SidewaysMarkets.com│Profitable Day Trading Strategies Blog

Consumer Sentiment Day Trading Crude Oil and Euro Futures

2012-01-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

Our day trading strategy for trading the futures markets is a little different on a Friday. We know there will be small 'windows of opportunity' throughout the day and its up to us to get in early, be selective, and get out early before the market falls asleep after 1130am EST.

Our trading strategy this morning used a very familiar price structure; price wedge and inside the range from yesturday. This SCREAMS at us 'fade the highs' and 'buy the lows' and we ultimately look for failed breakouts all morning long.

Trades Called in Our Trade Room

The Dollar Index helped confirm this day trading strategy this morning when we noticed our intra-day timeframes were trading in a price wedge, inside the range from thursday, and when the DOLLAR is doing this, on a friday we really need to be careful not to over-trade becuase we can see a sloppy, range-bound day coming a mile ahead of time.

Dollar Index Day Trading Strategy @ 730am

Our day trading strategy for crude oil futures was pretty simple; avoid the middle of the wedge, and wait for price to move higher or lower so we can sell the highs and buy the lows. Remember, the middle of the wedge also had the 100.00 big round number, and the 12:00am EST Open of the day (for us at least) and we knew that the middle of this wedge would be a definate magnet for price to move towards, especially if you waited for the volume to drop a little end of the morning.

Crude Oil Day Trading Strategy @ 730am

We were 200% correct in this day trading strategy and we used the clues we got at 730am EST with our morning day trading prep to earn some great profit today. I personally fell victim to over-thinking the news this morning (follow the plan JJ!) and certainly left some money on the table, but in the end our members in the trade room got a chance to learn and earn with me in a classic example of a friday in the markets.

Did you miss the action today? We will be opening our trade room again on Monday @ 730am EST and we look forward to helping you learn how we trade, make some money, and maybe even have some fun along the way.

Starting next week we will have more up-dates on the Automated Trading Systems we use, this was a busy week with a new support team getting trained, so thanks for the patience regarding the performance reports for the auto-trader (which had an incrdedible week!)

See you Monday! Follow the plan Stan! :)

day trading strategies weekly review

2012-01-27T17:06:00.002-05:00

- A tone of uncertainty overtook global marketsthis week, as investors contemplated the ambiguous growth outlook for 2012.Trading pivoted around the FOMC rate decision and press conference onWednesday. The Fed once again moved the goal posts on its "extendedperiod," saying that rates would remain low until late 2014 (recall thatit was only last August when the Fed introduced the mid-2013 language). It alsotempered its economic forecasts, warning of lower US GDP growth and higherunemployment rates over the next two years. PIMCO's Bill Gross called theFOMC's low rate pledge extension the equivalent to QE 2.5 and suggested thatthe Fed may be preparing additional easing to boot. Before the Fed move, theIMF lowered its 2012 global GDP forecast (to 3.3% v 4.0% prior) and IMF ChiefChristine Lagarde warned that the global economy could be in danger of slidinginto a "1930s moment." Data out on Friday showed that US GDP grew2.8% in Q4, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8% in Q3 and the quickest pacesince the second quarter of 2010, although still less than expected, and thequality of the growth was questioned as unsustainable inventory builds were amajor contributor to the number. In Europe, negotiations between Greece and itsprivate creditors were much in the news, and it appears that officials have seta final deadline of February 15th to announce a deal, with hopes that finaldetails can be worked out this weekend. For the week the DJIA lost 0.5%, theNASDAQ gained 1.1%, and the S&P 500 was up less than 0.1%.

- Negotiations between the Greek government andits private creditors were a major focus this week. Talks between the two sideshave been ongoing for months, and by Friday, the Greek finance minister statedthat the final deadline for a deal was February 15th. At the Ecofin meeting onTuesday, euro zone finance ministers hashed out the debt restructuring termsthey could accept. Creditors, represented by the Institute of InternationalFinance's (IIF) made their maximum offer, although the real outstanding issuewas whether Greece would apply a collective action clause, which would force creditorsto accept a write-down or whether the deal would remain "voluntary."The other major outstanding issue is the coupon on the new debt to be issued,while various legal issues are also seen as potential hurdles to an agreement.The talks stalled several times throughout the week, but optimism about thechanges for a deal remained in place heading into the weekend. There is stillplenty of skepticism about Greece, deal or no deal. German Chancellor Merkelsaid that she did not believe the existing multi-billion dollar bailout coupledwith austerity measures were working after two years of crisis. MeanwhileS&P's Chambers said that Greece would likely be downgraded to selectivedefault in the first half of 2012, calling the move a matter of "when, notif."

- The FOMC post-rate decision statement determined the fate of the greenbackthis week. Analysts said that if the committee adopted inflation targeting,EUR/USD could retake the 1.3250 area, while no inflation targeting wouldprovide the EUR/USD with momentum to test the low 1.2800's. The Fed explicitlycommitted itself to an inflation target with the decision, and EUR/USD wasabove 1.3200 by Friday. The extension of the extended period to 2014 didn'thelp the dollar, either, and by week's end the greenback was at one-month lowsagainst the GBP and two-month lows against the CHF. Note also that euro shortpositions hit their fourth consecutive weekly high .

See everyone back in our live trade room on Monday @ 730am est.

Russell Day Trading Strategy uses the sellers failing at 930am

2012-01-27T11:20:00.001-05:00

We saw the sellers failing on the Russell this morning at 930am est and we use that along with our Inside Day/Outside Day trading strategy to expect the PHOD to be tested.

Russell Day Trading Strategy

euro day trading strategy using our wave trade plan

2012-01-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

Our Euro Queen using her Wave Trade Plan exclusively on the US Bonds futures! Great work Anita!

US Bonds Day Trading Strategy

Russell Day Trading Strategy uses a price wedge and the trading range from thursday to formulate our plan for this morning. Buy the lows, sell the highs, avoid the middle of the wedge.

Russell Day Trading Plan

day trading strategy consumer sentiment and GDP

2012-01-27T08:18:00.001-05:00

Our day trading strategy this morning begins with the dollar index, and we use the faster timeframes to find the short term trend and the major turning points in the market.

The first thing we see with the dollar is the price wedge, and inside the range from thursday tells us this wedge is a BIG RED FLAG of sloppy, sideways, and consolidated price action on the markets we trade most. This can quickly change to a trending market, but beware trading will be higher risk until this wedge is at least testing the highs or lows.

Dollar Index trading strategy

Crude Oil futures day trading strategy uses the 89-range chart to find the most important levels of support and resistance as well as define where our highest percentage areas to trade will be.

Crude Oil Day Trading Strategy

Now we use the faster 34-range chart to find the specific locations and the entry points we need for our trades. We see the inside day, the price wedge major and minor, and we see levels of support below and resistance levels overhead. With the inside day and the dollar in a wedge, we need to FADE the breakouts, which means as price rises we look to sell, and as price falls we look to buy.

If price rises we sell the wedge highs at 100.89 and then the PHOD 101.39. As price is rising im selling first, and then if the buyers are clearly in control we can buy a pullback.
If prices fall we will buy the wedge lows at 99.40, the PLOD 99.23 and if the sellers are too strong we will sell retracements with new lower lows below the PLOD. On the way down we will sell retracements taking profit at 98.55 and the trend lines as support around 98.00 where we expect to see buying opportunities at the wedge lows.

We finalize our day trading strategy for crude oil with the 21-range chart and it clearly shows us our specific entry levels and where we want to find our highest percentage trades this morning. Buy the lows, sell the highs, avoid the middle.

The Euro currency futures are giving us a challenge this morning developing our trading strategy this morning with a strong bull price channel, and 2 major trigger zones above us, which give us a clue the overhead resistance is going to be quite strong. We are inside the range from thursday so we want to buy the channel lows, and buy the PLOD as support.

The key to trading the euro this morning will be waiting to sell below the PLOD and then buy the channel lows, and if price rises we want to sell the PHOD and sell the 1.3186, 1.3210, and 1.3224 resistance overhead.

Euro day trading strategy

The Euro day trading plan uses the inside day, the bull price channel and the price wedge as our guide. Also remember the euro is tied to the dollar index, so look for the dollar to be moving opposite to the euro and when the dollar has room to 'run' so will the euro, so use the turning points on the dollar index for possible reversal points on the euro.

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-27T07:46:00.003-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-Greeceto continue debt discussions with creditors Friday

-Concerns that Greece's funding needs might be bigger than originally thought

-Fitch end of month review deadline looms for 6 European sovereigns

-China to return from week-long Lunar New Year holiday

-European equity indices opened the session lower, but have since pared losseson renewed hopes that a Greek debt agreement might be reached in the next fewdays. European banks are currently trading mixed, with French banksunderperforming. Greek banks have risen by over 10%, amid the ongoing talksbetween Greece's government and its private sector creditors. Additionally, aGreek press report said that the Troika officials were said to have loweredtheir capital demands for Greek banks.

Speakers:

- Iran parliament todiscuss Emergency Bill Sunday which will halt oil exports to Europe from nextweek

-Renewed reports circulated that Greece's creditors were nearing a deal on PSIrelated to a lower coupon. Greece PM and IIF head Dallara to meet again todayat 16:30 GMT in relation to PSI talks

- EU Commissioner Rehn stated that he expecteda Greek PSI either today or at some pojnt over the weekend

-ECB's Gonzalez-Paramo reiterated the view that ECB had not said that interestrates were at a minimum level as rates would be as high or low in order toensure price stability

-Spain Econ Min de Guindos commented that the Euro zone could withstand Greekdefault in comments from a press interview in Davos, Switzerland. He noted thatunemployment was the main source of vulnerability for Spain and the countrymust increase banking consolidation. He reiterates that Spain would not usetaxpayer funds for banks. Banks could absorb €50B provision on their own andthat Spanish banks had already began increasing provisions.

-German Finance Ministry reports its 2011 tax revenues which saw total revenuesrising 7.9% y/y and Federal taxes rising by 9.8% y/y. The Ministry noted thatGermany must continue on path of budget consolidation and reiterated the viewthat economic growth to regain momentum during 2012 year

-German Econ Min Roesler commented that there was no need to discuss greaterEuro Zone contribution for Greece or size of ESM at this time and stressed thatmust put in place the EU's December agreement. He clarified that could talkabout more Greek measures if current plan wais not enough and that Greece musttake steps to boost its competitiveness

-Euro Zone panel (World Economic Forum) comprised of German Fin Min Schaeuble,France Fin Min Baroin, Spain's Econ Min De Guindos and EU Commissioner Rehnreiterated numerous themes addressed in recent weeks on the Eurpean debtcrisis, Greece debt swap discussions, Fiscal pact and growth.

-ECB's Gonzalez-Paramo commented that Spanish labor reform was necessary foremployment growth

-Sweden Fin Min Borg commented at Davos that Greece was destroying itscredibility with investors because it was not carrying out fiscal reformquickly enough. He noted that the ECB should not be forced to accept losses onits holdings of Greek debt, but should instead be given more breathing room totake action to help resolve the euro zone's debt crisis

-Poland Central Bank Gov Belka commented that he anticipated core inflation toease in 2012 with 2012 GDP growth possible above 3.0%. The weaker PLN currencywould shield exporters from EU slowdown. Polish banking sector was wellcapitalized

-Poland Central Bank's Winiecki commented that the central bank was more likelyto raise interest rates rather than cut them and needed o watch economy closelyin coming months

Currencies:

-The European session focus remained on Greece's debt deal negotiations withoptimism continuing to have an upper hand in sentiment. The EUR/USD probed towards 1.3150 on renewedreports Greece's creditors were nearing a deal on PSI related to a lowercoupon. EU Commissioner Rehn fanned theoptimism when he stated the he expected a Greek PSI either today or at some pointover the weekend.

Political/In the Papers:

-The financial press reported that the Troika was said to have lowered capitaldemands for Greek banks, and asked the country to re-capitalize its banks usinginstruments without voting rights. The banks may be required to have a coretier 1 capital ratio of 10% from 2013, instead of this year, as was demanded asa condition for the May 2010 loan accord.

-Former ECB Board member Bini Smaghi has concerns about the IMF's specialcreditor status, adding that the special creditor status could lead to negativeconsequences that would offset benefits, such as delaying the return of programcountries to market financing.

-The FT summarized yesterday's comments from EU official Rehn regarding the sizeof Greece's second rescue package. The article quoted Rehn as saying that therewas likely to be a need for some increase in official sector funding on thebasis of revised debt sustainability. Rehn declined to say how big the fundingshortfall would be, although he said that increased taxpayer support for Greecewould be "not anything dramatic."

-The Telegraph's Evans-Pritchard looked at concerns related to thesustainability of Portugal's debt levels. According to the Kiel Institute,Portugal needs to have a primary budget surplus of more than 11% of GDP peryear in order to control its debt levels. It suggested that Portugal is in thesame position that Greece was one year ago. The Kiel Institute also believesthat Portugal's needs a debt haircut of 46-56% in order to return its debt tosustainable levels.

-The British government is expected to launch a public and private investmentfund for green energy on Friday. The fund will provide seed finance for aminimum of £3 billion for green energy projects in emerging, and developingcountries.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning weare reminded that Friday’s always make things a little different. Friday’s are all about getting in early,being selective and then looking to make our money on the small windows ofopportunity that come our way from 800-1100am EST. We know price action gets sloppy after 11amEST so we need to keep an eye on the clock.

