Important NOTE: With The Recent Volatility Across Markets, We Have Seen Margins Increase In Some Markets As Well As Wild Swings And Extreme Volatility In Many Markets. For Some, It Can Cost The Full Account Value But Doesn’t Need To. These Volatile Times Require MAJOR Adjustments In How You Approach Trading And Risk Management. I Hope This Article Helps And I Encourage You To Utilize Our Brokers And The Knowledge They Have To Assist You.. Contact Us
Many different factors go into trading. Too many to discuss efficiently in one blog post. Some relate to trading techniques, other to money management, mental aspect, risk capital and much more.
But one that sticks in my eyes is the inability to accept a loss. I see many clients who can make money and have days where they make money but when they lose, they lose much more, sometimes even losing control and losing a big portion of their account.
I am not sure how a trader can embed this into their trading mind, BUT in my opinion if you train your brain to expect losses, understand losses and that losing days will happen, you will increase your chances of surviving in this business, which in return will actually give you a chance to succeed….
Losses are part of trading and as long as your losses are part of the plan and are quantified in advance and you can adhere to your rules, then you have a chance. I think it’s easy when traders are winning…making money etc. Much harder when you lose or down. your brain starts playing tricks on you…it tells you to double down, maybe reverse even though your analysis does not say so….all of a sudden you start pulling trades out of instinct, fear rather than a calculated plan that has solid risk/ reward. If a trader learns how to lose, to accept losses, to have realistic expectations, then he/ she can avoid having one of those terrible days when traders can lose almost of all their account.
I went into this subject and detailed day-trading money mgmt in an article I wrote a few years back for SFO magazine.
Gold has benefited from inflationary pressures as well as downside volatility in Bitcoin and crypto currencies. Safe heaven helped the yellow metal complete a nice weekly bar. A daily close above 1888 can trigger another leg up towards 1939. First support at 1838.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
5-24-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Trading 102: Options on Futures In Depth Information (Note: When volatility is SO HIGH, options can provide additional ways for possible hedging and alternative speculation – our brokers will be happy to assist)
A comprehensive resource for information on options on futures
In this section you will read and learn about the following:
Gold futures finished the trading week with strength. Looking at the daily chart below, I like the formation and the strength into the weekly close to confirm two trading signals I personally like:
The Blue arrow (highlighted) and the bars turning green (Highlighted as well)
To access a free trial to the ALGOS shown in the chart along with other tools? (Arrows possible buy/sell, diamonds = possible exit/ tighten stops) visit and sign up for a free trial for 21 days with real-time data.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
5-17-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
It happened to do so the following few days on the heels of general commodity “inflation”, demand and technical factors. Both copper and lumber used in building materials had a very powerful run up.
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
5-10-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Cannon Trading & CME Group invite you to attend a webinar on Wednesday, May 5, about the NEW CME Group Micro Bitcoin Futures. Join John Bria, CME Group’s Director of Client Development & Sales, as he discusses the growth of crypto, how this micro product has come to fruition and the opportunities that lie ahead for the active trader community.
An Introduction to Micro Bitcoin Futures
Join us for an interactive session where John Bria, CME Group’s Director of Client Development & Sales, as he covers the fundamentals of Micro Bitcoin Futures, while exploring ways in which active individual traders can use these products to diversify their portfolio.
In This Webinar You Will Learn:
• The evolution of cryptocurrency
• CME Group Micro Bitcoin product overview
• Explanation of Bitcoin Reference Rate and real-time index
Risk: Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time
Soybeans Weekly Chart for your review below. Click here for LARGER IMAGE
May Soybeans have rallied $1.65 in just eight trading sessions, an increase of 12%. The soybean oil market has sliced through its 2011 highs to its highest level since July 2008. May corn closed limit up at 650 1/2 yesterday and has rallied 21.9% off of the March 30 low (a gain of $1.16 3/4). Including today’s session, May corn has not closed lower for 13 days in a row. May wheat closed 37 cents higher on the session yesterday and the buying pushed the market up to a new contract high. The market has now rallied as much as $1.20 off of the March 31st low or up 20.2%. China continues to be a massive buyer of old and new crop corn and soy products. Brazilian weather conditions (dry) as well as early U.S. crop year weather conditions (dry) are keeping upward pressure on extremely overbought prices, but don’t rule out a correction at any time.
To access a free trial to the ALGOS shown in the chart along with other tools? (Arrows possible buy, squares = possible exit/ tighten stops) visit and sign up for a free trial for 21 days with real-time data.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
4-26-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Have you ever wondered who sells the futures options that most people buy?
These people are known as the option writers/sellers. Their sole objective is to collect the premium paid by the option buyer. Option writing can also be used for hedging purposes and reducing risk. An option writer has the exact opposite to gain as the option buyer. The writer has unlimited risk and a limited profit potential, which is the premium of the option minus commissions. When writing naked futures options your risk is unlimited, without the use of stops. This is why we recommend exiting positions once a market trades through an area you perceived as strong support or resistance. So why would anyone want to write an option?
Here are a few reasons:
Most futures options expire worthless and out of the money. Therefore, the option writer is collecting the premium the option buyer paid.
