Day Trading Futures For Beginners…Market Commentary

Today we saw some increased volume in the market, but overall, we still haven’t seen the large push of buyers and sellers enter the market as they have in the past. With the 1 year anniversary of Lehman’s collapse and what seemed like a global financial slow down, it’s no real surprise to us at the School of Trade, that the market isn’t its normal self, and it may never be the same, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still trade the markets! Today’s trade totals: 3 for 3 +40 Ticks = $400 in Profits!

Our first trade of the day came on the Crude Oil market, (Symbol CL). The Crude Oil market wasn’t making too many dramatic swings in price, most likely due to the massive short slide that came last Friday, where the Crude Oil market dropped more than $3 off its highs, closing below $69. After the U.S equities open at 9:30am EST we finally saw some decent price action, and the markets began to wake up a little bit. At 9:54am EST we took the Crude Oil short, off our newest trade set-up, the Breaker Pattern. We entered the market short at a basis of 69.04, and looked for price to continue to the short side. With the stochastic’s beginning to curl over in our favor, we were able to quickly scalp some profits of +3 ticks (2 contracts) before closing the trade for a total of 6 ticks ($10/tick).

Our second trade of the morning came shortly after our first, and once again on the Crude Oil (Symbol CL). After price had retraced higher after our first trade, it continued its downtrend and began shorting into the $68.00 level. Price began to short into one of our levels of support and set-up in a perfect 2-step pattern to the long side. To capitalize on the quickly trend reversal, we entered the market long at 10:09am EST for a 2-step long, with a basis of 68.77. After seeing price action break our dynamic levels of resistance, the buyers finally took control of price, and we were able to use our ATM strategy via Ninja Trade to lock in profits at +3 ticks (2 contracts) and +6 ticks (1 contract) for a total of 12 ticks ($10/Tick).

Our third and final trade of the morning came once again on the Crude Oil (Symbol CL). Price had been consolidating around the $69.00 level and we were waiting patiently for a break either above or below that level. We quickly got our break-out around 10:40am EST and price began to trend higher into the mid $69 level. We noticed though that the buyers were quickly losing the momentum, and as many looked to take profit, the sellers began to enter the market again, which meant we would be looking to go short with a 2-step. At 10:50am EST we entered the market short with a basis of 69.20, due to speed of the tape increasing to the short side and momentum curling to the downside. With the sellers on our side, we quickly took profit at +3 ticks (2 contracts) +6 ticks (1 contract) and then let the remaining quarter of our trade run. With sellers controlling even more of the market, we watched as our final contract run for an extra +10 ticks (1 contract) giving us a total of 22 ticks on our final trade! ($10/tick).

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