President Trump is making history at Madison Square Garden.
Trump is attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game.
The president was joined by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Kai Trump, and Jared Kushner as the Knicks host their first Finals game in New York in decades.
I anticipate there will be some heat/heat index related cancelations on Thursday/Friday this week, especially for states that have a mandated number where you can/can't race and don't just leave it to chance. I'd especially watch Aqueduct/Monmouth.
Iran and Israel are at it again. South Korean markets triggered a circuit breaker overnight and the KOSPI plunged over 8% at the open. Semis got torched on Friday and the Indexes did something we've seen a lot of over recent years; grind higher in a trend and then unravel all at once.
Was Friday the start of an unraveling that has legs? We do not know yet. What we do know is that for now you have a two-way tape in the equity indexes. A short-term top is at least in and the question this week is whether the bears can build on it. Wednesday's CPI data is going to be critical in answering that.
From a price structure standpoint, here is how I am looking at it. We are in a battle between the monthly opens and the weekly opens. All the monthly charts on the indexes are currently negative for the month. But the weekly opens from Sunday night have since pushed higher. So let us keep it simple. If we can go positive on the month in the Nasdaq, S&P, Dow, and Russell at some point this week, I think that brings us right back up toward all-time highs. If we rally back to unchanged on the month and then fail and go negative on the week, that is a very bearish signal and I think we could be headed meaningfully lower from there.
The key levels I am watching across all the indexes are the one standard deviation levels off the year to date anchored VWAP. We were hanging up near three standard deviations, have since crossed below two standard deviations, and if we are going to continue trending higher I would not be surprised to see a dip all the way down to one standard deviation first. That comes in at 7,300 on the ES and 28,450 on the NQ. Any quick flush down to those areas I am looking for long opportunities for at least a rotation trade.
On metals, copper remains my favorite in the space above everything else. Silver and gold charts look sideways and choppy to me, and if indexes continue to struggle I do not love either of them. Copper got hit hard on Friday when semis got whacked but I think that is an opportunity to buy the dip. As long as copper holds above $6 I think it continues to push higher and I think we see a $7 handle on it. I am currently long copper via ETFs and will continue to look to buy dips in futures during the day as well. Not an easy market to hold futures in so I am using a combination of ETFs and intraday futures positions.
The bond market still looks heavy but it is a tough call right now because CPI Wednesday could change the picture entirely. Let us also get through the first meeting with Warsh and see where his head is on all of this. There is no question inflation is still a problem but President Trump said this week there is no reason to hike rates, which essentially telegraphs that the Fed is not going to hike. So there is that.
Ease your way into this week. The markets are busy even though it is summer. Stay focused, stay disciplined, and keep it light and tight.
Catch me live at 8 ET on @NTLiveMedia — full market breakdown, what I'm watching, and what's next.
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Cheers, DELI
BREAKING: Nithya Raman just defeated Spencer Pratt after giving a concession speech on election night and then getting the largest number in almost every mail-in ballot dump.
They just cheated in an election right in front of our eyes.
I spent over two decades as a full time futures trader and scalper, and I learned your edge isn’t just your strategy. It’s your focus.
It’s the amount of hyperfocus it takes every single day. Blocking everything out, slowing your heart rate down, staying calm, believing in your homework, executing at a high level. Trading has to be your number one focus each day. So if you’re learning to become a successful trader, here are three things you may be focusing on that are working against you.
First, other people’s money. Stop looking at how much everyone else is making. That’s the number one thing you have to look away from. I was around thousands of traders on the floor and I barely remember us talking about money. It was private. The goal was to build a life. It felt blue collar. Today everyone talks about what they make, trying to prove someone wrong about the market. It’s a different place, and a lot harder for a new trader to block the noise out.
Second, the access. Overnight used to just be overnight, where you managed a position if you had one. Set time to start, set time to break, set time to come back. We traded mornings, skipped midday, came back for the close. Now the access never stops, and it’s spread everyone’s focus too thin to stay locked in.
Third, understanding the market environment. We move between environments at a very rapid rate. We go from trending higher with no signs of a pullback, buy the dip and hold on, straight into sell off mode. Trying to guess what those days will be like going into them is very difficult. You have to stay open minded and understand how quickly the tape can change. Last Friday was the perfect example. A market runs higher a lot further than most thought, then unravels all at once. It’s the same psychology we see in traders. They stay in their own trend for only so long, then unravel all at once. If you’re not focused, or you’re clinging too hard to one market environment as you move into the next, you aren’t allowing things to be what they are. You’re fighting them for what they were.
So here’s the simple part. Slow everything down. Survive a game where you pay your bills and stay in long enough to make a living. There will be moments this business really pays you, and you won’t choose them. They choose you. The rest is grinding, surviving, enjoying the process. Arguing with people on social media is a time waster, and the people who do it are usually unhappy in their own lives. Spend your time wisely.
Focus is the whole game. Protect it like your account depends on it, because it does.
Enjoy your life. Have fun. This is the greatest business in the world if you let it be. And it’ll be the worst, and destroy your life, if you let it.
Cheers, DELI