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Computerization of the futures market for order entry and execution eliminated any semblance of flow in these markets, in my opinion… Computers are responsible for the ridiculous level of volatility, due mostly in part the the fact that we went from transparent markets, where all could see and hear the bid/offer and size…That worked well for over 150 years…We have replaced transparency with INVISIBILITY..

That is why we have such severe large moves, marked by a flurry of rapid jumps… followed by almost no trade at all…we have a situation where its computer algorithm vs computer algorithm…This fact has effectively destroyed the inter market spread […]

India took delivery today of 6.7BB in Gold from the IMF…That bit of news, along with the stock indexes holding up surprisingly well in the face of the bearish news from London regarding RBS and Lloyd’s continued restructuring, are the top stories..
As I wrote this morning, we are trading crude oil in the grains… crude oil is sharply higher, ditto for grains…

We have crude pushing higher, gold posting a high at 1084.70, Silver joining in with a high at 17.8, still a buck lower than its high last month at 18.15…
Corn Wheat and Beans are all moving higher in sympathy, with SX […]

As we enter Tuesday’s trading day look at the following factors:
1) Crude Oil prices and the trading range of the US Dollar index
2) Export news for the grains, as well as any hint of further delays in harvesting.
Yesterday’s crop progress report has corn still on the low end at 28percent, and Soybeans at 52 percent harvested. Both are way behind 2008 schedules…
Time will tell if the rain affected crop quality of yields…Both crops were looking huge in September, so the damage would have to be spectacular to really have an impact, but it could be enough to squeeze out speculative […]

For the past 3 years, the talk was the sub-prime crisis…Now it seems the new fascination in the financial press is the dollar-carry trade, which is exciting because it gives the TV analysts something new to wring their hands over and explain to it viewers.

Basically for a long time we had a yen carry trade, which speculators used the yen as currency of choice to borrow and use to trade with. That activity still exits, however, with the dollar being liquefied during the last year, the us dollar became a more attractive (cheaper) alternative…So now as currency fluctuations do their thing, it impacts the […]

For the past 3 years, the talk was the sub-prime crisis…Now it seems the new fascination in the financial press is the dollar-carry trade, which is exciting because it gives the TV analysts something new to wring their hands over and explain to it viewers.

Basically for a long time we had a yen carry trade, which speculators used the yen as currency of choice to borrow and use to trade with. That activity still exits, however, with the dollar being liquefied during the last year, the us dollar became a more attractive (cheaper) alternative…So now as currency fluctuations do their thing, it impacts the […]

Ford came out today with bullish news, the only manufacturer not to take tarp money, posted a billion dollar gain… Perhaps Hillary would like to impose a windfall profits tax on them?

Other bullish news, 1) Institute for Supply chain management, a private entity, sees GDP at 4.5 percent growth.., 2) pending home sales rise, and 3) China reports higher manufacturing output.

In response, the Dollar/Crude has been all over the place, but overall the Crude is about 2 bucks higher, Gold rebounded 22 bucks on short covering and fresh long specs, and the grains moved higher overnight and early on in sympathy with the […]

Profit Taking across the board in stock indexes as well as commodities…The Dow and S&P500 led the way with a 239 point and 28 handle “correction” off of yesterday’s bullish move…We basically negated all of Thursday’s rally from the GDP number…We had negative consumer confidence come out, but honestly, I think it was more a case of people trying to lock in some profits at the end of the month… Bulls would have liked to see a move back above 10000, but we couldn’t muster any such follow through today…
The DJZ settled at 9664, and SPZ settled at 1033…
The recent lows were posted […]

Traders have used yesterday’s strength in the Stock indexes as a means to 1) take profits and 2) initiate shorts in the face of potentially errant, albeit emotional, longs..
I was scanning the radio and TV yesterday listening intently to the rave reviews the commentators were giving to the GDP numbers, Obama’s stimulus package and the market’s positive 200 point rally in the Dow…Almost a certain sign to fade those commentators, and low and behold we are 100 points lower today, and the grains are following suit.

I had a side by side chart of the Dow and the soybeans, and the Dow […]

I was just looking at a weekly chart of the crude oil futures..Does anyone remember July 07, with a double top at 146.86 and then 146.75 on the weekly chart? That was marked by Congress person Maxine Waters telling the Chairman of Exxon and other US oil companies that she favored nationalizing the oil industry…

Typically, that was the top. If Maxine had had her way, we would have been long oil as a nation at its all time highs…Ditto for Hillary, who, in the heat of the campaign, suggested windfall profits taxes to build windmills and other green stuff….

Fast Forward to Feb […]

Last Friday’s high on the daily charts in SX was 1029 1/2, yesterdays low was 959 1/2 or a 70 point crap in 4 trading days…Half-way back is 35 cents, which gives us a target of 995, not 85 which I had written earlier..
As of this writing, however the high in SX is around 86 half…. In the wheat, last Friday’s high was 575, Wed’s low was 491 for a 84 cent flush.. Half-way back is 42 cents or a target of 533…

CZ had a high last Friday at 414 with a Wed at 364 for a 50 cent move.. half way […]