There are three ways to win as an option writer. A market can go in the direction you thought, it can trade sideways and in a channel, or it can even go slowly against you but not through your strike price. The advantage is time decay.
The writer believes the futures contract will not reach a certain strike price by the expiration date of the option. This is known as naked option selling.
To hedge against a futures position. For example: someone who goes long cocoa at 850 can write a 900 strike price call option with about one month of time until option expiration. This allows you to collect the premium of the call option if cocoa settles below 900, based on option expiration. It also allows you to make a profit on the actual futures contract between 851 and 900. This strategy also lowers your margin on the trade and should cocoa continue lower to 800, you at least collect some premium on the option you wrote. Risk lies if cocoa continues to decline because you only collect a certain amount of premium and the futures contract has unlimited risk the lower it goes.
To read the rest of the article as well as power point presentation along with a summary table instantly
I have been asked by clients over the years: “What other angles are there for short term trading?” The answer I normally give is that there are many different ways to trade and one has to find what works for him/ her based on time/ personality/ risk capital and more. That being said, I feel that spreads are often ignored and more traders should explore spreads on a few different levels:
Day trading/ swing trading, looking for the strength or weakness of one sector versus the other. Gold vs. Silver, Hogs vs. cattle, mini Russel versus mini Dow, heating oil vs unleaded gas, SP vs NQ and more. Certain spreads have specific ratios for them to work and the field of spreads can not be learned overnight and requires effort, time and studying.
To access a free trial to the ALGOS shown in the chart along with other tools? (Slanted arrows possible buy, pink squares = possible exit/ tighten stops) visit and sign up for a free trial for 21 days with real-time data.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts here in contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable, but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgement in trading.
Trading 102: Commitment of Traders Report – What Lies beneath
Commitment of Traders Report – COT
Commitment of Traders Report offers wealth of data when it comes to commodity and futures trading. You can somewhat say, this is a window into what the “big boys are doing” which is published weekly.
In this 24 page PDF booklet, Gary Kamen of Trends in Futures reviews the commitment of traders report, what it means, how traders can utilize it and much more.
Sign up and instantly download the booklet and learn about:
ES WEEKLY chart for your review. Click for larger image. New all time highs fueled by FED QE.
Next targets? Levels of support? will this past week slow price action continue or will the “speedy price action ” of weeks before return?
M S&P’s ( June mini SP 500)
4,101 OBJECTIVE has been met.
Market could have a retracement back
to 4075.00.
Next test area is 4145.00
No two Bull or Bear markets are alike. This pandemic is similar to 1918 (post WW1), which originated in China, unfortunately killing 50 million globally. The pent up demand led to the Roaring 20’s, which is the cycle we’re presently in. With the FED all in with unprecedented stimulus, we could see a 8-9% GDP number!
Q.E. is $120 billion a month, coupled
with the 3 stimulus packages and the new $2.2 trillion infrastructure in the pipeline. Also, the FED is allowing inflation to run hot, above their 2% target, using a weak US$, as its main catalyst. Lastly, the SHORT END may remain untouched for 2 years.
Eventually, the FED will lose control of the LONG END of the curve!
Future CAVEAT, is that we all know how the Roaring 20’s ended on Oct. 29, 1929.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
4-12-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Trading 102: Tight Stops? Wide Stops? Which One Should I Use?
Entry Signals Are Very Important But Just As Important If Not More Is Trade Management.
By: Ilan Levy-Mayer, Cannon Trading Commodities Broker & VP
This article was published on FinanceMagnates.com back a couple years ago but is defintely a timeless article.
Today I decided to touch more on an educational feature rather than provide a certain market outlook. Many of my clients and blog readers know that when it comes to short term trading I am a fan of adjusting your trading technique/ game plan according to your assessment of the type of trading day that is developing in front of you.
Many new and advanced traders spend HOURS on looking for entry signals. Back testing historical data, creating algorithms to use and much more. I know. I am one of these traders.
Trade management consists of many factors. Some are psychological and some are more mathematical and many are in between. Some of the basic elements of trade management before even entering the trade are: What will my stop loss be**? will i use a stop loss**? What will my target be? will I use a target or just trail the trade if it goes my way?
The bond market, more specifically, interest rate and yield projections, have been the big force behind the moves in many other futures markets. Bonds and the U.S. dollar have been key markets to watch, regardless of whether you are trading the E-mini S&P 500, gold, crude oil or soybeans. The way “big money” flows between asset classes, the allocation of assets, as well as the hedging interests in different markets are the main forces behind most of the markets we trade here.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
3-29-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Trading 102: Day Trading Commodities with Crude Oil Futures
Crude Oil Futures Volatility Offers A “Different Market Personality” Than Stock Index Futures. Here Is Some Of The Things You Need To Know About Day Trading Crude Oil Futures:
By: Ilan Levy-Mayer, Cannon Trading Commodities Broker & VP
Crude Oil is one of MY favorite futures market for day trading. Before I dive in and share with you how the volatility in crude oil fits my risk tolerance for day trading and provide a couple of chart examples, we should review some of the specifications of Crude Oil Futures.
