If you haven’t been paying attention to the Cocoa market the past couple of days, it’s certainly been on the move. How big of a move? An 11%, Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs kinda move since the end of last week. That would be like the Dow going from 17,000 to 18,870 in a week!
Category: Chart of the Week
22
Sep
2014
The Top Ten Managed Futures Performers of August
While one month’s performance is no way to judge an investment that has 3 to 5 year cycles, a glance at who’s doing well in the different environments month to month can be a useful data point at times. Here’s the top managed futures performers (by return only) for the month gone by:
Note: These programs are not necessarily recommended by Attain. For a list with much more thought behind it – check our semi-annual rankings (updated July 2014).
02
Sep
2014
Forget the Fed, should we be Worrying about Japan
If the Federal Reserve isn’t going to be the catalyst for interest rates finally moving higher, maybe it will be another player?? That’s the question floating around today after the Bank of Japan made an inconsistent choice (via Reuters).
25
Aug
2014
Trade Commodities instead of ‘Invest’ in them?
Now, some might take that to mean that commodities should be avoided, and here’s where it gets a little confusing – because the lesson from this shouldn’t be that ‘commodities’ are to be avoided and that ‘commodities’ add volatility and reduce return. The lesson should be that Long-Only Commodities do those bad things. The lesson should be it that diversification into the commodities space isn’t as simple as buying and holding those volatile commodities. The lesson might be that they are better for ‘trading’, as Carlson points out, then ‘investing’.
18
Aug
2014
ETF Commodity Exposure YTD
Here’s our monthly look at the various commodity ETFs and how they track a simple strategy of buying December futures and rolling them annually. Plus, a comparison to Ag Traders and an overall commodity index. C’mon futures…
02
Jul
2014
Would you like some Volatility with that Pulled Pork
Despite news of this virus hitting 14 months ago, the volatility has continued especially in the last three months, with 5 more limit moves (4 up, 1 down) to put the Hog market at the most limit moves experienced in the last 6 years.
01
Jul
2014
Performance of 40 Futures Markets Mid-Year
Without further ado, the front nine scores across 40 different futures markets courtesy of Finviz:
12
Jun
2014
Get Ready to Be Long Crude Oil
While not exactly earth shattering news today, more than a few people are commenting on the $1.50 to $2.00 move in Crude Oil today. Perhaps it is due to the rather boring movement across markets of all shapes and sizes… and any sort of spike, no matter how small is news worthy. Or perhaps it is the corresponding news that Islamic militants have taken a 2nd Iraqi city in as many days.
05
Jun
2014
Chart of the Week: The Futures Markets’ Sideways Bell Curve
Drilling down to the day-to-day gains & losses can be dangerous for your wallet and psyche when analyzing trend followers, but when we checked out today’s futures market performance on Finviz we noticed something unique… a sideways bell curve.
12
May
2014
The Russell 2000: The Chicken or the Egg?
All eyes in our office tomorrow will be looking at Russell 2000 futures tomorrow after shooting right up to down trend line today. While some have been calling for the S&P and Dow to confirm the down move seen in the Russell, there now exists the very real possibility the Russell will rally to make new highs to match those two, instead of the other way around.
