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

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Let’s begin our morning routine with the economic news for today’s trading session.

8:15 ADP Employment Report

8:20 Gold & Currencies OPEN

9:00 Crude Oil OPEN

9:30 US Market OPEN

10:30 Crude Oil Inventories
10:30 E-mini Reversal

11:00 Transition into Lunch

11:30 European Close / Live Webinar in our Trade Room

Looking at the news this morning, we have 1030am crude oil news that will have our focus this morning. We look for the personality on CL to be different before and after the news, so we will pay close attention to this market this morning.

we should also keep in mind that we are going into the end of first quarter which has lighter volume than usual. we will be looking for the times when speed is the greatest to be taking our trades, and today’s news events will likely be the source of this speed.

Lets take a look at the charts this morning…

Dollar Index Futures

The dollar index has broken into a sideways market when it tested the highs of the bullish price channel.

A sideways dollar is fine with me, but SPEED will be the variable.

A slow sideways market on the dollar will mean the same for other markets we trade. a FAST moving sideways dollar is a great opportunity to buy the lows and sell the highs of other markets.

I will be watching the speed and the average true range (ATR) on the DX 06-11 contract this morning to get more clues from this market.

Crude Oil Futures

Look at this 89-range chart of Crude Oil Futures and you can see us at the highs of the bearish price channel.

I want to sell the highs of this channel as a day trader, looking to hold the trade all the way to the lows of this channel.

Now lets look a little closer, open a 34range chart and you see a lot more information today.

I can see a few things of importance this morning:

1030am EST Crude Oil News
Bearish Price Channel in yellow
Bullish Price channel in Orange
Sideways Range in white box
Inside day: PHOD/PLOD

The first thing we recall is the news @ 1030am today, so that will be important to keep in mind.

Next, we’ve been in a bearish price channel, at the highs of this channel, i want to sell these highs and hold this trade down to the lows of 103.00

Our most recent bullish price channel in orange dotted lines has recently turned into a sideways market. Right now I need to focus on this sideways market first.

Buy the lows, sell the highs, and avoid the middle of a sideways range, so use that as your guide while crude trades below 104.78 and above 104.13.

I can also see that we are trading INSIDE the range from yesturday, we call this an ‘inside day’ and we now expect to see the PHOD and PLOD tested today.

I will sell the PHOD first, and then If price breaks new highs I will Buy a Pullback at support

I will buy the PLOD first, and then If price breaks new lows I will Sell a Retracement at resistance

As always, speed will be the most important factor in today’s trading on crude oil.

Gold Futures

I open the 89range chart of gold futures and we see the following:

Long term bullish price channel
Short term bearish price channel
Sideways Market
at the lows of the sideways range

Now lets look closer at this chart, lets open a 34range chart. these are great for the most intra-day moves, just a little faster than a swing trade, and a little slower than a day trade.