The Trader's Edge, Grant Noble
The Trader's Edge, Grant Noble
The Trader's Edge, Grant Noble
On die
Winning
Strategiesof
Floor Traders,
Commercials
& Market
lnsite
Grant IVoble
McGraw-Hill
New York San Francisco Washington, D.C. Auckland Bogota
Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan
Montreal New Delhi San Juan Singapore
Sydney Tokyo Toronto
© 1995, Richard D. Irwin, a Times Mirror Higher Education Group, Inc. company
ISBN 1-55738-599-8
To my wonderful wife.
Printed in the United States of America
56789 BRBBRB 97 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Table of Contents
Introduction vu
Chapter 1 Why Every Investor Should Learn
How to Trade Futures
Chapter 2 Your Greatest Enemy to Successful
Investment 13
Chapter 3 What the Floor Trader Knows 35
Chapter 4 Sayings from the Floor 45
Chapter 5 The Theory of the Opening 55
Chapter 6 The Routine of the Market 77
Chapter 7 Expected Range 103
Chapter 8 Fib Times 111
Chapter 9 A Short Introduction to
the Commercials 121
Chapter 10 Reading Their Mail: The Commitment
of Traders Report 127
Chapter 11 Spreads 139
Chapter 12 Real-World Investing—
It's Not "All in the Charts" 147
Chapter 13 Analogous Year 179
Chapter 14 Long-Term Cycles 201
Chapter 15 The Media: The Best Trading Indicator 217
Index 243
introduction
vll
introduction
At this point the average investor might say, "Why should roughly parallels the stock market).
I worry about finding a successful trading method, especially in At market bottoms, you would have less to invest. If you
the ultrarisky futures market, when 'hold-and-sweat' in the were unemployed or the victim of an emergency (such as an
stock market will give me such a good average return?" outbreak of war or a natural disaster), you may have had to sell
In the first place, this return assumes you had enough your stocks along with everyone else—right at the bottom. Over
money to buy all the stocks in the S&P 500. Round lots (100 time, this could cost you several percent points on your net total
shares) of just the 30 Dow stocks is a big hunk of change (over return (after taxes and inflation) of 3.67 percent from the S&P
$100,000 today at full margin). Index funds (which track a popu- 500.
lar average like the S&P 500) are a phenomena of only the last If you add a yearly fee (usually 1 to 2 percent) for a market
few decades. adviser to administer this strategy (do you think the managers
If you couldn't buy the entire S&P 500 (or even the Dow) of all those mutual funds you own are working for free?), the
all at once, then you would have had to buy odd lots (less than most determined hold-and-sweat strategy would probably gen-
100 shares), which would add greatly to your trading costs. Even erate very small, or even negative, returns after taxes, inflation,
if you had the unusual psychological stamina to avoid margin commissions, financial emergencies, and fees!
buying, ignore stock crashes, ride out many years of below-av- In the 202 years of the New York Stock Exchange, we have
erage yields, and be satisfied with only an average return from at least five multiyear periods where owning the average com-
boring stock averages, a 7.3 percent return after inflation for mon stock was a losing investment idea after inflation was fac-
hold-and-sweat is still deceptive. tored out (1807-1813, 1837-1859, 1907-1921, 1929-1949,
As companies fell in and out of the S&P 500 (or the Dow), 1968-1982). In other words, about 43 percent of the time, stocks
you would have to replace them, adding to your initial transac- have been a long-term bear market where it was difficult if not
tion costs. A1 percent total for all these costs (commissions and impossible to make money buying common stocks.
the slippage of buying the asking price and selling the bid price) Even during the bullish periods, we have had heart-stop-
is very reasonable (especially when you consider the extra cost ping corrections, crashes, or panics that tried the courage of the
of odd-lot trading). This would lower your total return from 10.4 most determined investor—the inflation-adjusted correction of
percent to 9.4 percent. 1862-1864, the panics of 1873, 1883, 1893, and 1903; the correc-
Estate taxes and income taxes have been high as 91 percent. tions of 1956-1957 and 1983-1984, and the crashes of 1962 and
About one-third of your 10.4 percent total return is in highly 1987. How many of you sold all your stocks at the low in 1987?
taxed dividends, not capital gains. But let's use the current 28 At this point, I can hear some saying "I have a balanced
percent tax on capital gains as a very conservative estimate of portfolio of stocks, bonds, and precious metals. I am diversified
taxes. Taxes would further lower your return from 9.4 percent enough to ride out any investing scenario."
to 6.77 percent. Subtracting the average inflation rate of 3.1 per- Since 1920, we have had at least seven major periods where
cent would leave you a true return of only 3.67 percent. none of the usual investment vehicles—stocks, bonds, real estate,
Actually, there's many more mice eating your investment precious metals—rose in price (1920-1921, 1929-1932, 1941-
cheese. Undoubtedly you invested more at market tops than at 1942,1946-1949,1968-1970,1980-1981,1983-1984). Over the last
market bottoms, even if you were that one in a hundred that 75 years, about 15 percent of the time nothing conventional
avoided selling out at bottoms and doubling up at tops. Your works (later on I will try to show why I feel we are on the verge
income would naturally fluctuate with the economy (which of another no-win period).
Chapter one Learn How to Trade Futures
Stocks & Options versus Futures expire worthless). That's even worse than the 80-85 percent
losing ratio shown by academic studies of futures traders.
The fact is, any investor who can't go short and take advantage Unlike futures, the option premium (the difference between
of falling prices is really living in a fool's paradise of diversifica- the price of the option and the underlying security) usually
tion. The unlimited risk of short-selling is only a problem for increases with volatility. When a market becomes a bear market,
traders that refuse to limit their losses, violate the mathematics the cost of buying a put option increases. In a bear market in
of investment (see the next chapter), and would end up a long- futures, normally you have a negative carry charge market
term loser any way. It's the futures market's unsurpassed ability where the futures price is higher than the underlying cash mar-
to go both long and short that is the main (but not the only reason) ket. You get paid to go short (i.e., if there is no change in the
why futures are the premier investment vehicle of the mid- to cash price, eventually the futures price will converge with the
late 1990s. cash price by going lower).
I once worked with a gentleman I'll call "Sandy," who In any case, any premium (the difference between futures
managed millions of dollars during the great stock bear market and cash prices, known as basis) that exists in futures is only on
of 1973-1974. In a severe bear market, it's very hard to sell a lot one side of the trade. If the futures price is below that of cash
of stock on an uptick, as required by stock exchange rules for (as in interest rate futures), this positive carry charge benefits
anyone who isn't a specialist. Sandy described all the maneuvers the buyer just as much as it disadvantages the seller (the reverse
he had to go through to get off a simple stock short sale. In of the example above). But whether you buy a put or a call, or
essence, he had to buy enough stock so he could get an uptick whether you wish to go long or short a market in options, you
to sell even more stock at a higher price. will pay a premium on either side of the transaction. You lose
During the go-go days of the 1980s, this uptick rule was either way you go.
waived for program traders that sold baskets of stocks against Unlike a stock, you don't get dividends (or interest on your
positions in the futures market. During the Crash of 1987, these margin money as in futures) on an option. Option commissions
traders dumped stocks without ceasing. Even sophisticated trad- tend be much higher proportionally than futures. (Discount
ers like Sandy could not find an uptick to go short! commissions of $35 are normal on a 100-share option of a secu-
This loophole has since been closed, but one fact still stands. rity worth $3,000-$5,000. Contrast that with the normal $25 dis-
It's very difficult for the average stock trader to go short in a count commission on a futures contract, which can control up
bear market. In any market condition, a stock short-seller must to $250,000 in equivalent cash assets.)
keep a balance equivalent to the cost of the stock he is shorting, Perhaps the only advantage of options over futures is the
which is a heavy burden in interest or opportunity costs (unlike ability to make money if there is no change in the market. Pro-
the futures market where he earns interest on the money he put fessionals often put on strangles (simultaneous selling of an
up for margin). out-of-the-money call and put) and collect the premium on both
Of course, investors can use options (puts) to go short. And sides if the underlying market doesn't make a major move. (The
the average investor is usually delighted to find out he can only majority of time markets are in easily defined trading range
lose what he puts up when he buys an option. Since the majority markets.)
of options expire worthless, this is often a dubious advantage. I But even this option advantage is better used with options
have read statistics that over 90 percent of options lose money on futures rather than options on individual stocks. The dirty
from the time they are put on until the time they are offset (or little secret of the stock market is that it is far more volatile and
Chapter One Learn How to Trade Futures
far less predictable than soybeans, cattle, copper, and other tra- In the 1960s, it was earnings. In the 1970s, it was the money
ditional futures contracts. supply. In the 1980s, it was the trade deficit. In the 1990s, it's the
There are many academic studies that prove this fact, but unemployment report. I don't know what the next critical gov-
you really don't need to be an academic to figure this out. Indi- ernment report will be in the next decade, but I do know the Pig
vidual stocks that double in price or lose 50 percent of their value Crop Report, the USDA crop conditions as of July 1, etc., will
in a day are a relatively common occurrence. This type of action basically have the same influence over futures prices tomorrow
is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence in futures (I can't think of a as they do now. If you are going to use options, it makes sense
single example off the top of my head). to use them in the (relatively) regular world of futures rather
In October 1987, the S&P 500 future lost 45 percent of its than the wacky world of individual stocks.
value in 13 days of trading. The most spectacular commodity There is a slight tax advantage (thanks to the latest Clinton
crashes—soybeans in June 1973, cattle in August 1973, sugar in tax increase) in holding cash assets (such as stocks and precious
November 1974, silver in January 1980, and crude oil in January metals) for a capital gain, which you can't do in futures or other
1986—all took about three times as long to travel the same dis- derivatives like options. But capital gains tax breaks can be taken
tance (a 45 percent collapse). away at any time (as they were in the 1986 tax "reform"). And
The reputation for volatility in futures is strictly a function in order to take advantage of a lower capital gains rate, you need
of its low margin requirements. A 5 percent move in a stock from a bull market—which as we've seen only occurs about half the
20 to 21 would only draw a yawn. A 5 percent move in corn time in stocks. Many investors have seen a winning investment
(from $2.00 to $2.10 a bushel) is a $500 move approximately equal turn into a loser while waiting for the proper time to take a
to the usual margin on corn. capital gain.
Not only is the stock market more volatile, it's volatility is Virtually every investment vehicle outside of futures de-
less predictable than futures. Mergers (or the sudden failure of pends on a market maker or specialist. A market maker or spe-
a merger), preliminary earnings reports, the comments of cor- cialist has tremendous advantages over those media demons,
porate officials and politicians—all these bolts from the blue can futures floor traders, who supposedly make sure no investor can
cause a stock to double or lose half its value. Totally unexpected possibly win trading futures.
events in futures (like the Russian coup, Chernobyl, etc.) are far A market maker can declare an order imbalance and simply
more rare and, in any case, hardly ever have the same impact of shut down trading in an option or a stock. No single pit trader
stock shocks. can do that to a future. A floor trader only knows the bid/asks
A freeze in Brazil can cause coffee prices to triple, but we he sees in open outcry in the pit. An order filler may have 1,000
know that will only occur in "our summertime." An orange juice contracts to sell, but he doesn't have to show them all by open
freeze or soybean drought can cause prices to explode, but these outcry in the pit. He can sell them off 50 or 100 contracts at a
events can only come at regular intervals, which can be easily time until he has sold them all.
anticipated. By contrast, anyone who wants to sell stock at a specified
Even regular reports are not so regular in the stock market. price must register his order in the specialist's book. In other
Earnings reports can be shifted around in an unexpected manner. words, unless a stock trader wants to play "hot potato" by
Highly touted announcements or press conferences can myste- constantly juggling his order size, he gives up any chance of
riously disappear or be rescheduled. Over the last decade, we have keeping his order size a secret.
seen key reports shift around with the latest investment fad. As Sandy explained it to me, the specialist (or his friends)
Chapter One Learn How to Trade Futures
are not above stepping in front of a large order by selling a tick You can see it is very difficult for a futures clearing firm
or two below this large order. This is supposed to be against the that is clearing accounts from a wide variety of customers to go
rules; however, wherever you have insider monopolies (rather broke. Only gross overspeculation by its principals could cause
than the free market of an open outcry auction), you are going such a problem.
to have these eternal problems of human nature. (If a clearing firm's owners were net short hundreds of
Did you know that no futures trader has ever lost money contracts of coffee before the freeze, and if that position repre-
due to the failure of a clearing member of the Board of Trade or sented the overwhelming majority of their assets, then conceiv-
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? The New York Stock Ex- ably that clearing firm could go broke. In that case, the
change can't say that—which is why there is now stock insurance commodity clearing corporation of that exchange would guar-
to protect against bankruptcy in stock firms. The clearing system antee the trades and seize whatever assets the firm and its prin-
of futures is inherently safer than the system in place for stocks. cipals had left. All customer positions and money then would
Much has been made of the zero sum game of futures, i.e, be transferred to solvent clearing firms. This has happened only
for every short there is a long, for every winner there is an equal once in Chicago during the two decades of my experience.)
and opposite loser. (Often the loser is a perfectly content hedger By contrast, even a "prudent" stock firm could go broke in
who has already locked up a profitable price.) However, this a meltdown similar to the 1987 crash. A stock investor only has
zero sum game aspect of futures has an unexpected bonus in a to put up 50 percent margin to purchase a stock, 35 percent to
financial crisis. maintain that position. A 45 percent collapse in two weeks (like
Let's use the latest shock in futures as an example. Over the that which occurred in 1987) could bring a client's balance to
weekend of June 28-29,1994, a freeze struck Brazil's coffee fields. negative territory. If that firm's investors were speculating in
Coffee opened almost 40 cents higher on Monday's opening bonds and other securities that can be purchased for 10 percent
from Friday's close—a price move of over 30 percent, or $15,000 margin or less, it could be only a matter of hours before they are
per futures contract. in the firm's pocket, so to speak.
Since the minimum margin for one coffee contract was The billions in losses racked up banks and brokerage house
around $3,000 at the time, it would appear the clearing firm during the bear market in bonds in 1994 is just the tip of the
guaranteeing this trade and hundreds of others might be in iceberg of what could happen in a crisis. Through October 1994,
trouble if the losers reneged and refused to post extra margin or the bond market had dropped 15 percent for the year. In a crisis
pay their losses. But even if we assume there was no extra money atmosphere, where bonds could go down 50 percent in a few
in the losers' accounts (very unlikely) and they refused to send months, there could be trillions in losses.
any more money to cover their losses (another unlikely event), Yes, stock options are cleared basically the same way as
the clearing firm is still far from getting into trouble. futures in that both the seller and buyer of the option (and their
Say the clearing firm has a total of 250 short coffee contracts respective clearing firms) guarantee that trade. But the clearing
and 200 long coffee contracts on its books before the freeze, or of stock options is far more concentrated in a handful of firms
net short 50 contracts. Fifty times $15,000 is $750,000, which is than is futures. It's far more likely the whole stock option clear-
far less than the $1.25 million (450 x $3,000) it has on account ing system will fail in a 1987-type meltdown than hundreds of
for customer margin. clearing firms, which specialize in clearing futures as uncon-
nected as cattle and bonds.
8
Chapter one Learn How to Trade Futures
Finally, the futures clearing corporations (to which all fu- losing investment process of the average investor. The next chap-
tures clearing firms belong) have been in existence for up to 150 ter will discuss the real reasons why 85 percent of futures traders
years (versus the 20+ years of the option clearing corporations). lose. They are the same reasons why 85 percent of stock investors
They have had a far longer time to accumulate assets (through underperform the market averages (which, as we have seen,
clearing fees charged on every futures trade). These assets are barely keep up with inflation after expenses and taxes).
far in excess of the miniscule amount of assets that backs the
insurance that "guarantees" stock trading.
As Will Rogers used to say, "I am more concerned about
the return of my money than the return on my money." In terms
of a potential financial crisis, I think we can safely say the federal
government is more likely to renege on its debt than the clearing
corporations of the futures market fail to make good on trans-
ferring money from futures losers to futures winners.
For smaller investors, the low cost of entry and the ease of
true diversification may be a great advantage. For $10,000, you
can have a balanced portfolio among the six trillion-dollar mar-
kets—metals, currencies, interest rates, agriculturals, crude com-
plex, and stocks (through options on index stock futures), while
$10,000 won't buy you even a round lot (100 shares) of a Dow
stock like Caterpillar at today's prices.
The price of individual stocks are far more correlated than
the futures prices, i.e., the price of IBM, GM, and Disney are far
more likely to rise and fall together than the price of cattle, silver,
and T-bonds. Even the price of gold stocks are far more tied to
the rise and fall of the overall valuation of the stock market than
the rise and fall of the Consumer Price Index!
True, to achieve diversification among the six trillion-dollar
markets with a $10,000 futures account you may have to control
the futures equivalent of $150,000 in cash assets. But because of
the more negative correlation of futures markets, plus less vola-
tility and chance of negative surprises, the real risk may not be
all that much greater than an equivalent amount of margined
stocks ... and you don't have to put up $75,000 (50 percent)!
From every rational perspective, the futures market is a
better deal, especially for small investors. As I have stated before,
all the low margins of the futures market do is speed up the
11
Chapter Two
Your Greatest Enemy
to Successful
investment
Con Game1
* * *
The Great
"/ was a commodity loser until I discovered I couldn't
believe my results..." "To pay my costs, only a select few..."
"There will be no second chance, so send money fast..."
If you wonder about these "perfect systems," consider the
law of compound interest. Recently, a system advertised a
1 Grant Noble, "The Great Con Game," Futures (Nov. 1985), Copyright 1985 by
Commodities Magazine, Inc., 218 Parkade, Cedar Falls, IA 50613)
Chapter TWO Your Greatest Enemy
2,100 percent return in two years or double your money in # "Risk a dollar to make four." Contrary to what you read,
five-and-a-half months. Assume it works and its inventor most traders have the discipline to follow their system.
sells 200 of these systems for $1,000 each. Also assume each Unfortunately, because most commodities are trendless,
buyer invests $10,000. With the inventor's $200,000, that's the four-dollar profit simply is not there. Many system
$2.2 million total equity. traders are risking a dollar to make 50 cents (after fees,
After five-and-a-half months, every account has dou- commissions, etc.).
bled. Then greed takes over. Old investors get 10 new ones, # "Don't put all your eggs into one basket." Why are there
some as "fund managers." Others use copiers. In less than more rich scalpers and pyramiders than system traders?
a year, the system has $50 million total equity—a sum im- Because it's easier to spot a big move if you concentrate
possible to invest without market distortions.
on a few markets. Because nine of ten commodities are
In short, anyone bright enough to invent a system that
trendless, a system trader must diversify to ride out the
performs in every market and time period would never long time between winners.
jeopardize it by selling it to the public. He can make far more
by trading it for himself and his clients. * "The close is the number." Most price movement occurs
within an hour of the opening. Long before the computer
"Holy Grail" Bound funds mangle the close to "catch the trend," smart traders
are well-positioned for the next day.
Most traders realize you can't buy a perfect system, but they
* "It's all in the numbers." There are 27 major commodities,
still believe it exists. There are three main sources of this
at least a dozen major trading methods, several indicators
myth: (1) returns from simple trend-following methods, (2)
per method, and at least three signals per indicator (long,
track records, and (3) experts promoting the latest technical
short, or neutral). To expect any system to handle all these
fad. is like asking a computer to write a Mozart symphony.
When I worked for a Midwest stock firm, an Eastern
computer expert impressed the bigwigs with his real-time In the end, nothing can take the place of a trader analyzing
record. A few calculations showed a simple trend-following and combining all the data into his own winning pattern.
method would have returned more over the same period. For most of us, this takes years of hard work and sometimes
Another source of the perfect system myth is the spectacular unprofitable trading.
but brief track record. A famous technical trader wrote how No wonder the "perfect system" con game flourishes! The
he made a million. Unfortunately, he went into a losing public in its lazy greed wants a quick way to a million. And
period soon afterward. Had he continued to sustain the it can always find "experts" to sell it what it wants.
returns shown in his book, it's unlikely he would still he
giving seminars. * trading
I honestly believe futures * * is the best opportunity for
Consider these system cliches: the average investor, and the techniques I will describe later on are
* "The trend is your friend." Nine of 10 commodities are some of the best you can use in trading futures. But it is still true:
not trending at any given time. When they breakout, Nothing can take the place of a trader analyzing and combining
simple trend-following methods will catch it as well as all the data into his own winning pattern. You can attempt to apply
most systems. every concept written in this book and still lose.
Chapter TWO Your Greatest Enemy
Why? Because the biggest trading problem you face is not what I was doing, and I was very blessed not to be 500 percent
high commissions, lousy fills, insider trading, lack of informa- in the hole instead.
tion, bad advice from your broker, discovering the secret of the Virtually all the stockbrokers working today have never ex-
(trading) universe, or finding the next Warren Buffet. It's you. Y, perienced a major bear market like that of 1973-74. What are they
O, U, YOU! Your emotions, hidden psychological problems, and going to recommend if we repeat the 1973-74 experience? The vast
preconceived notions are your greatest enemies whether you majority of mutual funds weren't around 20 years ago. What good
trade stocks, bonds, options, futures, real estate, precious metals, will all those great track records be in a 1974 type of environment?
or what have you. Even if a fabulous track record is not fraudulent, the result
As Richard Dennis, one of the foremost trading legends of of chance, or a massive, once-in-a-generation trend, there are at
our time, put it: "I always say that you could publish (my) least two other factors that can make it irrelevant.
trading rules in the newspaper and no would follow them. The First of all, every investment vehicle has dull times when
key is consistency and discipline. Almost anybody can make up no strategy can make money. If you (or your expert) do not
a list of rules that are 80 percent as good as what (I) taught."2 understand this and concentrate only in one area of expertise,
I was a futures broker for six years. Since then I've talked you could be very disappointed. More trading fortunes have
with dozens of investment professionals. Not one of them men- been built on soybeans than any other commodity I know. Yet
tioned a client coming to them and saying, "After long study, "I in 1985 and 1986, soybean prices moved so little traders were
believe these trading principles are the key to success and I want leaving the soybean pits in frustration.
you to help me use them in your area of expertise." Instead, Secondly, even the best traders or advisers choke when
investors always seem to fall into the following four basic cate- given too much money. As assets grow arithmetically, the accom-
gories. panying psychological and asset allocation problems grow geo-
metrically. Many trading geniuses like Arthur Cutten and Jesse
Livermore made millions only to lose at the end. Success went
What's Hot or Who's Hot? to their heads and they began to disregard the very rules that
made them a success in the first place. Like most beginning
This type thinks a specific area (stocks, bonds, futures, real estate, investors, they began to believe it was their great genius, not
precious metals, etc.) or a specific adviser/broker is his ticket to their great money management, that made them winners. Any-
success. He is another victim of what I call track recorditis. one who relies solely on track records to make his investment
Suppose I told you the absolutely true, verifiable fact that decisions is bound to be disappointed in the end.
I made over 500 percent in a two-week period trading futures.
Sounds impressive, doesn't it?
But this fact doesn't tell you how I made this 500 percent. I've Found (invented) This Surefire System
It was during the October 1987 stock crash, a time of unprece-
dented volatility. I stumbled into the profitable side of copper in The finest minds in the country are not the heads of government
the beginning and afterwards was able to take advantage of the or big corporations. They are not even on university campuses.
obvious distortions the stock crash generated in all the other The best brains in the world are trying to figure out where stocks,
futures markets. As I look back on it now, I really didn't know bonds, gold, etc., are going to be tomorrow morning.
2 Jack Schwager, Market Wizards (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 86.
Chapter TWO Your Greatest Enemy
My friend Neal Weintraub runs the "Tricks of the Trader" Or take the "gold bugs." They were absolutely right in
futures trading seminars in Chicago. Everyone who attends has condemning paper money and predicting higher precious metal
to go through the libraries of the Board of Trade and the Mer- prices in the 1970s. But how many actually took advantage of
cantile Exchange. Neal loves to point out that virtually every the big moves? How many threw away what little profits they
book, system, newsletter, or seminar published about futures made by buying high-priced metals in the early 1980s? It's been
trading ends up on these shelves long before the public knows my experience that only one gold bug in a hundred has made a
about them. Even those methods "restricted to the first hundred better than average return over the last twenty years.
who pay" get passed around exchanges very quickly, thanks to Creativity or intelligence has no more to do with successful
our local copy machines. trading than it does with a successful business. Both need suffi-
Maybe you are that one in a million that has found some- cient capital, a well-thought-out plan of operation, and, most of
thing truly original in investing. However, like the Chinese who all, the humility to copy those who were successful before you.
invented gun powder but didn't know how to use it, you can True, the greatest traders, like the greatest businessmen,
still lose in the stressful world of trading. It's better to master also have creativity and intelligence to go along with elementary
the simple laws of trading first and find that breakthrough later. trading techniques. But like their business counterparts, often
they had to unlearn all they knew before they could really start
to succeed. Only when market humiliations forced them to fol-
I'm on the Ground Floor of a Great idea low the "simple" laws of investing could they begin to use their
great talents in the markets.
Of all the things that seduce the average investor, concept invest- That's why the ranks of great traders are filled with many
ing is the worst. Yes, I know Peter Lynch says that you have a college dropouts and very few Ph.D.'s. That's why, like most
better chance than he does of finding the next Xerox or Wal-Mart. new businesses, most new investors fail. Their investments fail
That may be true, but it is also true that Peter has a much better to keep up with market averages or even inflation. Their returns
chance of benefiting from the next Xerox or Wal-Mart. never justify their opportunity costs in time and treasure. Sadly,
Let's say you find a company, commodity, option, etc., that the record of new investors is even more dismal than new busi-
doubles your investment in a short time. If you are the typical nesses due to this next and last type of investor.
investor, you will do one of two things. You will sell your entire
position and brag about the profits at the country club. Or you
will put most of your life savings in it. Where's the Action?
Inevitably, your next Xerox has a small fall in price. Because
you've invested most of your money at higher prices, this fall Few start a business to satisfy an urge for excitement and risk.
causes you to lose money, panic, and sell just before the next big Unfortunately, a casino mentality controls a large segment of
rise. In either case, you aren't really going to cash in on the next investors. As lottery fever grips our society, more and more in-
Xerox. vestors are looking for that easy way to millions. Often they keep
A Peter Lynch will start tracking your hot company as soon playing the market until the money runs out.
as it becomes public. He may miss the initial surge, but his capital This craving for action infects even professionals. Many
and trading techniques will take advantage of the rest of the move. can't take a vacation without keeping a quote machine and a
Chapter Two Your Greatest Enemy
phone by their side. Many continue to trade even when the just one S&P 500 futures contract each day, that would be about
shrinking bottom line is screaming, "Stop! Take time out." For $18,000 ($75 x 240 days) a year in trading expenses (commission
every trader who had the courage to quit the business when he plus bid/ask slippage) before any winnings are collected.
lost his touch, there are a dozen other megatraders that contin- If you add in the $750 a month the average trader spends
ued to trade themselves into oblivion. for computerized, real-time futures quotes and other informa-
Ninenty-nine percent of investors that walk into a broker's tion, you can see why someone with the average $10,000
office fall into one of these four categories. Even the most honest, daytrading account must nearly quadruple his initial investment
skilled, and persuasive broker is going to have a hard time just to cover trading expenses.
convincing these investors to change their losing ways. That But let's assume that this slippage factor of bid/ask trading
takes time, time the average investor doesn't have because of the plus commissions has been taken care of in our tale of Humble
Mathematics of Investing. Harry versus Trader Tom.
Harry gets the float of .5 percent a month on his account. But direct disbursements (like entitlements, subsidies, etc.)
At year's end, Harry's account has $162,356.40 while Trader brings that figure down to 20 percent. Politicians instinctively
Tom has only $160,094.45. Tom is on his way to ulcers while know that this is all they can get away with (at least until re-
Harry sleeps like a baby every night. cently). In Italy, high tax rates have created an underground
Sure, I stacked the deck a little bit. I had Tom's winnings economy almost equal to the official economy.
come late in the year after expenses and losses had eaten away My most vivid lesson in the 10/20 rule was managing
his equity down to $56,400 in the fourth month of trading. And money. I started with a $10,000 account and tripled it to $30,000.
Harry's 40 percent using a simple moving average may be a trifle I took a management fee of 25 percent of the profits, sent my
above average. But on the whole, these figures are in the ball client's original $10,000 home, and started to trade again with
park. the remaining $15,000.
In real life, the average Tom wouldn't have gone on with Unfortunately, the account then fell 33 percent to $10,000.
his system after his big losses in the first and second month of My client withdrew all his money to trade it for himself. It didn't
his trading. The Psychological Law of 10/20 Percent would have matter he was still 100 percent ahead. I had taken a loss greater
taken over. than 20 percent and so he lost confidence. (He later lost what
was left trading the account himself).
The Psychological Law of 10/20 Percent Let's say a trading system is right 60 percent of the time (a
very good average in the real world). In a perfectly random
Whenever anything (except normal living expenses) takes more world, the chances of this system losing 10 trades in a row would
than 10 percent of our income or savings, we become annoyed. be one in a thousand. But trading is not random, and trading
This law of humanity is as old as the tithe or the agent's 10 systems (and traders) can blow hot and cold for extended peri-
percent. When this expense or loss reaches over 20 percent of our ods of time.
income or savings, we become irate and spend most of our spare If 25 percent of the time the system was right 90 percent,
time figuring out how to avoid this expense or loss. 50 percent of the time it was right 60 percent, and 25 percent of
That's why the totally oppressed Egyptian peasant and the time it was right 30 percent, that would average out to 60
Medieval serf rarely paid more than 20 percent of their income percent for a given time period. But during the 30 percent correct
to their landlords. period, there would a 2.83 percent chance of losing 10 in a row.
Societies forced to pay more than 20 percent of their income If this 30 percent period is extended over 250 trades in a three-
in taxes, which doesn't come back in the form of some govern- month period, the odds are 50/50 this system will see 10 losing
ment entitlement, inevitably have tax revolts, go into economic trades in a row, despite its yearly average of a 60 percent winning
collapse, or are forced to tolerate a huge underground economy ratio.
that effectively lowers the tax rate. If you are risking 1 percent of your trading equity on each
It's no accident that the percent of federal taxes paid by the trade, 10 losses in a row isn't likely to shatter your confidence
average American has been stable at 19 percent of income for in a normally successful system. But if you are risking 3 percent
the past three decades. The total U.S. tax rate from all sources of your equity on each trade, the resulting 27 percent loss after
(state, federal, municipal) is around 42 percent, but when you 10 losing trades could cause you to abandon the system or stop
add in unfunded mandates plus the cost of filling out forms (like trading all together.
the 1040) and the deficit, the real rate is closer to 50 percent.
Chapter Two Your Greatest Enemy
Now let's go back to our S&P 500 daytrader with $10,000. The 3/21-Day Memory Law
Let's say his system is right on average 60 percent, but with the
fluctuating winning percentages described above. This system Scientific studies have shown that humans lose about 80 per-
wins $300 and loses $125 on an average trade. However, slippage cent of what they learned within three days of having first
due to commissions and the bid/ask spread causes an extra $75 learned it. Afterwards this memory loss continues gradually
loss on both ends, raising the average loss to $200 and cutting until about the 21st day where it stabilizes at about 3 percent
the average winner to $225. Our one-trade-per-day daytrader permanent memory.
makes only a few thousand more than his $9,000-a-year over- This 3/21-Day Memory Law has many implications for
head ($750 a month for quotes, seminars, newsletters, etc.). investment strategies, which I will discuss in later chapters. But
If this daytrader began to trade three times a day instead by far the biggest implication of the 3/21-Day Memory Law is
of once, theoretically he would make another $23,400 a year if a psychological one.
his system continued to perform at 60 percent. But what if he Ask any professional trader what is his toughest day was
increases trading just when the system is entering the 30 percent and he'll say, "The day after the market has beaten my brains
winning mode? Over a four-month period of 250 trades, he has in." The painful memory of one bad trading day can cause
a 50/50 chance of losing 10 times in a row and taking a $2,000 market paralysis or erratic trading for up to three weeks. Unless
loss on a $10,000 starting account. This will probably cause our you are thoroughly convinced of the validity of your trading
trader to abandon his system just when it is ready for big gains. methods, you will be sorely tempted to drop out of trading or
In actuality, it's a very rare futures speculator who doesn't at least "modify" your methods to "prevent further losses."
risk more than 1 percent of his equity on a trade. When I was a On the other hand, the worst trading I ever saw as a broker
broker, risking $500, a $1,000, or even $2,000 on a $10,000 account was after a spectacular winning day by a client. As a broker, I
was routine for many of my customers. felt the best thing for the average client was to take a few (small)
The average investor violates the 10/20 percent factor all losses in the beginning to gain humility and respect toward the
the time. He routinely puts more than 20 percent of his equity markets. Novice traders that won in the beginning went out of
in one stock, one futures contract, etc. With most of his eggs in control in the end, sometimes losing more than their initial in-
very few baskets, he becomes liable to jettison any trading plan vestment.
and trade very emotionally. Floor traders or specialists who trade on the exchange floor
These investors begin to track that particular future or stock have many advantages over public traders: a bigger capital base,
tick for tick, becoming totally mesmerized. They refuse to take a far lower cost of market entry, the ability to see the entire flow
profits ("Just a little more and I'm a millionaire") or losses ("It'll of orders, etc. But I honestly believe their greatest advantage is
come back") at the appropriate time. These overcommitted in- that their trading style rarely runs afoul of the 3/21-Day Memory
vestors become oblivious to their danger or to investment op- Law.
Trading hundreds of times in a three-day period on the
portunities elsewhere.
However, there is another psychological law that probably exchange, floor traders may experience a spectacular winning
causes even more investment losses than the 10/20 Percent Law. period, but it's very likely they will also experience a losing
period that will splash cold water on their "I'm-a-trading-gen-
I call it the 3/21-Day Memory Law.
ius-that-can-do-no-wrong" fantasies. Losing periods, on the
Chapter TWO Your Greatest Enemy
other hand, rarely extend for more than one day. Your Psychological Profile:
Over a 21-day period, a floor trader or exchange specialist Can You Stand the Dull World of
will make enough trades to experience (at least on a small scale)
virtually every trading outcome known. Even during years of
Winning Futures Trading?
low volatility or traditional seasonal slowdowns (like holiday If you trade 100 times a year and it costs (on average) a minimum
periods), he is never bored for weeks on end. The average public of $45 to enter the futures market on any one trade, you will have
trader is very tempted during these slow times to overtrade to generate $4,500 a year in trading profits (by correctly guessing
because every few days, he needs to feel the jolt, the excitement the direction of the market) just to break even. That's a 45 percent
of trading the markets. With a $45 loss built into every trade, return on a $10,000 futures account! That brings me to Dull-but-
that's a proscription for disaster. Successful Trading Rule #1:
Fear (after losing), greed (after winning), boredom (leading
to no-chance trading), and ignorance (of the mathematics and 1. Never spend more on trading expense and overhead than your
psychology of trading) are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse futures account will take in T-bill interest.
for traders. Unless you conquer them, nothing in this book is A $100,000 futures account opened today will generate
going to help you make money. about $4,000 in interest (assuming the standard payout
rate of 90 percent of today's T-bill interest of around 4.5
percent). If you spend $100 a month on quotes and re-
Finding a Guru: No Investing Panacea search, that leaves you $2,800 or about five trades a
month (60 x $45) for trading expenses.
