Day Trading Morning Prep Gold, Crude Oil, Dollar Index, Euro, E-mini Russell Futures

‘We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit’ – Aristotle
Let’s begin our morning routine with the economic news for today’s trading session.
8:20 Gold & Currencies OPEN
8:30 GDP
9:00 Crude Oil OPEN
9:30 US Market OPEN
11:00 Transition into Lunch
11:30 European Close / Live Webinar in our Trade Room
We can see a lot of news to watch out for today.  Starting early at 830am we have some important news that will hopefully get the charts moving before the US Open.  We finish our day with Home sales and then the less important news on natural gas.
I will be watching the volume leave the market after 11am EST today.  We have Chairman Ben Bernanke speaking tomorrow morning, and that may have traders leaving the markets early, waiting to hear what he has to say on Friday morning.
As always, I’m watching the speed or the orders coming into the market along with  average true range (ATR) to find the best times to trade the markets today. 
 My trading method will work on ANY liquid market, but here is what im focused on day trading today:

Crude Oil Futures

89Range Crude Oil


The first thing I want to do this morning is clear my mind of any biases and focus on the most important levels on my crude oil chart.  Im going to use an 89range chart to do this.

My 89range chart shows the following:

  • Major Bullish Channel
  • Price Wedge
  • Sideways Range 1 withing the larger range
  • Sideways Range 2 below us, which creates the larger range (white box)



34Range Crude Oil



This is an excellent example of how easy it is to streamline this process.  We can easily see these basic price formations, and now I can zoom in and get more accurate price levels on my 34range chart.
Open your 34range chart and these levels now begin to look much clearer.  I used my slower timeframe to find what was most important, and now I can use the 34range to see the exact levels.
Here is my plan of attack on crude oil futures today:
  • No news to worry about today pertaining to Crude Oil
  • PHOD is above us, PLOD is below us, making this an inside trading day, so I will use the sideways range as my focus first.
  • I will sell the highs of this range and buy the lows
  • If prices rise im selling the resistance above us at 113.56, 114.00, 115.0
  • As prices rise to new highs I will sell first, but will also buy pullbacks, do not buy the highs
  • If prices fall I will buy support levels at 112.31, 112.00, 111.62, 111.0, 110.71, 110.35
  • As prices fall I will not sell the lows, I will sell retracements
  • I will keep a close eye on the trend lines as support below 112.00
  • I will pay close attention to the PHOD and PLOD levels, they will be active for great opportunities today
  • The Big Money Trigger Line (BMT) is below us at 111.70 which will act like a price magnet, and will serve as a final target in most trades today.
E-mini Russell Futures

    schooloftrade

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    Joseph James - April 28, 2011 Reply

    820am est
    Lets review the 89range chart on Gold Futures:
    – Bullish Price Channel, we are at the highs
    – Sideways Range in the white box below us
    – Another range inside this trading range, also defined in the white box
    Now that we know the best areas, we now use the 34range to zoom in and find the best price levels.
    We now use the 34range chart to see the following:
    – Strong Bullish Price channel in blue trend lines
    – Sideways Range below us in the white box
    – Price Wedge inside this range below us in the orange trend lines
    – We are at the highs of the larger price channel off the 89range chart
    With this information we can plan our attack on gold:
    If prices rises:
    – Im selling resistance as prices rise
    – If prices continue to make new highs I will then buy a pullback
    – I will not buy the highs, I will wait for a pullback
    – Selling 1534.0, 1535.1, and then selling the highs of the channels above us
    If prices drop:
    – Im buying support on the way down
    – If we keep getting new lower lows I will sell retracements, never selling the lows
    – Im buying support at 1529.0, 1526.4, 23.9, 19.2 is major support
    Gold is trading at the highs right now, so we expect to see the market drop off the highs, but we simply cant predict.
    We see the PHOD and PLOD are below us, which is a bearish sign. We also have the Big Money Trigger Line, a price magnet, below us as well.
    All signs point to selling off, but we need to make sure we get the pattern first.

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