Thismorning our day begins with a highly-anticipated GDP news at 830am. I'm a trader who doesn’t really get much fromthe GDP number each quarter b/c there are SO many analysts that price-in thepotential news data so when the actual news is released the market usually justchops sideways with very little volatility. I hope I'm wrong on this today, but we typically see a prettydisappointing move from GDP because SO many traders have been working toprepare for it all week.

Youcan see our quarterly GDP took a nose-dive in late 2011 but has beenrebounding, much like the manufacturing indexes and durable goods orders. Will this up trend continue today?

Thebig news today will most likely be the consumer sentiment at 955am EST, whichis more likely to have a dramatic impact on the price action we tradetoday. Consumer sentiment is SUPPOSED tobe the most important thing in the markets and it usually gets us some great opportunities if the numbers come outhigher or lower than estimated. You cansee the consumer sentiment numbers, along with everything else we’ve beenwatching, have been improving over the last 90 days and we will hope to seemore of the same.

Andlastly, we remind ourselves today is Friday so we will be wrapping up ourtrading around 1100am EST this morning and open the floor for questions fromguests and members until around 1230pm EST.

Letshave a great day, its been a profitable week, so lets finish it strong!

Please SHARE this resource withfriends, they want to learn this too!

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I use TradeTheNews.com for my live news data, andI highly recommend it to all of my clients looking for this type of data. We have partnered with TTN to provide a FREETrial of this service by following this link: https://www.tradethenews.com/?affiliate=sot

LiveTrade Room is open, come join us!

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Jobless Claims Day Trading Strategy earns profit with crude oil, euro and Mini-Russell Futures

2012-01-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

Our day tradingstrategy this morning used Jobless Claims news at 830am along with easyclues from dollar index and a simple price wedge structure to earn over 170ticks of profit. We traded 3 differentmarkets this morning, another example of the flexibility our trading methodhas.

The day began with the reaction from the FOMC statementpushing commodities up to their highs and giving us an easy opportunity to waitfor the buyers to fail so we could get short for some easy profits.

We quickly discovered a price wedge structure on crude oilfutures this morning at 745am EST with our morning prep, and with that we plannedour trades ahead of time, and then waited for the opportunity to trade ourplan. We spent over an hour this morninggetting ready for what MIGHT happen later in the morning, and that hard workpaid off BIG.

We took 4 trades andearned over $900usd before 1030am EST this morning by following our simple daytrading strategy using jobless claims and the price wedge as ourguide. 2 of these trades were calledwith exact entry, stop and target using our Fast Track Method, which is theeasiest way to see instant results when you get started as a member. Here’s an example of one of the Fast Tracktrades we called ahead of time for everyone to trade along…

The Mini-Russell gave us an easy winning trade this morning,we gave our members and guests the EXACT entry, stop and profit target on thistrade so EVERYONE could make money with me, and what an exciting way to profitTOGETHER! It was clear at this point ofour morning this method REALLY works for anyone who wants to learn it.

Did you miss theaction with us today? Our team ishere to help get you started with membership, and remember our advancedmembership is a lifetime license that comes with our live trade room, ourauto-trader, and every indicator we’ve developed with all future up-dates.

Don’t waste another month sitting on the sidelines, Februaryis right around the corner and we’re excited to have such profitable tradingopportunities for anyone willing to learn to trade!

Day trading strategy for Jobless Claims and Durable Good Orders

2012-01-26T08:11:00.001-05:00

Our day trading strategy begins with the dollar index, and we use this to locate the short term trend and major turning points in the market. We can see an Outside Day which tells us we have a moving dollar, always good sign to see! We have a bear price channel with a short term DOWN trend.

The biggest clue we get from the dollar index is this bearish trend, and if it continues we know to buy pullbacks on crude oil, gold, euro, russell, etc. Keep an eye on this trend because it can flatten out quickly and we want to avoid trading if it does.

Dollar Index Trading Strategy

We begin our day trading strategy on crude oil with the 89-range chart so we can find the most important levels of support and resistance as well as the price structure we will use today. We know we have a price wedge so sell the highs, avoid the middle, and buy the lows. We know we are above the PHOD so its an outside day, and if it keeps going higher we will have trouble buying the highs of the wedge, but if it goes lower we will sell below the PHOD as a signal the buyers have failed. We also have a double bottom which is telling us exactly where price is likely to go and we are looking to find selling opportunities at the double-bottom resistance levels we have defined overhead.

Crude Oil Day Trading Strategy

using our 34-range chart our day trading strategy on crude oil is well-defined. We want to sell the highs of this wedge and the highs of the new bull price channel. if price rises i am selling at resistance as it rises. If price falls im selling retracements getting into the drop off the highs, and selling below the PHOD as the buyers fail. Beware selling below PHOD if its too close to the channel lows. We want to buy the lows of the channel, and keep looking to buy at support if price falls to new lows below the channel. I wont start looking for selling opportunities until we get below 99.44 and this is because of our price channel day trading strategy.

Crude Oil 21-Range chart shows us the specific price points where we want to trade this morning. The key is using the price wedge, the channel, double-bottom resistance and this possible FAILURE at the highs in our day trading strategy.

Our day trading strategy for the euro uses the 89-range chart to find the price structure, the long term trend, and the most important levels of support and resistance. We have a new bull price channel, and we are at the highs. We are above the PHOD so this is a bullish outside day. We have the dollar correlation which will be very strong with the euro, and any other currency.

We can see the double trigger zones above us, along with the top of the price channel telling us to beware trying to buy at these highs. The best trades here are going to be selling opportunities, and if the buyers keep pushing it higher I will try to wait for them to fail and then give me the chance to sell the overhead resistance at channel highs, 1.3210 and then again at 1.3350. I can buy above 1.3254 but we need more clues for market personality, so we will decide when we get there.

Euro 55-range chart shows us 2 different price structures, the channel break and the channel continuation structures. We have a hard buying with new highs, so looking for selling opportunities at the resistance levels overhead. Follow the green and red cirlces for our specific day trading strategy.

The mini-russell day trading strategy is quite simple using the 89-range chart. We need beware buying into the highs of this price channel, so look to sell at the channel highs and use the AB=CD Reversal Zone as another level to wait for a selling opportunity as the highest percentage. If the buyers fail and we drop below the PHOD we will sell below PHOD down to the trigger line support 785.2 and then down to the channel lows. We will then buy the channel lows.

Russell Day Trading Strategy

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-26T07:28:00.003-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-Fed Chairman Bernanke signals years of low interest rates ahead with potentialmore stimulus.

- US Fed stance appearsto be pro inflationary

-Dow approaching 3 highs

-US Tsy Sec Geithner will not participate in any Obama second term

-Reports that private creditors were willing to accept a lower coupon in the PSInegotiations

- European equityindices opened the session higher, as the US Fed disclosed that 11 out of 17 ofits members saw the FOMC raising the Fed funds rate in 2014 or later.Ahead of the Fed meeting, there were expectations in the market that the Fedwould not raise rates until at least mid-2014. Since the open, indices havecontinued to gain on renewed optimism related to the Greece private sectorinvolvement talks, after a Greek press report, without citing sources, said Greece'sprivate lenders were said to be willing to accept a coupon rate of below 4% onnew Greek bonds. In the past, it was reported that Greece's private lenderswere seeking a coupon of at least 4%.

Speakers:

-Greek Press report stated that private lenders were said to have accepted lowerinterest rate in Greek PSI deal with creditors are said to be willing to accepta coupon rate of below 4% on new Greek bonds. The report did not name sources,but said private sector creditors would submit a new improved offer with an avginterest rate of 3.75%. EU finance ministers had been seeking a rate of no morethan 3.5% and in the past private lenders said that they would not accept lessthan 4%.

-German Fin Min Schaeuble reiterated its view that European crisis must beaddressed at its source during an address to the Bundestag (lower house). Henoted that it was likely that German banks would hit capital goals in June andcould fill capital gaps without aid. The SoFFin was preventive medicine foreuro zone contagion.

-German Econ Min Roesler commented that the ESM rescue fund had 'clearborderlines' and that there was no clear link with its funding and fiscal pact.Germany was doing every thing possible to defend the Euro

-Senior German Official commented that Greece was not on the agenda at the Jan30th EU Leader Summit and did not expect Troika report on second package forGreece to be ready by then

-(ES) Spain Budget Min Montoro commented that Spain was in a recession and itwas worse than Europe's

-Russian Central Bank Deputy Ulyukaev commented that inflationary risks have notdisappeared and that conditions were not appropriate for an interest rate cut.On the reserve currency issue, Russia might diversify into AUD assets in earlyFeb

Currencies:

-FX markets continued to digest the impact of the Fed's extended zero policyguidance from Wednesday. The overalleffect has seen a weaker USD coupled with renewed risk appetite and highercommodity prices. The greenback was at one-month lows against the Euro and GBPand two-month lows against the CHF.

Political/In the Papers:

-The Irish Independent confirmed that the EU Commission will 'carefullyconsider' Ireland's bid to cut the Anglo Irish Bank's bailout costs. The ECBsaid it is open to proposals to replace Anglo Irish Bank's €30B promissorynote, or government IOUs for another instrument. Ireland is paying around 6%(although it could be refinanced at 3% by the EFSF) on the outstanding €31B inpromissory notes, issued mostly to deal with the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.

-Iranian policy maker Emad Hosseini said lawmakers are finalizing a bill to stopall oil trade with Europe. The FT reported that according to Hosseini, if theplan is approved, the government will stop oil sales to Europe before the EUbegins its embargo. The bill could be taken up by parliament before Sunday. OnJanuary 23rd, EU officials agreed to impose an embargo on Iranian oil,including plans to ban Iran's petrochemical shipments from May 1st.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will use the news, and this morning we have alot of action to prepare for. We beginour day with the biggest news at 830am Jobless Claims and Durable Goodsorders. You can see by the chart postedbelow that there has been a steady downtrend in jobless claims over the longterm, but the recent 6 months data shows that 2 weeks ago we were much higherthan expected, and last week we were well below expectations. Both of the last 2 weeks of reports have shownsub-400,000 in the report so they have been very strong, but today’s joblessclaims report will be a confirmation of this downward trend continuing. Now…if only there were some more JOBS alongwith these lower ‘claims’ we would be in business for a recovery!

Jobless Claims 2 years

Jobless Claims 6 months

Lookingat the durable goods orders we can see a very strong correlation to the recentmanufacturing data here in the US. Thelast 10 days we have seen nothing but strong manufacturing data, and this 6months of Durable Goods clearly supports that we have more orders coming in andmore people headed back to work.

Durable Goods 6 months

Movingthrough the US Open at 930am EST we have New Home Sales at 1000am EST. This is considered to be a major news report amongprofessional traders, however, it wont move the market at all because none ofus TRUST this report right now. Too manyinflated figures and ‘window-dressing’ used to spice-up the housing market sothese numbers aren’t tremendously useful, used mostly as background noise tosupport other claims to the economic changes in the US. We can see from the chart below that our NewHome Sales are at 10 year lows, and not looking very promising at this time consideringwe have very little stimulus left in the bank to keep it propped up.

New Home Sales 10 year

At1030am and 1100am today we have some minor news to be aware of. I marked them down because I wanted to knowwhen they were today, but they wont have much impact. Natural Gas Inventories are on our radar, butunless you trade natty-gas you really don’t need to care much about it, andKansas City Fed is another manufacturing index that we like to watch because itwill further confirm/support the Empire State and Philly Fed manufacturingnumbers we saw last week, which were very strong suggesting growth in thatsector of the US economy.

Letsalso remember that today is day 2 of 3 for the WEF Meetings, which is open tothe press so we can expect to hear bits and pieces of news coming out of thesemeetings today and tomorrow, so always on our toes today.

Thismorning we will be wrapping up with members-only after 1130am EST and we lookforward to working with members in training today, so bring questions and beready to learn!

Day Trading News Strategy

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I use TradeTheNews.com for my live news data, andI highly recommend it to all of my clients looking for this type of data. We have partnered with TTN to provide a FREE Trialof this service by following this link: https://www.tradethenews.com/?affiliate=sot

LiveTrade Room is open, come join us!

NeedHelp? Click here for help logging intothe Trade Room

I’malways improving this prep, I appreciate your feedback, please post it here!

Day Trading FOMC Strategy earns easy profit with crude oil and Mini-Russell Futures

2012-01-25T17:56:00.001-05:00

Our FOMC Day trading strategy began thismorning with some simple prep. First, wehave to know that FED-Day is classified by volume early in the morning whichwill quickly taper-off and leave us with sloppy markets after 1130am EST sokeep an eye on the clock.

Trades Called Live in our trade room

Our day tradingstrategy began with the dollar index as we looked for major turning pointsand the short term trend at 730am EST, and the clues we got from the dollarindex was rising price @ 845am est (took us down to the crude oil futures lows)and then price dropped later in the morning after 1030am est (gave us theconfidence to buy the lows of crude oil futures at 1045am). Remember the most important thing when usingthe dollar index trading strategy is understanding we aren’t trying to trade ittick for tick, but focused on the broad moves and when they will likely come toan end.

Dollar Index Trading Strategy

Our day tradingstrategy this morning using crude oil futures was also very simple. We saw a price wedge structure that told usto buy the lows and sell the highs, so all we had to do was wait for price tomove to the lows, or then to the highs.

News came out at 1030am EST for crude oil inventories and weknew it would be a bullish reaction, but we had to wait patiently for an entrytrigger. We didn’t have to wait verylong because we got the entry patterns on all three of our favorite timeframes: 2 step long on the 21range, 8 range and 13range wave patterns long, all of them were winning trades and all of them usedthis simple day trading strategy that we outlined live in our trade room at730am EST.