What about those hot shot market advisers you read about? Is it
Five trades a month from a $100,000 account would
possible to find someone who could manage your money and
drive the average futures broker up a wall in frustration.
consistently beat the market averages in stocks and beat a simple
The system gurus who claim returns of 100-200 percent
moving average system in futures (after expenses)? Yes, but it's
a year would sneer. But here's why the average investor
not very likely. in futures must follow this rule as closely as possible.
1. You have to find this adviser before the rest of the world If your total trading expenses (commission, bid/ask
finds out about him and makes it impossible for him to slippage, overhead) are going to exceed your guaranteed
sustain those big returns (especially after those hefty interest income, you make it far more likely that you will
fees). There's also a very real chance he could crack suffer a drawdown during trading that will exceed 10
under the strain of managing megamillions. percent or even 20 percent of a period's starting equity.
Unless you've experienced the strain of this type of draw-
2. You must avoid "track recorditis" and find someone that down, you will never understand the enormous tempta-
can really deliver a superior performance over time in all tion to make emotional decisions (by overtrading or
sorts of markets. An adviser who can only generate above- withdrawing into a shell) that ruin trading performance.
average returns in a bull market is positively dangerous. It's this type of irrational, emotional trading that
In any case, the more you know how to trade, the better caused the search for the Holy Grail—a mechanical sys-
you can separate the wheat from the chaff among outside money tem that never suffers emotional lapses. But now that
managers. everyone has a personal computer, which can go
Chapter Two Your Greatest Enemy
through umpteen numerical manipulations of the Sacred try another trade, another trading method, another in-
Six (High, Low, Open, Close, Volume, and Open Inter- vestment vehicle. To illustrate this we'll bring back
est), purely mechanical trading is losing its punch. More Humble Harry and Trader Tom.
and more we are seeing false technical breakouts that Trader Tom and Humble Harry both start with
never follow through to the downside or upside. There $100,000. Both lose five trades in a row. Harry keeps his
is no fundamental reason behind these price movements, losses to 1 percent of equity—he ends up with $95,100.
only the hum of thousands of computers making the Tom risks $5,000 a trade and goes down to $75,000. To
same dumb decisions at the same time. get to $150,000, Tom must make 100 percent. To get to
If you want a better-than-average return in any investment, $150,000, Harry only has to make 57 percent. Tom must
you are going to have to do something besides what the average outperform Harry by 75 percent to get to the same goal!
investor is doing. Increasingly, even in stocks, the average inves- Harry is long one contract of coffee before the late
tor is looking at momentum indicators (like stochastics) and June freeze because the moving averages turned bullish
charts to make his decisions. a long time ago. Tom is long two contracts because his
The techniques described later in this book are not rehashes system takes big risks. Harry makes $15,000, and Tom
of the same old technical methods that dominate the investment makes $30,000 over one weekend. Harry is still ahead
market. They do offer you the opportunity of making above-av- by $5,000 despite the ulcer-producing risks Tom takes.
erage returns, but unfortunately you will have to use your brain That brings me to Dull-but-Successful Trading Rule #3:
as well as your computer. If the human brain is in the equation, 3. No matter how intellectually stimulating or exciting to trade,
you must at all costs keep out the emotional factors that ruins any trading method that, after expenses, couldn't beat a
trading decisions. One of those factors is large losses, another is simple 18-day moving average system over the same period
the sheer stress that making many trading decisions in a short has to be dropped.
period puts on one's brain. Charles LeBeau (who use to edit the Technical Trader Bulletin
Dull-but-successful Trading Rule #2 is similar to the first rule: out of Torrance, California) once made a statement some-
2. Never risk more than 1 percent (trading risk plus commis- thing like this at a seminar I spoke at: "I've tested hundreds
sions) on any one trade. of moving averages and I found an 18-day moving average
That means a $5,000 account should only risk $50 a trade, is as good as any of them in tracking the futures markets."
including the cost of commissions. If that means trading Intrigued, I called him later on and he confirmed that it
only agricultural contracts on the MidAmerica Exchange didn't matter too much whether you used a weighted,
or out-of-the-money options, so be it. exponential, or simple moving average or whether you
We've talked about the psychological problem of los- used four days, five days, or any specific number of days
ing more than 10 percent or 20 percent. But there are two for the crossover average.
other mathematical reasons to limit your losses to the (Eighteen days is midway between the 16 days of
smallest ratio possible. trading that is necessary to create 21 days between trad-
All trading activity is a struggle to try every invest- ing events—remember the 3/21-Day Memory Law?—
ment idea that looks promising in the hopes that one of and the 20 trading days that constitute a lunar cycle of
them will work. The more you lose the less you have to 28 days. I will discuss these two powerful external fac-
Chapter Two Your Greatest Enemy
tors on trading later, but for the moment I just want to ingso you hardly ever violate Dull-but-Successful Futures Trad-
note that LeBeau's 18-day figure also lines up perfectly ing Rule #1.
with what we might predict theoretically.) Believe me, these three simple rules are worth the price of
In stocks, the total return (capital appreciation and this book. The vast majority of investors would be far better off
dividends) of the S&P 500 is the benchmark for advisers avoiding all the expensive seminars and computerized trading
and any stock system. Anyone or anything that can't systems that fill up the ads. They should stick to a simple moving
outperform the total return of the S&P 500 isn't worth average system and use whatever profits and spare time they
following. I propose an 18-day moving average standard have to read everything they can get their hands on concerning
for the futures industry. the futures market.
Add up the last 18 days of trading in a specific future. I especially recommend the Chicago Mercantile's Bibliog-
Divide by 18. When that specific future closes above the raphy and Information Source List as a starting point. One
18-day moving average, buy the next opening. When it $5,000 loss or one $10,000 seminar can buy you a great
closes below the 18-day moving average, sell the next many books. You'll find that most "secrets of trading" are
opening. Thirty days before first delivery date, start col- already in print at a much cheaper price than big losses or
lecting closes of the next viable futures contract. When expensive seminars.
you've collected 18 days of data, switch over to the new If you want to be slightly different, use openings instead of
month. closing prices (later on I will discuss how I use opening prices).
If you understand option strategy, you can use futures options
This system is simplicity itself. If you track all the major
instead. And, if you must, you can experiment with different
futures with it, you will find it produces many small losses that
types of moving averages. But until you are sure—quite sure—
are made up by one or two huge moves (like what took place
that you have a system that can beat this dull but profitable one
this year in coffee). In good years (like 1974 and 1980), it makes
I've proposed, don't bother to trade any other way.
over 100 percent. In bad years (like dull 1976), it barely breaks
There are some of you who have read the last few pages
even. But over time (I'll let you on to a dirty secret in our
and are inwardly screaming, "I couldn't take this. I need to be
business), it's net performance is better than the vast majority of
creative, I need to be involved everyday. I want to trade full
brokers, trading advisers, funds, and systems that are touted in
time." Okay, here's my advice to you. There is a futures exchange
the media.
in Chicago called the MidAmerica Exchange. It trades smaller-
Your only expense is a subscription to The Wall Street Journal
sized contracts than what are traded on such exchanges as the
(or your local paper if they have complete futures coverage). It
Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the
takes only a few minutes a day to update and calculate on any
Comex, etc.
computer. It's entirely unemotional and while you will take
Presently the asking price for a seat on this exchange is
many frustrating little losses, you won't miss the big ones (like
around $6,300 (There are also a few thousand a year in fees,
the charting expert who was urging his subscribers to go short
which are mostly waived if you do enough volume). As an
coffee the day before the big freeze).
exchange member, you no longer have to worry about the
Because moving averages force you to stay with the trend,
bid/ask slippage because you are making the market. Your
you rarely lose more than 1 percent of your equity even on bad
commission cost is around $.50 a trade (many MidAm Clearing firms
trades. Finally, a moving average system limits your trad-
rebate part or all of your commission if you trade enough volume).
Chapter Two Your Greatest Enemy
As a member of a recognized exchange, if you must trade I prefer to investigate what winning traders use now. As I
in a contract outside the MidAm, your commissions will be see it, only 1 percent of those who trade futures make a living
around $3 at the Board of Trade and $10 at the other exchanges, at it. Virtually all of them fall into three groups: floor traders (or
not the $20-$30 of discount futures commissions. One trading exchange specialists), who are the masters of money manage-
technique to cover all markets would be to use a simple moving ment; commercials, who are the experts of the fundamentals;
average for contracts traded outside the MidAm while you floor and those I call the insiders, the lords of high finance and the
trade MidAm contracts. exchanges.
For further information, you can call the MidAmerica Ex- I don't claim this book contains every method of these
change in Chicago or you can call my friend Neal Weintraub at successful traders or even most of them. But I tried to put down
1-800-753-7085. Neal is a member of the MidAm and for a small as many of their most easily applied methods as I could. I'm
fee can walk you through all the steps in becoming a member, sure you will find something that will fit your personality and
including finding you a sponsor from the exchange. Many great help your present trading system if you remember the first rule
traders (like Richard Dennis) got their start in the mini-contracts of investing is humility—the humility not to blame others for
of the MidAmerica Exchange. your trading failures, the humility to not think you are above
Maybe you can't move to Chicago. But then you can't avoid the mathematical and psychological laws of trading, and most
that $45 entrance fee every time you trade a futures contract (or of all, the humility to constantly learn from others.
just about any other investment, for that matter). You are going
to have to get together enough money in your account so that if
you do trade every day, your trading equity isn't headed to
oblivion in a very short time.
You say, "But so-and-so is trading using (software name)
and making a mint." Maybe he's a terrific trader, but more likely
he's just fortunate like I was during the Crash of 1987. The
"Mathematics of Investing" will catch up with everyone over
time. If you continue to violate them, eventually you are going
to end up with the 80-90 percent who lose. At the very least
you'll be like Trader Tom. You won't be able to justify all the
time and energy you spend trading futures.
What the
Floor Trader Knows
35
Chapter Three What the Floor Trader Knows
Even if no one supported Trader B's complaint, the com- entry and thereby boost costs to the consumer. The floor
mittee might still force Trader A to honor the trade. If he had trader is one of the last pure entrepreneurs who asks the
any previous history of "chicken bids," he might be suspended government for nothing but the right to stay in business
or even expelled from the exchange. At the very least, he could without overwhelming regulation.
be shunned by other pit traders who would ignore his dishonest
2. They are absolutely essential to the economy of America.
bids and offers in favor of other traders.
That phantom utility order cost my client about $50,000. The futures market, just like the stock market, can be
But it raised no comment in the stock market amidst the sacred treated like one big casino. But, like stocks, futures per-
specialist system. However, the financial establishment looks form an essential economic task. They facilitate the need
askance at the activities of futures floor traders. of producers and consumers, who don't want price fluc-
At this point, I ought to admit my prejudices. I started in tuations to ruin their business, to transfer the risk to
this business back in the old days when commissions were fixed someone else.
by the exchanges, 24-hour trading was unheard of, and most Floor traders are responsible for over 50 percent of
futures pits were gentlemen's clubs that started around nine the trading in futures. Without them, the futures market
o'clock and ended just after lunch. In those days it was possible would be illiquid and spasmodic in price movement.
to spend hours talking to floor traders before and after trading. Futures markets would begin to dry up and fail to serve
Virtually all of the concepts in this book had their origin in those their essential economic function in our society.
talks. Even in these hectic times, it is still far easier to approach Some have called for the abolition of the open outcry
and have an honest discussion with a floor trader than any other system of futures, to be replaced by computerized trad-
consistent winner (commercial, financial insider, etc.) that trades ing where every order is matched electronically. In my
the futures market. So I guess what I have to say is colored by opinion, this is very dangerous. There have been enough
hundreds of contacts with futures floor traders and my friend- cases of computer fraud to show how easy it is to ma-
ships with many of them. But here are the incontrovertible facts nipulate computer programs. The computerized system
about futures floor traders: of NASDAQ has also been plagued with problems and
a series of scandals.
1. They have a level of integrity that is way above average. That's not to say that increased computerization can't
Each day they trade billions based on fleeting, verbal help. I think futures trading should adopt the system
contracts in the pit. Yes, many megamillion financial already in place with the OEX option contract, where
deals in stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments orders under 10 contracts are matched electronically and
are also conducted strictly over the phone. Isolated cases avoid the overcrowded pit. If the technology can ever
involving stock or bond fraud don't lead the media to be debugged, it makes sense to replace the paper cards,
condemn the entire stock and bond industry. But if the which floor traders use to record pit trades, with a hand-
occasional floor trader runs into an FBI sting, it starts held electronic device.
another round of futures bashing. But I don't want electronic trading to replace the
Many businesses in the country are heavily depend- open outcry system any more than I want Perot's Elec-
ent on government subsidies. Many professions, such as tronic Town Hall to replace the U.S. Congress. Any time
doctors and lawyers, have legal monopolies that restrict you concentrate market power in the hands of the few
37
Chapter Three What the Floor Trader Knows
(in this case, those who control the computer program), and then you don't have to deal with it. You can
you are in danger. Why should futures lose one of its blame the system and make adjustments."
biggest advantages over the stock market—a truly com- Face it, investors. A lot of successful investing is do-
petitive marketplace—and give a handful of people an ing the same things at the same time in the same way.
enormous advantage, like the specialist system? The bulk of the price movement of any investment oc-
3. Becoming a floor trader isn't a license to steal. The only ones curs in a tiny fragment of time—about 1 percent of the
who survive are those who truly love to trade. entire year. If you don't love what you are doing, you
are going to lose your focus or become bored. Boredom,
According to exchange statistics, about half the people
the need for a new thrill, has ruined more great traders
who trade on the floor quit after two years of trading.
than anything else I know.
Not all of them go broke—many retire to trade upstairs
away from the frenzy of the floor; others go on to some 4. Floor traders are the ultimate world capitalists.
other business. A 50 percent washout rate after two years The Nobel Prize-winning economist Schumpeter called
is a lot better than the 80-85 percent loss rate after six capitalism creative destruction. He meant the free mar-
months, which academic studies claim to be the loss rate ket was always tearing down one business or industry
for the average novice futures trader. But it still doesn't and replacing it with another—the free flow of capital
suggest that everyone on the floor is making a million. from an area of inefficiency to an area of efficiency.
Tom Baldwin is acknowledged as one of the biggest, All successful investing is is learning to go with this
if not the biggest, floor trader in the world. He was asked flow of funds. Predicting the future is a nice hobby and
(in Futures Industry) if he would recommend trading as I do try to do that as much as any analyst. But nobody
a lifetime occupation. He replied: really knows for sure what the next Microsoft is going
"I wouldn't do it for the money. I'd do what to be or whether it will rain in the Midwest next May.
makes me happy. You're just going to torture We can guess, and they may be educated guesses, but
yourself unless you really love to trade. Making they are still only guesses.
money is not what makes it fun. Being successful Standing in the pit, the floor trader is at the center of
makes it fun, but there's so much personal, emo- a world system of allocating money among competing
tional involvement in it, if you don't love to work investments. The flow of funds of the multitrillion-dollar
on the emotional aspect of it, you are going to world economy is taking place right before him. Millions
hate it. I mean understanding your own emo- of minds with billions of data inputs in their brains are
tions. Most people only deal with the emotional putting their two cents' worth into the market. If the
aspect of losing. That really is just a minor aspect floor trader doesn't constantly keep abreast of this flow
to overcome. The emotional aspect of being suc- of funds, he will soon find himself as obsolete as the
cessful is actually more difficult. Once you're suc- buggy whip manufacturer.
cessful, you have to deal with keeping your focus, Futures trading 25 years ago was 95 percent agricul-
and that's a full time job I think that's why the tural. Today only around 5 percent of its volume is in
world developed systems. You try and develop a agricultural markets. Ten years ago, most futures trading
computerized system that doesn't have feelings took place in the United States. Very soon, the over-
38 39
Chapter Three What the Floor Trader Knows
whelming majority of futures trading will occur over- a thinly traded back-month bond contact. I watched in
seas. amazement as the price was quickly bid up a whole basis
Tom Baldwin, in that same Futures Industry interview, point ($1,000 a contract) in a matter of seconds. I quickly
went on to remark, "We found that the markets in ran over to where this back-month option was trading and
Europe tend to trend very well whereas the markets sold a thousand contracts and than ran back to the month
here, especially the bond market, is a difficult market to where I was trading and bought a thousand contracts.
trade long term." In other words, the same big trending When market conditions returned to normal, I liquidated
markets that built many a fortune and the reputation of my spread and made almost a million dollars."
many a trading system in the United States futures mar- It's these types of stories that give the floor trader his
ket of the 1970s are now occurring overseas. But how "vulture" reputation. But I don't see how this is much
many "I Made a Million in Futures" books are telling different than meeting a sudden demand by emotional
you how to place an order in London? consumers for Cabbage Patch dolls. If people have to
The only investors that are going to survive the rol- have something right now and can't wait, they are going
lercoaster nineties are those who imitate the floor trader to have to pay a premium. The only other alternative is
by being prepared to go wherever the international flow to have the government watch every economic trade to
of funds is taking the world economy. determine, like some national nanny, whether it is fair.
If it doesn't involve fraud or coercion, it's fair.
5. Most floor traders understand that the greatest secret to in-
It's so much sexier to talk about a system that gener-
vestment success, outside of emotional control, is consistency.
ates a 9.56-to-l profit-to-loss ratio than making 35 per-
Remember Humble Harry? He put $1,000 a month into cent a year on your money, year after year. But unless
a system that was making 40 percent. Let's assume he you are willing to accept this reality—like most floor
started with $50,000 and a system that returned "only" traders—you are almost guaranteed to fail in investing.
35 percent a year. If he continued to put in $1,000 a
month, at the end of 10 years his account would be 6. The floor trader understands it's not all in the numbers.
$1,775,049. One of the most successful floor traders, Mark Ritchie, was
Compound interest is the "eighth wonder of the quoted in Futures magazine: "Everybody is on the hunt for
world," as Baron Rothschild called it. That's why most a mechanical system that will make money—there's no
floor traders are delighted to earn 50 percent a year on such thing. The computer is nothing more than a very good
their capital. If they can do that consistently year after slide rule, but all of the decisions made are human deci-
year, in no time they will get rich. To that end they sions. All the computer does is crunch the numbers we ask
engage in all those boring investment activities like it to crunch."
scalping hundreds of trades for one-tick profits or wait- Do you know that computers are banned in the pits of
ing for that lock trade, the sure winner that comes along most exchanges? Have you ever thought how those poor
every few months. slobs, the floor traders, make it without that comforting
I once heard a floor trader describe what his biggest computer screen in front of them? "How come they are
profit was on one trade. "It was in the early days of bond making more money than me I am when they don't even
trading. Somebody put in a massive market order to buy know what the 14-period stochastic is saying now?"
40 41
Chapter Three What the Floor Trader Knows
According to one estimate I read, 93 percent of traders But over the next few chapters I will discuss floor trad-
are using price data as the basis of their trading. That's ing techniques that don't depend on a computer or ultra-low
about the same percent as academic studies say lose money commissions. They may not be discussed in the media by the
trading futures. Isn't about time you consider getting away experts, but they are the lifeblood of people who do every day
from the bondage of the umpteenth computer manipula- what these experts can only dream about—capture millions of
tion of the Sacred Six (high, low, open, close, volume, and dollars in trading profits.
open interest)?
There is a service in Chicago called Listen Only Systems.
Through a telephone or satellite link, a running commen-
tary of what is happening in the S&P 500 pit is piped to
an individual trader. This running commentary is con-
stantly describing who is bidding or offering, the size of
those bids or offers, what outside factors the pit is looking
at (bond prices as they are printed on the exchange price
boards, etc.). Not the least of their service is the ability to
listen to the noise of the pit, which is a good barometer of
the emotion and size of trading.
Why would some of the most sophisticated traders in
the world pay for such a service if everything you needed
to know was in that price you see on your computer screen?
Again and again floor traders have told me how
much "being there" helps their trading: seeing the trad-
ers that (almost) always win and the ones that normally
lose (and won't be around much longer), seeing the fear
or the confidence reflected in the eyes of individual trad-
ers.
One ex-floor trader put it this way: "Guys will be
yelling and carrying on, but the good floor traders will
be quiet for a long time. Then the market breaks
through a key point. They see opportunity and low risk
and they pounce."
Of all the winners that truly have the trader's edge, the
techniques of the floor trader are the ones the average trader can
imitate the best. Of course, there are many things public specu-
lators can't do because they are not trading at $1.00 commission
rates (elaborate spread and option strategies, etc.).
43
Chapter Four
Sayings from the Floor
45
Chapter Four Sayings from the Floor
If you want to be a winner, pattern yourself after somebody pline they also need to succeed, but it would have given them
you know who is actually winning in the same circumstances knowledge, which is one side of the two-sided coin known as
you find yourself. What's possible for a floor trader may not be successful futures trading.
possible for a public trader who is paying that $45 initiation fee A basic training manual is not the simple secret of the
every time he or she trades. If you can't watch the market eight universe that guarantees you will become a millionaire over-
hours a day, you shouldn't assume the methods of your local night. Neither is reading everything you can get your hands on,
"Joe the Daytrader" are going to be of any use to you, despite although that is a far cheaper and less painful substitute for the
his glittering track record. normally dreadful trading results of novice traders.
The greatest enemy of successful futures trading is trading on But for those who must have a "secret-of-success" book,
emotion rather than on a rational, well-executed plan. when pressed, those big names do mention three books again
and again. These books are no substitute for truly studying the
I've never heard of or read about any big-time futures trader market and learning how to control your emotions by actually
that didn't have at least one (usually it was more than one) trading. But they must have something special to be mentioned
horrible trading experience that made them painfully aware of over and over again by successful futures traders.
this fact. The first is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Le-
There is no bible for futures trading, but there are least three books fevre.1 First published in 1923, it was brought back into print
that are cited again and again. because it was publicly mentioned by several prominent futures
traders. In my observation (probably because it has been around
If you cornered a big name and asked him, "What should longer than the other two books), this is the book most often
I read to become a successful futures trader," he would probably mentioned by big-name traders as influential to their careers.
mumble something about reading a basic manual about futures The next is Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader by Roy Long-
trading (like the one the Chicago Board of Trade puts out). street.2 Roy was actually trading when I first started in the
That's a good answer since a great deal of mastering any futures business as a broker. But he was only a name, a wispy
profession is just knowing what people are talking about. It's legend, until I read an interview of him in the now defunct
amazing how people will spend years of study and thousands Intermarket magazine. After reading Longstreet's interview, I was
of dollars to become a lawyer or a doctor, but somehow they inspired to read his book. If you can't find it, next time you are
think they can enter the high-income profession of futures trader in Chicago, stop off and read the copy housed in the Board of
without doing a bit of preparation. Finishing school won't make Trade Library.
you a successful lawyer or doctor, but unless you acquire a base The last book is Market Wizards by Jack Schwager,3 which
of market knowledge, you can't possibly hope to succeed. is a collection of interviews mainly with well-known New York
Again and again I've seen public traders lose tens of thou- traders. This book deserves all the praise that's been heaped on
sands of dollars and be none the wiser after all their time and it, although I think at least some of its success is due to what I
money. They should have put that lost $10,000 into buying every call the "Reggie Jackson factor." Reggie was a great ballplayer
futures book they could find. All that time watching prices could
have been poured into a self-directed "college course" learning 1 Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, reprint of 1923 ed. (Chicago: Traders
about the market. This wouldn't have given them the self-disci- Press, 1985)
2 Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader (New York: Fraser Publishing Co.
1947)
3 Jack Schwager, Market Wizards (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989)
46 47
Chapter Four Sayings from the Floor
when he played in Oakland, but he didn't become "Mr. October" "When I am long with a large profit, I get into my car
until he played for the Yankees. and leave town. At each town I come to, I call the office
I suspect Roy Longstreet's track record was comparable to and reduce my position & I always took my profits too
most of the Market Wizards interviewed by Schwager. One of soon."
Jack's wizards, Michael Steinhardt, had an awful track record in
—Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader
1994. But as the denizens of the Big Apple are fond of saying,
"If doesn't happen in New York, it doesn't happen."
The following are selected quotes from these books plus At this point, I'd like to stop and say that the last two quotes
quotes from floor traders I have known. I call them "Sayings are not necessarily contradictory. Futures trading, because of the
from the Floor" since you hear the same things again and again, lower margin and commission rates, has a different pulse than
repeated in different ways, from floor traders and other success- stocks. The usual rule of thumb (as told to me by one floor trader)
is: "Double your money, take your profits. If you still like the
ful futures traders.
market, start a new position as if you had never made a dime."
"It takes a man a long time to learn all the lessons of
his mistakes. They say there are two sides to every- With 5 percent down, a 5 percent move in futures doubles
thing. But there is only one side to the stock market; your money. Commissions are a tiny fraction of the underlying
and it is not the bull side or bear side but the right side. contract. With stocks, you must put up 50 percent margin, so
It took me longer to get that principle fixed firmly in you need a 50 percent move to double your money (which, due
my mind than it did most of the more technical phases to inflation and growth, is generally easier to do in bull markets.
of the game of stock speculation." Unfortunately, markets move down faster than they move up,
even if, in percentage terms, stocks tend to go up farther than
—Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator they move down).
In stocks, it doesn't make sense to take 2 percent profits
My friend Neal Weintraub heard this once from a trader: when your commissions (in and out) are 2 percent. You must
"The way to make money in this business is not to be smart, just have the patience to wait for those 50 percent (usually) up
avoid being stupid (by betting everything you have on a few moves. In futures, you need the discipline to get out when
trades)." you've doubled your initial stake and not yield to greed. You
can't pyramid a winning position by violating the Psychological
"It never was my thinking that made the big money Law of 10/20 Percent—which is very easy to do when the market
for me. It was always my sitting... It's no trick to be moves in your direction. Or, as Longstreet put it:
right on the market. You always find a lot of early bulls
in bull markets and early bears in bear markets.... Men "A good general never risks all of his troops in the
who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon." front line at one time."
—Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator —Roy Longstreet, Viezvpoints of a Commodity Trader
48 49
Chapter Four Sayings from the Floor
"The average man doesn't wish to be told that this is He has to reverse what you might call his natural
a bull or bear market. What he desires is to be told impulses.... He must fear that his loss may develop
specifically which particular stock to buy or sell. He into a much bigger loss and hope that his profit may
wants to get something for nothing. He doesn't want become a big profit."
to work. He doesn't even wish to have to think. It is —Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
too much bother to count the money that he picks up
from the ground."
Another old floor trader saying, as quoted in Market Wiz-
—Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
ards, reads, "Put stops where they can't be reached (easily)." The
idea is to make sure your analysis (at least temporarily) was bad
"People don't want to learn how to trade. They want if you are stopped out. That way you won't pull your stops or
to be told what to do." immediately reenter the market on the same side without step-
—Common floor saying ping back and analyzing the situation afresh.
Market Wizards also contains another common saying: "We
"A loss never bothered me after I take it. I forget it don't trade markets, we trade money."
overnight. But being wrong—and not taking the loss— "That is one trouble about trading on a large scale. You
that is what does the damage to the pocketbook and cannot sneak out as you can when you pike along. You
to the soul." cannot always sell out when you wish or when you
—Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator think it wise. You have to get out when you can, when
you have a market that will absorb your entire line.
"The greatest loss is self-confidence." Failure to grasp the opportunity to get out may cost
you millions. You cannot hesitate. If you do you are
—Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader lost."
"The speculator's chief enemies are always boring —Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
from within. It is inseparable from human nature to
hope and to fear. In speculation when the market goes "The big players always tip their hand."
against you, you hope that every day will be the last —Michael Marcus, as quoted in Market Wizards
day—and you lose more than you should had you not
listened to hope—to the same ally that is a potent "A market can and often does cease to be a bull market
success-bringer to empire builders and pioneers, big long before prices generally are ready to break. My
and little. And when the market goes your way you long expected warning came to me when I noticed
become fearful that the next day will take away your that, one after another, those stocks which had been
profit, and you get out—too soon. Fear keeps you from the leaders of the market...did not come back."
making as much money as you ought to. The success-
ful trader has to fight these two deep-seated instincts. —Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
50 51
Chapter Four Sayings from the Floor
"Three drives to a top" is another common floor saying I bushels...the price went down 1-1/2 cents on my sell-
heard long before I heard of R.N. Elliott. By the way, the three ing.... Such being the case, what was the only thing to
drives to a top of a commodity bull are quite different than those do? Of course, to sell a lot more. Following the dictates
of a stock bull (more on this later). of experience may fool you, now and then. But not
following them invariably makes an ass of you. So I
"I like the short side of the market because there is less sold 2 million bushels and the price went down more.
company." A few days later the market's behavior practically
compelled me to sell an additional 2 million bushels
—Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader
and the price declined further still; a few days later
wheat started to break badly and slumped off six
Consider this facetious floor trader saying: "When you're
cents...."
long, you're wrong." This saying contains these kernels of truth:
bear markets go down faster than bull markets, and during the —Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
start and middle of bull markets, selling points are usually easier
to identify than buying spots. Two more common sayings are: "The best charts are the
ones you never see," and "You're never far from (take your pick):
"Observation, experience, memory, and mathematics:
a Gann Line, an Elliott Wave Extension, a tech point, etc."
these are what the successful trader must depend on.
Ninety percent of traders are taught to look at two basic
He must not only observe accurately but remember at
indicators: momentum measures (like stochastics, RSI, percent
all times what he has observed.... He must always rely
R, etc.) and chart formations. Since 90 percent are losing, maybe
on probabilities—that is, try to anticipate them. Years
it's time for you to find the charts you never see running in
of practice at the game, of constant study, of always
Investor's Business Daily and stop looking for some esoteric rea-
remembering, enable the trader to act on the instant
son why you lost ("I missed this Gann line," ad nauseum) in
when the unexpected happens as well as when the
the charts you do see.
expected comes to pass."
—Edwin Lefevre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
"Every time you tell somebody what you know, you
sell yourself on its importance."
The worse the fills are, the better the trade.
—Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader
—Bruce Kovner as quoted in Market Wizards
"Trading is like baseball. Winning is 90 percent defense
"Now, ordinarily a man ought to be able to buy and
and knowing when to swing for a three-run homer. If
sell a million bushels of wheat within a range of 1/4
you strike out, remember Ruth struck out more than
cent. On this day when I sold 250,000 bushels to test
he homered."
the market for timeliness, the price went down 1/4
cent. Then, since the reaction did not definitely tell me —Floor trader speaking to me years ago
all I wished to know, I sold another quarter of a million
52 53
Chapter Four 1
"Traders often enter the 'Hall of Mirrors'... They see
only success (wherever they look)."
—Roy Longstreet, Viewpoints of a Commodity Trader
54 55
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
stockbrokers were. Their market opened at 10:00 A.M. instead of Even people who love their work will find it hard to sustain
the ungodly 8:30 A.M. of silver. For a long time, it never ceased to all-out hours of work much beyond 20 percent of the week. They
amaze me that many floor traders who cleared through our firm might begin to suffer serious fatigue and burn out. In short, after
had come in hours earlier; some as early as 4:00 A.M.! hours preparing for the strain of a market opening, even the
After calling half the country to find out market conditions most committed floor traders might need a break shortly after
and thinking about the markets for hours, many of the same floor the opening.
traders would still get to the pit early, sometimes hours before the But this still doesn't explain all this emphasis on the open-
opening bell, just so they could get a good position to execute ing. Why don't floor traders come into the pit during the middle
orders on the opening. Then we would often see these same early of the day (when the other floor traders are off the floor resting),
risers, a half hour after the opening, back up in their offices, often claim a good position in the pit to execute trades, and stay for
joking, and quite willing to talk to us peon brokers. the rest of the trading day? If six hours a day, 30 hours a week
I learned many a good trading technique during these mid- is about all the quality hours anyone can put into his or her job,
session breaks as floor traders would talk with one eye on the why don't S&P 500 floor traders, to give an example, waltz in
screen and one eye on me. Occasionally, they would see some about an hour after the opening at 9:30 A.M., put in their six
price movement and say, "That looks interesting," and go back hours, and quit after the "all-important" closing bell at 3:15 P.M.?
on the floor. But most of the time they would do one of two Then it dawned on me. How many hours do the markets
things: Go home, or come back to the market at a regular time, trade? How many hours do they not trade? Don't events that
notably at 11:00 A.M., the start of the New York lunch hour. (Break move markets occur all the time, seven days a week?
times vary with markets. Bond traders usually want to be around What does the close reflect? A few hours of price explora-
during Fed intervention time from 10:20 to 10:50 A.M. CST.) tion, which might not reflect any major external or internal event
Why would these men, who paid big bucks for a seat and that would influence the long-term trend of the market. What
spent enormous time preparing for the market opening, be so does the opening reflect? Doesn't it reflect the accumulated wis-
willing to leave their livelihood early, sometimes after only a few dom, the market events of many more hours of human existence?
minutes of trading? Why were they so often cavalier about the Which is more important in terms of potential market move-
close, which everyone "knows" is the most important event of ment? The trading decisions made and events that occur during
the trading day? the up to 68 hours (on a weekend) when a future is closed, or
One explanation could be the Psychological Law of 10/20 the few hours the future is trading?
Percent. We have 168 hours in a week. Ten percent of 168 hours Even 24-hour trading in currencies has gaps in trading
is 16.8 hours; 20 percent is 33.6 hours. The average worker offi- hours. There is an hour or two between the close of the New
cially puts in about 33.6 hours per week after break time, vaca- York markets and the start of Asian trading in Sydney. And then
tions, and sick leave are taken out. there is the long hiatus between the end of New York trading on
But actually, much of our society's work (especially in gov- Friday and the start of Asian trading on Sunday night U.S. time.
ernment institutions) is "F&S"—faking and stretching work to Which is a more important price? The close of New York trad-
fill out the time before 5:00 P.M. Some 16.8 hours a week of real ing, with only 22 hours of continuous trading behind it, or the
work may be a generous estimate of what workers actually do. opening of Asia Sunday night, the first time the currency market
They so resent the time they are forced to work, an agent's 10 can speak after a rest of about 50 hours?
percent is all the effort they can muster up.
