What’s Up, What’s Down: Spotlight on Grains

Comments for August 17, 2011

Looking ahead to Wednesday by reflecting back on Tuesday’s trading

Futures and options trading is speculative in nature and involves substantial risk of loss. Futures and options trading is not suitable for all investors

IS CORN THE STRONGEST IN THE GRAIN COMPLEX?

FUTURES AND OPTIONS TRADING IS SPECULATIVE IN NATURE AND INVOLVES SUBSTANTIAL RISK OF LOSS. FUTURES AND OPTIONS TRADING IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.

GRAINS: 8/17/11 Higher closes yesterday for oats, corn, rough rice, soymeal, soyoil, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Chicago wheat while slightly lower for soybeans. We’ve seen consolidation in choppy action over the last month or so in the wheat complex in general but now all of the wheat have been breaking out of their trading ranges except Chicago which is right on the edge just missing a buy signal while causing me to remove my sell signal and stand aside for now. Minneapolis made its highest high and close since the middle of June with good resistance over 920 and support below 860 basis the Sept. contract. KC had its best close since June 21st with resistance over 880 and support under 800. Finally Chicago made its best high and close since the middle of June now near a buy signal while forcing me to remove my sell and stay on the sidelines at this time. Oats settled higher(best in 10 trading sessions) for the sixth session in a row but changing nothing in my opinion while been moving down overall with lower highs and lows since last April. There’s good resistance from 360 to 375 basis December contract. Rice settled with its second best close again even though it was just slightly higher and giving me a BUY signal while in a long-term uptrend for quite a while. Corn made another new CONTRACT HIGH AND CLOSE consistently remaining the strongest of the grain complex. The meal and oil closed higher while the beans settled slightly lower but with no changes technically as far as I can tell. the meal made its highest close nine sessions whil oil in six. Meanwhile, the beans and meal remain in a large trading range since the beginning of the year and oil continues to look lower overall making lower highs and lows since last April. BUY SIGNALS FOR MINNEAPOLIS AND KANSAS CITY WHEAT ALONG WITH ROUGH RICE AND CORN. SELL SIGNALS FOR OATS AND SOYOIL. CALL FOR DETAILS!

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“A good plan is like a roadmap; it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there” (H. Stanley Judd). Traders need a trading plan too. Download my TRADING PLAN TEMPLATE by clicking this link or copying and pasting it into your browser:

https://www.zaner.com/3.0/ljstradingplantemplate.asp

 Rick Alexander has been a broker and analyst in the futures business for over thirty years. He is a Vice-President for Sales and Trading at the Zaner Group (www.zaner.com) a Chicago-based futures brokerage firm. Email Rick at ralexander@zaner.com or call toll-free (888) 281-4158.

Futures and options trading is speculative in nature and involves substantial risk of loss. Futures and options trading is not suitable for all investors. The information in this Report and the opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. All known news and events have already been factored into the price of the underlying commodities discussed.