Crude Oil Day Trading Strategy

The most importantaspect of our day trading strategy this morning was being prepared to takeONLY the trades where we expected to see the best opportunities, and in today’sexample this was when the dollar index was breaking through a ‘turning point’and when crude oil futures were at the highs or lows of the price wedge.

Did you miss theaction today? We offer a 2 week trial for guests to comein and see what we’re all about, and remember as a lifetime advanced member I'mgoing to give you everything you need to replicate these results and tradealong with me every day for exceptional profits. We also have an automated trading system that cando ALL the work for you! Don’t miss thisopportunity!

FOMCDay Trading Strategy Lesson

FOMCDay Trading for Beginner Trader

NewFormat for FOMC Meetings and Rate Announcement

Day trading strategy for FOMC FED Day and Crude Oil Inventories

2012-01-25T08:22:00.000-05:00

Our day trading strategy begins every day with the dollar index, and this morning we see a bull price channel along with an outside day above the PHOD. Both of these tell me to expect rising prices and to look to buy pullbacks with new higher highs. We dont trade the dollar so we will use its negative correlation to make educated decisions.

As we speak the dollar index is above the range from tuesday and at the highs of the price channel. If the dollar index falls off the channel highs we will buy pullbacks on crude oil, euro, gold, russell, etc.

If the dollar index chops around the highs and trades sideways we need to trade very cautiously because that is what we will get on other markets, and if the price goes higher it will likely break through the channel highs and then test the overhead resistance at 80.585 so expect rising prices that will quickly reverse off the major resistance overhead.

Dollar Index Trading Strategy

Crude Oil futures day trading strategy uses the 89-range chart to start our analysis of the trades we want to take today. We can see the AB=CD Pattern is still in play, but we can see the more important price wedge is showing support below us and resistance above us. We have a lot of support with the wedge lows and the major trigger zone below us so looking to buy the current area 98.25-98.50.

If price falls im buying at support until we get below the 96.98 then I will sell retracements as the sellers have broken the price structure and are clearly in charge at that point. I will sell the highs of the wedge as price rises and the 99.43 resistance above the wedge highs. if price keeps moving higher I will buy a pullback above 99.43 with the target long at 100.00 which will be major resistance in the form of the short term trigger zone. I can then buy above 100.45 but beware the fake-out breakout as we are in the mdidle of the bigger wedge.

Crude Oil Day Trading Strategy

Our crude oil 34-range chart gives us much more detail for the specific entry locations for our trades. We are going to use the price wedge as our main focus so sell the highs, buy the lows, avoid the middle and remember to keep an eye out for the fake-out break with new higher highs or lower lows.

We use our faster crude oil 21 range chart to really refine our approach and look for any final patterns and price structures. You can see the new short term trigger zone and the bearish price channel we find on this faster timeframe.

The Euro Currency futures day trading strategy finds a bearish price channel so we expect the price will try to come back down to re-enter the channel, and we can see the inside day along with a very short term price wedge. We want to buy the lows of the wedge, and use the trigger zone as additional support. Remember the Dollar Index correlation is very strong with the euro, so watch that dollar.

Euro Day Trading Strategy

The Euro 34 range chart further defines our trading strategy that will buy the channel lows, sell the highs of the channel, and avoid the middle of this range. If price falls i will be looking to buy the lows of the channel and the wedge. I wont be able to sell without too much until we get below the LOD 1.2933. If price moves higher I will look to enter with a pullback if we cant buy the lows of the wedge and channel. I need to beware trying to over-trade the middle of the range around 1.3000. Wait patiently if price is in the middle and then look to sell the highs. remember to use the dollar index correlation as your guide.

We finalize our eauro day trading strategy with the 21 range chart knowing where the major support is below us, and we need to buy the lows of the wedge, and then sell a retracements only below 1.2930 once we have proof the sellers are strong enough to break the wedge price structure.

The mini russell futures will use the long term bull channel as our guide with our trading strategy this morning. We want to buy the channel lows and the PLOD as support as price falls. We had an early-morning opportunity around 915am EST to sell the PHOD when the buyers failed, and if you missed it we need to wait now.

Mini Russell Trading Strategy

The Russell 34 range chart shows me the specific entry locations and the direction of the trades I need to focus on for the highest percentage opportunities. our day trading strategy using the channel says to buy at support and then with new lower lows look to sell a retracement. As price falls we look to buy the major support at 79.5, and then look to buy the channel lows.

We define our trading strategy on the mini russell with specific entry locations using the 21-range chart. We can see the bullc hannel and the best buying opportunities will be at the 79.5 or if price goes lower at the channel lows around 776.0

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-25T07:35:00.003-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-Apple earnings beat expectations, despite losing its leader in 2011

-Japan does record its first trade deficit since 1980

-European equity indices opened the session higher, but have since pared gainsamid another batch of disappointing corporate earnings, rise in peripheral bondyields (notably Portugal), continued concerns related to the Greek debt talksand caution ahead of the US Fed's interest rate decision due later today.

Speakers:

-EU was said to be losing hope regarding voluntary Greek bond deal and chattercirculated that the ECB might take losses on Greek bond positions

-IMF's Lagarde commented in a French radio interview that if good decisions aretaken at this time it could help revive global economic growth. She noted thatthe Greek financial situation was extremely difficult and stressed that the EUneeded firewalls to prevent contagion in the region. She reiterated thatcombining the EFSF and ESM was a positive idea. Global economy was on a narrowpath with limited room for maneuver.

-IMF Zhu Min commented during CNBC Davos interview that global risks remained onthe downside and reiterated that Europe needed to increase the size of its bailout fund and stressed the need toget the Greek PSI deal done

-German Chancellor Merkel commented in the Spanish press that Europe must takemeasures to increase economic growth and jobs. She reiterated that Germanywanted to keep the euro

-Japan Econ Min Furukawa commented that the Govt shared the same view of economyas the BOJ and reiterated the view that the recent decline in exports was dueto strong yen and slowing global economy. He believed that the trade deficitlast year was due to one-off factors.

-Spain Econ Min Guidos commented that H1 to be very difficult for Spain, thoughmight see some signs of optimism at year end. He noted that a VAT hike was noton the agenda

-German IFO economist Abberger commented that 2012 had started on a positivenote with export and construction sectors were clearly more confident. -Theweak Euro currency has helped. The IFO did not expect Germany to slip intorecession but cautioned the current business situation was less favorablecompare to Dec

-India Central Bank Gov Subbarao commented that interest rate cuts weredependent upon several factors that include Rupee currency, India's deficitbalance and level of inflation

-Bank of England Minutes saw another unanimous vote to keep both interest rateand asset purchases steady. On monetary policy some MPC members thought furtherexpansion of QE was likely to be required but it reiterated the view of nocompelling reason to think that QE impact now materially different from firstround. On inflation the MPC reiterated it would fall sharply in the coming months, but the extent and speed of furtherfall was uncertain. Some saw risk spare capacity greater than assumed in Novinflation report while others saw risks to inflation more finely balanced, lessclear that inflation would fall below target. The minutes had mixed news onenergy prices, as Middle-East raised risk of sharp rise in oil prices.

Currencies:

-The FX price ahead was quiet ahead of the FOMC rate decision but the USD wasfirmer ahead of the NY morning. Dealers did note that the statement could bevital for the USD's direction particularly in regards to inflation targeting.The scenario laid out by various dealers noted that no inflation targeting bythe Fed would provide the greenback with momentum to test the low 1.28's.Conversely any inflation targeting could weaken the greenback towards 1.3250 area in the near future.

Political/In the Papers:

- During the session, the German pressreported that that the EU said to be losing hope regarding voluntary Greek bonddeal. It was added that the ECB may take losses on Greek bond positions.

-The Telegraph's Evans-Pritchard commented on PSI talks related to Greece andthe role that CDS could play. He suggested that EU officials signaled that theywould allow Greece to default unless its private creditors are willing toaccept more pain. The head of the EU Commission's economics team Mario Butisaid the EU is prepared to allow credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek bonds toplay a role if the talks with private creditors do no yield the desiredresults.

-The Ireland's NAMA may disclose its actual loan losses according to the IrishIndependent. The comments follow years of campaigning by Blackrock, CoDublin-based Brian Flanagan, who had requested it include greater transparencyabout loan sizes, and the extent of those losses. Note that NAMA does notprovide any details about individual borrowers or of development projects;there is no plan to modify that, as it has long argued that disclosures as suchwould breach confidentiality.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and today beginswith FOMC/Fed Day on our radar. Todaywill be classified by periods of high and low volume, small windows ofopportunity throughout the day as traders tip-toe around the news ahead of theFOMC Announcement at 12:30pm EST today.

Webegin the day at 815am with an important pres conference from the ECB Presidentwhich is certain to have the Euro moving early this morning. We then move through the 930am EST US marketopen and into the 1000am EST Pending Home Sales report. You can see the trend in home sales has beennarrowing, really not giving us much direction for the near future. We can see higher lows in the data, as wellas lower highs, and with the majority of the homes on the market falling out ofescrow over financing and employment concerns, along with government incentiveswe really don’t trust much housing news these days, however we will be watchingfor it to see if we get any reaction out of the market.

2 year Pending Home Sales

12 mo Pending Home Sales

Thebiggest news of our morning will be crude oil inventories, which are releasedat 1030am EST and we will be sitting on hands trading crude oil futures from1015-1035am EST waiting for the market’s reaction to the news. Remember, we need to stay patient AFTER thenews is released to ensure that we don’t fall victim to the fake-out breakoutthat comes after the news. We alwayslike to FADE the news on crude oil inventories. We can also see crude inventories data has been mixed, with no easytrend to follow. I see triple tops andhigher lows, which suggests less demand, however we will get a better look atthe market personality this morning after 1030am.

2 year CL Inventories

6 mos CL Inventories

To wrap up our day today we will have the FOMCRate Announcement at 12:30pm EST which means we need to be very careful lookingfor trades after 1130am today. Expectthe volume to taper off quickly once the lunchtime hour hits as traders leavethe pit early so they can come back early for the early afternoon report. Remember, the rate announcement is made at1230pm EST and then we have a public news conference with Fed Chairman Bernankeat 2:15pm EST to talk it over with the press. You can see the fed funds rate shown below is at record-breaking lowsand has been for some time now. This isone of the concerns we have for the US recovery, as the Fed has already donealmost everything it can with rates lower than ever, so we HOPE it works!

Fed Funds Rate

Wecan expect to see market reactions both at 1230 and 215pm EST today howevermost professional traders will chose to sit on the sidelines because ofunpredictability and illiquidity of price action making it very dangerous totrade FOMC Day after 1130am EST.

Today's Day Trading Strategy for News

Asalways we will be watching the news closely looking for clues and tradingopportunities today. This morning after1130am EST we will be members-only, so come join us as an advanced member andget unlimited access to our trade room every day.

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Day Trading Strategy ahead of State of Union Address & FOMC Day

2012-01-24T16:26:00.003-05:00

We opened our live trade room at 730am EST this morning with a few big concerns about volume and we got pretty much exactly what we expected. Our day trading strategy requires us to be aware of the news each morning, so we began there.

Trades called Live Today

We knew this evening we had Obama's State of the Union Address, as well as the beginning of the 2-day FOMC Meeting, which will culminate in tomorrow's FOMC Announcement at 12:30pm EST. Either way you slice it, there were two big reasons why major fund managers and your average day trader may be looking for excuses to sit on the sidelines. One thing we know as traders is that when the rest of the markets are on the sidelines we need to do the same, and today we assumed it would be much of the same slop and chop from monday.

We definately werent as low volume as monday morning, and with the few windows of opportunity this morning we certainly made some great trades, starting with just after 900am EST.

The Dollar index trading strategy was the first clue we saw. The dollar index was trading in a bear price channel and when it violated the highs of that channel, we call it a 'turning point', we knew to look for entries to the short side. We earned almost 100 ticks of profit before 10am using that simple trading strategy.

Dollar Index Trading Strategy

Now the challenge late in the morning was not giving this profit back as the markets slowed down after 10am news was released and we saw the market's personality change. We finished up another great day with our members after 1130am EST and had another day of profitable trading.

Did you miss today's live trade room? Join me every morning at 730am est when we open our live trade room and begin our analysis of our favorite futures markets in REAL TIME with trades called live according to our simple methodology that works on any market, timeframe, or asset-class.

Remember THIS trade called live in our trade room this morning? How'd it do?

Euro Day Trading Strategy

day trading strategy using FOMC Day

2012-01-24T08:11:00.000-05:00

Our day trading strategy begins with gathering clues from the dollar index, which will tell us the short term trend so we can trade along with it, as well as major turning points in the market so we can look for price reversals.

This morning we can see the strong bear channel which is NOT our short term trend, the slightly bullish move off the lows has turned sideways and THIS is the short term trend. We do no tsee any short term trend at this time, and we will keep an eye on this.

We can see turning points above and below the dollar index and we are looking for the best opportunities when the dollar index is around these turning points.

Dollar Index 13-Range

Our day trading strategy using crude oil futures uses a price wedge, an AB=CD Pattern, a trigger zone below and the big round number of 100.00 which will act like a magnet.

We are currently trading in the middle of the short term price wedge. We have the big round number of 100.00 above us which will act like a magnet if price rises. We have the major trigger zone support below and we have the AB=CD Projection which is telling us this price wants to go lower.

we will use this chart to find the big picture, see where the most important areas are going to be for our day trading strategy, and now we need a faster timeframe to zoom in and find the details of where and when we will enter our first trades today.