56 57
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
Think of it this way. Measure the size of the closing range cattle of $10.00, his only expenses are about $1.00 in clearing fees
(the price movement of the last 30 seconds in trading). Measure and whatever the interest cost of his seat (in loans or opportunity
the price movement of the opening range (the first 30 seconds costs) turns out to be on a single trade (the year-to-year percent-
in trading). You will probably find on average they are similar, age increase in the price of exchange seats has been greater than
with a slight edge in volatility usually going to the opening the cost of borrowing over the last 25 years, "basically" making
range. But if you measure price movement between the close this expense practically nothing).
and the extreme quote (up or down versus the close) in the Of course, even a floor trader doesn't always buy the bid
opening range, you will suddenly find the opening range win- or sell the offer. If he is wrong about the direction of the market,
ning hands down in the volatility race with the closing range. he might be forced to (just like the public trader) get in and out
Even the most novice trader is warned about those instru- at any price he can get. But let's say he is buying the bid and
ments of devastation, the dreaded commodity reports, the USDA selling the offer half the time he trades. The other half of the time
Pig-Crop Report that will trap you for days in limit moves, or he has to pay that same one-tick price to enter and exit that the
the unemployment report that causes half your bond equity to public pays. That averages out to a $6.00 cost every time he
disappear in a single minute. trades.
But what is an opening but a report? Every trading day, at Let's say cattle's daily range averages 50 cents a day, or $200.
the opening, the market makes its report on what happened The floor trader's average cost per trade versus the daily range is
overnight. Every opening (except the relatively rare "split open- 6-to-200, or a 3 percent daily ratio of costs to potential profits per
ing" where there is no price movement from yesterday's close) contract. The public speculator's cost per trade is $35 (one tick of
is a time of rejoicing for some and weeping for others. It's the $10.00 plus $25.00 in commissions and exchange fees). His fixed
moment of truth when cheap talk is finished and every partici- cost to potential profit ratio is 35-to-200, or 17.5 percent.
pant has to put up or shut up and make his bids and offers. Now let us assume that cattle's price range from the pre-
What is the usual worst case scenario after a Pig Crop vious day's extreme to today's high or low (depending on which
Report? A $1,000 limit move against you in hogs? $1,500? Yet is greater) averages out to be 75 points, or $300. If the public
investors think nothing of losing $100 or $200 on the hog open- speculator buys or sells on yesterday's extreme price and offsets
ing, day after day, week after week, month after month. Every it some time during today's trading, that decreases the cost to
morning they say to themselves, "I don't need to worry. The potential profit ratio to 35-to-300, or 11.66 percent, a 50 percent
market will go back my way again." Panicked in front of the big decrease over daytrading alone.
reports, they are suffering the death of a thousand cuts from the In order for the public trader to get down to the 3 percent
little "reports" of each day's opening. ratio of the floor trader, he must look for potential swings in
It's the fear of what the opening will bring that causes many price action totaling $1,167 from top to bottom. A $1,167 swing
to daytrade and never hold a futures position overnight. But in cattle trading happens, on average, every few weeks. (This is
there's two big problems for the public with this approach. One exactly what following a standard moving average like our 18-
is that average $45 initiation fee for every contract you trade. day example does. A public trader is forced to take only trades
The other is the loss of volatility so necessary for public specu- that fit the 3 percent ratio of potential profit to fixed costs of
lators to even up the odds with their professional rivals. daytrading floor traders).
A floor trader can make money with one-tick trading. If he Still not convinced the opening is a more important price
buys the bid and sells the offer and pockets a one-tick profit in than the close? According to a book by R. Earl Hadady (the father
58 59
Chapter Five I The Theory of the Opening
of contrary opinion futures trading), the opening is more likely Ninety percent of futures traders don't give a second
to be near the low or high of the day than the close. (Opening thought to the opening. Ninety percent of futures traders are
Price Statistical Data, 1984.) losing. Isn't there a strong correlation between these two statis-
Listen up, daytraders. If you are not prepared for the open- tics?
ing, if you don't make that the focus of your trading instead of
the close, you are going to lose a great deal of the potential profit
that there is in each day's trading. Floor Trading opening Systems
You see, the close is just a bookkeeping entry. It's just a
convenient way to give the back office a chance to catch up and The opening is not only a report, it is usually a gap. The opening
everyone a chance to get some rest. The strong hands of the price range normally does not touch or include prices from the
/ market know that, about 60 percent of the time, if the opening previous night's closing range. This may be a common gap, but
is higher, the close is going to be higher. In other words, most of it is a gap nonetheless. And just as we would expect from tech-
the time the opening has already told the professionals what nical theory, usually there is an immediate attempt to close the
they can expect at the end of the day, and they plan their trading gap on the part of the markets. Floor traders call this "fading the
accordingly. opening."
It's only the weak hands, the dumb money, that hold out For the first 10 seconds or so of the opening, usually there are
to the close, hoping for some miracle reversal to save them. no trades consummated. Bids and offers are made until one bid and
When it doesn't, like the majority of the time, they go on margin one offer finally meet. This feeling-out process is critical to the way
call and are forced out. Even if there is a last-minute miracle the floor trader will act during the rest of the opening.
reversal, these poor slobs might still be long gone, forced out by Normally, he will not bid or offer on the opening until the
their broker well before the close because their intraday account market uncovers a big bid or big offer. Then he will step in front
balance went near zero and their credit with their broker was of this order by bidding one tick below (if it is an offer) or one
already used up. tick above (if it is a bid). If the market appears to be against the
I have one last appeal for all you technicians out there. direction of his order, he can cover his order safely into the arms
Why were candlestick charts all the rage the last few years? of that waiting bid or offer. Like every professional, and unlike
Isn't the secret of the Orient the opening? What is the essential the public, the floor trader is always more concerned about
ingredient that makes all those hammers and clouds different minimizing his losses than he is about being right.
from standard Western bar charts? Isn't it the fact that the Here's an example. The opening range in November soy-
opening is used to draw the candle body? Aren't candlesticks beans is 6.03 to 6.04. It immediately moves up to 6.04 1/2 where
just a much overdue admission that the opening is at least the a big commercial is attempting to sell a few million bushels. The
equal of the close in determining market direction? previous closing range was 5.99 1/2 to 6.00 1/2, or 6.00 settle-
By the way, do any of those hotlines you spend good money ment. Our floor trader will sell his November beans at 6.04 1/4,
on use open-only stops? Does your hotshot computer system a tick below the big order to sell at 6.04 1/2.
weight the opening price more than the closing price in its His expectation is that the market will fade and attempt to
decisions? Does it even input the opening price? Is the chart you close the gap created by the bottom of the opening range at 6.03
see also missing the opening? and the top of the closing range at 6.00 1/2. If he sees that the
market is acting too strong, he can buy in his short sale using
60 61
Chapter Five II The Theory of the Opening
the commercial order at 6.041 /2. If he didn't have that big order, If you call your broker up or if you have some sort of service
he might have to pay 6.04 3/4, 6.05, or even higher to get out of that pipes in news about the futures market to your place of
his position as the market surged up with little selling. trading, you can usually get the "opening call." This opening
This fading action is normal because public traders, who call can be a powerful signal, especially if you are trading a
are usually long, normally have an irresistible impulse to take primary market.
profits whenever they are the tiniest bit ahead. Even when the There are many places that trade currencies, but the pri-
market opens lower, there is a tendency by the public to double mary markets are the big banks in New York and London. Soy-
up and buy some more "bargains." Any public trader that is beans are traded in Osaka and Rotterdam, but the primary
short, like his long counterparts, will tend to take profits and market is in Chicago. London trades U.S. stocks, but the bulk of
help force the market up. the trading is in New York.
"Public time" varies slightly with every market. In gold, it Based on the latest prices in Rotterdam, soybeans are ex-
peaks during the New York lunch hour, from 11:10 to 11:50 A.M. pected to rise 10 cents immediately on the opening. If soybeans
CST. In the agricultural markets, we have the "Noon Balloon," are only up five cents on the opening, that is a powerful sell
where farmers call their broker after listening to the noon agri- signal. Either somebody wants to get out of beans so badly they
cultural (ag) report on their radio and tell them to "Texas hedge," are willing to forego $250 a contract in profit to get out, and/or
which means to go long in the market when they already have the demand that pushed up the thin Rotterdam market is not
plenty to sell of the same thing on their farm. enough to get the much bigger market in Chicago moving.
y Commercials and floor traders are not stupid. They know This works exactly in reverse for a lower opening. A market -v
this is the normal pattern. If they are bullish, they will wait until that was called 10 cents lower and opens five cents lower has
public profit-taking has battered prices back to the closing range given a strong signal to buy. (No, this doesn't always work, but
or some other technical or fundamental buying point. If they hopefully if you read the first chapters in my book, you are never
want to sell, they do the opposite. If they are so eager to sell or going to be tempted by "bet-the-ranch" trading.)
buy that they don't wait for this routine of the market, that is
very significant for future price action. (I'll discuss this later.)
The gap created by the opening from the closing price is The Split Opening
easily observed on an intraday price chart that extends over
several days trading. You can use a 30-minute bar chart as you Still another opening routine is the split opening. This works best
would a daily chart and do all the technical tricks chartists do in the agricultural markets, but it is worth noting wherever it
with gaps. Since less people look at intraday charts than daily happens in a primary market. A split opening is when the open-
charts, you will have a greater chance of being right in using ing range is inside or identical to the previous closing range.* /
When a market opens within a tick of the close, it signifies
standard gap technical analysis.
Gap analysis is in every book on charting. Since I promised a lack of fresh overnight fundamentals. The market then is
myself this book would be about techniques rarely if ever dis- driven purely by technical factors. It should trade below and
cussed, I'll confine myself to saying that most gaps created by above the opening range.
the action of the opening are closed within a few days, since On Figure 5-1, you can see that the June 22, 1994 opening
>\ about 85 percent of the time markets are not trending strongly of July beans was almost identical to the June 21,1994 July bean
in one direction or another.
* The previous close "splits" the opening range down the middle.
62 63
The Theory of the Opening
close (A). The July bean June 21 closing range was 6.78-6.75. The
next day's opening range for July beans was 6.76 1/2 and 6.78.
The opening range is "enclosed," or inside the closing
! ? 8 8 8 8 S S £8 range; in other words, at no point does the July bean June 22
opening range exceed the high or low of the closing range on
June 21 for the July bean contract. This enclosed or identical
relationship of the opening range to the previous closing range
is the classic split opening.
The floor broker who first taught me about split openings
told me he paid off his mortgage and his daughter's education
using the split opening technique I am going to illustrate below.
But he also told me you could wait quite a while before a split
opening occurred.
From my experience, if the opening range extends one tick
above or below the previous closing range, this may not be the
classic split opening, but you can still trade it as such. The
increased opportunity to trade the split opening more than
makes up for the increase in risk. But I wanted you to know this
opening routine exactly as it was told to me.
After the split opening (Figure 5-1, A), you wait to see which
way the market breaks out of the opening range, which in the
case of our example was to the upside. The market will then
travel to the next zone of resistance or support and then stop
and reverse.
There is no exact science on what this next zone is, but it's
usually easy to see on a chart. In this case, the market rallied to
just above 6.80, (Figure 5-1, B) the top of the previous day's
range and right in the middle of an unfilled chart gap (Figure
5-1, C). After reversing at the zone of resistance or support, the
market will go through the opening range to the next zone of
resistance or support after the opening range.
If the market breaks out to the upside,as in our example,
sometime during the day it will reverse at a zone (in our example
of resistance) and go back under the opening range (Figure 5-1,
D) to another zone (in this case of support). If there is an imme-
diate downside breakout from the opening range, you buy the
next support and wait for the market to reverse, go through the
65
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
opening range on the upside, and then you take your profit at This creates an incentive to put as little as possible in your
the next resistance zone above the opening range. trading account.
In our example, the market went through the first support, When you put up margins in futures, you have a minimum
under the opening range at 6.70, all the way to 6.64. This is initial margin you must put up as soon as you carry a trade
typical for a split opening in a trending market, in this case a overnight. In soybeans, that was around $1,350 a contract during
bear market. This extra daily action is a perfect illustration of the recent run-up in prices in May and June 1994. If you put up
how I think most traders should use the split opening. just that amount, you could hold that single contract as long as
The split opening was originally developed as a floor trader your day-ending account balance was over $1,000 (the mainte-
daytrade system. Given proper risk management, you might—I nance margin). If you lost more than $350, or seven cents per
repeat might—be able to make money off it trading this method contract, you would be required to bring your account back up
off the floor. But I prefer you use it as another tool in getting to the initial margin of $1,350.
aboard a trend: It gave you another reason to sell at 6.80 and Let's say a floor trader was long May soybeans over the long
hop aboard a profitable trend that would eventually take July weekend of April 1 to April 3. The previous close on March 31 was
beans to 6.55 within a week. 681 3/4 (Figure 5-2, A). The opening on April 4 was 676, a $275
loss (Figure 5-2, B). Immediately, our floor trader is in danger of
having to come up with more money to maintain his position.
initial/Maintenance Opening Indicator All his monetary incentives (as well as standard risk man-
agement) say he should get out now. He also knows that a
By far the most powerful trading signal generated on the opening Monday opening after a three-day weekend is the "king" of
is when the normal fade-the-opening action doesn't appear. If prices, a powerful signal in itself. He sells his long out and goes
these two techniques don't break your fixation with the close, with the flow of the market by selling.
nothing will. On the other hand, Farmer John is a typical futures trader
Remember the old floor trader saying, "We don't trade who has read the newspaper stories about the shortage of beans
markets, we trade money?" Professional traders, unlike the los- and "knows" his soybeans have to go up. If he doesn't buy more,
ing public, rarely use all their available speculative assets in their he is going to try to ride out this temporary fall in his beloved
trading account. bean position. When does he get out? Usually when his money
In the first place, it's psychologically comforting to know runs out! That's the rationale behind the Initial-Maintenance
if you lose 10 percent of your trading account, it's really not 10 Opening Rule.
percent of your liquid assets. In addition, the interest paid on The margin on beans is $1,350, or 27 cents. If Farmer John
margin money held by a clearing firm is rarely more than 90 bought the March 31 close of 681 3/4 in the May beans, his
percent of the current T-bill rate, which is definitely not the money would run out at 6.44 3/4. But Farmer John probably
highest rate you can get safely on liquid assets. It's quite simple wanted to get an early start on the weekend. The average price
to transfer money from a higher-yielding liquid asset account to he paid is somewhere in the middle of the March 31 range of
your trading account whenever you need money. 6.89 1/4 to 6.80 1/2, or around 6.85.
This interest rate differential can be substantial if you are Note that 27 cents from 6.85 is 6.48 (Figure 5-2, C), which
carrying a $1+ million cash balance as many floor traders do. was the exact low made the next day—a low that held in the
66 67
Chapter Five II The Theory of the Opening
68 69
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
720
In our first example above in May beans, if you take a look at
Figure 5-2, B, you will see that the high of April 4 was made on
715
iIF E H 710
the opening. This is not normal. The normal pattern is for the
market to rally beyond the top of the opening range and test some
big resting order above the market that the locals have discovered
\
705
on the opening and are trying to fade. When a market makes its
*j A '
700 high on the opening, the floor trader who first described it to me
&
j
111
l\
1
1
1 III ,J,J
coc
D93
called it an "open to the up."
I've tried to think of a better name. But when you think
l\ I B + -D 690 about it, this formation is an open technical formation that hasn't
I1
I f II 1
1
I
685
been closed by subsequent market action that took prices above
the top of this opening range. The opposite formation, where the
1 680 low is made during the opening range, is called an "open to the
r
F 675
down."
11 The next step is to apply the Rule of Three. To put it in the
"II I I I . 670 words of the floor trader who told it to me: three minutes, three
665 hours, three days, three weeks, three months, three years. If a
1 I gap stays open three minutes, the market will go in the direction
J
11 c G ^ of the gap what it would normally be expected to move in three
1 655 hours. If this gap stays open longer than three hours, the future
11 will travel in the direction of the gap what previous action would
650
consider a normal three-day swing in prices. After three days, it
645 would be three weeks, etc.
The Rule of Three is based on the same 3/21-Day Memory
640
Law I outlined earlier. Markets are dominated by three- and
[& M
27 3 10
JZ, 24 31 7
A 21 28 7
J
I 21 28 4 11 1 8 2 5 2 9 1 6 2 3 3 0 6 1 3 2 0 2 7 4 1 1 1 8 2 5 1 21-day pulses as they go from one fading memory (a report, a
government action, a frost, etc.) to another more recent event.
Only the 28-day moon cycle has the same impact on human
trading emotions. (Three months is a quarter, the basic unit of
© Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend service
70 71
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
the corporation. Three years is close to the 3.45-year Kitchin Figure 5-4
cycle, which seems to be the basic economic cycle in the world
economy.)
Every technician understands that chart gaps are a direc- JULY 94 SOYBEANS
Conmct5,000Bu. Tradng:9:30-t:1SCTCBOT
tional signal. A market that gaps higher is headed higher, theo- 1C-MOOO Mn.Ttdt:1M« 1/2«pwgriduntt 735
FNDtJiin 30 LTO:Jul 20 Opt ExpJun 17
retically a certain distance based on the midpoint of the gap, the 730
size of the leg in prices that proceeded it, etc. When an opening
is the high or low in the day, that's also a gap, a break in the 725
normal pattern of fade-the-opening trading. 720
Let's go back to our May bean chart (see Figure 5-2) and use
715
the Rule of Three. After the few minutes of trading on April 4, it
would have been obvious that the opening was going to be the 710
high for the first part of trading (the three-hour time frame takes
705
us to the time of the noon balloon of small agricultural traders).
Soybeans had been averaging around six cents in movement for 700
every three hours of trading, which would give us a 6.76 price 695
objective (the previous close of 6.811/2 minus six cents).
However, the opening price was 6.76 (some floor traders 690
might have attempted to use the Rule of Three to scalp the 685
opening and instead got caught trading against a powerful down
move). When this level was immediately breached on the open- 680
ing, the next increment, three days, would be brought into play. 675
The last three days of action in soybeans had seen a total range D 670
of around 12 cents, or a price objective of around 6.70.
When this level went down decisively later in the day, the
CF 665
three-week objective was the next projected level of support. The
660
range of the last three weeks was around 32 cents, setting up an
objective of 6.50, which was almost reached that same day. (At 655
this point, I should explain I am not using just the last three 650
weeks of May beans, but the last three weeks of the closest-to-
cash future. March beans were the spot bean contract during 645
part of this time, and so I am using its highs and lows as part of 640
my three-week range of bean prices).
Another open to the up occurred in July beans on May 25 2 0 2 7 3 10 17 24 31 7 J 4 2 1 2 8 7 1 4 2 1 2 8 4 1 1 1 8 2 5 2 8 J 6 2 3 3 0 6 1 3 2 0 2 7 4 11 18 25 1
(Figure 5-4, A). The opening was also the high at 6.98. Since this
high was greater than the previous close, we will use that to
measure our objective. The previous day had seen the July soy-
© Copyright 1994 commodity Trend Service
72 73
Chapter Five The Theory of the Opening
bean contract plunge 391 /4 cents. Eighty percent of 391 /4 (three At this point, you probably think I am deliberately looking
hours is about 80 percent of the time the soybean market is open) for the best examples of these previous two opening techniques.
is 31 1/4 cents, and 31 1/4 cents from the opening of 6.98 on Actually, I just used the first examples I could find over the last
May 25 would give us a goal of 6.66 3/4—almost identical to few months.
the 6.66 low reached the next day on May 26 (B). Yes, I did look first at the most likely suspect to find exam-
An open to the down occurred on June 9 in the July beans ples—a bull market in grains that was full of volatility and
(C). The low of the day was made on the opening at 6.70. Based unsophisticated traders. But all I can say is that these techniques
on the previous close of 6.67 3/4 and the previous day's range work more often than not in any primary market. Try it yourself
of prices of 12 1/2 cents, that would give a three-hour objective on many different markets. You'll wonder how you traded be-
of 6.77 3/4 near the high of that day. fore you knew about these opening techniques.
Two days later, the market attempted to close the gap cre- The opening is the most important price of the day. That's
ated by the open to the down at 6.70. It opened at 6.71 (D) and why those floor traders could take a break after it occurred. They
made a low of 6.701/2 and then sprang up straight. The three-day knew what was probably going to happen the rest of the day.
rule would give us an objective of 6.90 1/4 (22 cent range plus the They already had made their money (or at the very least had
previous gap close of 6.67 3/4). When this level was decisively taken a minimum amount of losses).
broken on June 15 (E), the three-week objective was 7.18 1/4 (6.67 So apply the same opening techniques the floor traders use
3/4 plus the 50 1/2 cent range of the last three weeks). and take a break, like they do, from the screen. In my opinion,
That's not quite the high of the move of 7.15 made that day, freedom from the tyranny of always having to watch the screen
but it was one more piece of evidence to add to the failure of the is worth just as much to you as any technique I write about.
Initial-Maintenance Opening Rule that this soybean move was
almost over.
When an open to the down or an open to the up is filled
(that is, the market goes lower than the open to the down or
X higher than the open to the up), there is almost always a sharp
reversal right after this happens.
The 6.76 open to the up on April 4 was finally filled when
the May beans went to 6.78 on April 29 (Figure 5-2, D). Imme-
diately May beans fell, eventually reaching 6.56 1/4 on May 5
(Figure 5-2, E).
The open to the up at 6.98 of the July beans on May 25 was
filled when July beans opened at 7.04 on June 1. That was the
high of that day, and July beans fell to 6.92 the next day.
The open to the down of June 6 at 6.70 in the July beans
was filled on June 21, when July beans made a low of 6.69 (Figure
5-4, F). Despite the powerful bear market that would carry soy-
beans a dollar lower a month later, the July beans never looked
back and rallied straight to 6.80 1/2 the next day.
74 75
Chapter Six
The Routine
of the Market
If you went to college, perhaps you were forced like I was to sit
through some required Psych 101 class. To this day, I am suspi-
cious of what passes for psychology. But I do remember one
classic experiment.
A number of people are put into a room with a psychologist.
All but one are "ringers" put there by the psychologist. The
unsuspecting individual is seated last away from the psycholo-
gist. In this room is a film screen. A picture is flashed on the
screen of two sticks. One is slightly, but clearly, longer than the
other.
The psychologist then asks the ringers: "Are these sticks the
same size?" All around the room each of the ringers say "Yes."
What do you think the poor slob who wasn't in on the trick said?
Most of the time he or she said, "Yes," too! Testing showed this
phenomena became quite strong after eight ringers had an-
swered and leveled out after 12 ringers had said their lying
"Yesses."
I often think of the public futures trader as that poor slob.
He's always being confused into thinking 2 + 2 = 5. It's not that
he is being lied to all the time. It's just that his ignorance of
I 77
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
market realities and his constant emotions of greed and fear Figure 6-1
blind him to the profit opportunities that are all around him.
The floor trader and other professional futures traders are
like that rare but brave soul who, in the psychology experiment, OCTOBER 94 LIVE CATTLE
Contract 40000 Lbs Trading: 9:05-1:00 CT CME
might say "No. I don't care what the rest are saying. One stick 1pt.$400 Win Tick: 2 Spts 10pte pcrgrid unit
FND:Oct10 LTD:Oct24 Opt Exp:Oct 5
is longer than the other." They trust their own experience and
judgment.
Ninety percent are losing because they are looking for
something simple that will turn a "tiny into a trillion," as one of
my friends likes to say. The pros are quite content to make a little
at a time consistently or, as the old floor trader adage puts it,
"Nickels turn into millions if you are picking them up all the
time."
Floor traders and other professionals primarily feast on two
market conditions: the opportunities and trading direction they
find on the opening, and the routine of the market. By routine
of the market, I mean trading conditions that repeat themselves
over and over again at predictable intervals.
One routine is fairly well-known: seasonal patterns, or sure-
thing trading, as it is called in some circles. Most people have
seen the ads or read the books " buy February bellies at the close
on X date and sell them on Y Date, because this has worked 100
percent of the time since the winter of 1966," etc.
Titles like "sure-thing trading" turn me off, but that doesn't
mean seasonal trading is not a powerful tool. Nine years out of
10, corn and beans are going to fall in price during July. There
is a February break that occurs in late winter among grain prices.
Bonds tend to rally during the first two weeks of June, etc.
Now that daily seasonal probabilities are everywhere (see
Figure 6-1), this tool may be losing its punch. By all means, you
BERNSTEIN SEASONAL INDEX
should consider seasonal tendencies when you make your trad-
ing decisions. But remember, any technique that everybody
knows can be ruined by too many people trying to use it.
Floor traders and commercials are well aware of seasonal 21 28 7 14 21 28 4 11 18 25 2
dir
9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 4 11 18 25 1
J3
8 15 22 29 5 12 19 26 3 10
factors. When the thundering herd comes into buy that sure-
thing trade, they just step aside and let the herd bid up prices
to the moon. When everything comes back to earth and the
© Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service
78 79
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
thundering herd has been stopped out, they quietly pick up the doesn't work in extreme bear markets, but Neal Weintraub, who
pieces and take advantage of the seasonal trade. trades on the floor, says 77 percent of the time it does). If floor
For this reason, and because I am determined to discuss traders get delivery, they've already made arrangements with
only rarely used techniques in this book, I am going to skip any their clearing firm or bank to lend the money on the full net
discussion of seasonal trading. But there are many other calendar worth of the contract. They can borrow $1 million or even $10
routines in futures. million for a day or two on their signature. They only have to
Each day has its own routine. Monday, as the opening day, pay the interest on that money for the amount of time they are
often sets the tone for the week. Tuesday is often a top or bottom holding the contract.
of a move. Tuesday at 10:30 A.M is supposedly the favorite time Another monthly routine is the Social Security effect in
for grain tops and bottoms. It didn't quite work with grains in cattle. The first weekend after Social Security checks are deliv-
1988 (the top was closer to 11:00 A.M.) but it sure did work in the ered (usually the third or the fourth day of the month) is a banner
stock bottom of 1987. day for red meat sales.
Wednesday has some of the most powerful trends of the week. Retailers know that consumers will be flush with govern-
If you must daytrade, Wednesday is your day. I believe the big ment checks and monthly payrolls, ready to spend money on
money decides how next week is going to trade on Wednesday high-priced meat. (The end of the month, when people run out
and trades accordingly. Thursday is an evening up day as the of money and can only afford hamburger, is the time for the real
bigger traders are already maneuvering for the weekend. grocery sales. Consumers can save at least 5 percent on their
Friday is the fear day. In a weather market in grains, if the grocery bills just by getting all their items then.)
low of the week is Monday, the high will usually be on Friday. It takes about a week to slaughter cattle, dress the meat,
If the high is on Monday, the low of the week will be on Friday. box it, ship it to the cooler of the grocery store, and then have it i^.
Small traders finally decide to abandon their losing positions as priced in time for the start of the sales on Thursday. Therefore,
they face a weekend. Gold (and, to a lesser extent, bonds) often a week before Social Security Thursday is a time of higher-than-
is lower on Monday when the world doesn't blow up over the average cattle prices. A week before the last Thursday of the
weekend. month is a time of (relatively) low cattle prices.
Many stock traders understand that institutions get new
money to invest the first few days of the month and that divi-
Monthly and Quarterly Routines dends, monthly salaries and government checks all are issued
in the first 10 days of the month. That's why stocks tend to be
The month has its routines. The margin on crude oil increases strong those first 10 days.
five days before the contract ends. On first notice day of other Stock traders also know that institutional traders "win-
futures, you can possibly get delivery. As a result, most specula- dow dress" before the end of the quarter. If it was a bad quarter
tive houses force their clients to roll over or liquidate their con- for stocks and bonds (like the first quarter of 1994), they will
tracts at these times. Since the public is mainly long, the end result sell stocks and bonds before the last day of the quarter to
is artificially low prices. These spot futures normally will rally convince the people who invest with them that they don't own
afterwards. any losers.
The floor knows this and usually buys up everything in If gold and other commodities did well (like the first quarter
sight during the period around first notice day (sometimes this of 1994), they'd buy gold and commodities before the end of the
80 81
Chapter six The Routine of the Market
quarter so they can pretend they were smart enough to own the See for yourself how many times the stock market has made a
winners. Needless to say, these actions created golden opportu- short-term high or low five business days from the end of the
nities for those who knew it was time to sell gold and buy stocks month.
and bonds. No, the End-of-the-Month Commission Rule doesn't al-
Another "Quarterly Routine" is the various government ways work. But if you think the 70-point Dow rally we had on
auctions of notes and bonds. By some strange coincidence, the August 24,1994, five business days before the end of the month,
news for bonds and notes always seems to be good just before didn't have a thing to do with the monthly brokerage effect, you
and just after these auctions. are just like that poor slob in the psych experiment. You refuse
Invariably any pronounced weakness in the bond and note to believe what your very eyes tell you because every financial
markets comes at least a week after these auctions, giving gov- institution is reassuring you it's all an unfortunate coincidence.
ernment security dealers plenty of time to market or hedge the Coincidences like these are what enables the floor trader to pay
excess "inventory" they bought during these auctions for his million-dollar exchange seat.
82 83
Chapter Six If The Routine of the Market
fact I can only begin to scratch the surface of them in this book. The minimum margin on one T-bond contract is $2,700. If
Chart patterns that work in bull trends don't work the same in the cash price of bonds stays the same between now and Decem-
bear markets. A system that is good in an uptrend is not so good ber and you went long December bonds, that's about a 29 percent
in a downtrend. Just like stock trading (with its 50 percent mar- return.
gins) produces different trading patterns than futures trading Previously I talked about how a 35 percent return would
(with its 5 percent margins), so bear markets must be treated make you rich if you could sustain it over 10 years. Here are 29
differently than bull markets. percent and 45 percent returns you can have if only gold and
I have not backtested it (I'll leave that to all you out there bonds remain in nontrending markets—which most markets do
with those computerized test programs), but I am sure a shorter 85 percent of the time. It's the futures equivalent of selling an
moving average (like 15 days) works better than a 20-day mov- option with a large premium. You get paid to sit.
ing average during down markets. If there is one single reason Here's one way I know to use this premium play in your
why there will never be any Holy Grail system that is immensely trading decisions. Whatever future you are thinking about for a
[profitable in all circumstances, the difference between bull and premium play, find out the range that occurred before in a time
bear markets has got to be it. interval equal to the time ahead of your premium future on the
day of your analysis.
In the case of gold, December is a little more than three
Carrying Charges months ahead of when I write. The last three months of trading
has seen the closest-to-cash Comex gold contract move in a range
Another routine that never seems to get the attention it deserves of about 20.20, or $2,020 (when you multiply by 100 ounces in
from all those market experts is the carrying charge between a contract). $480 to $2,020 is about a 23 percent carry charge
different months of the same futures market. payout-to-risk ratio. The higher the number, the better the odds
In August of 1994, August Comex gold closed at 383.30 (I'll to go short (or, in the case of the positive carry charge of bonds,
use this as the cash price of gold). The December gold contract go long).
finished at 388.10, a $480 premium over August ($355.10 - Of course, markets can suddenly explode against the direc-
$383.30 x 100, the number of ounces in a contract). If gold prices tion of the carry charge. So this technique, like every technique,
stay level between now and December 1, the price of December cannot be used alone. But it's another thing to consider when
gold will gradually fall to 383.30. Since the minimum margin on your other indicators expect the market to go in the direction of
gold is a little over $1,000, that's about a 45 percent return on the carrying charge.
your money if you went short and the price of gold held steady.
Today, September Treasury bonds closed at 102-12 while
December bonds closed at 101-19, a 25-point ($781) difference Minor (But Profitable) Routines
(remember that a tick for a bond contract is 1/32). The ratio
between the delivery dates of December and September bonds The Rule of Doubles says that when something has doubled in
is constant, so for purposes of illustration I will call the Septem- price, it is due for a sell-off. It applies to doubling the money you
ber close the cash price. (Yes, I understand that since the Sep- invested, as well. It's one of the reasons why a floor trader told
tember contract is also discounted to the present cash bond price, me to take your money off the table when a future has returned
this figure is not accurate. But for illustration purposes, it will do.) profits equal to the amount you put up in margin. It's also one
84 85
so well.
Chapter six
86 87
Chapter six The Routine of the Market
before a major crop report. The expectations are for the govern- against the media consensus are very strong hands who won't
ment to issue an estimate of a two-billion-bushel soybean crop. be shaken out even if the report comes out strongly in the direc-
The market has placed a value on the total crop of $14 billion tion of the consensus.
($7.00 times two billion). The report comes out and shows a In some markets, like the bond market, there seems to be a
2.05-billion-bushel soybean crop. Based on this, the opening of report that moves the market every day. On some days there are
November should be 6.83 because 6.83 times 2.05 billion equals many reports in the bond market (7:30 A.M. and 9:00 A.M. gov-
$14 billion, the previous amount allocated by the economy to ernment reports, a report from a Federal Reserve bank, or auc-
the soybean crop. tion results). But there are two basic market formations that
We know this is not accurate, because Economics 101 tells occur before major reports that either your broker or the media
us that lower prices will increase demand. So perhaps the No- will be talking about as "biggies":
vember beans should open at 6.90 to reflect this increased de-
1. Weak Hands Formation. A few days before a major
mand.
report, the market will temporarily bottom or top, usu-
On the other hand, perhaps the estimates put out to the
ally at some minor support or resistance area obvious
public of a two-billion-bushel crop were simply fodder for the
on the chart. Then there is a small countertrend rally
masses. Putting out estimates for a crop report is not a court
right up to the time the report is issued as weak hands
proceeding. No one is under oath to tell you what he really
are frightened out of the market. Most of the time the
thinks and nothing but what he really thinks.
report confirms the trend and the market goes on to
Even if the firm has customers, the embarrassment of a
make new lows or highs.
wrong forecast is nothing compared to the embarrassment of
losing in the market. It's possible that everyone was secretly 2. Panic Formation. In this case, the market hammers
expecting a 2.05-billion-bushel soybean crop but wanted to get down into a major support level or rockets up to a major
as high a price as they could before the report. So perhaps the resistance level just before the report is issued. After the
November beans should really open unchanged or even higher! report is issued, the market has a major reversal even if
The point is that the final arbiter of what a report really the report is even worse than the market expected, forc-
means has to be market action, not the chatter of the analysts. ing a new high or low on the opening after the report.
Just like the opening call indicator, if a market that is expected
Figure 6-2, A shows the June bonds during late March and
to open down after a report actually opens unchanged, that is a
early April. A is the day before and the day of the infamous
very powerful buy signal (and vice versa for a bullish report).
