hey BNTrader..... you've been beaten like a rented mule around here, so why not set up a papertrade demo account with one of the discounters and see how you do.... Xpresstrade used to have (may still have) a demo forex account where you can practice technicals, swing trading etc....
I have held some positions in the following, NEM, PD, FCX and CHK. of course this was not a "day Trade" and these positions are long long term plays. CHK I watch close as Hurrican Season is upon us. I got into CHK around the last week of MAY. There are a few ways you can play the stocks that may be "influnced' by Hurrican strike on the US. a. Short into a Hurrican watch. Depending on the "area" of projected impact. b. Play on Volitility with Options....however, I would only suggest that with a serious options understanding in VOL, because you can get crushed, even if your position is on the proper "Side". of the market. Im watching XOM and missed a good oportunity to get into gold futures during the little dip. I wanted Gold to pull back more for my target, but it didnt.
If you have any other suggestion on Commodities, let me know. I went from trading high flying stocks to taking a little time off to start a record label. Im back in the saddle again, so to speak...and definitly not a pro at trading commodities...its a new world of discovery for me. best wishes
Notice the Banking industry as well. Seems like the BKX has been solid. A mixture of equities with commodities could be a nice way to trade. However, Like I said, my trades in commodities have yet to be straight out commodites...ie corn, wheat, cotton, oil futures, beans, steel futures, copper futures, silver futures or natrual gas futures....... I have equties that are tied to them.....someday I will cut the ambilical (SP?) cord.....someday....
i still have to say that $25K account is lite.... since you should only commit 20% of that at any one time, that limits things greatly.... and a 2 sigma event against you and now what?
Interesting read - I didn't know these large banks didn't have free reign in all of these markets before. Anyway, do you have any links pointing to JPM doing a mass selloff of their future contracts (i assume this is what happened) ? And tell me what you think concerning inventories not being trustworthy. Sounds like a conspiracy theory brewing thats not quite spelled out.
the nat gas selloff blew thru a number of technical stops and didn't correspond to any fundamental event....the selloff was relentless in a manner that suggested a "managed' event was underway......just my view of it.... high nat gas prices really bothered Greenspan and he did something about it... the selloff occuring while some salt dome storage units were so low on pressure as to threated the integrity of the subsurface structures.....
Thats fascinating. Take a look at this: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngs/ngs.html The chart below doesn't indicate any unusual deviation from a drop in storage last spring. Indeed, we went through our reserves a lot less this winter than previous. If you look at the stall in consumption from reserves around Dec-05, it looks like perhaps a warm December or reduced industrial consumption really changed the overall picture. The nat.gas picture will return to norms if we burn through that extra 500Bcf that we have in storage thats above standard times. It could even be a great future option straddling opportunity if we get to the point where a cool summer, no hurricanes, etc. forces us to temporarily lock in wells because reserve storage is full. Let me know if you have some sources for your info.
the whole idea centers on the fact that free markets are becoming centrally planned markets.... I thought that central planning theory died with the collapse of the USSR (was I wrong)...the rationale being that national security is the pretext for a concerted effort to subdue speculation..... example: stand in front of any Central Bank and ask for an audited list of their gold inventory with weights and gold bar serial numbers....lotsa luck
PS: somebody please fix the US Dollar Index which has a weighting of the following currencies Euro EUR -- 0.576 Japanese Yen JPY -- 0.136 British Pound GBP -- 0.119 Canadian Dollar CAD -- 0.091 Swedish Krona SEK -- 0.042 Swiss France CHF -- 0.036 notice what's missing? our two largest trading partners - Mexico and China although China doesn't free float it's currency, nonetheless.....