Crude Oil 89 Range

Now using the 34-range chart on crude oil we can narrow down the specific entry locations for our day trading strategy using this price wedge. If price rises im selling the wedge highs and then selling the PHOD. If price goes above the PHOD I will look for the fake-out breakout and then look to buy a pullback with new higher highs. We need to assume it will fail above the PHOD first, and then let the buyers prove us wrong and then we buy pullbacks.

If price falls we can buy wedge lows, and then buy the major support at the lows of the short term trigger zone at 98.45. If price moves quickly through 98.45 it will signal seller strength and we then sell a retracement down to the next support which is a big round number 98.00 and then the biggest magnet is the PLOD where we have a final profit targets at the lows of the wedge which will be a little above the PLOD. If we get to the wedge lows we thenw ant to buy the wedge lows 97.60 area of higher.

Crude Oil 34-Range Chart

Crude Oil 21-range

We finalize our day trading strategy using crude oil futures with the 13-range chart and you can see the new short term bear price channel which will also be our guide for stops and profit targets moving forward.

Crude Oil 13-Range Chart

The Euro day trading strategy uses the 89-range chart as the first stop in the analysis process and we see the inside day using Monday's trading range, along with a price wedge and a trigger zone right in the middle around 2950.

Euro 89 Range Chart

We then open the faster 34-range chart to help us define our exact locations for this day trading strategy. We can see the bull price channel and the trigger zone as major support so we want to use that first. If price rises im buying the lows of the channel and the trigger zone support. I will buy as far down as 1.2955 for the lows of the trigger zone. If price moves below 1.2955 i first look for the fake-out breakout and then with strong selling I sell a retracement with entry below 55. Final target going lower will be the PLOD and Big Round NUmber at 1.2900.

Russell day trading strategy uses the slower 89-range chart to begin our process of locating the best areas for our trades today. We see the bull price channel and the INSIDE DAY above the PLOD and below the PHOD which is a great clue.

Russell 89-Range Chart

The Russell 21-Range chart gives us an easy plan of attack to execute our day trading strategy. We see the bear channel and we sell the highs of the channel. If price moves higher we look to sell at the next level of overhead resistance, use the red dots on your chart. The short term target is the PLOD and then you can hold belowe the PLOD or re-entry short below PLOD taking final profit at the channel lows.

Russell 21-Range chart

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-24T07:37:00.001-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-Japan expected to announce its first trade deficit since 1980 on Wednesday

-Coupon issue sends Greek debt negotiations back to square one

-India cuts is Cash Reserve Ratio by 50bps to 5.50% (not expected); leaves keyrate unchanged

-Major European PMI data improves with several readings back above the pivotal50 level

-Greek sovereign debt negotiations appear to have hit an impasse over theinterest rate on the bonds set to replace existing ones but Greece remainsoptimistic that a deal can be achieved

-European equity indices opened the session lower, led by weakness in Spanishand German equities. The equity weakness comes amid the lingering Greek privatesector involvement (PSI) talks and disappointing corporate earnings.

Speakers:

-UK Treasury commented on the Dec public finance data and noted that UK debtover £1.0T shows the unsustainable level of spending over the past few yearsand was critical to act decisively with the deficit

-India Central Bank (RBI) Gov Subbarao commented that past interest ratetightening was one reason for slower economic growth but also contribute byglobal and local sentiment. The RBI would meet the 10 largest banks to discussbad loans and issue guidelines for hedging. He noted that the State Govt mightborrow INR250B more

-BOJ Gov Shirakawa commented at his post rate decision press conference that theBOJ Board agreed that the timing of Japanese economic recovery was delayed andwould fully watch the risk of JPY currency appreciation. He added that thecentral bank must pay more attention to impact of strong JPY currency on thedomestic economy. He reiterated the view that the European debt crisis remainedbiggest risk to Japan and that concrete plan to strengthen European firewallshad yet to be implemented. He did not believe that Japan's trade deficit wouldcontinue as a trend as the deficit was mainly due to post-quake energy costs.Concerns over global funding has eased somewhat but the Volker rule wouldnegatively affect USD funding

-IMF Chief Lagarde commented in the German press that she saw financing needs of€1 trillion over the next two years as the size needs to be 'very clear andhigh'. She was determined to be positive on the euro and more work needed to bedone. Greece PSI must be substantial and the European fiscal compact needed tobe put in place

-Greece's privatization agency forecasted 2012 revenue of € 4.7B from state asset compared to its € 9.3B target set inthe budget

Currencies:

-The European PMI data came in a touch better than expectations and this helpedthe Euro maintain a firming footing in the early part of the session and offsetfrom the initial lack of progress on Greek debt discussions. Overall dealerssuspected Euro short-covering as the evident excuse. Despite the coupon issueremaining outstanding the Greek Fin Min Venizelos stated that Greece didreceive the 'green light' from Eurogroup on the PSI discussions. The tradingwas choppy overall in a 60+ pip range with EUR/USD testing 1.3063 at one pointafter the PMI data before retreating back under 1.30 handle. The pair was at1.3015 ahead of the NY morning.

Political/In the Papers:

-A report in the financial press noted that a growing number of analysts,economists and politicians are worried that Portugal will need a second bailoutin 2013 when its €9 billion in debt comes due. Currently, the country iscovered for 2012 as long as it follows the bailout plan. The IMF may requirePortugal to present its financing plans before releasing more aid.

-According to Ernst & Young, there were 88 corporate profit warnings in thefourth quarter compared to 51 in the prior quarter. This was the largestquarter-on-quarter increase in 10 years. The profit warnings were led by retailand technology companies. Last year, the software and computer services sectorissued 31 warnings, which was the highest number since 2008.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning wehave a little of the same from Monday morning. Today is marked by two main news events lingering in thebackground. First we have the beginningof the FOMC Meetings, which occur 8 times a year and are considered a toppriority for longer term traders on a macro-economical level. The meeting begins today for the FOMC andtomorrow we will hear what they were talking about at this meeting, so thisnews won’t be released until tomorrow, but the fact that the meeting isunderway will have traders looking for releases from the press for anyinformation that can get their hands on.

Thesecond thing today is the State of the Union Address which is the biggestformal speech the President of the US will make all year, as he outlines theplan for 2012 and paints the expectations of our country during a time whenpeople are thinking double-dip recession in the midst of falling jobless claimsbut stagnant jobs and wages. We can onlyassume that the President will be touching on some major speaking pointstonight and because of that trading will be assumedly light in anticipation ofthat at 9pm EST this evening.

Wedo have some minor news to consider on our calendar today. We begin the day with a minor Retail Sales Reportfrom Canada at 830am EST, followed by the Open of the US markets at 930am EST and1000am EST we have Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index.

Ifyou recal we spend a lot of time watching manufacturing indexes looking forclues to help us day trade crude oil futures and euro currency futures andtoday’s news at 1000am EST isnt that major but its another ‘finger on the pulse’of this industry that is so important. Take a look at the upward movement in this index which looks very similarto that of New York and Philly which we saw last week. This is a good sign for crude oil futures pricemoving higher if this trend continues, and signals more job growth which wewill use to translate news reports we get later in the week.

Wewill finish today a little earlier than normal we assume. With the State of Union on later tonight andthe FOMC meeting underway we assume trading will begin and end light on themorning, and as always we will answer ALL the questions after 1130am EST thismorning with our members.

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day trading strategy without news on Monday morning

2012-01-23T14:57:00.001-05:00

We got our week started this morning with some clear signs of a sloppy monday morning and we used some clues from the dollar index and overall market personality to make an educated decision this morning to stay patient and look for only the best trades this morning gave us.

The day began with us not seeing any major news to consider as a 'catalyst' so our day trading strategy was simple, be prepared to sit on hands before 930am EST waiting for the volume to enter the markets.

We also noticed the dollar index was dropping, but we were at major support, the price channel lows, and we have seen this SO many times before where a sloppy monday without any major news simply SITS on the channel lows and wont go higher OR lower to give us any real trading opportunties.

On tops of the dollar being at the channel lows and ticking down little by little our trading strategy gave us big warning signs with the euro, crude oil, and russell all trading at their respective HIGHS. The highs of a range are so dangerous to trade in a slow and sloppy environment like we saw this morning and that kept us on the sideways for most of it.

The simple fact that the dollar index was sluggish, at the lows of its channel, and moving LOWER meant that the only way we could trade it was to buy the highs on crude, euro, gold, russell, and that simply isnt in our day trading strategy as higher percentage opportunities so we decided to wait.

By the end of the morning we had seen EXACTLY what we assumed would happen, the dollar index restled with the lows, crude oil and euro with the highs and we got some very small opportunities that we were able to capitalize on but very few compared to the exciting week we had last.

Tomorrow we have the State of The Union address and the beginning of the FOMC Meeting which will mean a possible slow day on tuesday. Whatever happens, we will ALWAYS be here trading live with our members starting each day at 730am est ready to make some easy cash from the markets we trade most.

Trades Called LIVE This morning

Day trading stratregy up-date

2012-01-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

1100am EST day trading up-date:

Our concerns over slower speed and low volume this morning without any major news is certainly coming true. We need to think protecting captial first is our trading strategty going into lunch.

We the current market personality we know the dollar index is making this much more difficult and we have a lot of slop and chop that we have expected.

Right now....buying pullback on the Russell 21 range chart, and then looking for the wave to fail as a potential clue for a reversal to sell TF below 783.0 area.

Monday morning day trading strategy

2012-01-23T08:26:00.001-05:00

We begin our week with the dollar index, and our main strategy of using the dollar index is to locate the major turning points and the short term trend. Major turning points tell us where to look for reversals and the short term trend helps us find wave pattern to trade with the trend.

As the dollar index rises off these support levels we look for selling opportunities, and if the dollar index falls through support at these lows we then know to keep buying pullbacks.

Our day trading strategy for crude oil futures uses the 89-range chart to begin the process of finding the price structure, and the highest percentage areas for our trading this morning. We can see the price wedge will be the most important aspect, followed by the PLOD just above us if the sellers are going to fail moving lower, and the double-top support levels below us.

If price keeps moving lower we are looking to sell retracements with new lower lows and a rising dollar, and at the same time looking for short term price reversals off support levels from the double top, from the wedge lows, and from the trigger zone below us.

If price moves higher we want to buy using the dollar index moving lower, the lows of the wedge, and the INSIDE to OUTSIDE day transition which will occur when we get back above the PLOD. Looking to buy above 99.75 as one of the highest percentage trading opportunities today.

It should also be noted that Friday was VERY sloppy in this same area so we need to be on our best trading behaivor this morning waiting for the market to confirm with the dollar index and get the best price patterns to trade.

We open our much faster 34-range chart to execute our day trading strategy on crude oil. We see the price wedge, the INSIDE DAY, and we see the Dollar Index appears to try to move lower. All signs point to rising prices. We can see the major trigger zone above us which was drawn from the highs of 102.30 down to the lows of 97.40 and we can assume that will be a price magnet.

Our goal is to buy pullbacks with new higher highs as the dollar index keeps falling, looking for the higher % trades above 99.50 and then above the 99.85 trigger zone lows.

Our crude oil trading strategy is further refined using the 21-range chart and now we can see exactly the price levels we need to look for entries. We can see the trigger zone above us as a nice easy profit target after buying a pullback with higher highs. We can see the trigger zone below us makes for another easy target if the dollar keeps rising and we move lower lows in crude oil prices so we can sell a retracement.

We are trading in the same sloppy area we last found price on friday afternoon so let this a good location to be extra careful trading crude oil with this strategy this morning.

Our day trading strategy on the euro currency futures uses the dollar index as a highly-correlated market so keep an eye on dollar personality, turning points, and the short term trend before taking euro day trades this morning. The highest percentage trades on the euro will be the result of using the dollar index at the correct locations.

We are above the range from friday this morning, an outside day telling us to buy pullbacks with new higher highs and the dollar index moving lower. We see the trigger zone magnet above us to that is our target 1.3085 with higher prices.

If price moves lower below the PHOD we want to sell it off down to the 2925 support and then hopefully sell again to the PLOD. If the buyers fail above the PHOD we expect the sellers to grab hold and try to re-test the PLOD.

The Euro day trading strategy is further-defined with our 34 range chart. Showing us the channel highs we want to sell these highs, the previous day's trading range below us as the magnet, and lets not dollar is at the lows of its price channel as well. If the dollar rises to new higher highs off the channel lows we can sell thesse channel highs on the euro. Look for minor support at the PHOD so take profit at 1.2989 and then look to re-enter or add to your position short below the PHOD with the next target of the 34r trigger line and then the lows of the trigger zone (green line) which is just above the lows of the bull channel.

If price keeps moving lower we then need to buy the channel lows and the support levels (PLOD) around 1.2880.

The final timeframe on the euro currency futures tells us the higher percentage trades will be to sell these highs of the channel looking for wave failures and 2-step patterns, and then if we cant sell the highs wait patiently and buy the trigger zone support and/or the lows of the bull price channel.

We now move to the e-mini russell futures which we can see a strong bull channel and an outside day above the highs from friday. We want to buy pullbacks at major support and use the PHOD as a line in the sand. If we are above PHOD we know the buyers are in charge so buying pullbacks. If we go below the PHOD we know the buyers have failed and we look to sell the failure of the highs.

If price drops considerably we look to buy the lows of the bull price channel.