March 1994 Unemployment Report issued April 1,1994. It was
New information is constantly entering the market. Many
infamous not only for the bond collapse that followed but also
of these reports have been prepared from data collected a long
for its release on Good Friday (this may have been the only time
time ago (and much of it may have been leaked to the markets
in history the U.S. markets have traded on this holiday).
already). Especially when the media have been pounding a cer-
Since the next Monday was an Easter Monday holiday in
tain line (unemployment report expected to pressure bonds,
Europe, the American traders had two days to themselves to
etc.), everybody that had to sell or buy (due to emotion or margin
trade the U.S. bond market without major competition. Being
calls) will do so before the report. All weak hands have already
unable to take protection or advantage of a major report without
left the market or changed their position to reflect the obvious
skipping your vacation and trading long distance for two days
way the report will come out. The only traders left daring to go
would have been enough to shake the strongest European trader.
88 89
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
Since the trend had been strongly down, it must have been Figure 6-2
irresistible for these traders to take their profits by buying in
their short contracts. This alone should have tipped everyone off
that the report was going to be bearish.
But the action before the report was also a classic example
of the weak hands formation. Long bonds attempted to bottom
at the 71/8 percent and 7 3/16 percent yield area two days before
the report. There was even a 38-point ($1,250) one-day rally
before the report came out that probably frightened a lot of
small-time shorts.
Figure 6-2, B is a good illustration of the panic formation
before a report. The bond market has been in a major downtrend
for four months. Before the report was released, virtually nobody
had made any money being long bonds. The media was singing a
dirge, warning traders about how the May 12,1994, triple-threat
release of the weekly unemployment numbers, retail sales, and the
Producer Price Index was going to drive bonds to the floor.
But the market was right at a major support level—a sup-
port level, however, that was virtually unknown to the average
trader on November 10, 1992, the cash 30-year bond contract
closed at 7.68 percent yield. The next trading (November 11) was
the Armistice Day Holiday when cash bonds didn't trade. The
following day (12th), bonds yields "gapped" lower and never
looked back. Classic "gap" theory would say a 7.68 percent yield
would be a logical area for yields to reverse and go lower. A
classic panic formation.
digit interest rates), how they used inside chart days on the Dow
as a special code among themselves to tell where the stock market
was going, and the importance of the two-step top in stocks (we
® Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend service
90 91
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
might be going through this process now). But by far the most like gold, crude oil, major currencies, bonds, and Euro-
profitable advice he gave me was First through the Even. dollars. Level 2 is the next stop down—major agricul-
In January 1980, Sandy was approached by a large floor tural futures like soybeans, sugar, and cattle, and silver,
trader making millions of paper profits from thousands of long copper, etc. Level 3 would be the minor contracts like
gold contracts. Understandably nervous, the local asked Sandy orange juice and lumber.
"When do I cash in my longs?" Level 2 futures usually bounce twice off the approach
"First through the Even," replied Sandy. number before going to a First through the Even. In
X, There is a natural tendency for investors to take profits at Figure 6-4, March corn (which was the closest-to-cash
even numbers—$9.00 silver, $8.00 soybeans, etc. The first time a future at the time) bounced twice (examples A and B) off
market goes through these even numbers, up or down, normally 2.95 before finally going past and closing above 3.00 on
there is a counterreaction. At that time in 1980, the big gold December 27 (C).
contracts were the June IMM and Comex gold contracts. Sandy Level 3 futures bounce once off the approach number.
told the gold floor trader to sell when June gold traded over Figure 6-5 shows how the orange juice market bounced
$900. Even if this wasn't the top, the natural sell-off that followed off the 1.01 level in October 1993 (A) before going
would give the floor trader a chance to get back on board if he through the 1.00 price (B).
thought the market was going higher. Actually, the floor trader
2. The Touch—The future or cash index touches the even
sold at the historical high point of gold. In gratitude, he gave
number, reverses for a very short time, and then quickly
Sandy a commission of 1 percent of the difference between where
surges beyond it. Normally, only floor traders can take
he sold and where he would have likely sold if he hadn't gotten
advantage of this move.
Sandy's advice. That 1 percent commission was $250,000!
There is a four-step process in First through the Even: 3. First through the Even—The future or cash index goes
sightly beyond the even number and then reverses back
1. The Approach—the lead future approaches an even
to the approach number.
number but reverses just before touching it. This ap-
proach number is fairly predictable (like 6.95 or 101 yen 4. First Close through the Even—The first close above or
to the dollar). In fact, among the major futures, the mar- below an even number is often the top or bottom of a
ket often bounces off the approach number several times. move. Classically, this close is immediately followed by
There is a tendency for the biggest futures, what I call a long-term reversal.
Level 1 futures, to bounce off an approach number three
The reason I mentioned cash indexes is that often the four-
times before an actual First through the Even happens.
step dance of First through the Even happens twice—once for
A classic example was how the Dow bounced three times
the future, and once for the cash.
off 1,000 (January 1966, November 1968, September
Figure 6-6 has the last two weeks of May 1994 in the May,
1972) before finally overcoming the 1,000 barrier. An-
Soybean futures. On May 18 the May future closed over 7.00
other example is contained in Figure 6-3, which has the
(A)—the first time bean futures had closed over 7.00 in months,
cash yen daily prices for the last year. You can clearly
creating a First Close through the Even. On May 20, the July
see that the yen bounced off the 100 yen-to-the-dollar
soybean future, now the spot month, fell back toward the natural
cross-rate three times (examples A, B, C).
Level 1 futures would be the trillion-dollar futures approach number of 6.95 (Figure 6-7, A).
92 93
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
Figure 6-5 Finally, cash beans (as recorded in The Wall Street Journal)
closed above 7.00 for the first time in almost a year. It was no
accident that this was the top of the great grain bull of 1994. In
NOV 93 ORANGE JUICE
Contract 15.000 Lbt. Tr*ding:10:15-2:15 EST NYCE 1988, the top of the bean market occurred when the cash market
1pt-$1.50 Min.Tick: Spli SOpti par grid unit
FND:Nov 1 Ctr Exp:Nov 16 Opt Exp:Oet 1 finally closed over 10.00 a bushel. Again and again, a First Close \/
through the Even has been the tops and bottoms of many mar- / \
kets.
This trading rule works on interest rates and currencies, but
you must substitute yields (like 71/4 percent) and cross-rates
for futures prices.
In late June, the Japanese yen finally burst the 100 yen
barrier (Figure 6-8, A). By a happy accident of mathematics, that
also was the same as 100 in the future. On June 21, the September
yen closed above 100, at 100.65, and then promptly fell back a
little past the 101 yen/dollar cross-rate approach number, or
98.70 in the futures (B).
Remember the panic formation example above in bonds?
The lowest cash close was on May 9 (7.63 percent). It was a
classic First Close through the Even based on 7 5/8 yield (7.62
percent).
When First through the Even fails (or a First Close through
the Even), it is almost always a signal of a long-term top or
bottom, a three-week topping or bottoming period. After bounc-
ing off the approach number, the September yen went back over
the 100 yen/dollar cross-rate three days after a First Close
through the Even. This was a signal that a long-term top was
forming in the yen (Figure 6-8, C).
The first time the September yen went over 100, it was for
approximately three hours. Using the Rule of Three, when the
yen futures stayed over 100 for three days in a row, it suggested
that the next top would be made approximately a three-week
movement away from 100.
Since the September yen was moving about four basis
3 10 17 24 31 7 14 21 28 5 12 19 26 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 4 11 J8 25 1 8 15 22 29 6 13 20 J
points a week, that would suggest a possible top around 104 in
futures, or a 96 yen/dollar cross-rate. The 96 yen/dollar cross-
rate also was an ideal approach number for 95, the next logical
First through the Even number for Japanese yen (Figure 6-8, D).
© Copyright 1994 commodity Trend Service
96 97
Chapter six The Routine of the Market
725
720
715
1
If 710
" II
i 705
I
'I : "i
700
I
i§ I 11\ (il\ i
J
.(;
;A'*
695
690
|!
i 1
,. .. . ;.... .
685
680
i 1 1 ;
•'•
• - •i "•• • i -••-• :0fp
^K7K
:
.. :. L . .: . .....:- .... ... | . ... ..
[I" 1 t; ! : ; : '670
... i . r . .... . . .. j. . ...
1 ill ' ! ' ! !665
1
1 1 : ' - :• ;
I :•
\
.:.
- i
" ' '•
'• \ CCA
•' -.iWW
IIf' ! .
i :;
: '.:'
| . : . - ! ,!
i •
i :
:
' ••••
. '.
CCA
'. Wv
655
!
l.a:i:^hl:!li:;|^5
...;.4 . .|:....;.....:|.....;........j.....;...
p:i.|;;;:!:;:l!::5;::;;|p
7
13 20 27 3
D«c
10 17 24 31
Jan A4 2t 28 7 14 21 28 4 11 £ 2S 2 ^ J«w 23 ^ * ji 20 ^ * ^ JS ^ ^
© Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service © copyright 1994 commodity trend service
98 99
Chapter Six The Routine of the Market
Writing this in late August 1994,1 don't know if this is the Figure 6-8
ultimate top for the Japanese yen versus the dollar. If the Clinton
administration is a replay of the Carter administration, it's pos-
sible that just like the Swiss franc (the leading speculative cur- CASH JAPANESE YEN DPMI
Mil
HHI
io5»
HW
••
MM*
100M
14BANRSI40J22 148AR9TO.- 40.06 24 HOURS Fom 1003B 10101 tin 100M
rency of the time) topped out for nine years in the summer of UPAVO4UM
ONAVO46.131
So»«O- 44J6
9o*«K- 4&47
CONVERTED TO AMERICAN TERMS 10071 10127
100(7 10040
100 101
Chapter Seven
Expected Range
103
Chapter Seven Expected Range
right time to trade is half the battle.) If you really love they are not in the market in a big way, there can be a lot of
something or someone, you want to be around them all meaningless churning. Highs and lows get made simply because
the time. If you really love trading—not simply the the floor found going one way or the other was not generating
money and excitement you think it will bring—you outside orders and quit. Floor traders were simply cutting each
won't balk at making the sacrifices necessary to become other up, so they stepped aside at some point or even got off the
_—T) a good trader. There are many great traders (perhaps floor. This happens not just on slow days, before holidays, or
^ most of them) who trade away from the floor. But: when a snowstorm hits the market. (Volume studies are a good
/ * Most of them depend on trading methods other than way to see if that was a nothing day. One way to measure volume
/^ daytrading. is the resistance index. The resistance index is the number of
# If they do daytrade, they operate with rock-bottom contracts traded in a future divided by the sum created by
y( commissions and a thorough knowledge of the floor subtracting the low from the high.)
because many of them started as floor traders. So a word to the wise. If your range-finding service or
method treats every previous day alike in making its calculations
y * They started daytrading in a much more forgiving of tomorrow's range, if it doesn't adjust for today's opening, you
environment if you made a mistake.
may find yourself in difficulty.
Let me try to explain this third point. From 1973 to 1984, Rather than a panacea for daytrading, most traders should
T-bill rates averaged in the double-digit range. If you had use any method that generates an expected range for that day's
$100,000 in your futures account and got a 10 percent T-bill trading as a starting point for their market entry system. By a
interest rate on your money, that gave you $10,000 for losses, market entry system, I mean a method that will help you put your
equipment charges, etc. The Mathematics of Investing were a buy order nearer the bottom of the day and your sell orders nearer
little more in your favor. In addition, we continuously had wild the top of the day than mere chance would dictate. Unlike the
swings in almost every futures market. Many markets, like the average floor trader, you are not looking to get out before the end
S&P 500, were just starting. As a result, they were loaded with of the day unless prices have moved against you. You are not
opportunities for the astute trader as novice traders and their daytrading. You are simply making a decision: "I probably want
money rolled in. Finally, not everybody was computerized in to buy or sell today if XYZ happens. If that happens, I am going
those days, i.e., knowing about stochastics might have given you to use market entry techniques to minimize my exposure."
a real advantage then, not like today.
2. Market conditions change every morning. The opening
price has already shattered that comfortable technical
The Pivot
world your 900-number or sure-thing range finder gen- Computers are banned on the pits of most exchanges. In any case,
erated the night before. it would be very difficult to look at a screen in one hand and try
3. The range of many, if not most, trading days is more of to trade with the other. Floor traders have had to develop simple
an accident than you might think. range-finding systems that they can keep in their head or on the
back of their trading card. The most common expected-range
While floor traders do over 50 percent of the volume, most system floor traders have used in the past is the "Pivot."
of the market-making moves are made by the big institutions. If First, you calculate the pivot point (sometimes called the
104 105
Chapter Seven Expected Range
daily average), which is merely the sum of the high, low, and the Rule of Three, the Rule of Doubles, etc.) you can find that
close of a future divided by 3. (For illustration purposes only, predict the same number (resonate), the more likely the market
I'm going to use artificially simple numbers.) If the high was 10, will stall at that number and give you a logical spot to buy or
the low 6, and the close 7, the pivot point would be 7.67 (or 23 sell.
divided by 3). After we have found the pivot point, we compute One variation of the Pivot is to add today's opening to
the next high and the next low. The next high equals the pivot yesterday's high, low, and close and divide that sum by 4 to give
point times 2 minus the low, or 9.34 (7.67 x 2 = 15.34 - 6 = 9.34). you a pivot point. Another would be to substitute today's open-
The next low is the pivot point times 2 (which we have already ing for yesterday's close. You simply add the opening to the sum
calculated as 15.34) minus the high of 10, or 5.34. The next points of yesterday's high and low and divide this total by three to get
to compute are the highest high and the lowest low. your Pivot.
The highest high is the pivot point (7.67) minus the next I have not done an exhaustive computer study on the ques-
low (5.34) plus the next high (9.34), or 11.67 (7.67 - 5.34 + 9.34 tion of whether to use the opening or the close to calculate the
= 11.67). The lowest low is the pivot point (7.67) minus the Pivot. My suggestion based on some preliminary work is to use
sum of the next high minus the next low (9.34 - 5.34 = 4.00), or the traditional Pivot to determine support and resistance on the
3.67 (7.67 - 4). opening. Then, a few minutes after the opening, substitute the
In review: opening for the close in creating a new Pivot. In hectic markets
it may take a minute or two to establish the exact prices of the
1. Pivot point = previous day's high + low + close divided 30-second opening range. Then it will take another minute or
by 3. two for the clerks of the floor traders to do the calculations and
2. Next high = 2 x pivot point minus the low. send the new open Pivot into the pit. Then it might be another
minute or two before the floor trader can actually look down to
3. Next low = 2 x pivot point minus the high. see the new numbers in the hectic conditions of the opening
trades.
4. Highest high = pivot point minus next low plus next
Remember, even though many of these floor traders are like
high.
human computers, making all these calculations in your head at
5. Lowest low = pivot point minus the sum of the next high the most critical time of day is risky. The floor trader knows
minus the next low. much of his potential trading profit for the whole day hangs on
how well he does in the opening. The best most of them can
The pivot point, or Pivot, is the average. Above it you are
manage is to memorize the numbers generated from the close
bullish. Below it you are bearish. If the market is in an uptrend
Pivot and wait until their clerk tells them the new open Pivot
and you are above the Pivot, you buy. If the market is in a
numbers.
downtrend and you are below the Pivot, you sell. If the market
The secret of the Pivot system is the same secret of any
is neutral, you use the next high to sell against and the lowest
logical trading strategy. It's elementary physics: A body that is
low to buy against. (The public uses the next low to do its
in motion will stay in motion in the same direction until it meets
favorite thing: buy the market. This number usually doesn't
resistance equal to or greater than its velocity. The Pivot is just
hold as a support level.)
a numeric representation of where the average trader bought or
These rules are not set in stone. The key to all range trading
sold yesterday. If the average seller of yesterday is losing, there
is resonation. The more reasons (such as First through the Even,
106 107
Chapter Seven Expected Range
will be a tendency for him to cover and send prices higher. If the trend change is imminent.
average buyer of yesterday is losing, he will likely sell and send To generate an expected range for today's action, you find
prices still lower. At some point in the day, prices will attempt the closest moving averages that are within a limit move of the
to stabilize, if for no other reason than profit-taking and the future. For the purpose of our very hypothetical example, let's
desire of floor traders to even up their positions before the close. assume a limit move is three full points (i.e., our future has a
The highest high and lowest low are an attempt to find out the maximum range of 99 on the upside and 93 on the downside).
approximate area where that might happen. In this case, only one moving average is within a limit move of
the close of future X: the 20-day moving average of 95.
Next we take this moving average, 95, and compare it with
The Four Quadrants the next lowest moving average, which is the 60-day moving
average at 90. We add both of those numbers together and divide
There's another relatively simple way to find an expected range by two to get a midpoint number of 92.5. Since this number is
for today's trading. I call it the Four Quadrants. out of range for today, we take that midpoint number (92.5) and
Take three moving averages of varying length. I used expo- the original average that was in range (95) and add them to-
nential moving averages of the last 5,21, and 55 days of openings gether and divide that number by two to get 93.75. That number
when I tested it. But today I don't believe it's that important is in range and becomes our second support number (95 is our
what type of moving average you use (simple, weighted, expo- first support number). To get our resistance number, we go
nential, displaced, etc.), or the exact numbers you use for your through the same procedure with the moving average that is in
moving averages (I prefer using openings to closes for trading range (the 20-day at 95) and the next highest future (the five-day
a few minutes after the opening). The key is to make sure you at 100).
use at least three moving averages that are spaced somewhat In big trends, sometimes there is no moving average in range,
apart. If you are using a simple 18-day moving average already, or only the top or bottom moving average is in range (of a limit
you can simply add in a small moving average (say three to five move). In that case we use a flip to generate a hypothetical moving
days) and a larger one (say 40-60 days). average to generate our support and resistance numbers.
Let's say the five-day moving average of future X is 100 Let's use the same moving averages above but change the
while the 20-day and 60-day moving averages are 95 and 90 close of future X to 104. A limit move is 101, which is out of range
respectively. Yesterday's close in X was 96. The four quadrants for the highest moving average. The difference between the
are placed along a line; quadrant 1 is above the highest moving highest moving average (the five-day at 100) and the second
average (in this case above 100); quadrant 2 is between the highest (the 20-day at 95) is five. We "flip" this number by adding
highest and the second highest moving average (100 and 95 in it to the highest moving average (the five-day at 100) to create
this example); quadrant 3 is between the second highest and the a new artificial moving average at 105. Then we go through the
lowest moving average (95 and 90); and quadrant 4 is below the same calculations as before to determine our support number
lowest moving average (in this example, the area below 90). (102.5). 105 now becomes our new resistance number. We can
The wider the range between the highest and lowest mov- divide again to create a second support number at 103.75 and a
ing average, the more that future is trending. When the shortest second resistance number at 106.25. (You do this until you have
and middle average converge, a short-term trend change is im- at least two support and two resistance points within the limit
minent. When all three moving averages converge, a long-term move of the future up or down).
108 109
Chapter Seven
110 111
Chapter Eight Fib Times
There are other minor time routines: (whether or not the exchange officially closes early). With 24-
hour trading, volume fades in and out, making it difficult to
1. Meats often make highs and lows just before the opening determine just what is a significant time in trading. Both throw
of the grains. The price of grain is such a huge compo- off the time routine of the day.
nent of meat prices, often it seems you are trading the In analyzing how to use time, you have to do the same thing
direction of grains as much as that of hogs and cattle as you would for any other aspect of trading some future. You
(much like the relationship between stocks and have to determine the primary market. If it is London, you are
bonds) .This unknown factor reaches its peak of greed or going to have to look at the same charts and fundamentals that
fear in the heart of the average public meat trader just London is looking at. If you want to trade rice (and possibly the
before grains open. And like most ag futures, the meats yen), you should attempt to understand how the Japanese trade
have more small traders than average. that market.
2. London markets usually close around 10:00 A.M. CST The big money is made in the big markets by big players
London trades more deutsche marks than Chicago and through big moves. Rotterdam may make a new high in soybean
New York combined. It is the dominant world market, meal, but if it is not validated by Chicago, the big money won't
the primary market for currencies, gold, platinum, cop- follow it. On March 2, 1994, the London market in U.S. bonds
per, cocoa, sugar, and crude oil. (Don't be fooled by the collapsed along with all the other European bond markets. But
fact that New York trades more crude oil contracts than after a sell-off about half the size of London's, U.S. bonds rallied
London. Brent is still the standard of the world, thanks several days before going lower than the London low the fol-
to its proximity to the Middle East. Brent going over lowing week. The London move was premature.
$40—a First through the Even—was the top of the 1990 Market wizard and megacurrency trader Bruce Kovner says
bull market in crude oil.) he has assistants that can help him trade through the night.
Totally absorbed in his work, he sometimes trades all night if
After London closes in those markets it dominates, U.S. market conditions warrant it.
traders usually do one of two things. If things were dull in For the rest of us mere mortals, I have a suggestion—espe-
London, they'll be duller in the U.S., so U.S. floor traders start cially if the size of your account demands any trading be in
drifting off the floor. But if a London-dominated market had lots half-size MidAm contracts that don't trade all night. Use the
of excitement, U.S. floor traders and commercials have a chance London closing time of 10:00 A.M. as your close and trade ac-
to go wild without the interference of London arbitrageurs. Just cordingly. If you have enough money to trade full contracts of
like London often makes extreme quotes in U.S. bonds before London-dominated futures, and if they have enough volume for
the main U.S. trading begins, U.S. markets often make extreme your type of trading during London's opening hours on Globex
quotes in London-dominated markets after 10:00 A.M. or some other night trading system, then use London's hours
The advent of 24-hour trading has made the element of time for any time routine and be prepared to get up very, very early
a harder thing to apply in trading. The idea of an opening price in the morning to catch London's all-important opening.
is getting strained (although, as I pointed out before, not lost). For all the above reasons and because watching the U.S.
Around-the-clock trading has the opposite effect of a snowstorm media doesn't work as well on London-dominated futures, I
in New York or Chicago. In a snowstorm, traders try to get recommend novice traders stick to U.S.-dominated futures. The
everything done in a few hours so they can go home early "Fib Times" I am giving are only for the trading hours of U.S.
112 113
Chapter Eight Fib Times
markets. Even though I am going to give them for London-domi- Table 8-1 shows the most prominent Fib Times:
nated markets, I recommend you use them with large grains of
salt in these markets.
Table 8-1
I first learned about Fib Times from a floor trader. He called
it "the eighths." He divided up the trading day into eight equal Fib Interest Stock Crude
parts. He insisted the market made intraday highs and lows at Time Gold Currency Copper (Futures) Oil Sugar Cattle Grains
these eighths: the 1/8 time, 1/4 time, the 3/8 time, etc. After 1/13 7:48A.M. 7:51A.M. 8:46A.M. 9:01A.M 9:10A.M 9:17A.M. 9:18A.M. 9:47A.M.
investigating it, I found out he was right. These time points in 1/8 8:06 8:10 8:59 9:21 9:26 9:28 9:34 9:58
the trading day were experiencing intraday highs and lows far 1/5 8:34 8:40 9:20 9:51 9:50 9:45 9:47 10:15
beyond what you would expect from chance. 2/8 8:52 9:00 9:34 10:11 10:07 9:56 10:04 10:24
Then I got the bright idea if the one-eighth times were 1/3 9:23 9:33 9:57 10:45 10:33 10:15 10:23 10:45
working, what about dividing the day's range by other Fibon- .382 9:41 9:53 10:10 11:05 10:49 10:25 10:30 10:56
naci numbers (3, 5, 13, .382, .618, etc.)? They worked as well. I 4/8 10:25 10:40 10:43 11:53 11:29 10:52 11:03 11:22
called them Fib Points (of time) at first. But that name only .618 11:09 11:27 11:15 12:40P.M. 12:06P.M. 11:18 11:25 11:49
confused technicians who used the same name for certain chart 2/3 11:27 11:47 11:28 1:00 12:22 11:30 11:42 12:OOP.M.
points. So now I call them Fib Times to prevent confusion. 6/8 12:02P.M. 12:20P.M. 11:52 1:35 12:49 11:48 12:01 P.M. 12:19
To determine Fib Times, you first determine the amount of 4/5 12:16 12:40 12:05P.M. 1:54 1:05 11:58 12:13 12:30
minutes a market trades. For example, crude oil trades 325 min- 7/8 12:43 1:10 12:26 2:26 1:30 12:16P.M. 12:30 12:47
utes a day from (8:45 A.M. to 2:10 P.M.). 325 divided by 13 gives 12/13 1:02 1:29 12:39 2:44 1:45 12:26 12:42 12:58
a 25-minute interval for the I/13th Fib Time. The first I/13th
would be 25 minutes after the opening at 9:10 A.M. The next
would be at 9:35 A.M., the next at 10 A.M., etc. There are obvious problems with this table. I didn't want
A crude oil floor trader would use Fib Times in the follow- to put down all the l/13ths and other Fib Times, although in
ing way. He's observed that crude has a downward bias. At 9:10 futures like bonds, crude, and stocks that have long trading
A.M. he sees that the market has moved up to a resistance point, sessions, they have some significance. Nor did I want to calculate
which he could determine either by market orders at that point all the night sessions and 24-hour trading Fib Times.
or by some other sort of analysis. Now he has both time and I am going to leave the previous two calculations to you for
price confirming his trade. reasons of space and simplicity. It's bad enough the exchanges
These two factors also confirm his exit strategy. He can use have recently played around with the opening times of grains
a price stop to get out if he loses and a price objective if he wins. and livestock. This chart is bound to become obsolete some time
He can also use some Fib Time to get out even if his price stop in the future. I'm afraid you are constantly going to have to be
or objective hasn't been reached. He may decide that if he doesn't on the lookout to see if you must recalculate these times.
make 10 points by the next Fib Time at 9:35, he's getting out. The I'm sure some are thinking, "This is like Gann or some other
trader now has three indicators working for him: direction (the esoteric charting technique. You've got so many points, you are
downward bias), price (resistance), and time (the 9:10 A.M. crude bound to hit a high or low. How can you tell which point will
oil Fib Time). be significant on a given day?" There are three basic steps:
114 115
Chapter Eight Fib Times
Step One: Match the Fib Times Step Three: is Your Market a Leader or a Follower?
with other Routines and Fib Times All U.S. futures in London-dominated markets are followers, but
If you are trading bonds, compare the Fib Times based on the this also can occur in U.S. primary markets. Sometimes gold is
time range of only the day session with the Fib limes of the entire the leader (like 1979-1980). Sometimes it's the Dollar that every
trading day including the night session. Where these Fib Times other future is keying off of. At these times, it's important to keep
intersect are points of time likely to have intraday tops and in mind conjunctions of Fib Times.
bottoms. You could do the same Fib Time comparisons between In the fall of 1990 the skyrocketing price of crude was on
London and the equivalent U.S. future in London-dominated the minds of everyone. If Saddam Hussein blew up Saudi Ara-
markets. bia, the price of oil could go sky high, causing stocks and bonds
The 2/13th Fib Time in cattle is 9:31 A.M., right at the grain to collapse. Every S&P 500 trader was keeping one eye on the
opening. The 4/8ths Fib Time in bonds is 10:40 A.M., near the price of crude, and it shows in the interday charts. Often a crude
time the Federal Reserve jiggles the money supply. A prominent oil Fib Time was the top or bottom of the intraday Dow chart.
Fib Time for stocks and bonds is 9:00 A.M., the time the govern- The conjunction of the 2/8 Fib Time for crude at 10:07 and the
ment issues reports. 2/8 Fib Time of stocks at 10:11 often was the time of peaks and
It's very common for expected events that have no specific bottoms in the Dow.
time (like an earnings report for IBM, a Treasury auction result, Fib Times can also be used to determine stops. The Rule of
or a Federal Reserve announcement) to come at Fib Times. The 72 also applies to time. A future that makes a new high or low
more routines you can find out about, the better you will under- after 72 percent of the day's trading is completed will usually
stand what Fib Time will be significant for that trading day. not reverse itself later in the day. Witness the following quote
from the July 1990 issue of Stocks & Commodities magazine:
Step Two: Determine the Underlying
Trend of a Market Every day at 1:00 P.M. we check the 12:00-1:00 P.M.
Is it bullish, bearish, or a trading range? Is it a volatile market hourly bar of the T-bond contract. If the tick volume
full of news or a quiet market waiting for some sort of news to (the number of times the future has moved one tick up
move it? Slow markets or markets anticipating a report usually or down) is greater than 100, we then place two or-
have the most movement at either the opening 1/13 or the closing ders—a buy-stop one tick above the high of the bar
12/13 Fib Time. and a sell-stop one tick below the low of the bar.
In bear markets, typical periods of strength come after the If either order is filled before 2:00 P.M., we cancel
opening 1/13 until the appropriate public lunch hour—New the other and place a $1,500 money management stop-
York's lunch hour (11:10 to 11:50 A.M.) or the noon balloon of loss. We then do nothing until 1:00 P.M. when we again
U.S. agricultural futures. This is the time you want to sell to get look at the 12:00-1:00 P.M. bar. If we are long and not
in on the trend and the collapse on the close. stopped out and today's 1:00 P.M. bar tick volume is
In bull markets, it's just the opposite. After the initial open- greater than 100, we would place a sell order for two
ing 1/13 surge, the market typically fades back to the previous contracts one tick below the low of the bar.
close until reaching a bottom around the appropriate lunch hour. If we are filled to the short side before 2:00 P.M. we
Then it rallies until the close. would then use a new $1,500 stop. If we are not filled,
116 117
Chapter Eight Fib Times
we cancel the sell-stop below the 1:00 P.M. bar and have determined that today is the day you would like to enter
reinstate our original $1,500 money management sell- a market. Shaving off a few hundred this week and a few hun-
stop. We again have nothing to do until the next day dred the next week off the cost of your fills are those nickels that
at 1:00 P.M. turn into millions.
A stock market that loses 20 percent in an hour (as in
The author, Charles Wright, claimed this system earned 476 1987) or a soybean market that collapses 5 percent in a matter
percent through the first 10 months of 1989. Whether this was of minutes (as in 1988) can completely overwhelm any price-
exactly true or whether this system continues to work as well only based system of entry dependent on protective stops
now, I don't know. But it is typical of the evidence I have seen (Neal Weintraub claims he has seen currency stops filled over
of the power of the Rule of 72. 100 points away from their trigger price). Without the element
The trend is definitely your friend in the latter stages of the of what time it is in your trading, even a conservative, longer-
day. The public stubbornly carries losses until the last minute, range futures trader can get crushed.
hoping for a miracle reversal. The funds also like to use ham- One final point: If you know what time it is in trading, you
fisted, close-only orders to make sure of the trend. The pros have don't have to be a slave to the quote machine, especially after
long since positioned themselves for the close. the opening of whatever future you are looking at. You can check
Another rule is never take a losing position into the last in at Fib Time intervals and be fairly confident you are keeping
I/13th. It's a very rare day when the market has a strong reversal up with most of the action.
during the last l/13th. When it does happens, it is almost in- You can even (horrors!) junk that $600-a-month monster
variably a sign of a major top or bottom. called the "quote service package." If you still want to chart
Key reversals often start after the opening I/13th, espe- intraday action, you can use 10-minute delayed quotes from a
cially after reports. The Tuesday at 10:30 A.M rule for grain tops service like DTN Wall Street (1-800-485-4000), that hooks up to
or bottoms reflects the 2/8th (10:24 A.M.) and l/3rd Fib Time your computer and generates charts through an inexpensive
(10:37). By that time, professional traders figure that enough software package. The total cost is only about $50 a month
weak hands have been squeezed out of the market, and they amortized over two years.
begin the long trek to the close accumulating positions. For those critical openings, you can use the quotes on CNBC's
Like expected range, I almost hate to put out this informa- financial program, which would cost you nothing if you already
tion on Fib Times. Invariably, people will take these concepts have cable. You could back them up by a service like Infoline,
and try to make them into a daytrade system, completely ignor- provided by your discount broker. You simply dial an 800-number
ing the Mathematics of Investing. I've seen brokers become com- and get the latest quote. (If you want more information on Infoline,
pletely oblivious to everything else once I've told them about call First American Brokerage at 1-312-368-4700.)
Fib Times. They watch the screen, fascinated, exclaiming, According to a trader profile in Futures magazine, success-
"There's another Fib Time reversal. And another one!" Unfortu- ful daytrader Gary Smith uses nothing for quotes except the
nately, most Fib Times can only be used by floor traders, they of ticker tape of CNBC, which gives him rninute-by-minute quotes
the $1.00 commission. of the S&P 500. Says Gary, "I don't even know how to turn a
I prefer people use Fib Times as an adjunct to their own computer on." Mindboggling!*
longer-term systems. It's another way to help you sell the upper
quadrant or buy the lower quadrant of price action when you Gary Smith has one of the few daytrading courses I respect. You can write Gary at
P.O. Box 40523, Reno NV 89504, (702)-329-8589.
118 119
Chapter Eight
But then again, not using a computer, isn't that what floor
traders do every day? Maybe Smith is beating the Mathematics
of Investing not only because he is a remarkable trader but also
because he doesn't have that big overhead other daytraders
have.
"I am the only daytrader I know who can put on a position
and take a nap," Smith says. Well, Mr. Smith, I've seen a lot of
daytraders take a nap in my presence with positions on. They
Chapter Nine
were called floor traders. But they did have their alarm clocks
set for a certain time to wake up and go back into the pit to offset
their positions. A Short introduction
If you can't take an occasional nap with a position on, no
matter how short term that position, perhaps it's time for you to the Commercials
to change trading styles. Knowing what time it is is the best way
I know to achieve that peace of mind.
end when I found out how they were generating those great While I worked for the econometric firm described above,
forecasts. They were making copies of the big-name econometric the Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew up. Fearing that half the
firms's reports housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, wheat fields of Ukraine would be ruined with radioactivity,
D.C. Plagiarizing the latest issues, they were able to keep abreast grains exploded, led by a limit up-move in wheat. The next day
of the markets and make those remarkable forecasts. wheat was scheduled to go up another limit move, but my
There are software programs that claim to generate colleagues insisted I put out a sell recommendation on the hot-
econometric forecasts, but the average PC is not going to be able line. Wheat topped that day and promptly collapsed to below
to handle the thousands of variables and millions of calculations the price levels it was trading at before the Chernobyl incident
of an econometric program used by the biggies—even if you had occurred.
time to program all those data entries. More importantly, no one Later I found out why my colleagues were so confident.
has Chase or Wharton's political and economic connections to One of their friends from the CIA had called them up. "Don't
the centers of power—the Fed, Congress, etc. The results can be worry about Chernobyl. We've seen the data from the spy sat-
very impressive. For example, here are some of the highlights of ellites. The damage is very localized, only about 4 percent of
a June 1987 executive summary of one of the big-name Ukraine's wheat crop."
econometric firms: Not every commercial trader has a friend at the CIA, but
most of them have very good sources of information totally
1. A 1990 recession because of tightening by monetary
unavailable to the public. In the case of Chernobyl, there was
authorities in response to escalating inflation and a
also data from a private, French commercial satellite called Spot.
phased-in tax increase in 1989-1990 to get the deficit
Spot's data may not have been as complete or processed as
under control.
quickly as the CLA's multiple spy satellites, but rest assured the
2. Growth would be 0.6 percent in 1990 and then rebound average commercial grain trader got the true facts of the situ-
to 4.7 percent in 1991 (the tax increase was not phased ation well before the readers of The Wall Street Journal.
in but postponed until 1990. That's probably why these The largest privately held firm in the world is also the
figures were a year off). world's largest commercial grain dealer: Cargill. A privately held
firm has an enormous disadvantage over publicly held busi-
3. The dollar will rally from time to time, but will continue nesses—it must raise all its capital internally or through bank
to go lower against the major currencies over the next borrowing (which carries interest costs far above dividends on
10 years (I think it is very likely that before 1998 the common stock). But it also has one enormous advantage—it
dollar index will go lower than its recent lows in Sep- doesn't have to report a thing about its finances (or its trading
tember 1992).
practices) to the public.
