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  • E-mini Trading: The European Session
     By: Jeff Niles

    The e-mini markets are a complicated. The ebb and flow of information and participation that comes out of the markets can be very strange to novice traders. As a trader's knowledge base expands, so too does their ability to recognize the components of a potentially profitable trading environment. In order to be a successful trader one needs a host of factors to be present before taking a trade. In the overnight session of the E-mini markets most factors that combine to make the e-mini markets a great place for short term investing simply aren't there. The exception is the European market opening.
     
    The After Hours session is notoriously slow trading and the action only really picks up during the European market opening. The e-mini market plays very effectively off important technical levels during that time and if you watch that time period carefully you will notice that more often than not the best time to enter the overnight move is during the euro opening.
     
    So why is the market so drawn to perform well during the European open?
     
    Good Participation
     
    The opening sees the return of institutional participation which means technical levels are much more likely to act as a bounce point. Retail traders are often uninformed on proper trading techniques and strategies and during the after hours session you will often see price action blow through important technical levels. Unintelligent traders ruling the low volume markets cause a lack of respect for levels. Good participation = high probability trading.
     
    Low Market Orders
     
    Unlike the US session opening, the European open is much less violent in terms of price action swings. Market orders are the minority and that means limit orders control price movement. Any time there is a limit order there is a pre-determined intelligent (at least in theory) trade being placed. Solid technical traders in the markets mean more predictable price action.
     
    Overnight Moves
     
    The E-mini S&P 500 has an uncanny ability to set up during the European open. As volume and participation come rushing back into the markets price seems to always be drawn to important levels. When those levels trade and are respected the moves can be very large in size and can last well into the US session. More often than not there is only one or two chances to get in the overnight moves and the European open is definitely one of them.
     
    If you are going to look to trade the e-minis after US market hours, you can save yourself a lot of time and energy, by focusing only on the market after the European open. Good traders know that there is nothing more frustrating than watching a slow market and to keep yourself out of trouble you should optimize your time in the markets to the periods of heaviest volume. The European session offers the volume necessary to get some decent trades off.
     
    Do you have the skills necessary to become profitable at e-mini trading? Start learning today at the internet's #1 source for futures trading education. 

      


    Disclosure: No positions
    Tags: emini trading, European market, euro opening, emini S P 500, after hours trading, after hours, futures, futures trading
    Sep 30 4:46 AM | Link | Comment!
  • E-mini Market Place: Who is Involved
    By: Jeff Niles

     

    The e-mini futures markets are full of different investors looking to profit for different reasons.  Each and every individual who opens or closes a position does so for a very specific reason.  Good traders constantly think about who is on the other side of their trade and why that person is acting the way they are.  The information they pick up on can help them make educated decisions regarding their own trading.

     

    So what are the possible calls to action a trader can make inside the markets?

     

    1.  Entering a New Position

     

    Traders have to initiate a position in order to profit from it.  The easiest behaviour for a newer trader to understand is action in the markets based on a new position acquisition.  Trades can either buy contracts to enter a new position or sell contracts (go short) to enter a new position.

     

    2.  Taking Profits

     

    Once a trader is in a position they look for an area to take profits.  Throughout the course of the E-mini trading day this series of initiating new positions and taking profits happens hundreds of thousands of times over.  The experienced trader can use simple candlestick charts to identify who is doing what.  Individuals can take profits by selling if long or buying (covering) if short.

     

    3.  Stops Being Hit

     

    When a trade doesn't go the way a trader planned it goes against them and this is when the third type of participation occurs.  Stops are in place to control risk and protect profit.  When a stop is hit it triggers a market order to exit the position immediately for the best price.  Contracts are bought and sold because a position went against the trader.

     

    Although it may look relatively simple on a basic candlestick chart, there is so much happening at any one time in the e-mini markets, that it is almost impossible to keep track of it all.  So many people in the market for so many different reasons results in very technical price action.  Astute traders have the ability to channel all the information they need on the current participants and cross check that with their current bias.  Trading without thinking about who else is in the market at that time and their motivation for being there is like trading with one hand tied behind your back.

    For more info on this chart and others like it don't forget to stop by and learn all about how pros trade forex and the e-minis.
    Disclosure: No Positions
    Tags: e-mini trading, futures trading, futures, e-mini, emini, day trading, scalping, commodity trading, commodity, indices, stock index, s p 500
    Sep 28 7:05 AM | Link | Comment!
  • Huge Euro Dollar Trade In Play | EUR/USD Forecast
    Check out the new video:

    Click Here

    If you are interested in the trading set up of the year you may want to take notice of what is happing on the EUR/USD chart at the moment. Go back and review our last few weekly update videos for this pair. We called the bounce up to these highs and now they have hit our weekly resistance zone. This is where the battle will be staged between the long term bears and the bulls who have been riding this latest wave of covering. There are multiple times frames all pointing to some very important levels and you can expect this week to be action packed on the EUR/USD.

    Watch for a break down of the short term bullish trend and if stops can get hit (smart bulls will be trailing stops very close to the support zone breakdown) then this move could get started very quickly.


    For more info on this chart and others like it don't forget to stop by and learn all about how pros trade forex and the e-minis.
    Disclosure: No Positions
    Tags: euro forecast, euro dollar forecast, eur/usd analysis, eur/usd price action, technical analysis, bearish euro, bullish dollar
    Sep 27 6:12 AM | Link | Comment!
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  • Emini S&P 500 needs to see this double top taken out to reach the mid term target with the help of some shorts getting squeezed
    Dec 3, 2010
  • The USD/JPY looks set to continue lower until it hits our major mid term trend target.
    Oct 18, 2010
  • Gap fill on the ES could be cause for a very volatile open. Sitting right on the entry zone for mid term longs at 1137.00
    Sep 28, 2010
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