We are looking for a wave entry long this morning on the 21-range chart of the russell using the bull price channel and the dollar short term downtrend as our biggest clues.

Notice the perfect location on the 21r wave long uses the trigger zone tool and momentum will confirm the entry on this inatra-day trading strategy.

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-23T07:53:00.002-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-Euro Zone Fin Mins to meet later today to decide what terms of a Greekrestructuring they are willing to accept

-IIF Chief Dalara: Banks have made 'maximum offer' in Greek debt talks

-EU ambassadors said to have agreed to impose Iran oil embargo

-European equity indices opened the session mostly lower and are currentlytrading mixed, amid the lower government bond yields being seen in mostEuropean markets. Overall equity markets continue to focus on the talks relatedto private sector involvement (PSI) in the bailout of Greece. So far on thesession, Italy's FTSE MIB has outperformed on gains in the banking sector,while the DAX has underperformed amid losses in shares of Bayer.

Speakers:

-Bank of Spain (BOS) commented in its monthly economic review that the Spanisheconomy would take a hit from a "significant" drop in government andhousehold spending, partially due to strict austerity policies, only offset tosome extent by a positive contribution from foreign demand.. The central banknow Q4 GDP Q/Q: -0.3% v 0.0% prior quarter and Y/Y: +0.3% v +0.8% priorquarter. Overall the BOS forecasted 2012 GDP -1.5%

-EU ambassadors were said to have agreed to impose Iran oil embargo with the graceperiod to end on 1st Jul (as expected) and to review the embargo by May 1st.The EU to make a specific statement on Greece over embargo

-EU was said to be near deal on ESM voting procedure with the proposal to setaside ESM cap to cover loan risk to address Finland's concerns as it could cutESM capacity

-Hungary PM's Chief of Staff Varga commented that the country would proposed'flexible' solutions to EU objections on its central bank law and that theplanned Jan 24th meeting between PM Orban and EU's Barroso was 'important'. Henoted that he would be surprised if EU/IMF objected to flat tax and thatreports on €17-20B loan were not far from reality

-EU's Barnier commented that the Financial Transaction Tax (Tobin Tax) wasfeasible and the Vickers reforms was compatible to EU rules. Single marketneeded a single rule book

Andthat there was no plot to undermine the City of London

-France Debt Agency (AFT) Chief Mills commented that central banks, emergingsovereign funds purchased French debt at auctions held last week. He noted thatabout 33% of France's debt was held by those in France, 33% by EU holders and33% by non-European holders.

-ECB has removed 3.2K debt instruments from a list of assets against which itwould lend with instruments included certain types of bank debt, as theseinstruments might not meet the central banks' requirements. The move wasunlikely to present liquidity problems for banks, as the ECB eased requirementsat the start of Jan and added more than 10K new instruments.

Currencies:

-The Euro entered the session on a cautious note as the Euro Zone Fin Mins wereset to meet later today to decide what terms of a Greek restructuring they werewilling to accept. Negotiating a debt swap with Greece creditors made their'maximum' offer, leaving it to the EU and the IMF to decide whether to acceptthe deal. The question remained whetherGreece would apply a collective action clause, which can force creditors into awrite-off. Nonetheless dealers noted that the net Euro short positions hit itsfourth consecutive weekly high and helped the EUR/USD recoup its initial lossesexhibited during the Asian session. The pair stayed above the 1.29 hendlethroughout the European morning.

Political/ In thePapers:

-It was revealed in the Sunday Telegraph that more than 218K jobseekers weretaken off Jobseeker's Allowance, categorized as attending courses and thenclassed as officially "employed". The Employment Minister Grayling stated that he will correct the'disgraceful' practice. According to a source in the Job centre, the coursesare generally 'completely useless' and usually did not assist in employment; asthey tend only help in reducing the unemployment figures.

-Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard said Italy and Spain are pushing for moreaction from the ECB, as their economies are headed towards double diprecessions. The Foreign Minister Garcia-Margallo said the ECB should doquantitative easing (QE), and suggested that the European Investment Bank beused to support the debt crisis. The recommendation by ECB President Draghi togive the unused reserves from the EFSF to the ESM could face opposition inGermany's Bundestag.

-The UK think-tank Resolution Foundation sees millions of families unlikely tosee earnings return to pre-recession levels until at least 2020, while theincome of the wealthy continue to increase over the same period. The disparityin future spending power is due to the incomes of the lower middle class seento rise more slowly than the rich, and decreased spending power decreased bypetrol and food costs. The middle also have to deal with prolonged wage squeezewith real wages declining by 4.2% y/y, and warned that the most significantcuts to tax credits have yet to come in affect.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning weexpect to see light volume heading into the always-anticipated FOMC Meeting aswell as the end of the week’s WEF meetingswhich will be sure to steal some of the spotlight from the markets. We theState of the Union Address tomorrow, Tuesday evening, which will also be givingthe markets a possible reason to be trading lightly this morning.

Wenotice there is very little economic news on the calendar this morning so we’veoutlined the CAD News at 830am Leading Index which will be likely targetedaround crude oil futures for day traders today.

Thebiggest thing to focus on this morning is getting your week off to the rightstart, not forcing trades, and making sure we wait for the market’s personalityto be at its best when we do decide to participate in the markets this morning.

Wewill be having members-only after 1130am EST today.

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OPEX Trading Strategies; Stay alive for long term profits

2012-01-20T14:19:00.000-05:00

We finished up an incredible week in our live trade room this morning with a challenging OPEX low-volume trading environment.

We certainly had plenty of reasons to be concerned, and it WASNT simply because it was a Friday or OPEX. As I look back at my long term track record I can easily see some $1,500 trading days on OPEX, so I cant use that as an excuse to shy away from the markets this morning.

Todays Trades Called Live

Today was all about the big red flags we got when we opened our charts. Do you remember these signs saying BEWARE this morning? First, the dollar index was trading in a narrow range in the middle of a wedge in the middle of the range from Thursday. This might be the BIGGEST red flag we can ever see and we knew it right away. No hindsight used here, we saw this comming a mile away and we prepared emotionally for a sloppy day.

Dollar Index RED FLAG

The next sign we got was on crude oil just after 900am EST when we were looking to buy the lows of the range from Thursday (PLOD) and we saw the momentum indicator on our 13-range chart go from oversold to overbought in less than 2 seconds. At this point we knew exactly the price action we are getting into so we conditioned ourselves for a sloppy friday.

Lets remember, we had some big reasons to be patient, friday's almost ALWAYS go right back to where they started, so if the bottom dropped out thats ok we will stay patient, never selling the lows, and simply wait for the sellers to fail and we will make a KILLING on the way back up....so we stayed patient.

Crude Oil Trading Plan at 730am EST

Our patience was tested all morning, anhd after we saw the 1000am news come and go, without any major crude-related news we quickly realized this day me be ALL about simply staying alive to trade again on monday. We had already locked in over $4,000 in trading profits on the week, so it made no sense to force trades at the lows with the current low volume price action, and when the day finished up at 12pm EST we knew that there was potential for a late morning short-covering rally but we werent in a position to trade it, not when its Friday, who cares about OPEX, the volume wasnt there and we werent going to risk losing the confidence going into Monday.

Crude Oil Lunchtime Set-Up

We ended the day today with the FIRST time this WEEK that our Price Wedge and Double-Top Trading strategy had failed. Not too shabby for a sloppy week, and we were happy to take some easy money out of the markets earlier in the week. Job well done everyone!

Im going to post our automated trading systems performance on our blog later this afternoon so check it out and let us know if you have questions. The Auto-Trader FLEX Strategy had an equally-impressive week to say the least, earning a consistant 50+ ticks per day using an automated entry and manual exit. Cant beat that with a bat! :)

See you on Monday at 730am EST when we do this all over again, earning and learning in a motivational environment with our lifetime members.

crude oil day trading strategy using double-top support

2012-01-20T12:19:00.001-05:00

We've been watching this sloppy price action all morning on crude oil, and we're finally seeing our patience pay off. We knew the day would likely end exactly where it started and the price wedge, along with the double top support levels give us plenty of reason to think this thing will hit that 100.00 before the end of the day.

Lets see if we can finish this OPEX Friday with a big confidence boost into Monday morning's trading!

Crude Oil Trading Strategy says to buy at 98.15

Options Expiration (OPEX) Day Trading Strategies

2012-01-20T08:20:00.001-05:00

The first thing on our mind when trading OPEX is that today is a friday, so we need to keep an eye on the times this morning with best market personality. There will be times of great opportunity so we need to stay focused on waiting for those instead of forcing trades that arent there. We need to have a trading plan to follow so remember that.

Our day trading strategy always begins with the dollar index, and we use the 13-Range chart to find the major turning points and the short term trend of the dollar first to give us clues for the rest of our markets trading opportunities.

Dollar Index Trading Strategy

Our day trading strategy on crude oil futures starts with the 89-range chart so we can see the most important support and resistance as well as the broad price structure.

We see right away that our trading strategy will use the price wedge, the range from thursday for an inside day or outside day, and the big round number of 100.00 which is always a price magnet.

When we dig a little deeper we also see the Double-Top and our trading strategy for the DT uses major support below us as buying opportunities. We can see double top support levels where we want to buy at 99.75, 99.00 and 98.15 being the major support.

Day Trading Strategy Crude Oil Futures

We use a slightly faster timeframe to be more specific in our trading strategy for crude oil and we now use the same price wedge, inside day/outside day and double top support to plan our highest percentage trades.

As price falls im looking to buy the lows, and if we break the lows I am first (considering there is a wedge) going to look for the fake-out breakout, then I sell sell retracements on the way down. The same is true if price rises, I will sell the highs, and if price moves through resistance I will look for the F.O.B. first and then buy pullbacks.

Crude Oil Specific Trading Levels

Euro currency futures day trading strategy uses the 89range chart to see the major levels of support and resistance as well as the most important price structures. We can see the bear price channel and the new bullish trend line on the 89range chart. we can see the major overhead resistance and the trend line above creating the new price wedge.

The biggest concern for our euro trading strategy is the patience to wait to sell the highs around 1.3000 and PHOD, avoid the middle, and buy the lows around the 2850-2840 area and PLOD.

Euro trading strategy

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-20T07:38:00.001-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

“Remember to find a wayto smile today, there’s always a reason. We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a GOOD time”

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***Notesfrom around the world***

-Greece pushes to reach agreement in Private Sector Involvement (PSI)with Mondayseen as the pivotal day

-Today is the deadline for European bank to submit capital raising plans to EBA

-Jan China manufacturing PMI 48.8 vs 48.7 in Dec (third straight month ofcontraction)

-Taiwan Export order decline for the first time in 2 years

- China begins weeklong lunar new year holiday

-European shares dipped during the session, presumably on profit taking, after aweek of solid gains which culminated in a 5-month high on Thursday. US initialjobless claims fell to a 4-year low while in Europe, Greece is continuing itstalks with private investors. Peripheral bond auctions were also successfuldespite recent sovereign downgrades.

Speakers:

-BoE's Broadbent stated that he did not pre-commit to QE decisions and voteseach month on stock of asset purchases. Gilt purchases speed not relevant tohis QE decision. He noted that the downside risks had lessen slightly in past 6months due to actions by central banks and had not seen what was most fearedabout the EU. He saw household income and growth to improve in H2 and thedegree of fiscal tightening to ease. BoE to maintain GDP forecast of flatgrowth for both Q4, Q1 quarters as near term output looked slightly weaker butQ1 seemed marginally stronger.

-German Fin Min Schaeuble commented in the German press that the economicrecovery would be a 'long road' ahead. He stressed that Italy needed to lowerits debt as it has been avoiding this since the 1990s. He reiterated the Germangovt view that Europe could not solve its crisis in 'one go'

-German Coalition MP reiterated the view that Germany should not bring forwardESM payments without participating countries

-BOE Trends in Lending Report noted that bank Long term funding markets werechallenging in Q4 and higher funding costs fed into corporate loan pricing.Write-offs were stable in Q4 and arrears were seen stable but might pick up inlate 2012

-Spain to maintain its 2012 budget deficit target of 4.4% to GDP (refutesearlier press reports that Budget Minister Montoro stated that the countrymight miss its 2012 deficit target.

-Portugal PM Coelho commented that it must continue with bailout plan despitemarket uncertainty

-Poland Central Bank's Chonja-Duch commented that Polish 2011 GDP was seen at 4%or higher and that the recent December output was positive. She noted that thePolish Central Bank should keep interest rates steady through March. The Zlotycurrency was still in an appreciation trend with EUR/PLN at 4.0 seen reflectingfundamentals (currently at 4.30)

-Austria Debt Agency (AFFA) stated that it would skip the planned auction on Feb7th due to recent syndicated debt sale of 10-year and 50-year bonds

-France President Sarkozy commented that the Euro Zone still faced danger andstressed that swift action was needed from Greece to stem crisis. All must bedone to avoid military conflict in Iran and all must stop buying Iranian oil(appeals to both China and Russia)

Currencies:

-The USD gained over the course of the European morning with some concerns overthe looming EBA capital raising plan deadline. Cautious comments from GermanFinance Minister Schaeuble also weighed against the recent euphoria of theEuropean debt auctions.

-The EUR/USD approached the 1.30 handle in late Asian trading beforesuccumbing to selling pressures withMiddle Eastern names cited. EUR/JPY cross was above the 100 level in late Asianand was around the 99.60 as the NY morning approached

Political/In the Papers:

-Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard looked at the recent rise in Portugal'sbond yields and credit default swaps (CDS) and attributed some of the rise inyields to forced selling after S&P cut the country's rating to junk. Also,cited concerns that Portugal's fiscal cuts could negatively impact thecountry's growth, like in Greece.