Do you honestly think you are going to get these types of Compared to floor traders, commercial traders are a secre-
predictions from a software program costing a few hundred tive bunch that rarely tip their hand in public. But that stands
dollars? to reason since even the biggest floor traders (such as Tom Bald-
Besides thorough knowledge of market fundamentals, com- win) only compare in trading size to the smallest commercial
mercials often have access to special intelligence well beyond traders. Commercials go to great lengths to disguise their trading
the capability of the average trader, no matter how hard he lest any hint of their overall trading strategy create a buying or
studies the subject. selling panic.
122 123
Chapter Nine A Short introduction to the Commercials
One favorite technique (among many) to disguise their headed for a fall (like their recent 25 percent dive). Similarly, if
trading intentions is the "give-up." Orders can be executed at your broker says XYZ's buying (selling) is the talk of the street,
one clearing firm and then given up at the end of the day to it's a sure sign you want to be on the opposite side of the trade.
another. Cargill's broker may be selling 500,000 bushels of wheat Occasionally, even smart commercial traders get fooled.
while Merrill Lynch's brokers are buying 2 million. To all the From early June until mid-August of 1992, the commercials (as
world it appeared smart Cargill was selling grain while Merrill measured by the Commitment of Traders Report, more on this
Lynch was buying for some dumb, technically oriented com- in the next chapter) began to go on a buying orgy. Ninety percent
modity fund. But, after trading hours, the 2 million bushels of the time this is a sign of a major bottom in commodity prices.
Merrill Lynch bought is given up (for a fee) to Cargill's account, But beginning in mid-August 1992, commercials gradually liq-
making them net long 1.5 million bushels. uidated their long positions and became progressively more
If commercials are willing to pay extra charges just to dis- short. Then, in January 1993, a month before the recent bottom
guise their buying and selling, if they are paying millions in extra in the Commodity Research Bureau index CRB, they returned
interest charges just to keep their trading activities from the to their normal habit of buying a ton at bargain basement prices.
public, why would they ever talk to you or me about their My contacts with commercial trading firms are slim. In any
trading techniques? case, given their habitual secrecy, I doubt any man in America
Fortunately, there are ways—that don't cost $40,000 a knows for sure exactly what made hundreds of commercial firms
year—that the public can follow these superb traders. I will decide to abandon a profitable downtrend and go from being
outline some of them in the next four chapters. But before I do, heavily short to heavily long. But there is one, huge coincidence
I would like to give one word of caution. Just like floor traders that makes me fairly confident of the reason why.
have a better success record than the public, commercials on the In early June 1992, Perot's poll numbers began to slip and
whole trade better than the average floor trader (but perhaps not Clinton's numbers began to climb. By the start of August, Clin-
much better than veteran floor traders with many years of ex- ton had such a huge lead in the polls, it looked like the Demo-
perience). However, individual commercial firms can be as crats would sweep Congress. The Republicans would not be able
dumb as any novice futures trader. to muster a filibuster in the Senate, and it would be "Carter-
In the fall of 1993, reports started coming out that a major nomics" once again in America. (It was a Republican Senate
German industrial firm had lost hundreds of millions of dollars filibuster that stopped Clinton's stimulus package).
hedging in the crude oil market. Of course, when you read the Beginning in mid-August, Clinton's polls began to decline
fine print, this firm actually violated every principle of true and, thanks to a successful convention, Bush was almost even
hedging and was guilty of the worst kind of naked specula- with Clinton by September. By then, commercials could see that,
tion.This multibillion dollar company certainly fit the govern- whatever the fate of Bush, the Republicans were not going to
ment's definition of commercial trader. The average public lose big numbers in the Senate. They would be able to filibuster
trader would have been impressed if their broker had reported: and stop many spending initiatives. The inflationary aspects of
"XYZ Gigantic firm is buying thousands of contracts of crude. the Clinton presidency would be postponed.
Maybe we should go long, too." All this goes to show that any one indicator can go wrong
Good trading, like good traders, should be felt but not seen. and you must have other things to back up your trading. But
Once a megatrader becomes a household word like George other than reading the media (which is the window to insider
Soros, you can be sure old George's public trading funds are thinking), finding out what the commercials are doing (via the
124 125
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
126
127
3AOUI
not mean that the relationship i;
(-^
E2
re CM T3
> «-h r^
O &> rt>
ET
re
(T>
r view
CL
some
a 5' 1
§ •" OT ^. »i S3
«-t-
1 1 2
^ » w en
f-i- g qq O
«. | ^ S %! 1 ^
1-^ t— 1 g^
» S § g-S S-| d> i— ' cr
ie much
*§ o' 3
3 < B jo » < f
«, & ^ : ff. O 1
1
r-^ | <T>
a
a 1 "5TV]
*•*•
S)
W
0)
T3 en 3
o> &
&> S. a OL 11
Cn
j^ ^
C3 &T r^ h».
O
Ul
! IT &> & S- 3-
re *
if 1 s>
Si en 5-
11
a> &. o
me known
ds meant t
"9'n 3
fS w
r*- T3
K
M SlfS^ ^g
I l l a o 3 o-
0.^
3
cT
,-f-
S fl>
^SBJ re
P- £
fi)
^
s
1i
&j
09 l r> S» rc en !?
5S O- |5* ~
S" •S' e- ? ST
„ £» IB 3
g.g.
S' M
3
rf
\JJ
o
o
ere K' •~<o- a? t-n
CL
cr
n>
g*
i-*i ?
SJ re rt-
S
D- X
3
CD
*<
I
sSt.1M 3re § 0)
BJ
rn J? FT
o
re"
S cw'
s re CL iTl
S
&
&>
r-f
f-t-
n
0
& 3
S' re
re
I
B) *5T O
O
CL
en
ET
&>
rf
r+
3
re
f-h
H
KJ
,00
iure of inflation de-
o| ?
ht into the direction
S
OK?
n> T5
en sr re n' fl>
•sss 1
rt» w h
I 1 fl
^fl
cn *
1
a
&> en
0
O-
3 S r-t-
cr &>ft- 3
1re
O-
& re
re fi-
3re
tn
(T> 3 4'
n
Jrr* re
re
l-*t
a>
f-t- re
HI
3 1
« 55' Q. 9 re^
£T ^
era en re 8L
n (B
a. E. I Tl (-(-
S- ? r-h
£
§
h-4*
3
n>
X* nen
ri- 0)
3" s
&-
sr
re re
S
fD
1
g
«-t-
O
11
l-!_
re'
O
&>
en
n
<-t
<
P 1 sr re § o-
(-*•
^
&
11
a- n
Figure 10-1
Gold and the CRB index This Year
Commodity prices, have been a good leading indicator of
inflation expectations. In fact, they may be having a
significant influence on the Fed. 410.00
400.00
34000
December Gold Futures
| i | i | ! | i | i | i I ! I i I . | i | ! | i | i I i I . I . I i I1 330.00
) CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO
)O>o)c>g>gio>o>g)o>g>gic>g>g>g>
Chapter Ten
130
Chapter Ten The commitment of Traders Report
The COT report is the best way to find out what commer- data on the COT report like Pinnacle Data (below).
cials are doing. It's like reading their mail. Every two weeks the Pinnacle (460 Trailwood Ct., Webster, NY 14580; 1-800-724-
government tells you what positions the largest commercials are 4903; fax 1-716-872-1597) will send you the COT database of 42
taking in the marketplace. The COT report divides traders into futures back to January 1983 for $99. They also throw in a
three groups. The first group is small traders who are not re- DataMaker software that can interpolate the semimonthly and
quired to report their overnight positions daily to the govern- the weekly values into daily values. (The CFTC used to collect
ment. Reportable positions can be as little as 50 contracts in the COT data once a month, now it does so every two weeks).
smaller-volume futures to 850 contracts in the huge Eurodollar For another $144 a year ($18 a month for diskette) you can
market. (Normally brokers report these positions to the govern- get the COT data updated every two weeks by modem from
ment as a courtesy to their customers.) Those traders whose Pinnacle. The CFTC releases two COT reports every other Friday
overnight contract size requires them to report their positions at 3:30 P.M. covering the holdings at the close of the previous two
are divided further into large speculators (mostly futures funds Tuesdays. These two reports, along with updates to the COT
since a majority of large floor brokers even up their holdings database, are available for downloading by approximately 4:30
before each close) and commercials, who use the futures market P.M. on those Fridays. A COT report can be downloaded in one
mainly as a hedging vehicle. minute at 4,800 baud; updates take approximately 10 seconds to
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is- download.
sues the COT report, but since the report has become so popular, I have tried to minimize the need for computers in the tech-
they no longer send out the report to individuals. So you have niques I discuss in this book. But if you are part of the computer
to get the report through intermediaries. generation, this data is a lot cheaper and far more valuable than
Through its data center, the Futures Industry Institute (FIFs any other futures software peddled on the market today.
New York phone number is 1-202-223-1528) of the National Fu- In my introductory comments about the commercial trader,
tures Association (NFA) puts out historical data of the COT from I stated that following the commercial trader through the COT
January 1986. The NFA (200 W. Madison, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL is the indicator I respect the most except for following the media.
60606-3447; 1-312-781-1300; 1-800-621-3570) through the FII also But, like any single indicator, there are problems:
provides the CFTC's long-form COT reports, which indicate the
1. You are getting data that is three days behind the market,
proportion of total open interest in each regulated market held
which can be an eternity in fast-moving markets. It's
by the top four and top eight largest long and short reporting
hard for the commercials to totally reverse their posi-
traders. In certain agricultural futures, this long-form COT re-
tions in three days, but this is still something for you to
port separates the large traders' positions by old crop and new
consider.
crop futures.
You can also get the COT data through various chart serv- 2. Now that the government is releasing the COT report
ices. Commodity Trend Service (P.O. Box 32309, Palm Beach every two weeks, this data has become very popular.
Gardens, FL 33420; 1-800-331-1069; fax 1-407-622-7623) has a Barren's and The Wall Street Journal have had major fea-
very good introductory pamphlet to the COT report titled, "How tures on the COT report. Its popularity has become so
to Use Net Traders Positions." They also have the best graphic great that the release of the COT has been credited with
illustration of any chart service of the COT report and sell the moving markets.
132 133
Chapter Ten The Commitment of Traders Report
The April 1,1994, COT report showed commercial traders Gold is mainly produced in South Africa and Russia and is
had cut back their long positions in many commodities, notably mainly disposed of in Europe. U.S. gold commercials are rela-
precious metals, and increased their bearish short positions. As tively penny-ante compared to those in Europe. Even the best
a May 2,1994 Wall Street Journal article put it, "Its negative tone of them could be fooled concerning world market conditions.
was widely cited as the cause of the rout (in commodities)." Silver is mainly produced in the western hemisphere (Mexico,
As a devoted follower of the print and electronic business Peru, Canada, the United States, Chile, etc.). The center of the
media, I didn't see much media evidence that the April 1,1994, silver trade is in New York. In other words, the commercials who
COT report was cited as the cause for the fall in futures except have to report their futures trading to the government have their
in soybeans, which, in typical media trading fashion, were pulse directly on world demand because they are part of the
headed to a two-month low a few days later. But the point still primary market. They rarely, if ever, make mistakes.
stands. The more widely known and popular the indicator, the When you use the COT Report, remember whether the
less value it is to the trader, who must find the charts and dominant market is here or overseas. You should watch the
indicators no one sees. commercials who are not part of the dominant market trade.
They certainly know more about the fundamentals than you and
3. The futures the COT report covers are not always the I. But they can get fooled, so trade accordingly.
primary market for trading in that market.
4. Commercial traders are emotional human beings like
Futures comprise less than 3 percent of the U.S. currency
every other trader. Unlike the public, they normally con-
market, which in turn is not the primary market for world cur-
tain these emotions, but occasionally even they will yield
rency trading (London is). Any COT report about London-domi-
to emotions and make dumb decisions.
nated futures has to be used with some caution.
During the last half of June 1994, gold commercials were In my introduction to the commercials, I discussed how
reported in the COT to have begun to cover their shorts. They they panicked and loaded up on everything when it seemed
were at their most bullish reading since March 1993 by the Clinton would bring in an era of free-spending Democrats. All
August 12 report. Even a brilliant analyst like Bianco concluded: they could see was a repeat of the Carter years when futures
"Given their (the gold commercials) track record, we expect to prices zoomed. But even during the Carter era, futures prices
see higher prices." While prices didn't collapse during the time didn't go straight up immediately after Carter's inaugural. After
commercials were becoming more bullish on gold, anyone pig- 12 years of deflationary policies, even Clinton policies couldn't
gybacking on their buying had to be somewhat disappointed. It change things overnight. Any way you look at it, this was an
may turn out that this was a great opportunity to buy gold but overreaction.
it also could be just another minor rally that fizzled at the $390- But by far the worst example of emotional, dumb decisions
$410 level. by savvy commercial traders that I can think of was the secon-
The silver commercials increased their short position short dary bond top in January 1994. The COT Report in bonds on
during June 1993, creating the largest short position for them in January 4, 1994, showed commercial traders at the highest net
10 years. The long position of the large traders in silver was the long position since the August 1987 period, when bond prices
largest in ten years. Silver suffered over a 10 percent sell-off from were over 30 basis points lower. It was not that they weren't
late June to early August 1994. warned. As you can see from Bianco's report, many analysts
134 135
Chapter Ten The commitment of Traders Report
were warning of collapse. Storm clouds were everywhere on the I feel the media is the best indicator. The media was giddy, almost
bond horizon, but the average commercial was blissfully loading slaphappy in their reporting on the bond and stock market.
up on bonds. Unlike even the best commercial traders, the media never fails
A very astute analyst, Paul Montgomery of Legg Mason, to register a clear signal at major tops and bottoms.
has made the observation that participants in a bull market,
become more concerned about their income statement than their
balance sheet. This means that investors will take more risk
because they fear a missed opportunity more than they fear
potential loss of capital. Many commercial bond portfolio man-
agers are in the same boat as their Wall Street counterparts. If
the Street consensus said to buy and the portfolio manager does,
and then stocks and bonds go down, the portfolio manager
rarely gets in trouble. After all, he was only doing what everyone
said was the smart thing to do.
But if the Street consensus is long and the manager does
not follow it but stocks and bonds go up anyway, he is in deep
trouble. The classic example is the stock managers who got
out of the market in the spring of 1987 because stocks were
getting far too frothy. Sitting in cash while the Dow soared
from 2,300 to 2,700, they were crucified by their subscribers.
They lost millions in assets as disgruntled investors rushed to
invest with more stupid managers who only knew one way in
the markets.
Even when the Dow plunged to 1630 in October 1987 and
these managers were proven right, they rarely got back their
previous investors. By that time these investors were too
frightened to put money back into the stock market. If they
didn't panic and sell out entirely, they left their money with
the dumb managers because "Why should I make any moves
now when things are so cheap?" Just like the special interests
trample any legislator who really wants to represent his peo-
ple by cutting spending, so the thundering emotions of Wall
Street (and bond) investors insure they will always deserve
a below average return.
You can't blame the January 1994 failure of commercial bond
traders on the fact they didn't trade the primary market. That's why
136 137
Chapter Eleven
Spreads
1 Jack Schwager, Market Wizards (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989)
139
Chapter Eleven Spreads
Nixon in August 1971 or the Fed's shocking move to raise inter- little more than floor fees for the average commercial), his only
est rates in a big way in November 1978. But if you hadn't and other cost was if a rally in corn cut slightly into his wheat profits.
you were a commercial with large positions in the market, you His only risk was the very, very slight chance that corn would
could have suffered the loss of millions in a single stroke. go up faster than wheat in a time when wheat was almost all
Now, as we've seen before, commercials can make awfully harvested but the corn harvest was yet to start.
dumb decisions that have nothing to do with reality. But if you Had he put on this insurance before the Russian coup, his
study all the evidence (I've provided you with just some if it losses after the coup would have been limited to the difference
with those charts in the COT section), you'll agree with me that between the fall of wheat (20 cents) and the fall of corn (15 cents),
these silly sessions are few and far between. No, the greatest or five cents total. It's likely he wouldn't have had to put in a
enemy of the commercial is the unexpected event as outlined dime more to hold this position. After the dust cleared and sanity
above. returned to the markets, he could have quietly bought in his
Picture a commercial grain trader in August 1991 long a corn, went back to being net long wheat, and made a bundle
zillion bushels of wheat. Unlike the floor trader or the funds, he over the next few months.
didn't need to worry about position limits even if, strictly speak- If the Fed chairman were to make some unprecedented
ing, he was not hedging his future consumption needs. Prices advance announcement (as has happened) the whole yield curve
were extraordinarily cheap, both after inflation and in nominal could rise 10 basis points (a parallel shift) and the T-bond con-
terms. The peak of the 18.6-year lunar node cycle (more on this tract could lose 33 points without batting an eye. But if you had
in a later chapter) was due next year. The last time this cycle been short T-notes at the same time, the 21-point gain would
peaked, grain prices went berserk. Next year (1992) was an have made up for a lot of that bond loss. And, like the wheat/corn
election year, and you know that politicians love to reward grain situation above, putting on the same number of short T-note
farmers in an election year—especially a presidential election contracts as you have long bond contracts cost you nothing new
year with all those farm state electoral votes. This commercial in margin (usually it will cut it in half).
grain trader could anticipate the end of the harvest and the
normal, strong seasonal uptrend in wheat prices. Yes, he could 2. Spreads are often an easier way to take profits for the
have anticipated everything but that a Russian coup attempt big commercials.
would send wheat prices down 20 cents in a day. Suddenly For professionals, taking losses are far easier than taking
Russians were never going to eat wheat again and import our profits. Losses are mainly a mathematical problem—you can
grain. only lose so much based on the size of your account, so you take
Of course, a commercial could have probably borrowed the the loss. But taking a profit can be agony—who knows how far
money he needed for the margin call and ridden out the 10 weeks the market is going to go in your direction? After all, you've
it took the wheat market to recover from this fiasco. Or he could already decided that it is the right way it should go. Who are
have noted how much wheat had already rallied and purchased you to say it can't go any farther than X? Knowing when to take
some insurance for a weekend surprise such as the Russian coup. the profit is an art every professional trader is struggling to get
The margin on a wheat/corn spread never requires more exactly right.
margin than being net long wheat (usually it's less). He could Commercial traders have this problem, and one other be-
have sold an equal amount of corn without putting out any sides: They are like elephants who have to watch where they
more money for margin. Other than commissions (which is step lest they crush the market. Putting on a spread often seems
140 141
Chapter Eleven Spreads
like the best solution to both problems. floor traders and commercials to hold onto their core positions
Let's push our wheat commercial a few months ahead to until the thundering herd gets done.
December 1991. He's got big profits and wonders if it is time to
4. Changing spreads are one of the best warning indicators
sell. Just like the example above, the fundamentals of wheat are
of a potential top or bottom.
strong and the fundamentals of corn are weak. Rather than sell
10 million bushels of wheat outright, it's easier to sell five million There are three basic spread indicators at tops and bottoms.
wheat and five million corn at the same time.
a. The weak sister approach. This approach looks for a
In the first place, the commercial can test the market to see
commodity in a sector (grains, meats, precious metals,
how it handles a large line of selling. If the market handles it
etc.) that fails to go up, or goes up much less that the
well, he still has part of his wheat position left that should
rest of the sector. When your analysis says sell the
continue to outpace the short corn he has against it. If the market
stronger futures, you sell the weak sister instead. If
doesn't handle it well, he knows he was right to sell and goes
you are wrong, you won't lose much. But if you are
ahead to sell the rest of his position, which takes down his short
right and the whole sector turns around, being short
corn as well.
the weak sister might give you as many profits as
He won't make quite as much money being long five mil-
being short some of the high flyers. This strategy
lion wheat and short five million corn as he would by being net
works in reverse for a commodity that refuses to fall
long 10 million bushels of wheat if wheat continues to rise. But
as fast as other futures in a weak sector.
if he found out he was right to be nervous about his wheat
position, he got a jump on everyone else and didn't have to try b. The lost leader approach. Usually one commodity—or
to get out when the whole world was heading to the exit door. even one month in a commodity—leads the whole
One variation of this big-position testing process would be sector up or down. When, after a long period of lead-
to simply sell corn and watch what happened to wheat. He ership (several weeks at least) that leader suddenly
doesn't tip his hand that he is nervous about his position and fails to lead that sector on the up or downside, a trend
attract further selling. Nor does he overly compromise his po- change is likely for the whole sector.
tential profits as a wheat long. But he still gets to see the tone of This leader sometimes can be a leader in a sector for many
the overall market. years at a time. For a long while, gold shares have been leading
3. Spreads are technically better than outright net posi- the gold bullion market up and down. Utilities have been a good
tions. leading indicator for the direction on bonds. Soybean products
(meal and oil) normally move ahead of soybeans (even if the
The public, for the most part, does not look at spreads. The
soybean products movement warning is only a few hours ahead
funds also consider them a minor vehicle. But any technique you
of the beans).
would use on a bar chart—trend lines, retracements, gaps, etc.—
Smaller-volume futures that are dominated by commercial
works even better with spreads.
traders often initiate a move before the bigger members of the
In fact, the herd buying and selling of funds creates tremen-
complex. "As oats go, so goes the grain market" is not true all
dous spread opportunities. The funds and the public fixate on
the time. But it's true enough that it should be watched. I've also
buying or selling one or two lead contracts. Thus the spreads
noticed palladium will often rally or fall before the other pre-
distort from their true fundamentals. Being spread also enables
cious metals follow suit.
142 143
Chapter Eleven Spreads
c. Waiting for the end of the limits. Often a sector will basis chart I've seen implies.
bottom or top (usually it's a top) when the last com- One thing is apparent to me. If anyone is going to do
modity of a sector comes off its limit and finally begins historical spread comparisons, he should use percentage terms
to trade after several days of limit moves (up or rather nominal moves—even though the spread trader is paid
down). off in nominal terms. Otherwise, how does he know if a spread
move is normal or not?
Because commercials and floor traders are often spread
You don't suffer from this type of price illusion when you
between two commodities, they hesitate to take profits until both
compare the price history of a single future. A 10.00 to 11.00 move
are freely trading and they can take off their spread as a spread.
in the nominal charts is the same in 1974 or 1994 (although what
In addition, smart traders hesitate to move in or out of a position
it means after inflation and currency factors are taken into ac-
until they can read the spreads.
count are another matter altogether).
A 5.00 to 6.00 move is 20 percent, while the same one-dollar
The Most Common Fallacy about Spreads move from 10.00 to 11.00 is only 10 percent, but this distortion
is readily adjusted for on the nominal chart through trend lines
The most common fallacy about spreads is that they are not net that rise and fall at a constant percentage and other similar
positions. No, I'm not being facetious. What I mean by this is that technical indicators.
it is important to calculate spreads in percentage terms and not But when it comes to spreads, if you attempt to do research
as absolute numbers. on them in the exchanges, through commercial vendors of his-
Look at any spread chart that records the history of spreads torical data, or in books, you see spreads treated the same way
for several decades. If July beans are 25 cents over November as single futures—the spread price difference is the spread price
beans (the July contract is 25 cents higher), and it moves to 50 difference is the spread price difference. Any conversion of them
cents over November, recorded in the spread chart history is this to a ratio that is measured by percentages, instead of differences
25-cent move. in the prices, has to be done by you.
It matters not if this occurred because November beans What if I told you that the ratio of the Dow to the CRB is
were 5.00 and stayed 5.00 while July went from 5.25 to 5.50, or the highest in history, that this ratio is nearly double that of the
if November beans were 7.00 and went to 10.00 while July went mid-1960s? That's a significant statistic you can understand. You
from 7.25 to 10.50. Yet we all know intuitively that these are can even chart this ratio and use it for some of your long-term
different situations and shouldn't be viewed the same way. decision making.
In the first 25-cent spread move, July went from 5 percent But what if I said the Dow-to-CRB spread is +3670? That
over November to 10 percent. In the second identical move, July may be technically correct, but can you use it for comparisons?
was 3.57 percent over November and went to 5 percent over. Does this figure help you in long-term decision making? Yet
They are not the same. traders do this all the time in researching data on spreads!
In the 1950s through the early 1970s, corn traded mainly in The investment world is full of spreads, only they are called
a trading range from 1.60 a bushel to a little above a 1.00 a bushel. "ratios" when they are not directly traded on some exchange
If we look at a historical corn basis chart (the difference between (i.e., the option premium ratio between the premium on calls
the closest future and a primary cash market), is a five-cent basis versus the premium on puts), or the standard put/call ratio and
then the same as a five-cent basis now? But that's what every all the variations thereof. These may be called sentiment indica-
144 145
Chapter Eleven
tors, but they are really spread relationships, ratios that histori-
cally have high and low readings. I could go on and on giving
examples of financial spreads.
Now, I believe the media is the best trading indicator there
is, but in accordance with the Psychological Rule of 10/20 Per-
cent, I would never base any more than 20 percent of my trading
decisions on what the media is saying to do in the market.
Otherwise I am vulnerable to being overly committed to one
Chapter Twelve
course of action, refusing to change my opinion and read the
changes in the market, which might even be (ever so slightly)
reflected in the media as well. Like Longstreet's trader, I've Real-World investing
entered the Hall of Mirrors: everything I see only encourages me
to believe I am a trading genius that has found the secret of the It's Not "All in the
trading universe.
In regard to the Psychological Rule of 10/20 Percent, a Charts"
spread is a spread is a spread. If you are using ratios like the
put/call, you are still basing your trading decision on a spread.
You are still relying on historical relationships between two
things. So be on your guard that you aren't overly committed in
your analysis to spreads. It's an easy thing to do, especially for
professionals that are constantly looking for another way to look According to Commodity Futures Trading: A Biographical Guide,
at data. R.N. Elliott was a mystic who believed mathematical relation-
As I look over the last few pages, I can see I've spent a lot ships in an Egyptian pyramid predicted future events and cor-
time warning about the misuse of spreads. I may have inadver- roborated his own wave theory.1 W.D. Gann's books are full of
tently given too negative an impression on the use of spreads in references to numerology and what can only be called a weird
your trading and your analysis. mixture of Bible and astrology.
The fact is, I love to read about and look at spreads. It's the These two pillars of technical analysis are by no means
second most powerful tool in determining what commercial unique. Pick up financial publications, especially those special-
traders might be doing. Compared to all the "Trading Secrets of izing in futures, and you will see advertisements for everything
the Universe" books out there, little has been written about from financial astrology to mind-numbing esoteria like twin-vi-
spreads. I advise you to read all the books you can find about bration vertical-bar backtracking system that needs a computer
spreads and spend time looking at their charts. By all means, genius to run and Ph.D. to understand. Whether you call it the
you should be on the lookout for ratios in the market that few Sacred Six or Chart Mysticism, the belief that price-only analysis
know about. Just keep my warning in mind when you do so. is the key to trading success has captured the overwhelming
majority of futures traders.
146
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts*
My first encounter with this religion was in 1977. It was my years and is not distorted by the positive carrying charge of
second job as a broker. I worked for a clearing firm of the Chicago futures nor the on-the-run bonds like a yield chart. No wonder
Mercantile Exchange. A computerized charting system had just futures bond trading can be so frustrating technically!
been installed in the bowels of the building that housed the Ex-
change. From this specially air-conditioned room (whenever the 2. The price action of stocks is different than that of futures;
air conditioning broke down, the computer was shut off), terminals a bear market reacts differently than a bull market.
all over the building received those magical charts. Think of it! It I've discussed this in detail in several previous chapters,
was less than 20 years ago, but the average broker was still de- but it's worth noting again that most of the classic works of
pending on those grimy charts that came out once a week. As for technical analysis were designed for stock trading, not for fu-
intraday charts, floor traders constructed them by hand from little tures.
notes they scribbled on their trading cards. It was a big deal to get
spread charts from the only service that handled them. Today, 3. The great technical gurus of the past (Gann, Elliott, An-
virtually every futures trader has all this and more at the stroke of drews, Edwards and McGee, etc.) operated in a stable
a key. But I remember how everyone in the office spent hours, environment of level prices and fixed currencies.
totally mesmerized, pouring over the charts and indicators that According to a study by Warren and Pearson, wholesale
came effortlessly to the screen. Who could possibly lose in this prices in 1944 were virtually identical to those in 1793, one year
brave new world of instant technical analysis? before the start of U.S. gold coinage. This remarkable price sta-
Sadly, all this computerized technical firepower has not bility was marred only by the War of 1812 and the Civil War. To
changed the loss ratio of the average futures trader. Ninety per- pay for those wars, the Treasury issued fiat currency in the form
cent of them are still losing, a percentage mainly due to the of Treasury notes and greenbacks. Prices doubled, but soon re-
factors discussed in the second chapter of this book. turned to normal when gold and silver coins were minted again
But even technicians that have mastered the psychological after these wars. All this has changed, due to the following
and mathematical pitfalls of trading still have another obstacle factors:
in their path. The very price data they depend on is flawed in
1. Senators are no longer elected by state legislatures, but
at least three basic ways:
directly by the people. Gradually, the power of state
1. The big money—the major players that move the mar- governments was eroded to the point that today, they
ket—may be looking at something entirely different than are becoming mere rubber stamps of the federal govern-
futures prices. ment. (If you don't believe me, just ask your state legis-
lator how much of your state's budget is driven by
In currency it's cross rates, in interest rates it's yields, and
Federal matching funds or mandates.) The ninth and
in the stock market, decisions are being made based on the cash
tenth amendments of the Constitution became dead let-
prices of individual stocks and stock indexes. The carrying
ters. States can't issue money, but the federal govern-
charge factor built into the futures price of both stock indexes
ment can/Through the Federal Reserve System, this debt
and bond futures does cause distortion.
can be "monetized" and inflated away. Thus the federal
Jim Bianco, Arbor Trading's brilliant analyst, uses the Lehman
government has a great incentive to expand, spend
Long-Treasury Index in his long-term analysis. This index is a
money, and go into debt—the cost of which is passed on
market-weighted index of all Treasury issues between 10 and 30
to the American people as a tax called inflation.
148 149
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts"
2. The sixteenth amendment allowing a federal income tax currency-adjusted charts were more accurate in determining fu-
gave the Feds a great tool to expand their tax base, which ture price trends than nominal charts. I can only hope the few
was previously based on the very limited revenues of examples I give in this book will somehow jolt you out of the
customs. A big government with a big tax base can main- nominal chart orthodoxy and into looking at inflation- and cur-
tain a big debt—which gives the government every in- rency-adjusted charts.
centive to inflate that big debt away.
3. The founding of the Federal Reserve—a private bank—let
One Example of inflation-Adjusted Charting
the politicians blame recessions, depressions, and inflation Figure 12-1 is the "Constant Dollar Dow" put out by Media
on someone else. No longer would monetary transactions General Financial Services of Richmond Virginia. On the top half
be under public scrutiny at the U.S. Treasury. you see the nominal price of the Dow. On the bottom is the
inflation-adjusted, Constant Dollar Dow.
In 1913, the Fed was required to have a 40 percent gold
The Constant Dollar Dow has been far more accurate in
backing on the Federal Reserve notes it issued, 35 percent for
calling Dow tops than standard technical analysis. Few techni-
system liabilities. In 1945, this was reduced to 25 percent as the
cians were calling for a top in August 1987, but the 1.382 gap
Bretton Woods Agreement officially abolished the old gold
objective in the Constant Dollar Dow chart was almost exactly
standard. In 1965, the Fed was no longer required to have gold
the August 1987 top (March 1986 gap of 143.02 minus the August
backing on system liabilities. By 1968, all gold-backing require-
1982 low of 78.01 = 65.01; 65.01 x 1.382 + 143.02 = 232.86). The
ments were removed from Federal Reserve notes, and silver
1987 move also filled a gap made in February 1973 at 228.60.
certificates were no longer valid. In August 1971, the last link
In January 1994 the Constant Dollar Dow went over 260,
with gold was severed when Nixon suspended balance of pay-
filling a gap at 252.71 and reaching the secondary, reaction high
ments in gold to overseas' governments and let the dollar float.
of 261.32 of May 1969. A classic five-wave, C-wave Elliott cor-
After each of these actions, inflation ratcheted upward. To-
rection was being completed.
day, we congratulate ourselves that inflation is only 3 percent—
just like we are pleased the federal deficit will only be $200 But most technicians at the time were saying 4,000 in the
billion or the crime bill was cut from $33 billion to $30 billion, nominal Dow would be easily breached. They urged you to buy
any small correction. I can still hear the voice of our local TV
or the dollar rallied a few percentage points after losing half its
Elliottician: "I just looooove these corrections."
value in a decade. There is really no sign that inflation, govern-
ment spending, or monetary chaos is going to stop. After missing the top in January, most technicians in April
But most chartists would rather die than admit their sacred were expecting even lower stock prices. But the next Constant
charts need to take account of currency- and inflation-adjusting Dollar Dow support level was at the 235-240 level. (We reached
fundamentals. It's easier to talk about an "unexpected Elliott- a Constant Dollar Dow low of 238.91 on April 4, 1994.) In the
Wave extension or Gann number I forgot." The last 50 years have real world of constant dollars, it was time to buy.
seen unprecedented inflation and currency fluctuations, yet the I doubt if these technicians would have been so off if they
same old charting practices of the 1930s and 1940s are still taught had been looking at real-world, constant dollar charts. Nor is it
as gospel. If McGee and Edwards were still writing, they'd use likely they'd be so excited at the recent August 1994 technical
breakout of the stock market if they saw the trend line off the
inflation- and currency-adjusted charts!
1966 high and the January 1994 high in the Constant Dollar Dow.
I could give hundreds of examples of where inflation- and
It's time to sell, not buy.
