Monday, February 27, 2012

PUTTING IN THE DAY’S RANGE


                                 Long Crude In The Final Hour

Gold? Ahhhh, a waste of time right now.

On to crude!

We started the day having been up 13 out of the last 14 days, and 10 days in a row. From the lows 14 days ago, crude oil is up approximately $14 / barrel. So, I’m starting the day somewhat cautious because I know at some point the tsunami of profit taking is going to come in and cause some disruptions.

The million dollar question is when; early or late? As I stated over on my other post, in bull markets, early breaks can be bought, late breaks can’t.

We got our first good buy signal from “Vegas Crude Oil Trader” at about 108.54 off the 108.24 low early in the morning. With the high being put in much earlier in Asia at 109.68, the range was then 144. I didn’t take this trade because I wanted the second break at a higher range. “Sorry vegas, no can do!”

In a volatile market like crude, which is volatile to say the least, I am always mindful of the range for the day. It is a major component of my decision to buy/sell.

By late morning, crude had rallied up past 109.00, and was looking like it wanted to make a new high. The key here on a range of 144 is whether or not the market can retrace past the fib ratio of 0.618% off the low. That would be 89 off the low, so you are looking at a very pivotal point of 109.13 [bid]. If it can penetrate that level, the market has a shot of hitting a new high.

I bought at 109.18. I went with a low volume because I wanted the flexibility to add to the position if it was the correct one and we were in fact going to hit a new high. I want all my trades to become “free trades” and allow them to “run”.

The market bolted through the 109.20 level and spent a minute or two above 109.20 before going 109.26 bid. At that point, the market’s next price was 109.21 bid, a drop of 5 ticks. I knew at this instant, the breakthrough through the fib ratio level was a trap. I exited the trade for a few pennies of profit at 109.21.

The very next 1 minute candlestick and the market started lower in earnest.

Now, the question is; when does the low get put in and how deep? If it can come in early afternoon, there is a chance of a good bounce back. If it comes late look out below.

“How does a $1.25 / barrel break in 23 minutes in the last hour of trading sound?”

So, there you go, the range is $2.43 for the day. Like I said, somehow, someway it happens. If it had been on the upside, I would have hit it. Tomorrows another day.

Up on the right hand side of the website are the download links for “Vegas Crude Oil Trader”. It’s totally free folks, what else do you want from me?

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas

Sunday, February 26, 2012

SPECIAL POST: vegas Delivers As Adverised



                                 She’s Screamin’ Her Lungs Out


As promised on Friday, the links to download “Vegas Crude Oil Trader” ARE UP ON THE WEBSITE. There are 3 links and you need to download each one. The links are located in the upper right hand corner of the website under “DOWNLOAD THE “VEGAS CRUDE OIL TRADER” FILES.
                                                                                              
“Vegas Crude Oil Trader” is a 64 pages PDF manual that has everything you need to get up and running.

The “Vegas Crude Oil Trader” mq4 file and the “Vegas 1HR Crude Oil trader” mq4 file are files that need to be installed into the MT4 trading platform. The algorithm is super-imposed over the appropriate charts and is visual in nature. See Appendix II of the manual for easy and detailed installation instructions.

If you ever wanted to trade crude oil, here is your opportunity.

If you have any questions or need help drop me an email at vegasxau@ymail.com and I’ll try and get back with you ASAP. Enjoy.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas

Friday, February 24, 2012

NEW OPPORTUNITIES



                           We Just Invite Ourselves When Needed


What can you say about gold?

“Honey, what was your last girlfriend like?” Yea, it’s like that.

I didn’t trade gold today. Going forward, until the market goes back to more normal conditions, I will be looking for picking more intermediate long positions on selected algorithm signals where we can then make “free trades”.

I did make a good crude oil trade today, on the signals, but screwed up when I went to adjust the stop. Here’s what happened.

I got long on a buy signal at 108.26 with an initial stop at 107.93. About 20 minutes later the market moved above 108.30 [bid] and I wanted to then adjust my initial stop. My MT4 platform liquidation box was on my screen, so I needed to minimize it up in the right hand corner so I could then bring up the box to replace my stop. So, I depressed my mouse and “moved it across my screen to minimize”.

“Hey vegas, thanks for moving your depressed mouse over the “liquidation of position” area and setting off closing of the position at 108.31. We’re on our way to 110 and thank you for letting us out; by the way, would you like a cookie?”

“Errr no thanks, but a very dull knife for my carotid artery on my neck might be appropriate.”

I’m officially blaming my injured right hand; after all I can’t just be a klutz can I?

