Author: The INO.com Team

Stocks gain on budget talk optimism, Fed stimulus

Posted on by The INO.com Team

The stock market showed signs of life Tuesday following hopeful signs of progress in budget talks being held in Washington. The Standard & Poor's 500 had its biggest gain this month.

The Dow gained 78.56 points to 13,248.44, after climbing as much as 137 points earlier. The Standard & Poor's 500 index finished up 9.29 points at 1,427.84. Both the Dow and the S&P have risen for five straight days.

The Nasdaq composite ended up 35.34 points at 3,022.30.

Delta Air Lines rose 52 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $10.66 after the company said it will buy almost half of Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic for $360 million as it seeks a bigger share of the lucrative New York-to-London travel market.

AIG gained $1.90 to $35.26 after the U.S. Treasury Department said it has sold the rest of its stake in the insurer. AIG was bailed out by the government after nearly collapsing during the 2008 financial crisis. Continue reading "Stocks gain on budget talk optimism, Fed stimulus" →

New Video: Delta takes off

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere! Jeremy Lutz here with your mid-day market update for Tuesday, the 11th of December.

Airline stocks are turning in some of the market's best performances in today, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 1.7 percent. With the gain, the index has risen to its best intraday level in well over a year.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) has helped to lead the sector higher, jumping by 5.9 percent after announcing a deal to acquire a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic for $360 million.

The markets have also benefited from some upbeat German economic data as well as optimism about the looming fiscal cliff.

A report from the Center for European Economic Research showed a bigger than expected improvement in German investor confidence. The report showed that the expectations index climbed to a positive 6.9 in December from a negative 15.7 in November, turning positive for the first time since May. The current conditions index edged up to 5.7 from 5.4.

Positive sentiment has also been generated by a report from the Wall Street Journal indicating that negotiations between the White House and Republican House Speaker John Boehner have progressed steadily in recent days.

Let's see what the Trade Triangles say about the markets today.

Every Success,
Jeremy Lutz

Click Here to view today's video

Gold Chart of the Week

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Each week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (December 10 through December 14th)

I am not sure if I have ever been so happy to close the books on a week of trading, as I was last week on Friday. You wouldn’t think that it was that bad if you look at the daily chart today, but it was not easy to sit through either a short or a long position in the Metals last week. I will explain why.

The week began with Gold and Silver dropping below the support trendlines that were held from early November. They also were dropping alongside a weakening Dollar. I understood the selling from a technical perspective, but fundamentally I was a bit puzzled in the short term. Once support was found, Monday’s decoupling from the usual relationship to the US Dollar made holding new long positions a bit difficult. Furthermore, the rangy trade over the next four days had a “Groundhog’s Day” feel to it. It seemed as though Metals prices opened around the same price each day, closed the European Markets at the same price each day, closed the pit traded session at the same price each day, and closed the electronic session at the same price each day. Short option traders long for weeks like those, but futures traders had to be a bit uneasy. I know I was. Continue reading "Gold Chart of the Week" →

New Video: Copper soars on Chinese data

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere! Jeremy Lutz here with your mid-day market update for Monday, the 10th of December.

Stocks are seeing modest strength in mid-day trading today. Upbeat data from China has been partly offset by political uncertainty in Italy.

Reports showed that Chinese industrial output rose 10.1 percent year-over-year in November following a 9.6 percent increase in October, while annual Chinese retail sales growth accelerated to 14.9 percent from 14.5 percent.

However, uncertainty about the political situation in Italy following news that Prime Minister Mario Monti intends to resign has helped to limit the upside for the markets.

Monti's decision to step down came after he lost the support of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party. Monti said he would try to pass a budget for 2013 before resigning.

Let's see what the Trade Triangles say about the markets today.

Every Success,
Jeremy Lutz

Click Here to view today's video

The Future of Managed Futures… Past, Present and Future!

Posted on by The INO.com Team

The first Managed Futures Fund may have actually been established around 1948, but the investment vehicle really became en vogue as Richard Dennis and his infamous “Turtles” gained in popularity. Richard Dennis, although working his way up from a runner, really began his reputation as large trader in the 70’s. The 70’s had crop failures to contend with and inflationary conditions which Richard Dennis could use his trend-trading style to position trade. By 1983, he believed that he could teach his methodology to an average woman/man to trade successfully as he had. He had been quoted by the Wall Street Journal in 1989 saying “We are going to grow traders just like they grow turtles in Singapore” thus coining the name “Turtles”! He selected his 21 men and 2 woman to learn the trend-following system with success, increasing his notoriety and adding some new traders to the spotlight. Actually about 60% of the trades may have lost money getting stopped out while the balance of trades were held with trailing stops to garnish more from the position. Other traders sprang up into the spotlight like Paul Tudor Jones and John Henry. The methodology is proprietary to the trader and never really divulged, so the entries, stops and the targets remain exclusive in most managed products. The trading model may take years to cultivate! Futures trading is a zero-sum game where there is a loss for every gain and vice versa. The challenge for the trader was to create a percentage to his/her favor! Continue reading "The Future of Managed Futures… Past, Present and Future!" →