Crude Oil Futures have monthly expiration. So each month we trade a different contract month, so one needs to know when is the first notice day and last trading day for crude oil futures in order to always make sure we are trading the proper month with the most liquidity and avoid any chance of getting into delivery situation.
Next is the contract size. Crude Oil futures are based on 1000 barrels. To be honest from a day trading perspective all I care is that each tick or 1 cent fluctuation is $10 against me or in my favor per contract. That means that a move from 92.94 to 92.74 = $200.
Another factor is trading hours. At the time I am sharing my thoughts with you, April 8th 2013, crude oil futures trade on the CME Globex platform and trade from 5 PM CDT until the next day at 4 PM CDT. That is 23 of straight trading hours. I definitely don’t recommend day trading this market 23 hours…but it is good to know the trading hours.
Volume in crude oil futures is pretty good to trade in my opinion. Averaging about 300,000 contracts per day.
One last pointer to touch on is the API (American Petroleum Institute) report that normally comes out Wednesday at 9:30 CDT (on short weeks, holidays etc. , this report will be pushed to Thursday at 10 AM CDT). I tell my clients that this report is way too volatile and I like to be out 5 minutes before and not resume trading 5 minutes until after the report comes out. This report by itself deserves a writing but on short, the report provides information on how our stock pile is doing ( = supply/demand) and the market will move based on the numbers versus what was expected. Again as a day trader, your main job is to know about this report, when it comes out and in my opinion stay out of the market during this time..Fill out the form below to read the full article.
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
3-22-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
START TRADING June indices, June currencies. March currencies going into deliveries and March stock indices will cash settle Friday March 19th at 830 AM central time.
Get Real Time updates and more on our private FB group!
Examples of info shared intraday can be seen below in the screen shots from this Thursday!!
Trading 102: Educational Trading Videos
by: Cannon Trading Brokers
Cannon Trading is happy to share with you a few videos focusing on trading techniques, ideas and tools you can add to your trading arsenal. In this week’s newsletter we are sharing the following 3 videos, about 5 minutes each, ready for immediate viewing on the following topics:
1. Identifying Support And Resistance Using A Line Chart.
2. Finding Levels of Support Resistance
3. Day Trading crude oil futures using fear and greed….
To view videos instantly, please fill out the form below.
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
3-15-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
Examples of info shared intraday can be seen below in the screen shots!!
Gold Futures, Silver Futures
Trading 101: Five Fatal Flaws of Trading
Why Do Traders Lose?
From our friend Senior Analyst Jeffrey Kennedy. Eliott Wave
If you’ve been trading for a long time, you no doubt have felt that a monstrous, invisible hand sometimes reaches into your trading account and takes out money. It doesn’t seem to matter how many books you buy, how many seminars you attend or how many hours you spend analyzing price charts, you just can’t seem to prevent that invisible hand from depleting your trading account funds.
Which brings us to the question: Why do traders lose? Or maybe we should ask, ‘How do you stop the Hand?’ Whether you are a seasoned professional or just thinking about opening your first trading account, the ability to stop the Hand is proportional to how well you understand and overcome the Five Fatal Flaws of trading. For each fatal flaw represents a finger on the invisible hand that wreaks havoc with your trading account.
Fatal Flaw No. 1 – Lack of Methodology
If you aim to be a consistently successful trader, then you must have a defined trading methodology, which is simply a clear and concise way of looking at markets. Guessing or going by gut instinct won’t work over the long run. If you don’t have a defined trading methodology, then you don’t have a way to know what constitutes a buy or sell signal. Moreover, you can’t even consistently correctly identify the trend.
How to overcome this fatal flaw? Answer: Write down your methodology. Define in writing what your analytical tools are and, more importantly, how you use them. It doesn’t matter whether you use the Wave Principle, Point and Figure charts, Stochastics, RSI or a combination of all of the above. What does matter is that you actually take the effort to define it (i.e., what constitutes a buy, a sell, your trailing stop and instructions on exiting a position). And the best hint I can give you regarding developing a defined trading methodology is this: If you can’t fit it on the back of a business card, it’s probably too complicated.
Fatal Flaw No. 2 — Lack of Discipline
When you have clearly outlined and identified your trading methodology, then you must have the discipline to follow your system. A Lack of Discipline in this regard is the second fatal flaw. If the way you view a price chart or evaluate a potential trade setup is different from how you did it a month ago, then you have either not identified your methodology or you lack the discipline to follow the methodology you have identified. The formula for success is to consistently apply a proven methodology. So the best advice I can give you to overcome a lack of discipline is to define a trading methodology that works best for you and follow it religiously.
To have a FREE trial to the ALGOS shown in the chart, including the diamonds,click here.
Good Trading
Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. You may lose all or more of your initial investment. Opinions, market data, and recommendations are subject to change at any time when it comes to Futures Trading.
Futures Trading Levels
3-08-2021
Weekly Levels
Reports, First Notice (FN), Last trading (LT) Days for the Week:
This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading
RISK DISCLOSURE: Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The risk of loss in futures trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition.
