State of the Union

Good Morning Traders,
As of this writing 4:15 AM EST, here’s what we see:
US Dollar: Mar. USD is Up at 89.175.
Energies: Mar ’18 Crude is Down at 64.94.
Financials: The Mar 30 year bond is Down 4 ticks and trading at 148.00.
Indices: The Mar S&P 500 emini ES contract is 48 ticks Lower and trading at 2841.50.
Gold: The Feb gold contract is trading Down at 1342.20. Gold is 32 ticks Lower than its close.
Initial Conclusion

This is not a correlated market. The dollar is Up+ and Crude is Down- which is normal but the 30 year Bond is trading Lower. The Financials should always correlate with the US dollar such that if the dollar is lower then bonds should follow and vice-versa. The S&P is Lower and Crude is trading Down- which is not correlated. Gold is trading Down- which is correlated with the US dollar trading Up. I tend to believe that Gold has an inverse relationship with the US Dollar as when the US Dollar is down, Gold tends to rise in value and vice-versa. Think of it as a seesaw, when one is up the other should be down. I point this out to you to make you aware that when we don’t have a correlated market, it means something is wrong. As traders you need to be aware of this and proceed with your eyes wide open.
At this hour all of Asia is trading Lower. As of this writing all of Europe is trading Lower as well.
Possible Challenges To Traders Today

• S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI is out at 9 AM EST. This is major.
• CB Consumer Confidence is out at 10 AM. This is major.
• Sate of the Union Address at 9 PM EST. This is major.

Treasuries
We’ve elected to switch gears a bit and show correlation between the 30 year bond (ZB) and The YM futures contract. The YM contract is the DJIA and the purpose is to show reverse correlation between the two instruments. Remember it’s liken to a seesaw, when up goes up the other should go down and vice versa.
Yesterday the ZB made it’s move at around 10 AM EST. The ZB hit a Low at around that time and the YM hit a High. If you look at the charts below ZB gave a signal at around 10 AM EST and the YM was moving Lower at the same time. Look at the charts below and you’ll see a pattern for both assets. ZB hit a Low at around 10 AM and the YM hit a High. These charts represent the newest version of MultiCharts and I’ve changed the timeframe to a 30 minute chart to display better. This represented a long opportunity on the 30 year bond, as a trader you could have netted about 15 plus ticks per contract on this trade. Each tick is worth $31.25.
Charts Courtesy of MultiCharts built on an AMP platform Click on an image to enlarge it.
ZB – Mar, 2018 – 1/29/18
YM- Mar, 2018 – 1/29/18
Bias

Yesterday we gave the markets a Neutral Bias as Crude, the Bonds and Gold were all trading Lower Monday morning and in theory this should have moved the indices Higher yesterday morning but that wasn’t the case. The Dow dropped 177 points and the other indices lost ground as well. Today we aren’t dealing with a correlated market and will maintain a Neutral bias.
Could this change? Of Course. Remember anything can happen in a volatile market.
Commentary

It seems that after a week of driving the markets higher and to a higher high each day last week, the markets were due for a break and yesterday they received that break. The Dow dropped 177 points and the other indices lost ground as well. We suspect that the markets will lie in anticipation of President Trump’s annual State of the Union address; schedule to air at 9 PM EST tonight.

Just so you understand, Market Correlation is Market Direction. It attempts to determine the market direction for that day and it does so by using a unique set of tools. In fact TradersLog published an article on this subject that can be viewed at: http://www.traderslog.com/market-cor…ket-direction/


Many of my readers have been asking me to spell out the rules of Market Correlation. Futures Magazine has elected to print a story on the subject matter and I must say I’m proud of the fact that they did as I’m Author of that article. I encourage all viewers to read that piece as it spells out the rules of market correlation and provides charts that show how it works in action. The article is entitled “How to Exploit and Profit from Market Correlation” and can be viewed at:
View article on Futures Mag
As a follow up to the first article on Market Correlation, I’ve produced a second segment on this subject matter and Futures Magazine has elected to publish it. It can be viewed at: View article on Futures Mag
Many subscribers have asked what is the best time of day to trade? A recent article published by Futures Magazine may shed some light on the subject: http://www.futuresmag.com/2015/01/15…orning-trading


As readers are probably aware I don’t trade equities. While we’re on this discussion, let’s define what is meant by a good earnings report. A company must exceed their prior quarter’s earnings per share and must provide excellent forward guidance. Any falloff between earning per share or forward guidance will not bode well for the company’s shares. This is one of the reasons I don’t trade equities but prefer futures. There is no earnings reports with futures and we don’t have to be concerned about lawsuits, scandals, malfeasance, etc. Anytime the market isn’t correlated it’s giving you a clue that something isn’t right and you should proceed with caution. Today our bias is Neutral. Could this change? Of course. In a volatile market anything can happen. We’ll have to monitor and see.
As I write this the crude markets are Lower and the futures are trading Lower. This is not normal. Crude and the markets are now reverse correlated such that when the markets are rising, crude drops and vice-versa. Yesterday March Crude dropped to a low of $64.98 a barrel. It would appear at the present time that crude has support at $64.50 a barrel and resistance at $67.00. This could change. We’ll have to monitor and see. Remember that crude is the only commodity that is reflected immediately at the gas pump. Please note that the front month for crude is now March. Last month OPEC met once again to cut production but the price of crude is starting to climb. Whereas prior to the production cuts the ceiling was in the 50 dollar range, it is now in the 60 plus dollar range. The question is if whether this is temporary or something more permanent. As an update to this the non-OPEC countries have come to an agreement to unilaterally cut production across the board and this has served to temporarily raise crude prices. We’ll have to see if and how long this lasts…
If trading crude today consider doing so after 10 AM EST when the markets gives us better direction.

Future Challenges

Stop Gap Measure only good until February 8th…
TradersLog has just published an article entitled “So You Think You Can Trust Your Elected Officials?” That article can be viewed at: http://www.traderslog.com/trust-elected-officials

Crude Oil Is Trading Lower

Crude oil is trading Lower and the markets are Lower. This is normal. Crude typically makes 3 major moves (long or short) during the course of any trading day: around 9 AM EST, 11 AM EST and 2 PM EST when the crude market closes. If crude makes major moves around those time frames, then this would suggest normal trending, if not it would suggest that something is not quite right. As always watch and monitor your order flow as anything can happen in this market. This is why monitoring order flow in today’s market is crucial. We as traders are faced with numerous challenges that we didn’t have a few short years ago. High Frequency Trading is one of them. I’m not an advocate of scalping however in a market as volatile as this scalping is an alternative to trend trading. Remember that without knowledge of order flow we as traders are risking our hard earned capital and the Smart Money will have no issue taking it from us. Regardless of whatever platform you use for trading purposes you need to make sure it’s monitoring order flow. Sceeto does an excellent job at this. To fully capitalize on this newsletter it is important that the reader understand how the various market correlate. More on this in subsequent editions.

Nick Mastrandrea is the author of Market Tea Leaves. Market Tea Leaves is a daily newsletter that is dedicated to your trading success. We teach and discuss market correlation. Market Tea Leaves is published daily, pre-market in the United States and can be viewed at www.markettealeaves.com. Interested in Market Correlation? Want to learn more? Signup and receive Market Tea Leaves each day prior to market open. As a subscriber, you’ll also receive our daily Market Bias video that is only available to subscribers.