Tag: Futures Trading

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We’ve asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Gold Futures

Gold futures had a wild trading week with a $30 up day and $30 down day finishing up about $5 for the trading week in the February contract going out this Friday in New York at 1,235 an ounce finishing up $11 this Friday afternoon as the trend still remains bearish in my opinion & I still believe that there’s a high probability that prices will retest the summer lows of 1,180 here in the next couple of weeks. Next week will be very interesting to see if the Fed does taper bond purchases and how these markets will react so expect extreme volatility in the precious metals especially if tapering is announced. I would definitely expect prices to drop rather significantly quickly but the opposite could happen as well as if there is no tapering you could get a big knee-jerk reaction to the upside so I’m advising just to sit on the sidelines and see what the statement says and go from there because it’s like flipping a coin at this time but the trend is to the downside so at least in the short-term prices still look vulnerable. Gold is still trading below its 20 and 100 day moving average we really have gone nowhere in the last month but we had extreme volatility as there is major support down at those levels. Gold is down about 35% from its all-time high of about 1,900 just a couple years ago and eventually there will be a bottom in this market I just don’t think quite yet.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: OK Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We’ve asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Cotton Futures

Cotton futures in New York this week were basically unchanged still trading below their 20 and 100 day moving average hitting 11 month lows this week settling at 77 as supplies are large and demand is low as rumors of China selling cotton reserves which they hold 50% of the world’s supply depressing prices at this time. I have been recommending a short position from 82 and continue to place your stop loss at the 10 day high if you took my advice as I do believe prices are headed down to the 70 level in the next several weeks as the bearish soft commodity markets continue to the downside. The USDA crop report came out today which was pretty neutral as prices continue to decline on weak demand as many of the commodity markets are starting to turn bearish despite the fact of the printing press continuing for some time but it is not helping cotton or any of the other commodities to the upside at this time.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: EXCELLENT Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

How to avoid the most important mistake most traders make everyday ...

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Getting the direction of the market right is only part of the challenge you face as a trader. The other has to do with money management.

Managing your capital or the deployment of capital is one of the most important items on your trading list. Yet it somehow falls between the cracks for most traders.

In this Traders Whiteboard lesson we are going to focus on STOPS!!!!!

There are three ways to use stops to protect your capital and lock in profits from a trade. These three money management techniques can be used in stock, futures and forex trading. The important rule is that you do use a real stop in the marketplace. A friend of mine once joked with me that he had never seen a "mental stop" filled in the pits. It's true, for stops to be effective they must be in the market in the form of an order.

If the market is good your stop will not be hit. If the market is bad or changing direction then you'll want to be stopped out of it anyway. That is why stops are so crucial to trading success.

Here are the three most commonly used types of stops. Which one do you use?

(1) Dollar stop.
(2) Percentage stop.
(3) Chart stop.

If you chose (1) you'd be correct, but, you would also be correct if you had chosen 2 or 3. All three are money management stops and are used to either lock in profits, or more importantly to protect capital.(1) A dollar stop, is when you set a predetermined dollar amount on any trade. Let's say you want to risk $500 on a grain trade or $750 on a stock trade. Once you get your order fill back from your brokerage company, you simply subtract out from your purchase price the amount of money you have determined beforehand that you wish to risk on this trade. The reverse would be true if you were shorting the market.

Pros: Easy to implement and use.
Cons: Can place stops too close in a volatile market

(2) Percentage stop is a very simple way for you to place a stop on a position. Here's how it works. Let's say your trading account is 100,000 dollars, and let's say you only want to risk 1% of your total portfolio on any one trade. You simply take a $1,000 risk which represents 1% of your over all portfolio. This can help enormously in avoiding BIG LOSSES. A 1% loss is easy to absorb. A 30% or 40% loss is an account killer, that can, with this strategy be avoided.

Pros: Easy to implement and use.
Cons: Can place stops too close.

(3) Chart stop, a chart stop is where you place a stop that is either above or below a crucial chart point. The good thing about a chart stop is that this level is often used by other traders. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing, here's why. Using either stop (1) or stop (2) only you know where your stop is. With a chart point, a great many traders/brokers know where the stops are. In an illiquid market this type of stop should not be used as many times brokers gun for the stops. "Traders Tip," avoid thinly traded markets like the plague.

Pros: Very easy to implement and use.
Cons: Can't be used in thinly traded markets.

So there you have it. Now you have all three ways to manage your money and protect your profits at the same time.

Use stops... put them to work for you today