-Citigroup Europe economist Jurgen Michels, expected Portugal's economy tocontract by 5.8% in 2012, which is more pessimistic than the government'sforecast. Portugal might not be able to significantly lower its debt levels,unless it implemented a "sizeable" haircut; Expected a haircut of 35%at the end of 2012 or in 2013.

-European officials have ruled out forced haircuts for Portuguese bondholders.Portugal's public debt was about 113% of GDP, while its total debt (includingprivate sector debt) was 360% of GDP. Suggested the high levels of privatesector debt in Portugal could make the banking system vulnerable todeleveraging

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning wehave very little to work with, along with options expiration today.

Formost day traders OPEX doesn’t mean much more than lower than expected volume,and we only have to deal with this 1 day a month, so its not bad at all, but weneed to be aware that other traders may use this as a reason to trade lightlythis morning, and Fridays are always a little less consistent than other daysof the week. With that said, we have hadincredible Friday’s in the market on OPEX so we ALWAYS look forward to the opportunity.

Webegin our day with a very minor wholesale sales report at 830am EST followed bythe open of the US Markets at 930am. After the 930am EST open this morning you can set your clock for 1100amEST and make sure you don’t trade passed that point on a Friday so keep an eyeon the clock. We have our biggest newsof the day at 1000am EST Existing Home Sales, and as you can see from the chartbelow the recent stimulus, tax incentives and almost-free giveaways in thehousing market gave it a little boost into Q1 2011 but now into Q1 2012 we arereally seeing a downtrend. Will thistrend continue? Today will provide moreclues to that answer, but remember we really do not trust these numbers muchb/c we have seen so much manipulation from the NAR/NAHB/HUD and not to mentionthe biggest banks in the US basically own all of them now and those banks areowned by the Fed, which is now owned by our friends at Goldman Sachs. Come to think of it…GS is our biggest landlordnow huh?

10 Years Existing Home Sales Data

2 Year Existing Home Sales Data

Today Day Trading News Strategy

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Day Trading Crude Oil Inventories for another profitable day

2012-01-19T16:11:00.002-05:00

We used a simple day trading strategy this morning in our live trade room and used some lessons we had learned from earlier in the week to stay patient looking for the best trading opportunities after crude oil inventories were released at 1100am est this morning.

The key to our crude oil trading this morning was understanding how to use a simple price structure we call a price wedge. ive said this a million times in our trade room with members, "if I could use one strategy the rest of my career it would include trading inside days with price wedges" and that is EXACTLY what we had today.

The morning began with lower-than-expected Jobless Claims data which sent the market up to the highs of the wedge (more jobs = more crude oil demand) but those buyers quickly stalled at the highs, and just like we saw on Tuesday and Wednesday we quickly fell off the highs, giving us an easy trading opportunity to execute our simple plan of attack...SELL THOSE HIGHS!

Once we got into the 900am hour this morning the market slowed down, just like earlier in the week, so we mentally prepared to avoid trading the slop and chop we had seen earlier in the week and waited through the Philly Fed Manufacturing and Natural Gas Reports, in anticipation of Crude Oil Inventories at 1100am est.

The big question this morning was...will crude oil contract rollover, and inventories being on a thursday keep active traders out of the market for this report so late in the US morning session? We had to wait for 1105am EST to get the reaction from the market, which was definately subdued, but we still got the chance to make some easy money off it on the way down.

Did you miss the action today in our live trade room? We called these trades live in our trade room this morning, helping our members achieve the profits they work so hard for every day of the week. We will be opening the trade room back up tomorrow @ 730am est so come join me!

Our automated trading systems also made some great profits today, you can check out the performance of those strategies on our blog right here!

price reversal trading strategy ahead of Philly Fed News

2012-01-19T09:59:00.002-05:00

Here is a simple price reversal trading strategy we see ahead of the 10am Philly Fed News, which we expect to be bullish for crude oil futures. Our day trading strategies can be applied to any market you chose.

day trading strategies for intra-day trading futures

2012-01-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

Our day trading strategy begins with the dollar index, we're looking for possible turning points (Mmajor support or resistance) and the short term trend. remember the short term trend can change quickly.

We quickly see the outside day, below the PLOD, and a short term trend that is bearish, and a major support level at 80.330.

If price moves lower THRU THIS SUPPORT we know the dollar is weak and we want to be buying pullbacks with new higher highs on crude oil, euro, e-mini es, any market you wish to trade.

If the dollar index bounces off this support, and starts to rise, it will need to break the highs of the bear channel and THEN we see that as our opportunity to take price reversal trades selling the intra-day highs we have on crude oil, euro, gold, russell, etc.

The PLOD is a big magnet, so look to keep selling short until the Dollar Index tests the PLOD, and then if it keeps going, we keep selling retracements with new lower lows.

Our day trading strategy using crude oil futures starts with the slower timeframe 89-range chart. We can see the INSIDE DAY within the range from wednesday. We can see the price wedge, which is the most important clue. A price wedge, inside the range from yesturday says look for fake-out breakouts, fade the highs and lows, and sell the wedge highs, buy the wedge lows, avoid the middles.

Crude Oil futures day trading strategy now uses the 34 range chart to give us the EXACT price levels to consider in our trading this morning. We see the wedge highs and the potential to turn this inside day into an outside day, and we know it will be higher risk buying above PHOD because the bull channel highs will be resistance. Im looking to sell these highs as the highest percentage trade today. If price moves higher im looking for a failure and a price reversal. if price moves lower im selling new lower lows with retracements, the final target is the PLOD and the lows of the wedge if we can get short.

We took an easy short off the highs of the price wedge when our day trading strategy confirmed and now our 21-range chart shows us a double-top and our strategy for this is to sell new lower lows with retracements below 101.55 down to the major support which begins at 101.40. We want to buy at the Double Top Support starting at 101.40 down to 101.15 and then sit on hands below 101.15 and then look for more selling opportunties below 100.20 down to the PLOD and the lows of the wedge. Remember to use the dollar to confirm our direction this morning.

The Euro day tradign strategy uses the bear price channel, the previous day's trading range, and two (2) trigger zones drawn from different swing highs using the same swing low. We need to be very careful tryign to buy with new highs because of the resistance levels overhead.

We can buy above 1.2928 only after we wait to see there is no failure, because the personality is so sloppy. take your profit at 1.3000 on the way up and then look for either re-entry or holding a portion of your position up to 1.3080 the next level of resistance.

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-19T07:59:00.003-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

- Australia Job data worse thanexpected

- Greek PSI discussions continue

- S&P registers its firstclose above 1300 since summer 2011

- First bond auctions in Franceand Spain since the ratings cuts go reasonable well

- European shares climbed higher following recent news that Greece was workingwith its lenders and that IMF would increase its lending resources by $500B.The initial euphoria at the news has subsided given the reluctance of somecountries, namely US and Canada, to the potential increase. On a positive note,Spanish auction were well received as Spain sold considerably higher than theplanned range.

Speakers: - ECB's Asmussenreiterated that the central bank's extraordinary measure were strictlytemporary and that the govt bond purchase program could not last forever. Hedid note that the ECB had many unconventional tools such as liquidity measures.He supported strengthening and early introduction of ESM facility and that ithad many advantages over the EFSF. The ESM required high, stable firewalls andthat all members should contribute more capital to ESM.

- ECB published its Jan MonthlyReport echoes Draghi's post rate decision commentary. The report reiteratedthat CPI to stay above 2% in the short term and move back towards target inmedium term. The report also reiterated that downside risks to economic outlookwere substantial and that ongoing financial market tensions to dampen economicactivity. It did noted that it saw tentative signs of stabilization

- Bundesbank Official Dombretcommented that global imbalances played an important role in financialstability. European members faced a moral hazard in buying stressed sovereigndebt and that non-European investors should purchases peripheral bonds todiversify their portfolios. Global Investors should help to solve the debtcrisis in Europe and purchase more sovereign debt on long-term sustainability.Monetary policy tools were not primarily financial stability tools- SlovakiaFin Min Miklos commented that the combined EFSF and ESM capacity should notexceed €500M and that the EFSF lending capacity should be sufficient forongoing programs despite the recent S&P downgrade

- Greece Finance MinisterVenizelos confirmed that the final phase of Troika talks was related to new aidwill begin and that new EU-led aid deal would come with new terms. Hereiterated that the PSI debt swap talks were at a "critical" stage

- Germany BDI Federation commentedin its economic outlook that it saw 2012 Germany exports rising 3% y/y and thatoverall 2012 GDP growth of 1.0% was possible (compares to official German Govtview of 0.75% growth)

- S&P commented that the Eurozone could see a mild recession in the first half of 2012 with roughly a 40%chance of deeper EU recession materializing

- Norway Central Bank (Norges) Q4Survey of Bank Lending stated that household lending rose in quarter but sawbroadly unchanged household credit demand. Banks tightened household creditstandards in Q4 with tighter standards also seen in Q1

- Spain's government might halttransfers to regions which miss spending target

- Japan had not made anycommitment regarding contribution to IMF new round of fund raising but would considersupport for Europe's effort to stabilize markets including bilateral loans toIMF

- Fitch analyst reiterated itsview that it expected that six euro zone members currently on review to endwith downgrade of 1-2 notches in most states

- Fitch commented on Spain andnoted that the Gov't liquidity plans for the autonomous regions wasinteresting- Fitch commented that an disorderly Greek default was not likely

- Czech Central Bank Gov Singercommented that interest rates might remain unchanged during 2012

- Philippine Central Bankcommented after its interest rate decision that its 2012 and 2013 inflationtarget seen falling within lower half of the 3-5% range. It did see upside riskto inflation from strong capital flows and geo-political issues with the mainrisk being oil prices. The local economy would likely to face externalheadwinds in 2012

- Iran foreign minister Salehicommented that no one needed to be concerned about the Hormuz Strait but theregion was of importance to Iran and warned other Gulf nations not be todragged into conflict. He noted that the US was double-dealing with Iran as itwas flexing muscles but secretly asking for discussions. President Obama mustfollow up letter with goodwill

Currencies:- The Eurocontinued to grind higher against the major pairs against a more supportivebackground. The recent disclosure that the IMF sought to raise its lendingresources and not complications from the Spanish and French bond auctionshelped the EUR/USD to probe above the 1.29 handle for fresh 2-week highs. Thetechnical picture was also more constructive for the Euro. The EUR/USD wasabove the prior 3-month channel resistance line while EUR/JPY cross appeared tohave some potential of a weekly reversal after testing 11-year lows earlier thismonth at 97.00. The cross probed the 99 handle during the session.

Political/ In the Papers:- Inan international study released by consultancy McKinsey, UK had the highestlevel of debt following Japan. UK debt increased over the past three years to morethan 5x its economic output. At current trends, it would take until 2020 forhouseholds to return debt levels to the pre-bubble trend. The report comparesmajor economies since 2008. The overall sentiment was positive for the US withhousehold debt possibly reaching sustainable levels in roughly two years orslightly more compared to the UK where it will take many more years.

- The Telegraph's Evans-Pritchardlooked at the warning signs related to China's economy. Unsold propertyinventories in China have hit multi-year highs with more than 800K cars sittingunsold in warehouses. According to former Chinese banking regulator LiuMingbank, orders for new ships have declined sharply. China's property sectormakes up about 13% of GDP, which is in line with levels seen in Spain at thepeak of its property bubble. The extent of China's property bubble and theaggressive tightening measures by officials has raised concerns about whetherpolicy makers can engineer a 'soft landing'.

- The FT reported that Europeanbanks, Commerzbank and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, are in danger as the Fridaydeadline approaches. Regulators in Europe were reported to be certain that bothbanks will not be able produce realistic plans to deal with capital deficits bydeadline on Friday; this exposes both banks to the risk of full or partialnationalization. European official had said it is almost inevitable thatfurther injection of funds by the state will be required. please note that therecent EBA tests found that 31 out of the 70 banks tested needed to raise atotal of €115B in new capital; European regulators gave banks until June, needto submit a plan by deadline of Friday.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning wehave news that is normally scheduled for other days of the week and has beenpushed into today because of the holiday.

Wealso know today will be contractrollover on crude oil futures so we need to address that the very firstthing.

Ourday trading strategy begins with news at 830am EST Jobless Claims (see thechart below) and if you recall last week we saw some cooking of the books to propthe data BELOW the emotional line in the sand of 400,000 here in the US. Last week we baraly made it below this level,will we make it below the level for two weeks in a row? If we don’t the markets will read this as asign of a weakening economy and crude oil futures will drop in price on lowerdemand.

Thenext major news of the morning is the Philly Fed Manufacturign data, which hasbeen climbing as of recently, and remember when manufacturing data was releasedfor New York (empire State) earlier this week it was suprisingly higher thanexpected. Lets see if the folks in thecity of brotherly love can do the same today. Remember that manufacturing reports will have another big impact on crudeoil because of perception of demand in the market if these numbers areincreasing month to month.

Andfinally remember we have a re-scheduled crude oil inventories number today @1100am EST which will be a little different than normal. Crude oil futures traders are always watchingthese closely so we always expect this data to move the markets. The key trading this news at 1100am EST todaywill be to WAIT for the market to react to the news, not jumping into tradesright at the time the news is released simply because we THINK we know whatwill happen. Repeat after me: I will wait for the reaction to ALL of thisnews today and trade the reaction.