150 151
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts"
jV
2000 2500
November 1983
reserved to the publisher except by written permission. Sep tember1976 1287.20 |
1500 December 1968
101 .79 /
ft r 2000
1000
Dow Jones Industrial Average nuary1966
5.15 \y
985.21 /
/
January 1973
1051.70 /
/ ™7 yV
-\ I
October 987
1738.74
1500
k 1000
/*V"\r IAA
700
.Ml, ftP
yi^Tv/ ¥
rV w \ \l l\ Ai gust 1982
700
r o:tober1966 \ \
April 1980
776.92
» -»t \ \
N 759.1 3 500
\ I i\
June 1962 May 1970 \
535.76 631.1 6 . I \ 400
December 1974
577.60
300
200
150
^-^
Consumer Price Index
I (Scale Left) ^_j_^~^
Dec 1994
149.70
Ratio Scale -^ 100
^
/ 70
500
306.39 * —— 17^~ ^
December 1961
240.07 January 1973 August ' 987
Vn r/
241.96 233.62
r/ ^
•*\i
300
V S* ^
k
September 1 976
172.96
ry iV*'V.
/
January 19C
113.43
. Jl
f
|fjy V......
J" ' |T
ti\ffr o 2C1994
i'61.02 200
\j
P October 1966 V
\ 222.39 I
^T
150
June 1962 148.04
173.86
i /v^-sor
May 1970
\ ——————————————
160.24
'J
^>lndustrial Average
August 1982
8.01
100
70
DowJonef
iConstant Doll. 50
(Scale Right)
40
30
0 -6 5 -7 0 '7 5 '« 0 '8 5 -a 0 '9 5 20 DO
i i i i ; i i i , , , ,
information provided by Media General Financial Service, Inc. I I I I ..!..__!_ I I -J...I I I I I I I I I I I
152 153
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts"
If you look at the 1932-1966 record of the Constant Dollar were a time of deflation. But perhaps the great master was
Dow, you see it matches the teachings of the Elliotticians better thinking about the big price rise since 1896 even as he drew his
than the nominal chart. There is the "impressively dynamic charts in the 1920s and 1930s. He intuitively picked up that the
Wave 1" of 1932-1937. Next is the Wave 2 ("which retraces so twentieth century would be an inflation century, and that the
much of Wave 1") of 1937-1942. "Third Waves are wonders to 1920s and 1930s were only an aberration.
behold" and so was the dynamic move from 1942 to 1960 (which Frost and Prechter later went on to reprint an inflation-ad-
in turn has the classic five-way structure). justed chart in the Elliott Wave Principle (Figure 12-2), so they
"Fourth Waves more often than not are complex waves." The couldn't plead ignorance of how inflation adjusting is necessary
gyrations in the early 1960s of the Constant Dollar Dow were on long-term charts. Why did they ignore inflation adjusting in
gut-wrenching for investors at the time. "The average Fifth Wave the rest of their book? Why, despite the humiliation of their post-
is almost always less impressive than the third." The 1962-1966 1987-crash predictions, do most of the prominent Elliotticians
bull market was a solid advance, but nothing like the glorious continue to avoid the subject today?
1950s.2 Inflation adjusting does adds an element of (temporary)
If you look at the Constant Dollar Dow from 1982-1994, the confusion. Investors have to be taught how to look at inflation-
classic pattern continues, a near-perfect miniature of the 1932- adjusted charts to make long-range decisions and still make their
1966 stock pattern. After the Crash of 1987, while prominent money in nominally denominated markets.
Elliotticians like Bob Prechter were calling for a repeat of 1929, But in my opinion, the main stumbling block is Chart Mys-
I wrote a report to clients that was later summarized in the June ticism. How can I be the big technical guru if I have to admit
1988 issue of Futures magazine. In it I stated my belief that the some obvious fundamental is affecting my charts? If something
Dow would make new highs. as mundane as inflation has to be watched, maybe, just maybe,
My interpretation of the Elliott Wave using the Constant it really isn't true that all we need to know is in the charts! Maybe
Dollar Dow chart was one of the reasons why I felt the Dow was I need to get another guru who knows something else.
going to make new highs after the 1987 crash. It's also one of the I believe investors should look at inflation-adjusted charts
reasons why I think the Dow has made a multiyear top and will in every future they are trading. You can hardly do effective
continue to slide (at least after inflation is factored out) over the long-term analysis without them. But because inflation figures
next few years. come out once a month, inflation-adjusted charts have to be
Earlier I said that if the great masters were alive, they'd be monthly. A month is an eternity for most traders, so I won't
using constant dollar charts. Certainly Elliott was aware of in- spend any more time discussing inflation-adjusting charts other
flation. "Elliott contended that the necessity of channeling on a than to give you a simple method to construct them.
semi-log scale indicated the presence of inflation. This assump- Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with the
tion is demonstrably incorrect."3 Consumer Price Index average for all urban consumers (CPI-U).
Typical of the "pick-and-choose-what-you-like" disciples of This number is widely reported in the business press. The Bureau
the great technical masters, Frost and Prechter went on to claim also has regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, At-
Elliott was wrong about inflation because the 1920s and 1930s lanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, and San Fransisco where you
can get monthly CPI updates through the main number or on a
CPI hotline. The CPI numbers since January 1913 until the day of
2 Frost, Prechter, The Elliott Wave Principle (Gainesville, GA: New Classics Library,
1977). this writing are given in Figure 12-3 as a courtesy to the reader.
3 Ibid.
154 155
Figure 12-2
The Grand Supercycle (year-end closing prices, semilog scale)
T 1000
INFLATION
ADJUSTED
British Stock
Prices --100
(A)
-- 10
© Copyright 1994
Robert R. Prechter, Jr.
ELLIOTT WAVE INTERNATIONAL
PO Box 1618
Gainesville, GA 30503 USA
1
1700 1720 1740 1760 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
©copyright Robert R. Prechter. Jr ELLIOTT WAVE INTERNATIONAL P o BOX 1618 cainesviiie. CA 30503 USA
to to to
4* *. 4*
10 -» o
C O C O C O C O C D C 0 C O C O C O C O
CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO
C O C D C O C O C O C O C O C O C D C O
ioioN>rororoioioMio
cooo^io>ui4*coio-'o
CD CO CO CO
co oo -vi at en * co
CD CO CO
I
en *. co 4». 4x 4^ CO co CO to 4>. cn
-g vl vj o> cn CO CO cn 4x _JL o o o CO
I
->l •vl -vl
•-g -* co O to _^ 00 cn — *•
10 CO CO CO ^ CO -^
en CO CO CO 00 CO o CO cn O -g 4x -1 o CO
vj -vl ro
en 4s. 4v CO 4*. 4*. co CO CO to co cn -g cn ~g -vl -v| O) cn 00 o o> 4x ro o o CO CO
-1 CO O CO 10 CO -«i 00 CO o> CO cn o CO ^j. CO CO ro o CO -v| CO -g ro en cn o CO CO
—L to
o> 4*- 4* CO 4^ 4x CO CO CO to CO en cn ^j ~g •vi •vl -vl -vl cn cn -vl o O) 4x ro o o CO CO
CO 4*. O 00 -1 4x -~J 00 CO O) ~J CO CO o 10 4*> 00 CO o CO -v! vj cn CO cn 00 -vl L
—
CO -vl
I 00ME«Q
I 4'
ro
O) *. 4*. CO 4* 4x CO CO CO to CO cn cn -j •vl •vl -vl -vl -vl vg o -vl o o> 4>- co o o CO CO
u> -si -* CO -* 4* CO ~J 4x -vl 0) -L 00 -* .^ cn -~l cn o O -vl cn CO co -vl o 00 -1 CD CO
O O cn ~J CO
ro
-vl -vl -si •vl cn -vl o vg cn CO o o
-vl 4X o CO -1
o CD
ro CD
8
— _L
cn cn 4». 4*. 4*
_A 4x JX CO co CO CO en cn •vl •vl -vl •vl •vl -v| -vl cn •vl o -vl cn CO o1 _l
o o
cn -1 O -1 05 o -j cn to 4»- o cn CO co CO en -vl -k -1 en cn o 00 -v! CO - to o
cn en
-g
-IX
CO O
4». 4x
o O
4x JX co CO CO CO 4X cn
cn o ~j en 10 CO CO cn
-J •-J
CO ro
•vl •vl -vl -vl •vl en -vl CO
4* o> -vl ro ro -vl cn CO
00 cn CO -J. o
-* o en CO ro
o
-1- o
0
s
I
_L
en en -IX 4X -|x 4>. 4^ CO CO CO CO 4x cn •vl --j vj •vl 00 -v| •vl CO -vl CO CO O) CO o o o
oo 4*. o o O en O 00 en 10 ro ~g 4x CO to CO •vl o to to 00 4* 00 en CO cn cn CO ro -••
CO en 4*. JX 4* 4». 4x CO CO CO CO 4x cn -g ~vl ~g -vl •vj -vl -v! o> -vl CO 00 cn CO _i o o o
CO en -^
o O 4>- O 00 4x 10 -j. cn 10 — i. Co •vl CO CO CO CO CO 4x CO cn -vl cn CO —I o
—L
Chapter Twelve | It's Not "All in the Charts'*
1943 16.9 16.9 17.2 17.4 17.5 17.5 17.4 17.3 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.4 • 1973 42.6 42.9 43.3 43.6 43.9 44.2 44.3 45.1 45.2 45.6 45.9 46.2
1944 17.4 17.4 17.4 17.5 17.5 17.6 17.7 17.7 17.7 17.7 17.7 17.8 |j 1974 46.6 47.2 47.8 48.0 48.6 49.0 49.4 50.0 50.6 51.1 51.5 51.9
1945 17.8 17.8 17.8 17.8 17.9 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.1 18.2 9 1975 52.1 52.5 52.7 52.9 53.2 53.6 54.2 54.3 54.6 54.9 55.3 55.5
1946 18.2 18.1 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.7 19.8 20.2 20.4 20.8 21.3 21.5 • 1976 55.6 55.8 55.9 56.1 56.5 56.8 57.1 57.4 57.6 57.9 58.0 58.2
1947 21.5 21.521.9 21.9 21.922.0 22.2 22.5 23.0 23.0 23.1 23.4 « 1977 58.5 59.1 59.5 60.0 60.3 60.7 61.0 61.2 61.4 61.6 61.9 62.1
1948 23.7 23.5 23.4 23.8 23.9 24.1 24.4 24.5 24.5 24.4 24.2 24.1 • 1978 62.5 62.9 63.4 63.9 64.5 65.2 65.7 66.0 66.5 67.1 67.4 67.7
1949 24.0 23.8 23.8 23.9 23.8 23.9 23.7 23.8 23.9 23.7 23.8 23.6 • 1979 68.3 69.1 69.8 70.6 71.5 72.3 73.1 73.8 74.6 75.2 75.9 76.7
1950 23.5 23.5 23.6 23.6 23.7 23.8 24.1 24.3 24.4 24.6 24.7 25.0 "M 1980 77.8 78.9 80.1 81.0 81.8 82.7 82.7 83.3 84.0 84.8 85.5 86.3
1951 25.4 25.7 25.8 25.8 25.925.9 25.9 25.9 26.1 26.2 26.4 26.5 B 1981 87.0 87.9 88.5 89.1 89.8 90.6 91.6 92.3 93.2 93.4 93.7 94.0
1952 26.5 26.5 26.3 26.4 26.4 26.5 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 .• 1982 94.3 94.6 94.5 94.9 95.8 97.0 97.5 97.7 97.9 98.2 98.0 97.6
1953 26.6 26.5 26.6 26.6 26.7 26.8 26.8 26.9 26.9 27.0 26.9 26.9 • 1983 97.8 97.9 97.9 98.6 99.2 99.5 99.9100.2100.7101.0101.2101.3
1954 26.9 26.9 26.9 26.8 26.9 26.9 26.9 26.9 26.8 26.8 26.8 26.7 JR 1984101.9102.4102.6103.1103.4103.7104.1104.5105.0105.3105.3105.3
1955 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.7 26.8 26.8 26.9 26.9 26.9 26.8 • 1 985 1 05.51 06.01 06.41 06.91 07.31 07.61 07.81 08.01 08.31 08.71 09.01 09.3
1956 26.8 26.8 26.8 26.9 27.0 27.2 27.4 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.5 27.6 'JB 1 986 1 09.61 09.31 08.81 08.61 08.9109.51 09.51 09.71 1 0.21 1 0.31 1 0.41 1 0.5
1957 27.6 27.7 27.8 27.9 28.0 28.1 28.3 28.3 28.3 28.3 28.4 28.4 B 1987111.2111.6112.1112.7113.1113.5113.8114.4115.0115.3115.4115.4
1958 28.6 28.6 28.8 28.9 28.9 28.9 29.0 28.9 28.9 28.9 29.0 28.9 IB 1988115.7116.0116.5117.1117.5118.0118.5119.0119.8120.2120.3120.5
•-fjBK>
1959 29.0 28.9 28.9 29.0 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.4 29.4 • 1989121.1121.6122.3123.1123.8124.1124.4124.6125.0125.6125.9126.1
1
m
1960 29.3 29.4 29.4 29.5 29.5 29.6 29.6 29.6 29.6 29.8 29.8 29.8 '• 1990127.4128.0128.7128.9129.2129.9130.4131.6132.7133.5133.8133.8
1961 29.8 29.829.8 29.8 29.829.8 30.0 29.9 30.0 30..0 30..0 30.0 IB 1991 134.6134.8135.0135.2135.6136.0136.2136.6137.2137.4137.8137.9
1962 30.0 30.1 30.1 30.2 30.2 30.2 30.3 30.3 30.3 30.4 30.4 30.4 jlj 1992138.1138.6139.3139.5139.7140.2140.5140.9141.3141.8142.0141.9
1963 30.4 30.4 30.5 30.5 30.5 30.6 30.7 30.7 30.7 30.8 30.8 30.9 fl 1993142.6143.1143.6144.0144.2144.4144.4144.8145.1145.7145.8145.8
1964 30.9 30.930.9 30.9 30.931.0 31.1 31.0 31.1 31.1 31.2 31.2 • 1994146.2146.7147.2147.4147.5148.0148.4149.0
1965 31.2 31.231.3 31.4 31.431.6 31.6 31.6 31.6 31.7 31.7 31.8 ;•
1966 31.8 32.0 32.1 32.3 32.3 32.4 32.5 32.7 32.7 32.9 32.9 32.9 •
1967 32.9 32.9 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 33.6 33.7 33.8 33.9 JH
To calculate an inflation-adjusted chart, simply divide the
1968 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 34.7 34.9 35.0 35.1 35.3 35.4 35.5 'jB
CPI monthly figure by each of the open, high, low, and close of
1969 35.6 35.8 36.1 36.3 36.4 36.6 36.8 37.0 37.1 37.3 37.5 37.7 IB
the same month's nominal numbers of the future you are work-
ing with. To avoid fractional outcomes, you may want to shift
1970 37.8 38.0 38.2 38.5 38.6 38.8 39.0 39.0 39.2 39.4 39.6 39.8 •
the decimals on the CPI numbers one or two spaces to the left.
1971 39.8 39.940.0 40.1 40.340.6 40.7 40.8 40.8 40.9 40.9 41.1 fl
Here's how it would work using a hypothetical (but very close
1972 41.1 41.341.4 41.5 41.641.7 41.9 42.0 42.1 42.3 42.4 42.5 fl
to reality) gold example:
158 159
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts**
Gold is 35.00 an ounce in August 1970. The CPI in August Index as the adjustment mechanism of choice. But adjusting by
1970 is 39, which for purposes of an easier notation we will call currency factors is a lot trickier.
.39. We then divide 35 by .39 to create an inflation-adjusted gold One prominent Certified Market Technician (CMT) I know
price of 89.74 for August 1970 gold. (Bob Friend) uses Special Drawing Rights (SDK). The SDK is an
The February 1985 gold price is 290. Since the CPI in Feb- index developed by the International Monetary Fund based on
ruary 1985 was 106, we divide 290 by 1.06 (using the same a weighted basket of the currencies of the five largest exporting
two-decimal-point shift) to get an inflation-adjusted or constant countries. The recent weighting of this basket was the U.S. dollar
dollar gold price of 273.58. 42 percent, German mark 19 percent, Japanese yen 15 percent,
As you can see, while the nominal price of gold ballooned French franc 12 percent, British pound 12 percent.
over eight times from August 1970 to February 1985, the real Conversion of any asset's price into its SDK value is accom-
price of gold actually increased less than three-and-a-half times. plished by dividing the asset price by the SDK rate for the
Do you still pay 25 cents a gallon for gas? A nickel for a daily currency in which the price is quoted. The U.S. dollar conversion
newspaper? Then why are you still using charts and market-tim- rate is listed in each issue of the Financial Times of London,
ing methods from that era? Barren's, and The Wall Street Journal under Foreign Exchange
Rates or Exchange Rates.
The easiest available source of daily quotes for the SDR is
Currency-Adjusted charting at the bottom (along with that other currency hybrid, the Euro-
pean Currency Unit or ECU) of the Exchange Rate box some-
Unlike inflation, currency fluctuations can be easily tracked on a where in section C of The Wall Street Journal. By taking that
daily, even minute-by-minute, basis. In the impatient world of number (say 1.38612) and dividing it by a future's price (350
the futures trader, currency-adjusted charts can give you imme- gold), you get an SDR price of 252.50 for gold.
diate feedback on the real-world price of a future. In a way, While the SDR can be followed quite easily in The Wall Street
currency fluctuations have replaced inflation as the prime vari- Journal, it's still overweighted to the dollar. The purpose of cur-
able in real-world charting. Since October 1980, the dollar as rency adjusting is to get an idea of how foreigners view our
measured by the U.S. dollar index has fluctuated over 260 per- assets—are they cheap or expensive? Even SDR's big five cur-
cent, while inflation has been up a mere 75 percent. This trend rencies barely scratch the surface of world trade. And there are
has been accelerating in recent years. other technical flaws like the absurd notion that the French
For these two reasons, I am going to spend the rest of this economy is only a little less than the Japanese economy.
chapter and most of my examples of real-world investing on Some argue that a yen/mark index could be constructed to
currency-adjusted charts. Despite all the talk of a Unified Euro- currency adjust our dollar-denominated futures markets. The
pean Currency and Trade Block Currency Mechanisms, world Japanese yen and the German mark are the lead currencies of
currencies continue to bob up and down as fast as they have Asia and Europe, respectively. Combined, the economies of Ja-
during the last 25 years. pan and Germany are nearly that of the United States. Their
Our first problem in currency adjusting is which currency currencies are starting to take the place of the dollar as the lead
to use. I brushed over a similar problem in inflation adjusting reserve currencies in their areas. Indeed, some would argue the
(some use wholesale prices or even the price of gold) because dollar standard set up in Bretton Woods in 1944 has already been
the consensus is pretty much centered on the Consumer Price replaced by a mark/yen standard, thanks to the distrust of U.S.
160 161
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All In the Charts"
162 163
Chapter twelve
164
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All in the Charts99
Double Top -
Strong R ght
© Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend service © Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service
166 167
Chapter twelve It's Not -All in the Charts9'
© copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service © copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service
168 169
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All in the Charts"
170 171
Chapter Twelve It's Not -All in the Charts'*
3800
BlZonelBXn
20 27 3 10 17 24 31 7 14 21 28 7 14 21 26 4 11 18 25 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 4 11 18 28 1
Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend service © Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service
173
Chapter Twelve It's Not "All in the Charts"
CORN-WEEKLY
DOW INDUSTRIALS - WEEKLY
ACTUAL CASH VALUES ftreugh Ri*rt do*
HCH 3012JO %D««7.»
LOW a«7JO %K-72.11
A80F WQ1/M
A B r J u l O c l J t o A p r J u l O c t . t a n A p r
Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend service © Copyright 1994 Commodity Trend Service
175
Chapter Thirteen
Analogous Year
The great futures trader Roy Longstreet used to talk about finding
an analogous year—a previous time in the market when circum-
stances were similar to those of the present. The idea is to use the
comparison to help shed light on what might happen in the
future. Many traders see nothing beyond their five-minute bar
charts. But commercial firms employ people to do nothing but
research the past to find parallels with today's markets. If you
look hard enough, you can always find something in the past
that seems to duplicate today's circumstances. Even the great
inflation of the last fifty years has happened before (when mas-
sive imports of silver and gold from the New World inflated
European economies in the sixteenth century).
179
Chapter Thirteen
I
u
180
uaajJim. Jd}dei» If
Which Year is It Now? 1
As I write this late in the fall of 1994, it's obvious that the parallels U
1
65
Copyrighted 1994 Arbor Trading Croup inc. All Rights
-•——I——•——I——•——I——•——I——•——I
s g?
O-
£
ISiP
O SB <B.
i— i
dl'
4 &>?r
re
h—4
ON
a
rf
3
3
3
cr a Q
1962
^
v>
D>
fi"S*
8 ! 3 a*
5 8
£
i_«t
*™K
S- ir
a?
si— °-r
<-t-
£r>i3
&
<»
(D
^
^ft
ft
fl)
CO
&>
0)
fa en
i-l
8en
S-S
If
1
60
*
3
O
Q
r*j
0)
&>
13
£ 13
S *
3 i
3 S =B
as
i-*> ^ 7
(O
—
£
^ %
S
CD
1990
55
1
ffi
?
s 3.ff. gST1
1
? g"
t— -
5' vo
T3
T3
&)
CO
tn
su
CO
1978
?
o £
a
?a
H— *
ft 3.
ff
i—*
>-t->
5'
h^»
50
3
«-h
r-h
«-h
8 8
3
1o
"£' *o
^»
1-!
SO
S>
S
h- '
h- '
S,
t°
I-K
»-i
fD
45
Clinton's Midterm Losses 1
Another factor was the growing realization by the stock and bond IBi
40
The President's Party Losses = (Approval Rating * 0.59) - 38.38%
markets that Clinton would not be able to pass his massive health- |Hi
care package and that Democrats are headed for disaster in the |J|
loss of more than 40 seats puts the Republicans in charge of the house
-I-
35
Current Clinton Projections 14.2% of 276 democratic or 39 Seats. A
Figure 13-2
fall midterm elections. This perception picked up momentum in |H|
July when Clinton's press became increasingly negative, and
30
commercials, like Jim Bianco of Arbor Trading, noted Clinton's
25
= 0.8522
election results of the incumbent party on the x-axis. The y-axis
has the corresponding Gallup Poll approval numbers of a first-
-H
20
term president just before these midterm elections. Given Clin- JH
ton's mid-August 1994 Gallup approval rating of 38 percent, the
15
post-Wbrld-War-II history of the Gallup Poll would indicate the
Democrats could experience a 44-seat massacre in the coming |H|
U.S. House elections! IB
•4-
10
In Figure 13-3, Jim Bianco has tracked Gallup approval and ••
disapproval numbers for all first-term presidents since Eisen- |Hj
5
hower. Clinton is closely tracking Reagan. If the 1994 House |B|
Democrats lose the percentage of the 1982 Republicans, they will
-25.00% • •
-15.00% • >
,.oo%.,
0
!
lose 13.54 percent of their seats: 37 seats from their 1992 total, or j|pj
-20.00% •
0.00% •
S -10.00%
-30.00%
1
£•
o*
8B-
&
3'
O tn
fT
ro
H-"
nr. w
fl->
2-
£&)i-t-
r+
3
5T
§%
e
^
•S
t1-1
• w
en
en
n
n
Cfl
Reserved
£
a.
eo
0}
CO
S
Disapproval Rating
8 S S S
8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
§ S
8 =
s0
o H
TO
s 3 £T Q crS &t— •• ? goi
•a»°
?
rr. B.
TO TO
T3 5' £
8 Cn
'd &. q »> S- 23_ j»-o T3 H ol CL ??3 H3" to
I
JJJ
s fj.
O S 8 ? s- en" 9 ? S" f? p (D
z
B f ?1 3 ?'1en
H TO HI
6' 3 o
c HJ
1
High expectations are followed bj
TO ^
a second chance followed by tota!
3
lows by midterm election time. Needless
2 »' en JL TO
Q
3 cw
en TO v
<-+• 8
O
(
f-i- i—i § cr.
« r*'
3-1 S I
en
B 1
£i-
cfl cs
— 5" n Io
i s.
1 0)
3"
CO
Ul
»
VI
f
cr
c
0>
cr?
^
o
3_
en"
fn 2.
en
TO
f ^
T3
1 8.8
Ei.
O
» J3
8 a> S en Oj^
«-h S fiT «-*•
i-i O T5
f ^ »
3 d a
s* §' ^
£.
8a g o
|_«4
1
^3 fO
a en
(A o-
1-1
&
cr
"•H FT
1
>w
i-h
1— »
v£>
HI Co
!-*•
f
ff
i— »• OQ
I— '• So
a ff CL
») ? ^
K* 3
B" H- 1<
en
h- ' O
2. fu
\O
VI en
oo rf
>-n
^ 3
onment
T3 cr cr O
CL T! a S- 3*
S" O.
r-H
1
£'
fu
en
en ^
^
0) ?1
13 I
TO
1 3
P
h— ^
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
cent rise under Democrat—graphic evidence that Democratic tures and regulations are only noninflationary under wartime
politicians have become more and more liberal, anti-business, controls or depressions. There is a direct relationship between
and inflationary as this century has progressed. less government and low inflation. It's no accident that Japan,
Since 1913, the average low in yields under Republican with the lowest percentage of GDP used by the government (32.8
administrations has been 22.5 months after they start. Under percent) of any major nation also has the lowest inflation rate.
Democratic administrations, it has been 7.25 months. Almost all The recent increase of the federal government's share in the
gains in bond yields under Democrats come in the second half U.S. economy from 23 percent to 25.4 percent of GDP has been
of their administrations. Bond yields rise even faster after big funded because U.S. banks have shifted from their traditional
midterm Democratic losses (which I expect in 1994). After the lending activities to buying government securities. The slow-
1938 and 1946 elections, bond yields rose sharply despite strong down in economic growth has resulted in fewer borrowers over-
yield downtrends before these elections. After the 1966 and 1978 all; those who are trying to borrow tend to be of a lower credit
defeats, bond rates soared to record levels. quality. Since March 1989, banks have increased their holdings
The history of Democratic administrations says the lowest of government securities by about $300 billion while reducing
bond yields of the Clinton administration will have been early their business loans outstanding by around $15 billion. This
September 1993, then an increase of 44 percent by June 1997, or process has already hurt government revenues and ballooned
to an 8.3 percent yield (if the recent 5.75 percent bottom holds). the deficit. It can't continue much longer.
Republicans in trouble (like Bush or Ford) continue policies that
lower interest rates. Democrats in trouble (Truman, LBJ, Carter) Democrats increase Taxes
spend more and pump up the money supply. It is quite normal
Increasing taxes also has a long-term effect of increasing inflation
for bond yields to go down in the first year of a Democratic
and bond rates because higher taxes raise costs and justify bigger
administration. Average monthly yields went down 6.7 percent
government spending. Tax increases (direct or bracket creep)
or more during the first year of Wilson, FDR, Truman, and JFK.
under Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, Eisenhower, LBJ,
Even LBJ's first year saw a slight downtick in bond yields. But
Nixon, and Carter led to higher interest rates. Decreasing taxes
eventually the new Democratic policies overwhelm the anti-in-
after the Civil War, under Coolidge, during the early years of FDR
flation stance of previous Republican administrations.
(the end of deflation increased the ability to pay taxes), under
Truman (by cutting tariffs and war time taxes), and under Reagan
Democrats increase Government's Share of CDP led to lower interest rates.
In the 1980s, even Sweden cut the percentage of GDP accounted It's worth noting the average monthly bond yields of Janu-
for by government spending (from 65 percent to 60 percent). The ary 1960 (4.42 percent) were only exceeded in January 1966, six
U.S. federal government's percentage of GDP went from 25.4 years later. The anti-inflationary effect of JFK's tax decreases was
percent in 1982 to 23 percent in 1989. This small but significant eventually overwhelmed by LBJ's guns-and-butter policy—just
rollback in the share the government accounts for in the world as the (relatively) small Bush tax increase did not prevent lower
economy is a big reason for the great bond bull market of the interest rates when the banking system was radically shifted
1980s. from lending to buying government securities. But as LBJ's poli-
Big government suppresses economic growth, which in- cies overwhelmed the policies of Eisenhower and Kennedy, Bush
creases strains on the debt market. Rising government expendi- and Clinton are putting a one-two knockout punch to Reagan's
186 187
8ai
NJ
rt TO
» 2 B w
I ilil
^s« ^
HiiMI*
T§ 8
£
^?g 1
(D
2 2: 5 r-
3. R- s
H 5SB 3.
2 »
P. su §
re
oo
Is
2 a>
~2x ft
ffS s* a-
Figure 13-4
is increased Governmental Control inflationary?
100,000
Correlation = .94
In 1993, the Federal Register rose by 10.76% over 1992 325.00
90,000 to 69,688 pages. This is well above Its post World War 2
average of 4.55% Through June 9,1994, the Federal
Register is on pace for a 68,900 pages year.
80,000
-- 275.00
70,000
225.00
60,000-
50,000
-- 175.00
20,000
-- 75.00
10,000
-I-J- 25.00
00 O CM •» <O CO O
U} U> »O tf> IO <O
S O> O) O) OJ O> Ol O> O> O> ffl O>
source: Federal Register, Knlght-Ridder copyrighted 1994 Arbor Trading Croup inc. All Rights Reserved
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
tions, price controls, etc. Carter inherited a wrecked economy the number of pages in the Federal Register jump over 33 percent
which he promptly made worse—therefore, no first-year stock in the last three years. This has only happened twice in the last
rally. Bush might have been economically unsophisticated, but 50 years: during World War II, and in the 1970s when bracket
his policies, unlike Nixon's, were deflationary. Clinton at least creep constantly raised the real rate of taxes. Both times resulted
inherited an economy that was (just barely) stable and rising. in horrendous inflation and a big swoon in both the stock and
Skipping the war years, the Democrats have had six mid- bond markets.
term elections this century where they suffered losses (1918,
1938,1946,1950,1966, and 1978). Using these six times as data,
the Dow has rallied from a median bottom of the July before the The New Analogous Year is 1973
midterm election to a median top in November 14.29 percent
above the July bottom (4050 Dow level in 1994). The Dow then I believe the 1960-1966 analogy in the stock market has broken
declines a median 13.15 percent by February of the next year, as down because the new analogous year is now 1973. Like the fall
the market euphoria is replaced with the reality that a liberal of 1973, the economy is beginning to run into capacity limits
Democratic president is going to veto any changes initiated by thanks to loose monetary policy not being counterbalanced with
Republicans or a Republican/Conservative-Democratic coalition correct fiscal policy (like the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts, or the
in Congress. slow growth of government during the Reagan and Eisenhower
years).
Regulation is inflationary
investors Are Tapped Out
Figure 13-4 is the correlation between inflation and the number
of pages in the Federal Register. It is very important to note that The top of Figure 13-5 shows the ratio of equity funds (stock
the history of post-World-War-II Democratic presidents is that mutual funds) as a percentage of the stock market. It shows that
they respond to electoral pressure by promoting even more gov- the public is up to its eyeballs in stocks. If the foreigners are
ernment: there were more pages in the Federal Register in 1948 reluctant to buy (thanks to our weak dollar), if pension funds are
than 1946, more in 1952 than 1950, more in 1968 than in 1966, and putting in their maximum amount of contributions thanks to a
many more in 1979-1980 than in 1978. This is what makes the booming economy, and individuals are maxed out, who's left to
portending Democratic midterm losses so dangerous. In fact, buy stocks? The lower half of this figure shows how little cash is
only once since 1948—in Ronald Reagan's first term—have we left in this economy. Whenever cash has gotten this low, stocks
seen the pages of the Federal Register go down from a midterm have taken a big tumble (1962,1970,1981-1982).
election to the next presidential election. Increasing federal regu-
lation is an almost irresistible electoral double play—a chance to The Deficit and National Bankruptcy
look like you are doing something for the public at the same time As for bonds, consider this comment from the August 29,1994,
you reward (and shake down for contributions) the special inter- issue of National Review, p.19:
ests that will support your reelection.
The interest-rate risk was recently quantified by Rich-
Since the start of 1991, there has been a big jump in the
ard George, a financial analyst and editor of the The
number of pages of the Federal Register. By the end of 1993, the
Derivative Risk Analyst. According to Mr. George's
U.S. economy had experienced two big tax increases and seen
190 191
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
I
"Y
™ » »
about inflation and not worried enough about economic growth.
If reelection politics come before any monetary stability, we will
return to Carternomics or Nixonomics and inflation will go wild.
source: Arbor Trading Croup, Inc.
192 193
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
The Dollar and Grain Prices 1. Presidential politics in an election year usually have a
over the Next Few Years bullish effect on prices.
There is one last reason to back up the assumption that we are Only about 5 percent of the U.S. population is directly
entering (if we haven't already entered) a period like 1973-1974— involved in agriculture, but farmers and people who depend on
the collapsing dollar and the near certainty of higher grain prices. them have a political clout well beyond their numbers. Farmers
Republicans are not above debasing the dollar (1985-1987 are more likely to vote and contribute to political candidates.
under Reagan, 1969-1973 under Nixon), but it's worth noting They disproportionately live in states that are going to be critical
there has been no peacetime Democratic administration in this for Clinton's reelection: Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, and Wis-
century that has raised the value of the dollar. Democrats are as consin. Farm states like South Dakota, North Dakota, and Mon-
bad for the dollar as they are for stocks and bonds. As James tana may have only .75 percent of the population of the U.S. but
Carville, Clinton's political adviser said, "I looove the stock they have (thanks to their two senators) 1.67 percent of the total
market falling. In the 1980s the stock market rose 300 percent percentage of the electoral college.
and real incomes fell. Maybe now the stock market will fall and Since 1936, grain prices have suffered big declines only
real incomes will rise." twice during a presidential year: 1968 and 1992. It's no accident
Over the last 25 years we have had three great debasements that the incumbent lost both times in a close race. You can be
of the dollar: 1969-1973, 1977-1978, and 1986-1987. Each was sure that Clinton knows that fact. The presidential effect has seen
followed by higher commodity prices and falling bonds and corn gain about 20 percent (15 percent median gain) from the
stocks. Even the mini-collapse of 1989-1990 in the dollar was harvest low of the year before the presidential election to the
followed by a mini-collapse in bonds and stocks and an uptick time of the election itself. One calendar year after the presidential
in the CRB. In 1994, the dollar plunged to its lowest levels against election, corn prices have declined 5 percent on average.
the yen since World War II. 2. U.S. agricultural prices are at an all-time low.
