Geithner speaks, Dollar drops, Crude and Gold POP off Tuesday’s Lows

We begin our day this morning looking at the Dollar index taking a plunge overnight after hearing Secretary Tim Geithner confirm that the US has “reached its debt level” and that focus will be on ‘lowering debt levels gradually”  Traders will certainly be anxious to hear more from the Fed later today when they release their meeting minutes from earlier in May.

Looking at the day ahead we see Crude Oil inventories at 10:30am which will be the focus of our attention when trading crude oil.  We have three personalities to crude oil on Wednesdays so we will be watching closely.  We may have a HUGE day like last week, we will wait and see how the market reacts.  Im also watching the volume this morning for contract rollover on crude oil. 

After lunch today we have FOMC Meeting Minutes at 2pm EST.  This will certainly be on the minds of day traders, and we expect that volume and speed in the markets will show this.  I expect to see an early close to the morning session in the US as day traders get flat ahead of a highly anticipate look behind the scenes of the FOMC Meeting earlier this month.  Traders will be picking apart these ‘meeting minutes’ looking for clues to the direction of the dollar.
Looking at the charts this morning…
Dollar Index
Open your 34-Range chart of the DX 06-11 contract and you can see a sloppy, sideways market that is looking for direction.  I can see a minor trend line off the recent swing lows which clearly defines a sideways wedge pattern.  This wedge can be deadly to our volume today, so I will be watching the dollar all morning.  We saw this on Tuesday if you recall.  When the DX was outside the wedge we had decent moves on Crude and Gold, when the DX got back inside the wedge EVERYTHING slows down sloppy.  I will be watching the Dollar support and resistance levels closely, watching to see how we react to highs and lows, this will tell me a story of what is coming next.

 

Gold Futures

Gold Futures are looking very concerning this morning, and the Dollar Index is not helping it’s cause.  With the Dollar in the wedge, and now we see the GC 06-11 is also in a very narrow part of its price wedge.  These are signs that this market may be waiting for something….possibly the 2pm Meeting minutes today from the Fed…maybe something else?  We shall see very soon today.  Bottom line..get me OUT of this narrow wedge into wide open space so I can trade gold.



Crude Oil Futures

Crude Oil looks a little better than Gold this morning when it comes to the structure of price, but in all reality the fact that we are sharing volume between the 06-11 and the 07-11 contract and we have major news at 10:30am today.  You can easily see two major price range in the white boxes and the price wedge in yellow trend lines, with current price at the highs of the wedge. 

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    Joseph James - May 18, 2011 Reply

    845am EST
    – We look at the dollar index a little closer this morning and we see a flat sideways wedge which tells me that there is no day trading bias for one side or the other.
    – Sideways dollar = buy or sell on the markets we trade most.
    – Narrow wedge on the dollar tells us this morning may be slow
    – My goal is to focus on taking trades when the DOLLAR is at its extremes (highs or lows)
    – Example: don’t trade the crude oil when the dollar is in the middle of its wedge. Look for your crude trades when the dollar is at the highs or the lows of the wedge.

    900am est
    – We begin to review crude oil futures
    – We do not have to rollover crude oil contracts today because the volume is not higher on the 07-11 contract.
    – When the 06-11 is lower total volume than the 07-11 we can roll this market forward
    – We have crude oil news @ 1030am today and we know that there are three phase to the day when trading crude oil
    – We will be waiting from 10am through 1035am looking to avoid the sloppiest time of the day
    – Look for the best trades before 1015am, and then after 1040am EST
    – It will be important that we don’t jump into the market too soon AFTER the 1030 news.
    – We have a price wedge
    – We have a long term bear channel, we are above the highs, and a short term bull channel and we are at the lows
    – We see the PHOD and PLOD are below us, making this an OUTSIDE day
    – The BMT and the OPEN are below us, so this is a BULLISH sign in the market, but it also gives us an easy plan of attack:
    Lets plan our attack on crude oil:
    – We are inside a bullish price channel, and we are now above the highs of the wedge.
    – We want to see if the price keeps rising we want to buy pullbacks
    – If the price reverses we want to trade short into the PHOD and the PLOD is our final target. We expect the range from Tuesday (below us) to act like a price magnet.
    – Question is….who is in control? If the buyers are we are buying pullbacks….if the sellers are…we are selling retracements.
    o If price rises:
     Im selling resistance first and then buying pullbacks with new higher highs.
     When I have resistance I sell, and when that resistance becomes support I am buying.
     Im selling the HOD 99.88, selling the highs of the channel, and the major highs of 99.65 at the top of the range
     As price makes new highs im not buying the highs im buying pullbacks.
    o If price falls:
     Im buying at support first, then selling new lows with retracements
     Im buying support at the lows of the channel 98.44
     Buying support at the 34r trigger lines 99.40
     Buying support at the PHOD, but beware the OPEN is right below the PHOD so this will be sloppy, higher risk
     I will buy support 97.73 top of the major price wedge
     Buy the LOD 97.62 as support and then selling retracements if make new lower lows
     Avoid trading around the BMT 97.56 and the previous day’s open 97.11 will make a great final target, but NOT an entry location.
     If price falls we want to take advantage of the range below us. Look to sell below the previous high of day and take the price down to the previous lows.

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