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We executed this day trading strategy flawlessly for easy profits

2012-01-18T18:49:00.001-05:00

We began the day trading strategy in our live trade room with some concerns over volume dueto the fact that crude oil futures were sharing volume from the 02-12 contractrolling forward to the 03-12 contract, and our normal inventories news onWednesdays had been delayed until tomorrow. We knew that traders would likely use this as a reason to sit on thesidelines…boy…we were wrong.

The day began with crude oil trading above the previous highof day, which means we were looking for buying opportunities, and just likeyesterday, looking for a potential failing pattern so we could sell the newhighs bringing price back down to the range below us. Our daytrading strategy uses a price wedge as the most important clue and we sawthat a mile away.

At 830am EST this morning we got our first chance to sellthe highs, and our trading strategy using multiple timeframes to look forpotential opportunities, starting with the fastest 8-range chart. We sold short using the 8-range, followed bythe 13-range, and then finally the 21 and 34 range patterns triggered. By 930am EST we had earned over 100 ticks ofprofit, over $1000usd in the first hour and half of the day. Weexecute the day trading strategy flawlessly, another example of a simpletrading strategy that worked to perfection.

day trading strategy using crude oil futures and euro currency futures

2012-01-18T08:23:00.000-05:00

Our day trading strategy this morning revolves around crude oil to begin with, and we thought we would see contract rollover but the volume has not increased enough on the next front month 03-12 contract.

This is concerning because now botht he 02-12 and 03-12 contracts are sharing volume between the two, so neither of them have much volume. We also know there is no inventory data today so we assume trading will be on lower than estimated volume this morning.

We begin our day trading strategy using the dollar index specifically the 13-range chart because its the best timeframe for intra-day trading strategies. We need to use this to find major turning points and the short term trend.

We can see the bearish price channel confirming the short term trend is down, so we look for buying opportunities on the markets we trade with this downtrend. Remember this is short term so this can change with higher highs and higher lows, so keep an eye on the dollar index.

Our trading strategy on crude oil futures begins with the 89-range chart so we can see the big picture. Crude Oil futures tell us to sell the wedge highs and look for price to tumble back down into the
previous day's trading range. If price keeps going higher we have higher risk pullbacks we can buy, take profit at the next wedge highs. Sell the range highs and the wedge highs.

We took some winning trades early today, this one was called well before it triggered with exact entry, stop and target for members and guests to trade along.

Our trading strategy on crude oil gets much more specific as we use faster timeframes, such as this 34-range chart. Notice the bull channel so the highest percentage trade will buying the lows of the channel at 101.00 or if it keeps going lower buying at support just below at 100.53. If we go below 100.53 we sell retracements down to the next major support of 100.18. Then getting back into a retracement below 100.00 but beware the big magnet of 100.00 so look for the perfect pattern to get short below 100.00 down to 99.48 the next major support and PLOD.

If price rises we then sell the wedge highs and the resistance levels above the wedge at 102.12

The Euro currency futures trading strategy revolves around the bear channel and the previous day's trading range. Sell the channel highs, and if price rises higher sell the resistance above the channel highs. I want to sell below the PHOD with the target of the PLOD.

CRUDE OIL UP-DATE! We want to sell crude oil with a retracement below 100.53 with the idea of breaking the channel lows, and also violating the 89range trigger zone which is major support. Below 100.53 we have two technical patterns on slower timframes failing.

The mini-russell day trading strategy has shown us concern. This is a low volume, sideways range type of day with price action in the middle of Tuesday's trading range. We want to sell the highs and buy the lows of the range, looking for the market personality to improve dramatically.

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-18T07:39:00.002-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-European shares traded cautiously albeit in positive territory followingbleaker outlook from the World Bank. The latter cut its growth outlook for 2012and 2013 warning against weaker developing country growth and EU crisis. Thesomber updated overshadowed more positive news regarding Greece whosegovernment is closing talks with creditors and will resume talks with theInstitute of International Finance in Athens today.

-World Bank lowers 2012 and 2013 global growth forecasts

-Goldman's O'Neill: JPY currency isprobably 25% overvalued

- China begins 10-dayLunar New Year holiday break

- UK Jobless claimscomes in slightly better than expectations

-IMF said to propose increasing lending resources by $1.0T and push for resourceplan by the Feb G20 meeting

-Fitch director Settepani commented that a two-notch Italy sovereign downgradewas possible and that the decision to be based upon financing levels

-Fitch Sovereign Director Parker commented that he was encouraged by steps takenby Italy's PM Monti but country must enact fiscal, structural reforms. He notedthat Italy was not an peripheral economy and was absolutely critical for Eurozone future

- German Econ Ministryupdated its economic outlook which confirmed a cutin the 2012 GDP view to 0.7% from 1.0% prior. Germany set its official 2013 GDPgrowth outlook at +1.6%- German Econ Min Roesler commented that Govt to releaseproposal to limit solar subsidies

-France President Sarkozy commented that a major slowdown in France was seenfrom Q4 2011; Sees 2011 GDP should reach 1.7%

-ECB's Noyer commented that Euro zone would return to growth and added that thepressure on French banks were difficult to understand.

-Hungary IMF representative Fellegi: stated that he did discuss the country'scentral bank law with ECB's Draghi

-ECB Kranjec commented: Slovenia needed new government quickly and that could

notexclude that Slovenia would find itself in a similar situation like Hungary ifsovereign ratings continued to fall without control

-EFSF Official commented that S&P downgrade would not impact leveragingplans (refutes press speculation)

-Russia Dep PM Shuvalov stated that he expected no decision on EU aid to IMFprior to the country's March presidential vote

-Poland Fin Min Rostowski commented that he saw the possibility of a sovereignupgrade for country during 2012 andnoted the deficit to GDP to come in 'slightly below' the 3.0% level. He statedthat indebted Euro members needed structural reforms and that the role ofrating agencies must be changed

-Japan Fin Min Azumi commented that it was difficult for Japan to intervene inthe forex markets like Switzerland did, hard to draw a line in fx rates

- Goldman Sach's O'Neill commented that the JPYcurrency was probably 25% overvalued. He also stated thatJapan's days of trade and current account surpluses 'looked to be finished'

- IEA cut its 2012Global Oil demand forecast by 200Kbpd to 90.0Mbpd withdemand growth seen at 1.1M bpd. Maintained its 2012 Non-Opec Supply forecast at53.7M bpd and stated that Dec OPEC Crude production was at 30.89Mbpd, highestreading in 3 years. IEA saw rising likelihood of sharp 2012 economic slowdown.Slowing oil demand outpacing decline in economic growth with one-third declinein GDP growth would mean flat oil demand for 2012

Currencies:

-The USD began the European session on softer footing but contained in recentranges for the bulk of the morjing. The EUR/USD made another attempt to breechthe 1.28 handle early probing the hourly downtrend line over the last threeweeks. However comments from a senior director at Fitch who warned that atwo-notch downgrade of Italy was an option. The Fitch comment and lingeringconcerns of the upcoming Portugal bill auction today and negotiations on Greekdebt provided the excuse to curb Euro upside momentum. Risk appetite again found some footing afterfinancial press report circulated that the IMF was prepared to proposeincreasing lending resources by $1.0T and push for resource plan by Feb G20meeting. The EUR/USD entered the NY morning above the 1.28 level and above theformer Jan downtrend line.

Political/ In thePapers:

-The Spanish Budget Minister Montoro said that the government will providecredit lines and other liquidity measures to the Spanish regions in need. Itwill use the state supported Official Credit Institute (ICO) to assist withvarious regions to settle bills, and allow regions more time to make payments.The government is finding ways to deal with legislation, which bans directbailouts of the 17 regions, following the Spain missing its 2011 budget target.The Spanish regions control more than one third of the country's publicspending. Note that several Spanish regions are shut out of public-debtmarkets.

-The Telegraph's Evans-Pritchard looked at the remaining options for Hungary. Itis faced with the choice of meeting the EU's demands so that it can receive IMFfunding or allow the country to default. The country's bond yields are tradingat unsustainable levels at a time when the country needs to repay €5.9 billionin EU-IMF loans and raise external funding equal to 18% of GDP in 2012.

-The FT reported that credit default swaps (CDS) are pricing in a 65% chancethat Portugal will default over the next five years. Portugal's bond priceshave moved to levels which some investors see as default territory. Portugal'sbonds are being impacted by contagion concerns related to Greece. With regardsto today's Portuguese debt auctions, most investors expect the country tocomfortably sell its debt, as the country's banks are expected to bid at theauction so they can use the debt to receive ECB funding. Portugal has a €10billion bond repayment due in June.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning ourtrading day begins at 830am est with one of the most important news datareleases of the month, the PPI month-over-month. Producer Price Index measures consumerinflation, measured by the cost of wholesale goods which are passed on to theconsumer, this is something that directly affects the sentiment on Main Streethere in the US and will affect our ability to recover from this recession inthe long term. Remember the PPI is abalancing act, we don’t want prices too cheap and we don’t want them tooexpensive, another tough job for the Fed here in the US trying to spark arecovery without overheating at the same time.

Wethen move into Long Term TIC Flows at 900am before another very important newsrelease for Industrial Production. Ipersonally think Industrial Production is important for crude oil futurestraders because it refers to factories producing products, and those factorieswill require crude oil futures. Take a look at the chart onIndustrial production, do you see the double bottom and the fact that our lastreading in december 2011 was MUCH lower then expected? This could be the single biggest aspect of crudeoil futures prices this month. I will use this Industrial production incombination with crude oil inventories tomorrow (not today because of theholiday on Monday) to make an educated decision when the news comes out forinventories tomorrow.

Wehave the 930am US Markets opening at 930am EST today and then followed by aminor Housing Market Index at 1000am. Weused to care about the housing market indexes but now the government haspropped it up so much and the numbers are manipulated so much that we don’t trustit, bottom line, anything except great news is considered bad news, but it doesn’thave much weight.

Onething we notice is the lack of crude oil inventories today, and we also willsee crude oil futures rollover today, so trade lightly on crude oil futures untilwe get a sense of market personality on the 03-12 contract. Inventories will be tomorrow b/c of theholiday on Monday.

At1130am this morning we will be transitioning into our members-only privatetraining, so we will be wrapping up with questions around 1100am EST today.

Letshave another great day of trading!

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day trading euro and crude oil futures trade room recap

2012-01-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

We opened our live trade room this morning after a long weekend to see many of our favorite futures markets trading at their highs after news from china and germany had given the market sentiment a boost overnight. our day trading strategy is very simple, we were trading crude oil, euro, russell and gold futures.

We quickly went through our morning routine and found some big clues for our trading strategy from the dollar index, and a failed wave pattern, which told us to look for price to come tumbling back down to the open where it began at 12am midnight 8 hours earlier.

First, the dollar index was sitting on support which told us we should see it rise, giving us selling opportunities on the crude oil and euro markets we were watching at 800am est.

Second, we saw that a recent wave pattern had failed to re-test the highs, and this was a clue telling us to expect the pattern to fail and come back off the highs. We use a simple trading strategy that uses the range of prices from Monday and we could see this range was below us and BEGGING price to come back down into that range if it stalled at the highs.

Third, at 830am EST this morning we got what should have been bullish news from the Empire State Manufacturing Index, and when the markets reacted differently than what we expected this again told us to look for the markets to tumble. Our trading strategy says that what 'should' happen gives us clues to consider when we see what DID happen, and we can trade the reaction.

Finally we got the entry trigger we needed, and our day trading strategy was executed with confidence.

Dont miss our live trade room tomorrow when we do this all over again @ 730am est.

And remember we launched our new automating trading blog this weekend, so make sure you check it out, join the newsletter, and join the site so you can get all the latest up-dates to our automated trading systems.

Euro day trading strategy uses market personality

2012-01-17T10:06:00.002-05:00

This morning we sold the highs of the range on the euro expecting price to drop down to the PLOD, and the sellers have failed. Now we need to be open to both directions long and short, and our strategy is to be careful wait for the best pattern and make sure we have our entry rules lining up.

day trading strategy for futures

2012-01-17T08:31:00.001-05:00

Our day trading strategy this morning begins with the dollar index futures, and we start with the 13-range chart which will show me the short term trend and help identify major turning points in the market.

The dollar index 13-range chart shows us trend line support, which has created a price wedge, as well as the previous day's range and the OPEN are both above the current price. We expect the price to rise at support, and if it does NOT that tells us a BIG clue that the dollar index will likely go down to the next support at 80.735.

We will use the dollar index clues to help detail our trading strategy. If the dollar rises off this support I am selling retracements and using a 2-step pattern short on the crude oil, euro, gold, ES, anything you want to trade. If the dollar breaks through support we then know the USD is very bearish and therefor we want to buy pullbacks with new higher highs on crude, euro, etc.

Our crude oil day trading strategy uses a slower timeframe first to find the big picture, and then we zoom in using faster timeframes to narrow down the specific entry locations and times in the market.

We begin with the 89-range chart which shows us 90 days of market data, and helps find the overall trend, the major turning points, and the advanced price structures. We can see an AB=CD Pattern, a Price Wedge, the Trigger Zone (103.73-97.70) and an Outside Day above the PHOD.

I want to sell the wedge highs of 101.75 area, and look to sell below the PHOD 100.30 with the target down at the PLOD 98.83 and the wedge lows. If the buyers fail above the PHOD this is a HUGE clue and we are selling retracements below the PHOD as the highest percentage trade at this time.

Remember if we miss the short below the PHOD beware trading around 99.50 the BMT and middle of the wedge/range below us.