According to Jim Bianco, the CRB index has an .83 correla-
tion to bond yields. Since the CRB is about 40 percent in grains, In July 1991, the closest-to-cash corn future reached 2.23,
many have criticized it for being too agricultural to be useful as beans 5.14, wheat 2.50, and oats 1.035 a bushel. After inflation,
an inflation gauge. But according to Bianco, other indexes like these prices are far lower than the Depression lows of 1932, and
the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) are far less corre- even lower than the 1842 lows. They were the lowest agricultural
lated to bonds (.43 for the GSCI). prices in U.S. history. Three years later in July of 1994, corn was
While we in the U.S. spend only 20-25 percent of our total at 2.14, beans at 5.7125, wheat 3.04, and oats 1.095. Since inflation
income on food, this percentage is far higher in the rest of the has gone up 8.95 percent since then, the equivalent prices today
world. You can turn down the thermostat and even move to a for the July 1991 prices would be corn 2.43, beans 5.60 (beans
cheaper lodging, but there is only so much you can do to scrimp got below this price in the new-crop November beans), wheat
on food. Skyrocketing food prices divert sums that would have 2.72, and oats 1.1275. As you can see, in 1994 some grains were
been invested, shunting off funds that could buy bonds or stocks. higher than three years prior, some lower than in 1991 after
There are five reasons to expect at least a 50 percent increase inflation adjusting. I think we can safely say that we are making
in the price of grains over the next two years: a classic long-term double-bottom in U.S. grain prices.
194 195
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
Double-tops and double-bottoms are quite common on In early 1992,1 remember seeing a banner hanging over the
long-term inflation-adjusted charts. They almost always indicate agricultural trading floor of the Board of Trade: "El Nino is
a major trend change is near. When beans reached 12.90 a bushel Coming." The talk of the whole industry (including the financial
in June 1973, it was almost exactly the same price, after inflation, press) was how El Nino was going to drive grain prices to the
of their 3.90 price top in the fall of 1917. When crude oil reached roof that year. Needless to say, the very time the business media
40 a barrel in 1979, it was very close to the inflation-adjusted did features on El Nino (January-February 1992) was the top of
highs reached during the Civil War. The double-bottom in grain the corn market for a long time to come.
prices is almost surely a sign of much higher grain prices to In July 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines.
come. Some called it the most cataclysmic event that has occurred on
earth in well over 150 years. Fine ash shot up over 100,000 feet,
3. A record year in corn production is almost always fol-
with an estimated 80 million tons of sulfur dioxide sent into the
lowed by a bad year.
atmosphere. These volcanic aerosols reflect sunlight back into
Since 1900, a new-record corn yield has been set 25 times, space. The eruption of low-latitude volcanos restricts the amount
better than once every four years. We had another record corn of sunlight that reaches the earth near the equator. Less energy
yield in 1994. There is a very strong pattern of price recovery means a reduction of the trade winds and a profound change in
after record years in corn (see Table 13-1): Pacific currents. Surface water is no longer replaced by cooler
water. The resulting warming effect, or El Nino, can have pro-
found weather consequences.
Table 13-1
For example, the El Nino of 1976-1977 generated a Brazilian
Record Yield Year Approx. Price Rise in coffee freeze and a bull market due to drought in cocoa. There
Two Years from was also a mild drought that sent corn and bean prices upward.
Harvest Low The 1982-1983 El Nino saw another Brazilian coffee freeze, re-
cord floods in California, and drought in various areas from the
1987 150 %
1982 cocoa regions of Africa to the U.S. Midwest. The 1986-1987 El
75%
1979 50% Nino damaged wheat crops around the world. The Mount Pi-
1969 40% natubo eruption was the largest since Tambora erupted in 1815.
Record Production Year After that eruption, 1816 was called "the year without a sum-
mer" in New England. In 1818, three years after the Tambora
1973 60% eruption, Ohio experienced a freeze that killed all the corn in the
1967 35 %
1963 state. You can see why El Nino was quite a topic in the grain pit
20%
1960 20% after Pinatubo erupted. However, a mild El Nino merely causes
1946 125 % a slight warming that increases rainfall in the Midwest. Such has
1906 100 % been the effect of Pinatubo over the last three years.
Now that the "El Nino is coming" banner over the grain
Back-to-back record years are almost unheard of in grain
production. pits has been long forgotten, it is time to remember that the ash
of a major volcano can lie in the air for up to seven years and
4. El Nino is finally going to arrive next year. the sulfuric acid it generates peaks three years after the event.
196 197
Chapter Thirteen Analogous Year
We are merely reaching the peak of the effects of Pinatubo. Over Table 13-2 (continued)
the last few years, the only El Nino effect has been 1994's freakish
1972-1974: $1.40 to $6.45
weather (record cold, record low rainfall for some months in
1977-1979: $2.14-1/2 to $4.86
some areas) and the record rainfall and floods of 1993. Just the
slightest change in weather—for example, if the drought we had
Oats 1901-1902: 22 cents to 70 cents
in April and May 1994 had occurred in June and July 1994
1916-1918: 35 cents to 92 cents
instead—will send prices into orbit from very depressed levels.
1933-1935: 60 cents to $1.16
(The severe freeze in the coffee-growing regions of Brazil was a
1946-1947: 75 cents to $1.53-1/2
very good sign that the intensity of El Nino is increasing.)
1972-1974: 65 cents to $2.03
5. It's time for a big grain rise. 1986-1988: 93 cents to $3.93
In this century, 24 times corn prices have advanced over 50
I may have missed other 100 percent moves in grains. How-
percent from the harvest low of one year to a peak one year later;
that's about once very four years. The last big one—a large rise ever, the point is, which is more likely? The Dow doubling to
8,000 or corn doubling to 4.40? Bonds making a 50 percent rise
in grain prices—was in 1988. We are due for one in 1995 or 1996
in value or corn prices going up 50 percent to 3.30? We may not
(more on the cyclic reasons for this in the next chapter).
get a once-in-a-lifetime explosion like the 400 percent increase
Grain price increases of 100-200 percent or greater in the
in soybean prices from 1972-1974. But the potential is there. Even
space of two years or less have occurred quite often in twenti-
a standard, once-in-about-four-years 50 percent increase will
eth-century grain prices (see Table 13-2).
make many fortunes over the next few years for people not
locked into stocks and bonds. One thing you should keep in
Table 13-2 mind: although in general inflation is not good for the economy
(and I have spent a great deal of time explaining the damage
Beans 1932-1934: 45 cents to $1.50 Democratic inflation-oriented policies have wrought on the
1936-1937: 25 cents to $1.80 economy), there is nothing like an exploding inflation to create
1946-1948: $2.20 to $4.45 the opportunity for futures traders to get rich. In general, traders
1971-1973: $2.97-3/4 to $12.90 love volatility and large price moves, whether inflation-induced
1986-1988: $4.67-1/2 to $10.99-1/2 or not.
Even if I am wrong and this is not 1973, but a continuation
Corn 1916-1917: 60 cents to $2.35 of the 1960s in stocks, bonds, and futures, you should remember
1933-1935: 22 cents to $1.10 that the Dow topped in real terms in 1966 and has not been
1946-1947: $1.10 to $2.97 higher since. Gold is not $35 an ounce and corn has never seen
1972-1974: $1.18-3/4to $4.00 $1.00 a bushel again. We may be on the verge of a gigantic shift
1986-1988: $1.49-1/4to $3.59 away from financial assets into paying debts and buying food
at ever-higher prices (this is one of the reasons why I feel gold
Wheat 1916-1917: $1.00 to $3.45 will not explode in price right away with a falling bond and
1933 : 45 cents to $1.15 stock market).
1946-1947: $1.60 to $3.20
198 199
Chapter Thirteen
200
201
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term Cycles
with a crest of 'good times' in 1946 or 1947, and working down- 2. A peak in the purchasing power of commodities:
ward to the bottom of the trough in perhaps 1951 or 1952." By Cycle IB: 1814
the end of his life, Dewey, despite all his immense research as Cycle 2B: 1864
the head of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, had wisely Cycle 3B: 1920
stopped making predictions based on cycles. Cycle 4B: 1973
But just like Analogous Year, using cycles is much better
3. A sharp recession after the commodity peak:
than flying blind and depending on some oscillator or chart to
Cycle 1C: 1815
guide you through the tops and bottoms of turbulent markets.
Cycle 2C: 1866
So with some trepidation and a lot of humility in my own ability
Cycle 3C: 1921
to find effective cycles, I offer the following observations.
Cycle 4C: 1975
The 55.5-Year Long-wave Cycle 4. A recovery or plateau period which ends in a speculative
In 1922, A.C. Tchijevsky published "The Investigation of the Re- blow-off:
lationship Between Sunspot Activity and the Course of the Uni- Cycle ID: 1814-1818 (4 years)
versal Historical from the Fifth Century B.C. to the Present Day." Cycle 2D: 1866-1873 (7 years)
Tchijevsky studied the events of 2,400 years of human history and Cycle 3D: 1921-1929 (8 years)
constructed a human excitability index using this data. Cycle 4D: 1976-1989 (8-13 years)
The peaks of this human excitability index showed a strong 5. A period of depression and/or deflation:
11.1-year cycle, which is the dominant (but by no means the only) Cycle IE: 1819-1843
cycle in sunspots. Tchijevsky, in a leap typical of cycle experts, Cycle 2E: 1873-1899
concluded that sunspots were causing these peaks. The only Cycle 3E: 1929-1949
problem was that the highs of his index occurred one year behind Cycle 4E: ?
the highs of sunspot activities.
Another Russian Marxist of the 1920s, Kondratieff, pro- Each crest had a major political scandal, a real-estate boom,
posed the infamous Kondratieff Wave. Using only 200 years of and a women's rights movement. All in all, during the late 1970s
wholesale prices, Kondratieff proposed an economic long-wave and early 1980s it was easy to sell the gloomy conclusion that
cycle of around 54 years. The popular version of the Kondratieff the forces of economic history were pointing inevitably toward
went something like this: a new depression.
I believe the best of cycle theory is combined in the hypo-
1. A strong period of growth finished off by a war: thetical 11.1-year economic cycle I proposed in a March 1987
Cycle 1A: War of 1812 article, as shown in Table 14-1:
Cycle 2A: Civil War
Cycle 3A: World War I
Cycle 4A: Vietnam War
202 205
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term Cycles
Table 14-1 i There are four "coincidences" over the last 500 years that
Hypothetical 11.1 -Year Economic Cycle I
have occurred in all the years following the "Speculative Top":
Bottom of Start of Start of Commodity Speculative
Depression Prosperity Rapid Growth Top Top
1. A worldwide decline in wealth (the worldwide bull mar-
kets in stocks and bonds have been more than counter-
1496.36 1507.47 1518.58 1529.69 1540.80
1
balanced by the collapse of such dollar-denominated
1551.91 1563.02 1574.13 1585.24 1596.35
assets as gold, crude oil, Eurodollars, U.S. real estate,
1607.46 1618.57 1629.68 1640.79 1651.90 1
and securities together with the collapse of Japanese
1663.01 1674.12 1685.23 1696.34 1707.45
stock prices and the beginning of the unraveling of Japa-
1718.56 1729.67 1740.78 1751.89 1763.00 1 nese real estate). I proposed this cycle in spring of 1987.
1774.11 1785.22 1796.33 1807.04 1818.55 ••H At the height of the U.S. stock boom, did anything else
1829.66 1840.77 1851.88 1862.99 1874.10
predict that the world economy stood on the verge of a
1885.21 1896.32 1907.43 1918.54 1929.54
global slowdown that would affect even Germany and
1940.76 1951.87 1962.98 1974.09 1985.20
I Japan? Even the latest stock rally could have been pre-
'H^B
1996.31?
dicted by this cycle. U.S. stocks seem to have a last-gasp
rally seven to eight years after the speculative top (1826,
When you study the dominant economies of each era (six- 1881,1937, and now 1993).
teenth-century Italy; France and Holland in the seventeenth cen-
tury; eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England; and the 2. The highest real interest rates of the last 50 years, leading
United States in the twentieth century), you find this proposed to a worldwide depression (previous eras, I concede,
cycle chart has a remarkable historical fit. To cite just one exam- have not always been as bad as the 1930s).
ple, the highest three years of unemployment in nineteenth-cen-
3. Enormous political upheaval. The recent ruling-party
tury England were 1884 through 1886.
debacles, are just the start of remarkable changes accord-
Kondratieff's famous cycle was based on only four repeti-
ing to this cycle.
tions. The 11.1-year economic cycle shown in Table 14-1 can be
traced historically through nine repetitions. But we can extend 4. The hottest economy before the Speculative Top be-
this 55-year cycle back 13 repetitions by using wheat prices. comes the worst economy during the depression. That
Interest rates seem to move together in an inverse 55-year cycle was the United States in the 1930s. In the 1990s, I believe
relationship with wheat (high real wheat prices, low real interest Japan's real estate and stock markets will lead the way
rates, low real wheat prices, high real interest rates). We have down, despite this year's feeble rally in Japanese stocks.
wheat prices back to 1281 and can trace this 55-year wheat cycle
Human nature never changes. One generation grows up
back another four cycles. Inflation-adjusted wheat prices in 1994
seeing the consequences of too much debt (Depression genera-
came near the record lows reached in 1991. Given all we know
tion). They run their businesses prudently. But their children see
about the present world economic situation, would anyone want
only prosperity. (The prosperity generation of today are the baby
to bet their long-term economic future that real interest rates
boomers like Clinton. In the 1920s, they were called the jazz-age
won't peak in 1996-1997 and start the fourteenth repetition of
the 55-year cycle since 1281?
204 205
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term cycles
generation). These children borrow and speculate up to the hilt * English bonds had a big fall from 1818 to 1820, while
because they think prosperity is forever. gold fell in English commodity terms over 11 percent
Eventually the bubble bursts. (In 1929 it was a stock crash. from 1820 to 1825. There was also a sharp fall in the dollar
Today I believe we will see a collapse in the bond market.) The price of gold during this period.
whole debt mountain comes down like a ton of bricks. Each * According to Warren and Pearson's classic study1 of the
depression is worse than the last because the debt mountain is piled history of prices, gold in English commodity terms fell
higher because of the expanding nature of fiat money. 20 percent from 1878 to 1882, only to climb 80 percent in
Like Herbert Hoover, Bill Clinton is the political wonder- commodity terms over the next decade and a half.
child of his age. He believes his economic policies will ensure
prosperity continues forever, and his answer is more govern- * U.S. bonds fell from 1874 to 1879, only to rebound
ment. Clinton will continue to borrow, tax, and manipulate, strongly over the next two decades.
oblivious to the need to ease the governmental burden on Joe History says that falling gold and bond prices often accom-
Average who is staggering under a massive load of private and pany the start of hard times as investors attempt to pay off debts
public debt. and prop up their businesses by liquidating assets. As the de-
pression gathers strength despite this liquidation, panic sets in
Cold and Bonds after the Speculative Top and people begin to horde gold and government bonds, sending
If you ask the average investor what does well in depressions, he prices up.
would reply, government bonds and gold. Leaving aside the very I expect the same thing in our coming depression with this
pertinent question of whether the U.S. government can pay its one twist: The massive government of today will undoubtedly
bills over the long term, this answer is still not quite true. Those intervene by trying to prop up the economy by inflating it—
who held gold and U.S. bonds throughout the Great Depression either directly by having the Fed monetize U.S. government debt
did well. But during the early part of the crisis, gold fell from a or indirectly by letting the dollar fall. Until the crisis gets full-
yearly average price of 20.67 an ounce in 1928 to 17.06 in 1931. blown, I expect gold (after inflation is factored out) to underper-
U.S. bonds fell 20 percent from January 1931 to July 1932. Baa- form other commodity assets like grains.
rated bonds went from an average yield of 7.5 percent in August As for U.S. government bonds, one has to remember that
1931 to 11.6 percent six months later. From the middle of 1931 to the real U.S. debt is not the official $5 trillion or so, but $20-$25
the middle of 1932, railroad bonds lost 36 percent, foreign bonds trillion in unfunded pensions (like the Social Security for baby
45 percent, and many issues lost even more. boomers), loan guarantees (everything from Fannie Mae to pro-
As far as I can tell (records are pretty scanty before 1700), tecting the solvency of the top 200 banks), plus every sort of
this phenomenon has always happened near the start of the subsidy like crop and flood insurance. The bond market is going
period between the Speculative Top and the Depression Bottom. to take a triple hit of rising inflation, a private credit crunch, plus
Here are three examples: the likelihood (when the deficit rises to $600 billion and interest
payments take all the revenue generated by the income tax) of
some sort of government game with interest payments.
206 207
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term cycles
The 16-2/3 Year Production Cycle First, to quote Dewey: "In 1946 something strange hap-
pened to our cycle. Where stocks used to bottom they now
The next long-term cycle that I think investors should watch is topped and vice versa. Almost as if some giant hand had reached
the 16-2/3 year production cycle. This cycle has repeated 49 times down and pushed it, the cycle stumbled and by the time it had
since 1289, in wrought-iron prices. I believe it is the basic produc- regained its equilibrium it was marching completely out of step...
tion cycle of the world economy. During the twentieth century, no one can positively explain what happened in 1946."2
this cycle has had the pattern shown in Table 14-2: Actually the explanation is relatively simple. Thanks to 91
percent top tax rates and the huge government debt overhanging
Table 14-2 the economy, the United States became the first debt-driven
The 16-2/3 Year Production Cycle economy. Before, stock and bond yields rose together as good
business times increased the demand for credit. Now, low inter-
First High Midpoint Second Higher est rates are the lifeblood of business expansion. As interest rates
Cycle Low (30 percent) Low High (70 percent) climb, high-income investors have to shut off their investing.
1982.60 1987.60 1990.93 1994.26 The tax reform of 1986 lowered and equalized tax rates.
1965.93 1970.88 1974.33 1977.60 With no capital gain differential, there was less incentive to
1949.28 1954.22 1957.61 1960.93 finance investment through borrowing. As a result, stocks rose
1932.60 1937.60 1940.93 1944.28 at the same time credit demand rose. That's why interest rates
1915.89 1920.89 1924.21 1927.60 and stock prices peaked together for the first ti,me since World
1899.22 1902.55 1907.55 1912.55 War II in 1987.
I have used this cycle, along with the major sunspot and I prefer this explanation to that catch-all phrase of frus-
lunar cycles (more on the lunar cycles in the grain section that trated cycle observers: phase shift ("In 1946, the 41-month stock
ends this chapter), to get a pretty good approximation of the cycle had a phase shift"). In reality, the same phenomenon was
stock market over the last 150 years. It's just another indication occurring—a regular up-and-down increase in credit demand.
that the next few years are not going to be times of economic Government policy had changed the rules so that increased
prosperity or a booming stock market. credit demand was bad for business, not a sign of a healthy
economy.
The Kitchin Cycle The second problem is that this cycle is not a regular 41
months, but seems to slip around up and down about a month.
A 41-month, approximately 3-1/2 year cycle was discovered by I think the Kitchin cycle is a harmonic of several larger cycles,
the economist Kitchin near the turn of the century. According to such as the 100- and 144-year cycles, which are very close, but
Dewey, a group of investors used it very successfully in the stock not quite the same. However, for our purposes, Table 14-3 has
market around World War I. The 41-month cycle can be traced successfully predicted bond tops and bottoms plus stock tops
back to the Civil War and beyond. However, there were two since the phase shift after World War II.
problems with using it.
208 209
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term Cycles
210 211
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term Cycles
Box 34487, San Diego, CA 92613-4487; 1-800-888-9983. The orbit of the moon is not exactly the same plane as the
Any astronomical extreme is important in determining a orbit of the earth around the sun. It is inclined five degrees.
potential top or bottom in the various markets—parallels to the When the moon crosses the plane of the earth (the ecliptic), this
celestial equator and ecliptic among the suns and planets, com- is a called a node. The planes become the same (relative to the
binations like solstices and perigees of the moon, etc. Frankly, positions of the stars) every 18.6 years (to be exact, every 6,585.36
the complexities of astronomy are beyond me, and I suspect they days. In other words, every 18.61 years the node makes a com-
are beyond the average investor. But I do think a knowledge of plete revolution around the zodiac).
what is going on with the moon is worth the extra effort. Both cycles topped in the summer of 1973, a peak for grains
In 1993, Burton Pugh proposed that the price of wheat in purchasing power that hasn't been equaled since. The follow-
moved higher on the full moon and lower on the new moon. ing one-third subcycle of the 22.29 sunspot cycle and the one-
Moon trading has also been advocated by Larry Williams and fifth cycle of the 18.6-year lunar cycle correlate almost exactly to
others. Our word lunacy comes from luna, Latin for moon. Of all grain tops:
the celestial bodies, the moon seems to have the most powerful
influence on human behavior. Since our bodies are 90 percent 1. 7.43-year cycle grain tops: 1973.6,1981.04,1988.46, and
water, the phases of human behavior seem to move up and down now 1995.89?
with the moon, just like the tides. Dewey cites a study that 17 2. 3.72-year cycle grain tops: 1973.6, 1977.32, 1981.04,
percent more babies were born during the waxing periods of the 1984.76, 1988.48, 1992.20 (remember the time of the El
moon than during the waning periods. In some years, that figure Nino banner?), and now 1995.92?
was 25 percent!
The sun is 26 million times larger than the moon but it is The conjunction of these two cycles creates the biggest bull
359 times farther away from earth. Therefore, the moon exerts markets in grains. The target date of 1995.92 also agrees with
two-and-a-half times the gravitational force on us than the sun. our Analogous Year analysis that grains are due for a price
The moon's orbit is an ellipse that moves it closer or further away increase over the next one to two years.
from the earth. All planets move in ellipses, so the sun's gravi- These cycles also seem to be connected to the dollar. As
tational power does fluctuate with its distance to earth, but not inflation fears peak with the price of grains (7.43-year cycle
every 28 days as with the moon apogee/perigee cycle. peak), dollar holders look for more stable currencies or to pre-
Cycles should be checked for currency and inflation adjust- cious metals:
ments. This is just as important in my opinion as detrending, * 1958.64: Despite a U.S. recession, gold begins to flow out
averaging to take out randomness, and other standard tech- of the U.S. This was the start of the chronic balance-of-
niques to find cycles. payments crisis we are still suffering. The weak Canadian
dollar and British pound were strong during this period,
3.72- and 7.43-Year Cycles In currencies and Grains while hard currencies like the Swiss franc and the deut-
Every 22.29 years, sunspots complete a cycle of two waves. Sun- sche mark began to inch up against the dollar from their
spots travel in magnetized pairs. In one wave, positively charged post-World-War-II fixed price.
spots lead in the sun's northern hemisphere, while negative spots # 1966.17: The U.S. begins to liquidate silver in a desperate
lead in the sun's southern hemisphere. In the next wave, this attempt to control inflation and prevent the break up of
pattern is reversed.
212 213
Chapter Fourteen Long-Term Cycles
Bretton Woods. It was also the last year of a stable British convention were almost even with Clinton's).
pound.
Mild inflation (the middle of the 7.43-year cycle) helps re-
* 1973.6: The U.S. dollar was nearing the end of a sickening source-producers like the United States. Heavy inflation creates
plunge, saved later on in the year by rising oil prices. panic and a flight out of the dollar. Along with a cycle top in
* 1981.03: Inflation peaks, and the U.S. dollar is beginning grains, I expect a major low in the dollar to come in late 1995 or
to rise from historic lows. Peak of short-term interest early 1996.
rates. Large currency fluctuations began in 1958, but the same
* 1988.46: Dollar doom at its height. There was an almost 7.43-year pattern in the dollar can be traced back through the
universal consensus that the U.S. dollar would renew its nineteenth century using inflation and what the price of gold
recent slide against most foreign currencies. bought in the way of a basket of commodities. For example, the
dollar reached a peak against major currencies like the pound
Conversely, the middle of the 7.43-year cycle (which corre- near the time the 7.43-year cycle predicted would be a period of
sponds to the tops of the 3.72-year grain cycle) has seen a fairly strength: 1932.72.
strong dollar within the context of a long-term fall of the dollar These last two cycles are a perfect example of the synergy or
since the mid-1960s: resonation you must use to make long-term cycle predictions. By
* 1962.45: British pound under pressure, along with Cana- themselves, the 3.72-year and 7.43-year cycles in grains are inter-
dian dollar. esting, but they become even more validated when you realize
currency fluctuations are moving along the same lines.
* 1969.45: Despite Vietnam inflation, the U.S. dollar sees
Virtually every long-term cycle agrees with our other indi-
its last days of relative stability for a very long time.
cators (like Analagous Year) that 1994 is a time to sell stocks and
French franc at a low against the dollar.
bonds and buy commodities, especially grains. If you know the
* 1977.31: The peak of the Carter years, before the long market bias of the next few years—securities (especially stocks)
slide down. down, commodities (especially grains) up—you have an im-
* 1984.74: The beginning of the surge that would carry the mense advantage over the average investor. Even a strict tech-
dollar to post-war highs in the blow-off top created by nician must adjust his chart patterns and indicators to the shift
the international euphoria that followed Reagan's reelec- from a bull to a bear market and vice versa. If I am close to being
tion. Gust track what happens to the dollar when a U.S. right in the above predictions, this will be worth many times the
president proposes a tax cut versus tax increase, or when price of this book even if you never use any specific technique
a president acts tough or spends more on defense vs. the in your trading.
opposite.)
* 1992.17: A peak during the awful Bush years. Those
who knew Bush best (foreigners) liked him even less
than American voters did in 1992. The dollar made a
record low in late August/early September 1992 when
foreigners thought that Bush might have a chance to
be reelected (Bush's poll numbers after the Republican
214 215
Chapter Fifteen
The Media: The Best
Trading indicator
Back when I worked for what I later found out was a phony
econometric firm, I had a conversation with one of its principals,
whom I'll call "Stan." Stan used to trade on the floor of the Comex
in the silver pit. He told me two things I'll never forget.
Before the opening or when trading was dull, he used to
chit-chat with all the filling brokers who executed trades for the
major stock houses and discount firms. His patter would go
something like this: "Hi, Ira. How's the wife and kids? Did you
have a good weekend? How many to sell at 95?" The last sen-
tence was a request for the number of December silver contract
sell-stop orders at 6.95 Ira had in his deck. Of course this is
supposed to be illegal and maybe floor traders now aren't as
blatant as Stan used to be. But floor traders have other ways of
finding out where the stops are. They've got the same indicators
and charts. All the major newsletters and hotlines are upstairs
at the exchange library. They can send their clerks to read every
one of them and tell them where the stops are.
Stan told me one other thing that started me down the path
of writing this chapter. "Whenever I was too long silver and
needed to get out, I'd just call up the commodity reporter at The
917
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
Wall Street Journal and give him every reason for being long I always felt bad when I had to tell foreigners I'd only done
silver." The reporter would write the story, the story would research on American business media. The ones that wanted
appear in The Journal, the orders would flow into the pits from help the most were the ones I could help the least.
thousands of traders all over the country, and Stan and his Besides a reluctance to disbelieve what they read, American
buddies would get out of their long silver positions and go short. futures traders also don't like a method you can't put in a com-
I have said it before and it bears repeating: reporters get puter. Yes, I've done word studies using headlines in the business
paid $50,000 a year to generate stories. If one comes gift-wrapped press. There is a difference in market action between use of the
and ready to print from a reputable source like Stan the Floor word plunge in the headline rather than/a//. And I do share these
Trader, why shouldn't that reporter save some time and print it results with clients. But learning how to read the media is an art.
as is? It's very hard, if not impossible, to computerize everything. For
After all, there is always a long for every short in the futures example, the position of the story is very important. You can
market. At any given moment, there's always a case for the bulls ask the computer to find the word plunge on the C-l page of The
and a case for the bears. Whatever side the newspaper prints is Wall Street Journal. But how do you tell it to look for plunge in
an editorial judgment. If someone else is willing to take the risk the headline that leads the top right-hand column? Is there a
of putting his name on a market call, so much the better. Any- chart? Is plunge in smaller type in a secondary sentence?
body who's angry can call up Stan the Floor Trader and complain I really feel that the greatest reason why media trading is not
to him. Don't blame The Wall Street Journal for printing someone a standard technique is the fact that it cannot be computerized or
else's opinion! easily predigested. Of course, a lot of firms don't want to bite the
When I was a futures broker, I saw other brokers use a Wall hand that feeds them. Why antagonize the paper that runs your
Street Journal article to sell a trade dozens of times (for stocks ads by telling everyone how lousy their advice is? But it really is
and bonds as well as futures). Even when the trade lost (the amazing how little discussion of media trading there is when you
normal result), there was less anger and resentment among the consider how many big names like Richard Band, Ned Davis, Paul
clients. Didn't we see it in the great Wall Street Journal? "At least Macrae Montgomery, etc., have advocated using the business press
I went down with the best information available," the client as a contrary opinion indicator.
would rationalize. Even Gann talked about the effects of the media in Truth of
I often tell the story of Stan the Floor Trader at seminars. the Stock Tape (Pomeroy, Washington: Lambert-Gann, 1976). And
Then I usually ask, "Do you think it is routine for market insiders Reminiscences of a Stock Operator has a whole section on how the
to feed the media stories?" Only a few hands go up in the nameless operator used the effects of a news article to unload
room—usually the ones from Europe. For some reason Europe- his massive long position in cotton over the space of a few
ans have no trouble with the concept of a manipulated media, minutes.
but Americans are determined to believe that everything they I've even seen one of Richard Dennis' famous turtles dis-
read is on the up-and-up. cuss media trading in his newsletter! Dennis is a technical trad-
After I wrote an article about media trading for Technical ing legend who decided to teach a select group (the turtles) some
Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine, people called from of his methods. If one of Dennis' disciples can take his eyes off
around the world, begging me to give them more information. the Sacred Six long enough to say, "I think newspaper headlines
are a great thing to fade," perhaps you should fade them, too!
218 219
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading Indicator
The Basics of Media Trading reversal down by the end of the day, or vice versa for a bearish
story), we can anticipate another three days of market action in
Since media trading has to be somewhat of an art rather than an the direction (bullish or bearish) of the article. If, after three days,
exact science, there are many things about it that can never be there is another failure (no market reversal in the direction
precisely pinned down. There are at least three basic problems against the thrust of the article), then we can expect three weeks
that face every media trader no matter how long he has studied of market action in the direction of that story leading to a major
the subject and used media trading techniques in making his top or bottom.
trading decisions. Few people videotape or take notes of their favorite busi-
ness TV show. The vast majority of those who watch TV business
1. Determining what's important: is it news or is it emo- shows don't do either. In my opinion, the impact of all TV
tional bias? business shows, even celebrated ones like "Wall Street Week,"
2. Judging the signal's intensity. does not extend much beyond three days.
You should keep a diary of the business articles you read
3. Is the signal long, intermediate, or short term? and the business TV shows you see. It will increase your faith
I will spend the rest of the chapter discussing these issues. in media trading as you see how the media was always scream-
But before I get to those three basic problems, there is one media ingly bullish at major tops and obviously bearish at major bot-
trading problem that isn't really a problem at all. toms. So by all means, keep anything you've written down for
future reference. But as far as market decisions are concerned,
A Problem That isn't a Problem you don't need to refer to any media comment more than four
when Reading the Media weeks old.
The answer to the question, "How long does the effect of an article The Logistics of Media Trading
or TV program last on the markets?" is simply our old Rule of
Three working with the 3/21-Day Memory Law. One of the problems of trading is the sheer logistics of it: 90
Just like any market event, a media story—whether print percent of your most important trading decisions are made before
or electronic—has the most impact during the first three hours 10:00 A.M. It can be overwhelming. No wonder so many go to a
after someone has seen it. Over the next three days, 80 percent black-box system that tells them exactly what to do 15 minutes
of the contents of that story will slip from the memory. After after the previous close.
three weeks, only 3 percent of that article will be remembered. But if you are going to use something besides a pure me-
It will then become part of the permanent memory. This memory chanical approach in your trading, the media system actually
will not normally be triggered unless a similar event occurs: "I saves time. You don't need to refer to anything but the last three
see beans were up the limit on a drought scare. Didn't the Journal to four weeks of media commentary. The rest can go into storage
run a drought story a month ago on beans?" for leisurely study. The headlines of the media tell you which
In dealing with a print article, the maximum impact of that market you should look at to trade. You don't have to calculate
article will be on the morning it comes out. Most people read expected range, etc., for every market; you need to figure only
their paper every morning. Just like the opening routines of the the ones the media says you should consider.
market, if an article fails (a bullish story does not lead to a market In fact, media trading is one of the few trading approaches
I know where you don't have to have a computer and fancy
220 221
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
software (although having a computer does cut down the drudg- The first step is to determine what you can afford to read.
ery time). A subscription to The Wall Street Journal provides you Ideally, you should get four papers each business day before the
with virtually every market quote, including most cash markets. trading day (you can go to the library for the weekend editions):
Add in the other national dailies and your own regional paper, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, U.S.A. Today, and your
a trip to the library for all the weekly business periodicals, and biggest local regional paper.
you are set. I'm fortunate that my local paper, the Chicago Tribune, is the
Because that's far cheaper than $750 a month for the quotes, most prominent regional paper for trading futures—it reaches
software, and seminars routine of black-box trading, you have more Midwestern farmers than any other paper and has special
a chance to survive by not violating the Mathematics of Invest- coverage of the local futures markets. If grain trading is your
ing. Because it's easier to trade longer term with the media (you specialty, you should make every effort to get the Tribune. Back
can ignore the smaller movements until the media blares at you, in rain-soaked July 1993—the very day the grain market
"This is a top," or "This is a bottom"), you don't have to be a topped—The Wall Street Journal ran a story on page A-l, top
quote-machine slave. You can work another job until you know right-hand column, on the destruction of the soybean crop due
that you are good enough to trade full time. to excess rain. That gave a powerful media sell signal. But the
Media trading teaches you discipline and patience. You icing on the cake, the story that really steeled the trading back-
learn to wait until all the conditions are right. Unless the media bone to go short, was a simultaneous front-page story in the
"speaks," you stay in your winning positions even though your Tribune about the same topic.
emotions are screaming, "Take profits! Take profits!" You avoid But even if your biggest local regional paper is not the
getting prematurely into positions and, most importantly, you Tribune but the Detroit Free Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the
learn how to reverse yourself completely when conditions war- Miami Herald, the Atlanta Constitution, etc., it is still a valuable
rant it. trading tool, especially for stock and bond trading. If some mar-
Media trading is the answer to a small trader's prayer. He ket makes the headlines of your local paper, it is a very powerful
needs something that is cheap to operate and will force him to media signal.
be careful when entering positions and patient with his winners. If you get these four daily papers now, so much the better.
He also needs something that doesn't bore him into overtrading. But if you don't, then you must treat any additional subscription
Reading the media every day is like an adventure—you don't as a business decision. You must use Dull-but-Successful Trading
know what to expect but you know you will never be bored. Rule #1 (see p. 27) If you have a $5,000 account and the interest
Even if there is no signal trading-wise, the circus of human you generate on the account is 4 percent a year, or $200, you
existence (politics, sports, etc.) is there on the printed page to really don't have much room to maneuver. If your account size
entertain you, even if there is nothing to do in the markets. leaves you a little short, then here is the order in which I would
add additional papers:
Determining What's important:
1. The Wall Street Journal: It's the premier business paper in
is it News or is it Emotional Bias? the country and the only readily available source for all
The first problem in any media trading system is to determine market quotes, including the cash markets.
what is actually important for your trading, what is routine and
unimportant, and what should make you stand up and take 2. Thej next paper you get depends on whether you have
notice. ano>ther reason to trade besides speculation, i.e., whether
222 223
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
you are a bona fide hedger. If you are a grain farmer, ing more on your futures trading account than Dull-but-Success-
you should get the Chicago Tribune if it is readily available ful Trading Rule #1 would justify. You can count part of the
in your area. If you are a jeweler or a fuel-oil distributor $6,000 or so you are making in dividends with $200,000 in stocks
or some other dealer in a future that is traded in New toward what you can spend on quotes, newspapers, etc., in your
York, you should get the New York Times. futures account.
Nearly everyone has a TV and can watch such free programs
3. If you are not a bona fide hedger, the order I suggest for as the "Nightly Business Report," network news, and "Wall Street
adding new papers after The Journal is the New York Week." TV programs are often your best indicator of a near-term
Times, U.S.A. Today, then your local major regional paper top or bottom because TV's impact is so limited in terms of time.
and Investor's Business Daily. Most people get cable. If you don't have cable, you should consider
I live in an area that has many libraries. Even if one library getting it for the quotes and comments on CNBC's daytime finan-
is missing a copy of a weekend edition of a paper or a weekly cial program. CNBC's weekend roundtable program of various
periodical, I can always go to another library that is close by. But financial pundits is also a great way to find out the market con-
if you live in an area with inadequate libraries, you may have sensus, a consensus that is almost always wrong.
to, as your account size grows, pay to get these weekly peri- There are two major disadvantages of media trading. One
odicals in this order of priority: is the cost of buying all these periodicals if you don't have an
adequate library. And you can't get periodicals, let alone daily
1. Barren's papers, if you live on a mountaintop somewhere.
2. Forbes All of life is choices. If you want to daytrade, you really
should move to Chicago or New York and learn how to do it in
3. U.S. News & World Report the proper venue—the exchange floor. If you want to live in the
4. The Economist (from the U.K.) wilderness, far from any sizable town, you are going to have to
rely on the price quotes and commentary that comes over your
5. Business Week satellite dish. If you want the added dimension of media trading,
you can't just live anywhere.
6. Fortune Remember the Tribune and The Wall Street Journal article that
7. Futures occurred at the very top of the 1993 bean market? If you were a
farmer with 100,000 bushels of beans (20 contracts) to sell, it
8. Time would have been a very expensive proposition if you got these
9. Newsweek papers only in the mail. Those stories occurred on Friday, July
23, 1993. The opening on the August beans was 7.35 a bushel
10. Weekend editions of your regional paper and the New that day. The following Monday's opening was 7.17. The next
York Times. day's opening was 7.095—the highest opening for months to
If you look at all the assets you own, you may find out you come. Depending on what time you got the papers in the mail,
are really trading a lot more in the futures market than you think; you could have been up to 25 cents a bushel behind the original
your trading position includes personal assets like gold and media trading signal. A $25,000 difference ain't hay!
stocks, a variable-rate mortgage, etc. Then you can justify spend- A farmer with 100,000 bushels of, soybeans growing in the
224 225
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
field or stored in his elevator has $700,000 (at 7.00 a bushel for cash Every important move in the futures market will end up in
soybeans) tied up in inventory. If he sold his growing or stored the front page of some national newspaper or the front cover of
crop in the cash-forward market to the local grain elevator, he a major business magazine. Even relatively minor markets like
should be able to pay his bills and still have plenty of money to go coffee can get to the front page, as it did recently in the July 11,
long or short the equivalent amount of beans on the futures market, 1994, U.S.A. Today, two days before coffee topped (at least so far
20 contracts. The margin on 20 contracts of bean futures would be in 1994).
only around $30,000. Wouldn't it have been better for that farmer
to lose the whole $30,000 than to watch his 100,000 bushels of beans 2. In all markets, every important top (and most bottoms) gets
drop $100,000 as the price fell from 7.00 to 6.00 on the cash market, prominent mention by more than one national media source.
as it did later in 1993? I keep a weekly diary of headlines from the various media
After getting the number of periodicals appropriate to your sources segregated into one page each for the trillion-dollar
circumstances, the next step is to learn how to read them. Some markets: currencies, interest rates, stocks, metals, crude complex,
things are obvious. You can read the sports and entertainment and agricultural markets. My sheets for the stock market for the
sections later. If you are reading four papers in the morning, you weeks March 28-April 1,1994, and April 2-8, 1994, look like a
really only have about 10 minutes for each one before you run war zone. I can hardly fit all the references on a single page. It
into the all-important openings and the first trading decisions doesn't take a genius to see the message the media were sending
of the day. out: "Hey, dummy, your stocks are down 10 percent. Don't you
It would be nice to read every pertinent article all the way think you'd better do something to protect yourself (like sell
through, but that's not necessary. A lot of people who read The out)?" If you have the patience and wait for these obvious signs
Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, etc., are in the same boat (front-page headlines, a market featured by every news source
you are. They are only going to be able to skim the headlines in a prominent way), you will be well rewarded.
and the major stories of the day. It's their quick, emotional re- You can, if you wish, weight each story by the size and
sponse to the news that puts in the tops and bottoms of markets. prestige of the publication, where in the publication it is, etc., to
All you are really looking for is the headlines of stories and the come up with a media index that will give you the intensity of
charts and pictures that accompany them. As the trite-but-true each story. This will also help the more experienced media trader
cliche has it, "A picture is worth a thousand words." The body sharpen his or her skills. But the more I see of the media, the
of the story may have all the boring details that contradict the more I think this isn't necessary, especially for the novice trader.
headline and the charts at the front of the story, but few people Just like Pavlov's dogs, the media ring the bell loud and clear at
have the time or the energy to read everything carefully. tops and bottoms. Your biggest problem is not to be swept up
There are two styles of newspaper. The Wall Street Journal in the emotion and ignore the signal.
under its "What's News" column summarizes most of that pa- For example, I am not thrilled with long-term prospects of
per's major stories. The New York Times has the traditional layout the stock market. But the media signal of the last week in March
where any story summaries are on the second page or the front and the first week of April was so strong you had to go with it.
of each section, like the business section. This leads us to the first It was an intermediate bottom in the stock market that a futures
of my media trading rules: trader had to respect, even if the long-term, multiyear trend had
turned down.
1. Every important investment turning point gets put on the
front page or the front cover. 3. A media signal is inversely proportional to the extravagance
226
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
of the language used to describe a market event. front page of The Wall Street Journal the next day (as happened the
Some exaggerated media language is easy to see—like Monday following a near-100-point drop on Friday February 4,
"Bonds Bask in Best of All Worlds" (in the current yield section 1994), mat's significant. Instead, the Journal had a soothing C-l
of the January 31,1994, edition of Barren's), or "Like Old Times— article that read, "Most Expect Stock Market to Rebound." To me,
An Era of Low Inflation Changes the Calculus for Buyers and this negated the usual long-term implications of a front-page New
Sellers," a page A-l headline of the January 14,1994, Wall Street York Times headline on a Dow plunge (this headline also occurred
Journal. But extravagant language goes on all the time in the on Saturday, which has a much weaker market impact).
media. To check for it, I like to use one paper as a measuring It's pretty rare, but when the media make a howling, obvi-
stick. ous error, you can expect a countermove to begin. The headlines
Many people ask me if there are any common media outlets of the June 22, 1994, Wall Street Journal commodity page read:
you don't fade—investment publications whose headlines aren't "Gold Hits Highest Levels in 10 months." Any way you look at
always or usually bad trading advice. My reply is, "If your it—closest-to-cash gold future or the afternoon London gold fix;
library has it displayed in your reading room, you can usually closing basis or high of the day—gold prices were not at a
'fade' what it says." If there are any exceptions to this rule, the 10-month high. They were several dollars below their January
Economist magazine of England and Investor's Business Daily are 1994 highs. You could blame this on midsummer madness or
those exceptions. another sneak attack of Stan the Floor Trader. In any case, this
I discuss the Economist later in this chapter, but Investor's was a top that held for several months.
Business Daily is a very good illustration of Rule #3 above. This One of the strongest media signals you can get—because it
paper's headlines are usually very precise and accurate, and is so unexpected—is the warning. By warning I don't mean the
typically there is an attempt to get both sides (bull and bear) of usual commodity bashing or the attacks on the "barbarous relic,"
any market—if not in the headlines of one day, at least with a gold. But if a leading media outlet starts to warn you about the
series of articles over time. Most of the regular features make high price of either stocks or bonds, it's a sign that a top is far
sense—the futures that rose or fell the most are featured on the away. In August 1993, The Wall Street Journal went on a campaign
futures page, the bond page is a very accurate description of to convince everyone that the bond market was a lousy place to
what moved the bond market that day, etc. Investor's makes a be. On August 10,1993, an A-l column 6 headline (the strongest
good contrast with the other national and regional papers. Of they could run) screamed "Portfolio Surprise: Many Americans
course, in the rare times it does feature market predictions, In- Run Hidden Financial Risk from Derivatives." Then, on August
vestor's is normally as bad as anyone on the street. But it under- 17, another A-l right-hand column: "Managing Risk: Corporate
stands that its main mission is not to patronize its readers with Treasurers Adopt Hedging Plans With Some Wariness." And
investment pontifications. finally, an August 30 A-l right-hand headline: "Inverse Relation-
ship: Despite Risks, Many Investors Keep Buying Bond Funds."
4. The more unexpected a headline, the greater the media signal. The lead of the third paragraph read, "Those risks are huge;
today, in fact, bonds may be riskier than stocks." Bonds riskier
If The Wall Street Journal puts soybeans on the front pages, than stocks! I can't remember a similar statement being made by
that's unexpected. If the New York Times or U.S.A. Today has a
any leading business publication!
banner headline about stocks on its front page, you can expect In my opinion, it was no accident this campaign started on
at least a minor trend change in stocks usually within three days. August 10, just about three weeks before its peak on August 30.
On the other hand, if a big stock movement doesn't make the
228 229
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
Nor is it a coincidence that bond prices went higher for the next # Peak in the bond market for many years (1993).
three weeks and ultimately peaked six weeks later in October.
What are tops made of? Premature bears and angry baby bulls!
5. Even when the media tell you the truth about a market, it's
Nothing was better calculated to send a market higher than the
never at the best time to take action.
August campaign of warnings. Low-capitalized shorts were en-
couraged to enter only to be squeezed out. Cautious bulls that When The Journal issued its August 1993 warnings about
refrained from buying in August due to the warnings angrily the bond market, it was absolutely correct in pointing the finger
bought twice as much in September and October, furious that at the derivative market as the primary source of danger in any
they had missed a great move and determined not to miss an- market turnaround. But this correct warning was buried under
other one. the big rise in bonds during September and October, never to be
I have a theory of August/early September versus late Sep- remembered again.
tember/early October. The brain of the average investor reaches On May 27,1994, The Wall Street Journal commodity page
its most susceptible state in late August/early September. If he headline blared, "Cattle Prices Jump Daily Limit, Bouncing Back
isn't on an actual vacation, his reactions have been dulled by from a Sharp Drop that May Have Hit Bottom." The next trading
lying around in the sun all summer. He is easy prey to sugges- day, the following Tuesday, May 31, cattle hit a top that held for
tions, especially those from the media. Then, like a startled sleep- the next month and a half. But it was true that cattle prices were
walker, he snaps awake around the fall equinox. His first reaction only a few weeks away from what looks now like a multiyear
is to make up for the lethargy of summer with a frenzied burst bottom.
of action. Since the natural tendency of the investor is to buy, On March 28, 1994, the Foreign Exchange section of The
that's what he does. Wall Street Journal had a headline of "Antagonism Toward Dollar
Gann supposedly claimed that capital and commodity mar- May Be Due to Fundamentals, Not Fleeting Factors." I think that
kets tended to top on or around September 22 more often than was and is still true, but three days after this report, the U.S.
any day of the year (a thing to keep in mind as we watch the dollar index began a 2.5-basis-point move upward.
1994 stock market making a double-top). I don't know whether The June 1993 Futures magazine printed this very good
or not Gann actually said this, but there is significant evidence piece of long-term advice: "Commodity Indexes Hint Return of
that this is true. On or about September 22, all of the following Inflation." Two of the subheadlines were, "Commodity prices
occurred: have hit rock bottom," and "My assumption is the downtrend
* All-time highs in corn (1974), cotton (1973), and gold and in commodity prices that began in 1980 ended in February 1993."
silver stocks (many oil stocks made a peak at the same In my opinion, both these statements were true, but it took about
time in 1980). three weeks after Futures hit the newsstands and the mailboxes
* Peak of Dow-Jones utility index in 1929. before the CRB finally bottomed out for the month and renewed
its climb upward.
* Secondary peak of gold in 1980, stocks in 1987.
* Major top in soybeans, 1983. 6. What the media expect almost never happens.
* Date of major devaluation of the pound (1931 and 1992) Now we have seen from the last three examples that occa-
and major devaluation of the dollar (Plaza Accord of sionally the media bumble into making a good long-term call.
1985). But by far the usual process is just awful market predictions. For
230 231
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading Indicator
example, the February 18, 1994, Wall Street Journal commodity Look at the commodity headline from The Wall Street
page headline was, "Grain Traders Are Anticipating a Spring Journal. If it was "Gold Rallies Three Dollars on Rus-
Rally"—a rally that was two months away and which in any sian Fears," you sold gold. If it was "Cattle Plunges,"
case never exceeded the February 1994 highs in corn. you bought cattle on the opening. To offset the trade,
One more example of failed media expectations appeared you simply closed out your position on the close.
on April 1, 1994, with The Wall Street Journal commodity head-
This is dangerously simplistic and definitely not worth $279
line, "Corn Prices Likely to Rise in Wake of Report That Farmers
(In my humble opinion, you are going to get a lot more from
Plan to Plant Less Than Expected"—well, that was a real April
this chapter). But the amazing thing was, if you took the worst
Fooler!
opening and closing prices (highest opening prices if buying,
On January 13,1994, The Wall Street Journal commodity page
vice versa for selling) and threw in a $30 commission, the blasted
headline read, "Grain Prices Are Expected to Shoot Up as USDA
thing about broke even.
Releases Even Bleaker Estimate." This headline came with a corn
chart. Of all the grains they could have picked, they ran the chart 7. The indicator the media attack as inaccurate is the indicator
of the grain that was going to be the weakest of the whole year. you should watch. What the media say you should watch, you
Coincidence? Well, you can believe what you want but, as I said can ignore.
before, floor traders pay for their million-dollar exchange seats
with coincidences. During 1994, there has been a continuous chatter from the
I could have chosen many, many other examples from media how the CPI overstates inflation and the CRB is a "fickle"
many, many other publications, but I am picking on The Wall gauge of inflation" (in the words of a C-l New York Times article
Street Journal commodity page for a reason. In October 1989 my that appeared May 25, 1994). The CPI, like every government
article "The Best Trading Indicator—The Media" came out in statistic, is flawed. Alan Greenspan admitted recently that he is
Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine. About a frustrated with the increasingly inaccurate statistics put out by
year later, full-page ads began to run advertising a daytrade the government. Many blame this on budget cuts inspired by
system with wonderful profits, low drawdowns, high accuracy, Ronald Reagan.
and the simplicity of needing only a newspaper (no charts, no This free marketer thinks it's the natural consequence of an
computers and software). There are a zillion sure-thing systems increasingly complex modern economy being measured by
advertised in every issue of every futures-oriented magazine, horse-and-buggy economists in the Labor Department. Be that
but this one caught my eye because it used a quote from my as it may, it's the best indicator we've got, and it does move the
article: "If I had only five minutes a day to read one publication, markets. I never saw anybody complain that the CPI overstated
it would be the commodity page of The Wall Street Journal." the downward move of inflation during the bond rallies of the
Intrigued and somewhat annoyed, I politely wrote and asked if 1980s!
I could see the system since my quote was being used in a way 8. If there is a "but" in the headline, the market trend continues.
that implied my endorsement.
I never got a response, but I finally did get a photocopy There is one media maxim you can easily check out with a
from a friend. Mass copying is the fate of all sure-thing systems. computer hook-up to media headline data. If you see something
I felt justified in getting a photocopy since my quote had prob- like, "Bonds Advance, but...," bonds are going to continue to
ably sold quite a few systems. Here's what you got for $279: advance. If the media excuses away a market action with some
232 233
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
contradictory evidence, it's a strong sign that the market will have adopted this technique.... One of the tasks of
continue in the same direction. "Stocks climb the wall of worry," journalism in the future is to devise ways and means
is the old market adage. You could also say, "Stocks trip down of backing off a bit from these immediate day-to-day
the staircase of bullish excuses." crises and trying to give them some perspective."
[Newspapers have followed the lead of The Wall Street
The intensity of the Signal Journal by shifting from reporting the maximum
If what to look at is the first basic problem of media trading, then amount of facts and letting the reader decide their
the second major problem is how to judge the intensity of each significance to dressing up their editorial bias as
media signal. Let's use The Wall Street Journal to illustrate intensity news.—G.N.]
in an individual print source. Column six is the weightiest column...generally re-
The following quotes are from Jerry Rosenberg's book Inside garded as the most important feature...by the page one
staff.... A story that appears in column four...tends to
the Wall Street Journal: (NewYork: Macmillan, 1982).
be lightweight, sometimes given to sheer frivolity.
Without question the most widely read portion of The The fifth column [to those who remember their
Journal is the double-column space on its front page history, this column is aptly named!—G.N.] of The Jour-
titled "What's News." The feature had probably led to nal's front page carries the "special reports..."
more paper sales than any other.... "What's News"
The format of The Wall Street Journal is similar to that of all
takes up two of the six columns on the front page....
other major newspapers. The top headlines are the most impor-
[The subheadings] "World Wide" and "Business and
tant—you can almost skip the "What's News" headlines after
Finance" have proved to be a boon to busy executives.
the first article summary. Anything on the right-hand side has
A quick perusal is sufficient to keep them abreast of
the strongest impact, while those headlines in the middle are the
world events [that The Journal thinks they should
weakest. Weakest of all are the headlines below the fold in the
knowl—G-N.).
C-l section—those headlines you have to fold out the newspaper
Columns one and six and the back-page feature are
to full length to see at all.
called "leaders...." The demand [is for] 506 leaders a
year.... At vacation times, in early August and early In my weekly diary of headlines of each specific trillion-
September, for example, the editors often sweat to get dollar market, I abbreviate these positions (TR is top right, BL
would be below left, etc.) along with its position in the paper
the leader columns filled. Two weeks later [around the
fall equinoxl—G.N.] they may be faced with a horrible (Com. for commodity page, Forex for the foreign exchange page,
etc.). Just start doing it—you'll be amazed how the subtlest
glut.
shades of headline positioning and wording affects the markets.
Vermont Royster, who retired from The Journal in
No formula I can give you, even if it existed, could replace the
1971 [after being their lead editorial writer—G.N.]...made
confidence and skill you get by seeing how, day after day, the
some interesting comments apropos of the "leader"
media give you amazing insight into the strength and direction
concept: "I think the newspaper business is already
moving in the direction of interpretive reporting. of the markets.
Originally I thought it would be simple to construct a media
When we first started our leader-type stories, we were
index to use as a trading signal. There is something to this
innovators.... [Now] large metropolitan newspapers
234 235
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading Indicator
concept, which is why I am going to give you some rough ways least, within three days) of the appearance of the article or TV
of doing it in the paragraphs below. But if you use media signals program.
as the only indicator, you are asking for trouble. You have to If it is a New-York-based publication talking about a New-
look at other techniques to gauge the true strength of the media York-based future, add one to the impact number. If it is a
signal. This is the third basic problem of media trading, which Chicago-based publication talking about a Chicago primary
I discuss later in this chapter. market, do the same thing. If it is the lead paper for stock
But for now, here are two rough systems to track the inten- commentary (Barren's or the Journal), add one. If the story on
sity of the media signals you get. bonds is in the New York Times, add one to the impact number.
If the story is on a London-dominated future, divide the impact
The inteslty Level Tracking System number in half. If the Economist of London has featured a future
The first system is the Intensity Level Tracking System. Begin by in its finance or business section, subtract or add one to the
calculating the intensity level of the story: impact number depending on the story line.
Level 3: (the highest intensity): Front-page The Wall Street The New York Federal Reserve Bank is the leading Fed bank
Journal and New York Times. in the country. The official newspaper of choice for well-timed
Level 2: C-l (business) headlines of The Wall Street Journal leaks from the Fed is the New York Times. The front cover and
(and its commodity page) and the New York Times; the front page front sections of the Economist are as reliable as any other pub-
or front cover of any other media outlet we have mentioned by lication to fade. But the business and financial sections in the
name so far; lead story of any TV program mentioned. back are usually (but by no means always) a very good predictor
Level 1: Regular columns (Foreign Exchange, Credit Mar- of the next three months of price action.
kets, etc.) of The Wall Street Journal or New York Times that are President John F. Kennedy said the Economist was the most
buried in the back of their business sections; a feature article or important publication in the world. I think he was talking mainly
news report of any TV program or print media outlet mentioned about its business and financial sections.
so far.
Next, calculate the market level of each individual future The Media Tracking System
featured by the media outlet: My second system is the Media Tracking System, which uses the
Level 3: Anything that is not Level 1 or 2. percentage values below.
Level 2: Bean complex, corn, wheat complex, cattle, hogs,
sugar, silver, copper. Bus. Week Time
Level 1: Stock index futures, any interest-rate future or cur- N.Y U.S.A Fortune Newsweek Network
WSJ Times Today Barren's Forbes U.S.News Futures News CNBC PBS
rency, crude complex, and gold.
To get the impact of a media feature on any specific future, 12 9 7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4
you multiply the media intensity level by the level of the futures 6 5 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 1
importance. For example, a front-page Wall Street Journal story 2 1
on coffee would have a nine impact, or three times three. The
higher the total impact number from all sources, the greater the The first line of numbers is the impact-percentage value to
media effect on the future, and the greater the chance a strong, be given for a cover story or front-page headline for any given
opposite reaction will start later on the same day (or at the very future (the numbers above are simply examples that you can
236 237
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
fine-tune for each future) for the media outlet above. The second be...bullish—were give a plus...bearish stories got a mi-
line is the impact percentage for a major feature article or TV nus...stories that were neutral or indifferent got a
story after the headlines (for example, a C-l feature in the Journal zero....
or Times'). The final line is the impact percentage for a regular Before we embarked on our grading process, we solic-
feature of the Times or Journal buried in the back, such as Foreign ited the advice of stockbrokers, security analysts, fel-
Exchange or Credit Markets. The closer the totals are to 100 low business journalists, economists, and other
percent, the greater the media impact. observers.... We described our grading system to them
The Intensity Level System has the virtue of simplicity, in general and told them to evaluate (six) items solely
while the Media Tracking System can be fine-tuned with each for their potential impact on stocks....
future and where the story is positioned in the media outlet (top
right, below middle, is there a chart or picture?, etc.). Have fun Of the 146 gradable items in the six issues, our evalu-
playing with the numbers! ations matched the majority of the stockmarket pros
Media watching can get overwhelming with all the peri- on 114, or 78 percent. Of the 32 items on which we and
odicals, but it pays off. Even the New York Times bestseller list the pros differed, all but three were either scored as
(for books) is a great indicator. If the Depression of 1990 is topping zero by our panelists and either plus or minus by us.
the list, it's time to load up on stocks and bonds. When Bank- (pp. 54-55)
ruptcy 1995 finally drops off the bestseller list (as it did in August Using this system, they tracked the news in The Wall Street
1993), a bond top was at the door. The federal government going Journal and the 1972 stock market. "The News Index (had)...the
bankrupt? Not with Clinton the budget-cutter! Not with the most intense and good news coming from late October through
biggest bull market in bonds in a generation! mid-November, when the DJIA posted its most dramatic gains."
In the book News and the Market (Chicago: Regnery, 1974), (p. 98)
authors Klein and Prestbo used the following system to weight The peak of the good-news campaign of 1972 was about
stories in The Wall Street Journal: two months before the market top in mid-January 1973. Bank-
ruptcy 1995 dropped out of the bestseller two months before the
The system we decided upon gave a score of three to 1993 top of bonds. The Wall Street Journal's anti-bond campaign
the lead, or top story in both "What's News" columns; started two months before the 1993 bond top.
a score of two to stories that appear above the fold that Two months before the 1993 bond top, Jim Bianco sent me an
divides the paper in half horizontally; and a score of August 18,1993, report entitled, "It Wasn't Like This in the 1970s."
one to stories below the fold. All items in the "What's In it were dozens of price-war stories in the media over the pre-
News" columns were graded except the daily statisti- vious six weeks. I guess the idea of the investment firm was to
cal summaries of the previous day's market activity show how wonderful everything was with inflation. Both Jim and
and the "Company Notes" items.... I looked at the report and said, "It's a top (for bonds)."
The Wall Street Journal carries three feature stories on I could also add that the NASDAQ high was made about
its daily front page.... Features we deemed potentially two months after the media euphoria ("New Era, Best of All
market affecting...were given a value of three, the same Possible Worlds") of January 1994.1 guess this two-month media
as the lead items in the "What's News" columns. The rule can be considered an offshoot of the three-month segment
system we used...was simple: stories that seemed to of the Rule of Three.
238 239
Chapter Fifteen The Media: The Best Trading indicator
is the signal Long, intermediate, or Short Term? I've discussed how the February 4, 1994, Saturday front-
page headline of the "Plunging Dow" in the New York Times was
Richard Band, in his wonderful chapter, "I saw it in the New York
more than negated by the nonchalant way The Wall Street Journal
Times" from his book Contrary Investing for the '90s (New York:
treated a 96-point Dow drop the following Monday. Investor's
St. Martin, 1989), stated that the hardest problem in judging a
Daily had a small, below-the-fold, front-page article just before
media signal is to distinguish primary from intermediate, inter-
this Dow collapse talking about how the market might be over-
mediate from short. We can use the Rule of Three, the intensity
valued. Newsweek in its February 15 issue ran an article "Beware
of the signal, etc., to give us some idea of where a media signal
the Baby Bull."
is taking the market. But, at best, that gives us only the outlook
But Newsweek has now taken the place of the August 1987
for the next three weeks.
U.S. News & World Report as today's least influential news
Three weeks is an eternity for most futures traders, but
weekly. And they didn't run it as a cover story, either. At long-
looking ahead for the next three months or even the next three
term tops in the trillion-dollar markets, you often get a small
years is necessary to trade effectively. In any case, the Psycho- minority opinion that is telling you to watch out. But that
logical Law of 10/20 Percent says we can't base any more than shouldn't stop you from using the main media thrust for your
20 percent of our trading decisions on the media, no matter how
signal.
good a signal it is.
In fact, that's one way you can tell what Richard Band calls
So we must fall back on other techniques like Analogous
a primary top from an intermediate top. At primary tops (which
Year, First through the Even, Inflation- and Currency-Adjusted
usually aren't a spiked-V, blow-out top), you get some diversity
Charts, etc., to get this longer-term perspective. Let me give you
of opinion. At intermediate tops or bottoms (there was an exam-
examples of some of the real-life problems you run into with
ple of one in stocks during the first week of April 1994), every
media trading.
media outlet seems to be leaning one way.
The August 31,1987, U.S. News & World Report had a cover
Originally, I was going to end this book with a field trial on
of a bucking bull and the caption, "The Bull Market—Time to
how I would combine the techniques of this book under actual
Get Out?" But in August 1987, U.S. News was the least influential
market conditions. But now, I think that would be counterproduc-
news weekly of the three major news weeklies (way below Time
tive. The whole point of this book is to get you to think and get
and Newsweek in terms of prestige and readership. In its August
away from black-box or "my-guru-told-me-to-do-it" trading.
10,1987, issue the far more influential Barren's cover had a bull
Face it: There are no shortcuts to successful trading. You are
running away from a lot of overweight business types with the
going to have study hard and then learn (cautiously) by doing.
caption: "Memo to the Pros: In Case You Haven't Noticed, the
You are going to have to look at the totality of the evidence and
Bull Market Is Beating the Pants Off You." U.S. News & World make those lonely trading decisions yourself. If somehow I've
Report was virtually alone in its warning on stocks. made that job easier for you, every minute of every hour I spent
Today, U.S. News & World Report is probably the leading writing was worth it to me, whether this book becomes a big
news weekly, now that Time has become more politically cor-
seller or not.
rect. Under the leadership of the very-well-connected Morton
Zuckerman, U.S. News is right on top of the pack: a cover story
of the "Best Mutual Funds" in the February 7,1994, issue and
a June 14, 1994, article entitled, "Why Market Bulls Are
Headed for Trouble."
240 241
index
index, 125,194 217, 218. See also commitment index funds, 2 moving averages, 108-109
Commodity Trend Service, 132 of traders report; routine of inflation, 2, 3,150,151,154,155, moving average system, 21, 29, 30
commissions, 2, 5, 20, 32, 36 the market; spreads; Theory of 159,190, 215 mutual funds, 17
compound interest, 40 the Opening. Infoline, 119
concept investing, 18 commercial traders and, 121-126 Initial-Maintenance Opening Rule,
Constant Dollar Dow, 151,154 expected range and, 103-110,118 67, 68, 71, 74, 86 N-O
Consumer Price Index, 155,160 fib times and, 111-120 Inside the Wall Street Journal, 234 National Futures Association
Contrary Investing for the '90s, 240 Forbes magazine, 180, 224 International Monetary Fund, 161 (NFA), 132
Coolidge, President, 187,188 Fortune magazine, 224 Investor's Business Daily, 224, 228, Newsweek, 224, 241
corn, 140,141,142,143,144,195, Foundation for the Study of Cycles, 241 New York Stock Exchange, 3, 8
196,198,199 202, 211 Johnson, Lyndon (LBJ), 187,188 New York Times, 223,224, 226, 228,
crashes, 3 four quadrants, 108-110 July 1st Crop Conditions Report, 87 236, 237, 238, 240
Crash of 1987, 4, 9,16, 32,154 futures and futures trading, 2, 4, 5, Nixon, President, 187,188,194
currencies, 148,150,151,160-177, 6, 7, 8. See also floor traders, noon balloon, 62, 111
212, 215 analogous year and, 179-200 JC-L OEX option contract, 37
cycles, 201-214 charting systems and, 147-177 Kennedy, President (JFK), 179,180, Opening Price Statistical Data, 60
Cycles (book), 201 computerized trading and, 37-38 187,188,191, 237 opening range, 58. See also opening
Cycles magazine, 201, 211 cycles and, 201-214 Kitchin cycle, 72, 208-210 systems; Theory of the Open-
expected range and, 103-110 Kondratieff Wave, 202-203, 204 ing.
D-E media and, 217-241 Kovner, Bruce, 52,113,139 opening systems, 61-63
opening systems and, 61-77 LeBeau, Charles, 29, 30 initial-maintenance opening indica-
deficit, national bankruptcy and, psychology and, 16,18-19, 22-26, Lefevre, Edwin, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53 tor, 66-67, 69, 71
191,193 27-32, 77 Lehman Long-Treasury Index, 148- split opening, 63, 65-66
Democrats, 180,182,185-188,190 routine of the market and, 77-100 149 open to the down, 74
Dennis, Richard, 16, 32, 219 spreads and, 139-146 Listen Only Systems, 42 open to the up, 71, 72, 74
Dewey, Edward M., 201, 202, 208, trading systems and, 13-33, 40, 41, Longstreet, Roy, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 54 options (puts), 4-5, 9, 20, 31
209 61-63, 64-66 lunar cycle, 208, 211, 212 order book, 7
dividends, 1, 5 zero sum game of, 8 Lynch, Peter, 18 order filler, 7
DTN Wall Street, 119 Futures Industry, 38, 40
econometrics, 121-122 Futures Industry Institute (FII), 132
Economist, The (magazine), 224, 228, Futures magazine, 41,119,154, 201, M P-R
237 224, 231
Marcus, Michael, 51 panic formation, 89, 90, 97
Eisenhower, President, 187,188,191 margin, 8, 9, 67 panics, 3
Elliott, R. N., 147,149 Pinnacle Data, 133
Elliott Wave Principle, 155 margin requirements, 6
market advisers, 26 pivot point (Pivot), 105-108
Elliott Waves, 150,154,155 Gann, W. D., 147,148, 219, 230 market maker, 7 Prechter, Bob, 154,155
El Nino, 196-197,198 gap analysis, 62 Market Wizards, 47, 51,52,139 premium, 5, 20
End-of-the-Month Commission GDP, 186-187 mathematics of investing, 4, 20-21, price-only analysis, 147
Rule, 82, 83 Gelber, Brian, 139 103,118,120 price stability, 149
European Currency Unit (ECU), 161 Globex, 113 media trading, 217-219 Producer Price Index, 87
expected range, 103-110,118 gold, 1, 62, 81, 84, 85, 92,100,134, basics of, 220-221 Psychological Law of 10/20 Per-
135,159-160,164, 206, 207 determining what's important, cent, 22, 56,146
gold bugs, 19 222-234 psychological profile, 27-32
Goldman Sachs Commodity Index intensity of signal and, 234-236 public time, 62
Federal Register, 190-191 (GSCI), 194 logistics of, 221-222 Pugh, Burton, 212
Federal Reserve, 150,193 "Great Con Game, The," 13-15 media tracking system and, 237- Reagan, President, 187,188,191,
Fib Times, 45,111-120 240 193,194, 233
determining, 114-115 H-I-J MidAmerica Exchange, 31, 32,103, real estate, 1, 3
other routines and, 116 113 Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, 47,
Financial Times of London, 161 Hadady, R. Earl, 59 Montgomery, Paul, 136 48, 50, 51, 52, 53
First American Brokerage, 119 Harding, President, 188 monthly brokerage effect, 82-83 Republicans, 185,186,188,194
floor traders, 7, 25, 35-43, 45-54, Hoover, President, 187,188 Mount Pinatubo, 197 return on investment. See also stocks.
244
index
246
The Trader's Edge
(lash in on the winning strategies of floor traders, commercials,
and market insiders.
Wouldn't you like to know why winners win and losers lose?
Equipped with this knowledge, wouldn't trading be a lot
Floor Traders, How floor traders exploit the routines ol the markets.
How to track the activity of big commercial traders.
Grant Noble
the trading day.