 SPU contracts alone, the contract could not
be held down. 

The intraday TICK, which we’ll cover in my
upcoming

seminar, provided a good confirmation of the futures’ strength, and for
trade entry confirmation, by continually bouncing off the zero mark.  Tuesday’s
session high support at 1,022.75 and R1 resistance at 1028.25 provided the range
for the rest of the session.

The September S&P 500 futures closed Wednesday’s
session with a gain of +5.00 points, and finished in the middle 1/3 of its
range.  Volume was healthy again and estimated at 761,000, which was behind
Tuesday’s pace, but still higher than average. Open interest in the SPU did
decline after Tuesday’s big move, but was probably attributed to longs
liquidating rather than new shorts coming into the market. 

On a daily basis, we got what we wished for with
a narrow consolidation range day above the broken 1,015 resistance, which is now
support.  The contract posted an “evening star” candle, but Thursday will tell
the tale on the pattern’s confirmation.  On an intraday basis, the 60-min chart
continued its “overbought becoming more overbought” way. The 1-min 3-Line Break
chart closed with a long bias and a break price of 1,020.50. 


image src=”https://tradingmarkets.com/media/2003/Curran/cc090403-01.gif” width=”335″ height=”495″ />

On Thursday morning,  we have four economic
reports, starting with Q2 Productivity and Weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30 am ET,
with a consensus of 6.4% and 393,000 respectively. 

Those are followed by two 10 am ET reports: the
ISM Services, with a consensus of 62.0, and Factory Orders, with a consensus of
0.8%.


image src=”https://tradingmarkets.com/media/2003/Curran/cc090403-02.gif” width=”515″ height=”426″ />

Please feel free to email me with any questions
you might have, and have a good trading day on Wednesday!

Chris
Curran

P.S. Spend 3 days with me
trading the E-minis live! 

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