January 22, 2008
Quick Look at Various Futures Contracts
Here’s a look at the intraday charts of various futures contracts … I grabbed the screenshots at around 9:20 AM (Tuesday) my time, which is 8:20 PM (Monday) New York time. Check out the Dow Industrials, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and 10-year Treasury Note below.
(Bond Futures table)
(Equity Index Futures table)
Cat: | Time: 9:56 am (utc+8)
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
secular primary bear underway…
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
v838: I prefer the sacred variety. :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
interesting times
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Brian: Some kind of bottom has to form with the sentiment this bad, but I’m the eternal optimist.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
ARGH. i’m in pain. was holding some futures positions from last friday that i didn’t square up at close and now i’m in serious mortal pain….
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
andrew: Do stops trigger automatically in Globex or do you have to manually exit “after hours” trades? I don’t know how it works so thanks for enlightening me.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
With the downgrade of ABK and the imminent downgrading of $2T in its insured bonds and stuctured securities, I expected this last week.
Maybe the market is finally waking up and seeing the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
MBIA will also soon be downgraded along with all of its insured instruments.
Trillions in downgraded bonds will trade lower. The monolines are a lynchpin holding together portfolio valuations at all manner of institutions. This will affect everyone from Wall Street to your local private schools and hospitals.
It’s wakey wakey time.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
no embedded stops in the electronic overnight market alas :(
it’s a problem as i tend to trade commodity futures (soy, corn, wheat).
i definitely did not expect a 500 point drop on the dow over the weekend (the YM contract).
i did not square up my positions last friday due to the short trading day and i was doing my other stuff :(
right now, i’m down about 18% from friday, and waiting next few hours when europe opens to see what course of action to take…
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
just got a “bulletin” from IB.
“Reduced intraday margin rates are being eliminated temporarily due to extreme market volatility”
extreme market volatility indeed. heh. what an understatement :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Do you have your own Bloomberg terminal or something?
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
@Cap: Did you short anything given your expectations?
@andrew: No embedded stops on Globex, I didn’t know that… so you’d have to be in front of the screen to manage open positions held overnight, which is a tough thing to do if you enjoy sleeping. :) Another advantage of daytrading….
What are “reduced” intraday margin rates as opposed to “regular” intraday margin rates, I wonder?
@Dave: Or something.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I am still short ABK and MBIA with Feb35’s and Feb25’s which were far OTM at purchase. As mentioned earlier, I sold to close my Jan contracts one day too early, but still at a tremendous gain.
I am still short GGP and DDR - commercial RE.
I am still short WM, C and DSL.
I closed various IB shorts the end of Dec.
I am short RNR and PRE due to their MBI reinsurance exposure.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Cap: And you’re not thinking of covering anything into this gap down? You don’t think this will mark a selling climax?
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Hell yes I’ll be covering, I’m just trying to decide what 7 hours before market open…
I’ve got other short positions not listed above.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Cap: OK, you gotta wonder if Bennie and the Gang are going to step in with a “surprise” intra-meeting rate cut … volatility guaranteed. Remember Stern back in November saying ho hum I have two weeks to decide if we need a rate cut here. :-)
Can I ask which time zone you live in?
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
i normally manage my positions “overnight” fine as i am in the UK and am a night owl :)
ES/NQ and ER2 are now locked limit down.
going to get some sleep now until 830CST.
intraday (during open outcry) margins are typically smaller relative to overnight ones to reflect the increased overnight risk (as is obvious for suckers like me that held positions from friday)
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
andrew: Ah, thanks, I know about the difference between intraday versus overnight margin and was just curious about their (poor) choice of words: “reduced” intraday margin just means normal intraday margin, I guess. Yes, the US trading hours from London are nice but they’re hell from Asia. :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
im long small SP500 and short T-Bonds on my platform (ABN Amro CFD) as of today…DOW was down at 11400 and is upnow at 11550…lets see…
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 am
PST in California.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:08 am
Cap: For some strange reason I thought you were British … maybe because you said your daughters are in “Uni.”
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 am
I tend to pick up and use words and phrases from friends and family around the blue ball.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 am
And nice call there on the intra meeting rate cut!
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
Cap: Thanks, I’m familiar with the Baby Boomer Pain Threshold (BBPT, after James Dines), which is extremely low (buncha whining wusses for the most part) so I anticipated that Bennie and the Gang would step in.