As I hinted yesterday, on Sunday I will be posting a special segment on crude oil and how to trade it. Even if you have never traded crude before, I think you will be pleasantly surprised how good of a market it can be for trading. It offers all the advantages of gold [when it is active and normal] plus some gold doesn’t have.

So, come on back Sunday night sometime and read all about it; you will be glad you did.

Have a good weekend everyone.

-vegas

Thursday, February 23, 2012

DID I NOT WARN YOU?



                                 Some People Just Won’t Listen


How can I talk about today’s gold market without raising my blood pressure or using non-mother approved language?

How about less than a $4 range for the first 8 hours of trading; less than $8 until the U.S. session opened; and last but not least the price spikes and price drops [near 2 PM]? I warned you guys of this kind of action.

I started the day off in early Asia with a buy signal trade that I had to wait 8 hours to basically scratch. Add to the long wait, and with no market action, dealer games with my fills. I spent a large part of the first 14 hours of trade making my views on dealers known to the brokerage house kingpins.

My views on gold today I summed up pretty well on the other post at http://vegasxau.blogspot.com

I did have a nice trade in crude oil today, although not the volume I wanted.

Over the weekend, I will be making a special post on crude oil that basically will outline how I trade this market for the PAMM.

Until tomorrow, have a nice day everyone.

-vegas

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

IT ONLY HURTS WHEN YOU LOOK



                                     Or, He Was Short Gold


Unbelievable action in gold today; pure and total boredom for 20 hours then $25 / oz. in 90 minutes. Severe price spikes that come out of nowhere, leaving you wondering what the news was [errrrrr, there wasn’t any, and that’s part of the problem].

I started the day off trying to position a “free trade” on the upside. I did this twice in the wee hours of Asia, each time the market not cooperating. A few pennies of profit.

“OK, you wanna go down, then go down.”

Twenty hours later with a $10 range, gold is giving me a headache. The algorithm, as you all should know, is no help in this kind of environment.  I’m literally sitting here wondering where the day’s range is going to come from, if at all. Wonder no more.

Hopefully, we can get Asia to cooperate with some quick profit taking tonight, and I try again to position a “free trade” on the upside. Looks to me like the buying isn’t finished, and before we can correct to the downside, we need some kind of price spike in either Asia or Europe to bring the market to an overbought status. We’ll see.

And lest you think it was boring for 20 hours in just gold, crude oil had only an $ 0.84 range before it decided to go $0.50 in 1 minute before giving it all back in the next ten.

So, we stay disciplined, and tomorrow is another day.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

TRAIN STATION TRADING



                                          Required Reading


 “Hey, wait for me! I’m trying to get on this train.”

“Sorry man, train has left the station.”

Guess where you’re still standing?

I came into today’s trade quite bullish on gold; the problem I had was execution. I never wanted to pay up to be long when we got the “spikes out of nowhere”. As I wrote on the other post, these spikes/drops play havoc with the algorithm and the attendant signals.

I traded some WTI Crude Oil today, and in the days ahead will spend more time in this market. The intra day volatility is very good, the spread is consistently pretty tight at 0.05, and the market puts in a $1.50 - $2.00 + / barrel range almost every day: just what I am looking for in a market.

Today I focused more on Crude Oil than gold, getting my bearings and watching volatility action. It was a pretty slow day until late in the session when prices exploded $1 per barrel in 15 minutes. Like I said, I’ll be doing more trading in WTI.

While I made some pennies today, it was nonetheless frustrating dealing with a gold market that acted more like a psychotic teenage girl than a major functioning market.

“Welcome to trading today vegas, can I get you a cookie?”

“Errr, no thanks.”

The good news is that it was an opportunity cost, and there are an unlimited number of those in the days ahead. Still ………

Have a good day everyone. Tomorrow’s another day.

-vegas

Monday, February 20, 2012

KEEP THE DEALERS WEALTHY DAY



                       Help A Dealer Make A Car Payment Will Ya?


What can you say about a day when the spread is 5% of the total range? What can you say about a day where there were 7 5M candlesticks greater than $2 / oz, and yet the range [outside of the first hour of trading late Sunday afternoon] was about $7?

It’s easy! If you traded today, you helped a dealer make a car payment. Now, don’t you feel better about yourself?

I have seen more professional traders get seriously hurt in markets like this and compound their problems as the day wears on. The reason you walk away from these types of days is because you can’t make money back if you have a losing trade.

We get back to normal tonight, and when markets stay tight for an extended period, they usually break out with a bang.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas