Two Things I’ll Be Looking For Today
The December S&P futures
(SPZ and ESZ) opened Monday’s session with a very minor gap to the
upside, basically
ignoring a rise in a regional manufacturing index, as well as a slew of new
analyst upgrades. Good broker selling pressured the futures early, but the lack
of volume allowed them to spring back each time the selling subsided. After a
few attempts to break tough resistance at Friday’s high in the 1,018 area, the
buyers gave up, and the contract spent the remainder of the session married to
its Daily Pivot at 1,013.25. The key to days like Monday are to be aware that
we’re in a channel and to realize that the futures are going nowhere until the
channel is broken. Keeping the losses at a minimum and not trading out of sheer
boredom assures that you’ll be around to play tomorrow.
The December S&P 500 futures closed Monday’s
session with a loss of -4.25 points, and finished in the bottom 1/3 of its daily
range. Volume in the ES was estimated at 540,000, which was behind Friday’s
pace, but still above the daily average. On a daily basis, the contract posted
an inside day and is forming a bear flag that would be confirmed with a break of
its 20-day MA at 1,008.75, On an intraday basis, the 60-min chart closed testing
the lower trend line of a symmetrical triangle (see chart).
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On Tuesday morning, we have the August Consumer
Price Index at 8:30 am ET, with a consensus of 0.3% and 0.2% for the core. The
FOMC also meets on Tuesday to discuss its monetary policy, and although interest
rates are expected to be left alone, the Fed’s policy bias statement will be
closely followed for acknowledgement of the continuing beleaguered labor
situation. With Monday’s
anemic range, I’ll be looking for some range expansion on Tuesday and even
possibly a trend (a what??) after the FOMC announcement.
I will be heading to Los Angeles on Tuesday for
the rest of the week, and it’s not too late if you’d like to join me and an
exclusive group of traders in a very personal and unique three days of E-mini
trading, click
here.
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Please feel free to email me at
chrisc@tradingmarkets.com with
any questions you might have, and have a good week of trading!!
P.S. Spend 3 days with me
trading the E-minis live!
Click here for details.