If price rises higher I will sell wedge highs, sell the 101.50 trigger zone highs, and then buy a pullback if we go higher than the 101.50 taking profit at the highs of the wedge around 102.60. Then i will sell the wedge highs and try to bring it back down.

if price moves lower i will sell below the PHOD, avoid the re-entering around 99.50 and then take profit, or look to buy the PLOD and the lows of the wedge. I will be looking to sell short term below the PLOD however I need to buy the wedge lows starting at 98.50 area all the way down to 97.70. If we go below 97.70 I will look for a fake-out breakout first, and then with strong selling pressure i will then sell a retracment down to 96.80.

The day trading strategy on the euro currency futures begins with the 89range chart and we see the bearish price channel, the outside day now failing, and the trigger zone resistance overhead. We can easily speculate the highest prcentage trades will be selling below the PHOD with the target of the PLOD.

We will sell a retracement once price drops below 1.2740 on Euro and make sure we check our entry rules.

The faster 34-range chart on the Euro futures tells us the exact same thing. Sell retracements below the PHOD with the final target the PLOD. We are clearly seeing the sellers will not give up without a fight. We cant quite figure the REASON the price isnt tumbling, but we dont care, we trade the reaction to the news and right now it tells us to be careful and wait for those perfect patterns. Members, check your trade plan and your entry rules and trade carefully until this personality changes.

The Euro 21-range chart gives us a BIG Clue in the form of a price wedge. Now we know that the short trades above 1.2700 will be higher risk because we are buying into trend line support. We also know that the higher % trades will be below 1.2700 so wait patiently to sell retracements as price moves below 2700 area. Furthermore, I want to buy now above the PHOD as it signals the sellers have failed and my final target for the long trade will be 2765 the high of the trigger zone from swing high 2812 to swing low 2713.

Day Trading Strategies for Dollar Index , Euro, Crude, Russell and Gold futures

2012-01-17T07:29:00.002-05:00

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The James' Report: Day Trading Strategies for Professional Traders

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***Notes/Observationsfrom around the world***

-S&P downgrades EFSF one notch to AA+ following the prior French, Austriancuts

-China Q4 GDP at 2 year lows but above analysts' estimates

-Germany Jan ZEW Survey improves to its best reading since July 2011

-European shares recovered their losses taking cue from Asian trading even afterChina's data showed economic slowing. As expected, S&P downgraded EFSFrating to AA+, an action which did not move markets. However, German ZEW datawas the highest reading since July 2011 marking a significant improvement insentiment.

Speakers:

-ZEW Economists commented that the improvement in the ZEW sentiment was helpedby improved US data and lower EMU yields improvement. The ZEW saw the Germanyeconomy stabilizing over the next six months. Contrary to repeatedly expressedfears of recession, the assessment of experts gives reason for cautiousoptimism.

-ZEW's Franz commented that Germany would only experience a "dent" inits economic activity and noted that the ECB generous liquidity operationssupported rise in sentiment. He did caution that the EU debt crisis remainsrisk to economic growth.

-ECB's Nowotny commented that the central bank was looking for alternatives forthe Govt Bond Buying program (SMP) and that discussions included the entiremonetary policy spectrum and instruments. He noted that a triple A rating forESM facility was possibly but notnecessary. On monetary policy Nowotny stated that the ECB never pre-commits oninterest rate decisions but did note that the ECB had taken clear steps notonly in terms of interest rate decreases, but also in terms of the very massivebroadening of liquidity provision and of the opinion that it was now aboutcapturing the full effect of these measures. He believed the S&P downgradeof Austria was political to an extent but not without cause.

-ECB's Nowotny commented at a Euromoney conference that a negative feedback loopwith sovereign debt crisis has occurred and needed higher growth in order tostabilize budgets. The banks 9% core tier 1 capital plan by mid-2012 wasunfortunate and increased problems.Supervisors needed to assess bank capital plan to avoid restrictive impact onlending. Emerging Europe would grow faster than EU average but added thatconvergence woud be at a slower rate

-Fitch Sovereign Director Parker commented that Greece was insolvent and woulddefault 'quite soon', which should not be a surprice. He added that Greecewould not likely to honor its March 20th bond payment nd that the EU debtcrisis would be both long and drawn out process

-EU's Buti reiterated view that Greek debt swap negotiations (PSI) are currentlypaused

-German Govt Advisor Franz stated that the Euro would survive with 17 membersstill in it in a year's time

-EFSF chief Regling commented that the European nations did have a plan to lowerdeficits

butconceded that Greece was a difficult case. He noted that there was not muchimpact from S&P downgrade, so long as Moody's and Fitch did not follow.Investors have lost confidence in European policy making and are afraid thatthe Euro Zone might break up but such fears are unfounded. EFSF never hadissues placing bonds as it has had good demand from Asia and Middle Eastinvestors and had significant preliminary commitments from global investors

-metals consultancy GFMS commented that 2011 global gold demand was at 4,436tons, +2% y/y while global gold investment was at 1,563 tons, -7.0% y/y. Goldto average $1,640/oz in H1 2012 and could test support around $1,550/oz andcould break $2,000/oz by late 2012 or early 2013. It noted that gold market wasnear closing its decade long bull rally but added that economic and politicalbackdrop still favored gold and could 'fire up' on re-emergence of US concerns.China might overtake India as top gold consumer in H1 2012

Currencies:

-The Euro continued to rebound from last Friday's lows of 1.2622 and continuedto shake off the multi-country sovereign downgrade from S&P last Friday andsubsequent cut in the EFSF facility rating by a notch. Risk appetite also improvedas traders assessed China's Q4 GDP data and better German ZEW survey. EUR/USDheld a key support of 1.2660 on Monday and tested the 1.28 area by the NYmorning in today's session. The Euro was also supported by comments from ECBNowotny who indicated that the ECB was not planning to cut its main refi ratefurther any time soon as it would study the recent cuts and massive centralbank liquidity operations. The Euro did stall at the 1.28 level after Fitchsovereign director Parker bluntly stated that

Political/ In thePapers:

-The Irish government provided an update and identified suitable assets to sellper troika bailout agreements. Stake sales include 25% stake in Aer Lingus,Dublin Port, and parts in Bord Gis and Coillte. The finance minister and thepublic expenditure minister is to meet senior officials Thursday morning, priorto the release of two separate press conferences. The government added that ithas met all the targets in line with the program.

-Various banks in Europe are looking to find ways to raise capital without theuse of share sales. Certain banks are seeking to revise their accountingmethods related to prior acquisitions in order to boost capital levels. Banksare also seeking to restructure their capital structures in order to raisecertain types of capital. European banks are expected to present their capitalraising plans to the EBA by the end of this week.

-Some fund managers remain concerned about the possibility of a"messy" default for Greece. The FT reported that if there were adisorderly default for Greece, then it could lead to write downs of more than€50 billion. Also, if there is an orderly default for Greece, it could lead tofurther contagion.

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Today's Economic News:

Ourday tradingstrategies today will depend on the news, and this morning wecome back from a long weekend MLK-Holiday to early morning Empire StateManufacturing Data which is expected to be much higher this week than last.

Lookat the swing in manufacturing data on the charts posted below. We can clearly see the New York Statemanufacturing sector taking a big plunge right when the euro currency crisisbegan in late spring 2011 and now you can also see it showing a remarkablerebound. They werent kidding when theysaid new-yorkers were tough…..ay-yo! How do we use this data? Remember that crude oil futures will beresponding to this, as well as the overall sentiment in the markets will getmore bullish with more demand for all resources, including the dollar index.

We are also going to be seeing a rate statement this morning out of canada, and since they export great hockey players, amazing day traders (you know who you are!) and CRUDE OIL we know to watch the major CAD news when there isnt any major US news around the same time, looking for clues in direction.

Theonly variable we have this morning will be volume. Will we get a lot of volume after a longweekend? Will the recent strong germanyoutlook bring more volume or will today be sluggish, we will wait and see, butwe know to watch the clock for 1100am EST to make sure we are aware of themorning session slowing down, so keep that in mind.

Asalways, we’re reading tape, watching speed, and overall market personality forclues after 1130am when the Euro markets close to end up our morning.

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Check out the new Automated Trading Systems Blog

2012-01-17T00:07:00.002-05:00

Check out our new Automated Trading Systems Blog, recently launched for members of SchoolOfTrade.com

Buy Support and Sell Resistance the SAFE Way Day Trading Strategy

2012-01-13T14:33:00.001-05:00

Our day trading strategy this morning included a pricewedge, economic news, and a surprise release from the S&P regarding thedowngrade of many EU countries, which really sent the markets into a panic forthe balance of the morning.

We began the day with a very simple strategy, we wanted touse the price wedge structure as a big clue to allow us to buy the lows andsell the highs. The key to trading a pricewedge is understand how to use support and resistance the SAFE and effectiveway.

We all know that you should buy support and sell resistance,but what does that really mean when you apply it to a day trading strategy thathappens in real-time at a fast pace, with emotions, and risk involved.

I started my trading career trying to buy breakouts to thenew highs and new lows, and all it got me was BROKE, so I learned at a veryearly stage in my career the value in understand that a successful tradingstrategy required the use of proper support and resistance.

Today’s lesson describes how we identified the correctsupport using a price wedge structure and then applied that technical levelwhen looking for trading opportunities. Don’t miss this, and remember themarkets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Holiday so we will seeeveryone on Tuesday @ 730am EST when we re-open the trade room.

Congrats to the members and guests this morning making moneywith us. Whether it was the Auto-Trader,The Euro currency futures, or crude oil futures we all had a great day oflearning and earning and I look forward to working with you again next week.

And remember…everyoneshould learn this stuff, so share it with a friend!

Day Trading Strategies Market Up-Date

2012-01-13T13:43:00.001-05:00

- It appears that the S&P downgrades ofeuro zone sovereigns are imminent. Before the open of US trade, another roundof France downgrade rumors made the rounds, however this time there was greaterintensity to the reports, prompting reports in financial media and responses of"no comment" from S&P itself and the French Treasury. Then after10:00ET, the French government was said to have acknowledged the receipt ofnotice that it will be downgraded by S&P. A subsequent report in the FTsuggested France and Austria would be cut one notch to AA+ from AAA. At thesame time, there seems to be a certain amount of friction in Greece, where thegovernment and the IIF continue to negotiate over private-sector bond haircuts.Reports indicate that negotiators are becoming less and less optimistic aboutthe potential for a deal, potentially putting Greece disorderly default back onthe table. US equities are responding relatively calmly, down but not overlyweak as chatter picks up the Fed still has its finger on the QE trigger.This morning's US trade data - the trade deficit for November was higher due togreater petroleum imports, while crude import prices for December fell morethan expected. The preliminary January University of Michigan Confidenceindex was better than expected, and hit its highest level since May 2011.Commodity prices have moved lower while the Greenback and Treasury markets haverallied in the wake of these latest European headlines. The US 10-year yieldhas slipped to 1.85% while the bund has returned to 1.75%. The Euro has made afresh 17 month low briefly dipping below 1.2650 before rebounding.

Crude Oil End-of-Morning Day Trading Strategy using Low Volme and Seller Failure

2012-01-13T10:59:00.001-05:00

Our end of morning trading strategy for crude oil uses the lower volume and the big drop over the past 2 days to look for opportunity to rise back up to 100.00 which is also the OPEN from earlier Friday morning.

An aggressive entry is to buy above Previous LOD at 98.50 with the stop below the 21 range trigger line (around 98.15) and then take your final target at 100.00 the big round number and the Open.

The more conservative entry is to wait for price to break above the trigger zone highs and the bear channel and then buy a pull back above the 99.00. This will serve as proof that the sellers have failed and it will give us a more precise entry with a tighter stop loss for a lower risk, higher reward trade.

day trading stratagies for new and experienced traders

2012-01-13T08:19:00.001-05:00

We begin our day trading strategy this morning with the dollar index, specifically looking for major turning points, the short-term trend, and current market personality.

We see the dollar index has failed at the lows of the range from thursday and the channel lows, so the DX should keep rising up to the 81.550 and 81.645, and if doesnt we need to look to buy at support on the markets we trade.

Crude Oil futures day trading strategy starts with the slower 89-range chart and that shows us major support in the form of a double-top 'buy zone' and new trend lines from the swing lows. We can also see this has created a wedge, and with the big drop from thursday we can assume a big pop is comming this morning. Be ready to buy pullbacks off these lows.

Our Crude Oil trading strategy is further defined with the faster 34-range chart and We are at major support. We expect 100.00 to be tested if we make new HH's so buy PB above 99.60 target 99.95 (also the open) if we stay inside the price wedge sell the highs and buy the lows of the wedge.

Crude Oil 21 range chart shows us specifics of where we want to trade this morning. Im looking to buy the wedge lows, and then sell retracements below the 98.50. We want to buy the wedge lows and then buy pullbacks above the swing highs that will break above the wedge highs. buying pullbacks above 99.56

Russell Futures showing a price wedge, so buy the lows of the wedge and buy the support below the wedge. If the lows and the support is broken then sell retracements but remember the price wedge is the most important thing until its broken with a retracement below the 754.0 area.

Our trading plan on the russell shows the exact point of entry for buying the lows of the wedge.

Euro futures are being pushed lower by the S&P downgrade this morning, and we want to use a simple retracement day trading strategy. As we make new lower lows we sell retracements, following our specific trade managements. Take profit at the major support below us, and look at the AB=CD Pattern projection down at 1.2500 for an idea LONG TERM of where this market will be next week.