Human Traders Absent As Algo Computers Trade Today

Closing Market Commentary For 08-14-2012

Markets closed mostly down to flat after moving sideways in a tight trading range for most of the day. Around 3:20 pm the markets broke down and out of the morning lows and continued down with moderate volume. As the markets came up on the 1 minute to go mark the ‘BTFD dippers’ jumped in and recovered some losses. Personally, I don’t believe there are any humans trading today as the action and buy and retreats look like HFT. I wish someone would do some research on ‘WHO’ is in the market and send it to me.

The DOW is still going sideways, the 500 is melting up slightly notably SPY and $RUT made new highs but couldn’t keep them. Strange market and even stranger results that don’t look human.

The RRR** signal at the opening was O.K., not good but O.K. If you guessed down early this morning, you would be in pig heaven if you guessed to sell at the 3:55 minute mark before it went up again. The key word here is ‘guess’ and I guess that the market will fluctuate tommorrow.

Interesting read in that we are at or very near to an important market top.

“The S&P is less than 1% below the high from April 2 of this year. Whether we exceed that peak by a little or not is probably unimportant. . .”

@dailyfx:

“Trading ranges have been tight, again, as market participants have seemingly disappeared over the past several weeks.

ADVFN reported that:

“trading was light in the overnight as volumes declined across Europe, suggesting that many market participants remain on the sidelines during the summer doldrums. Indeed, such soft trading conditions have led to volatility dropping to historic lows, which although has typically meant a relief in financial stresses on the horizon and thus a risk-friendly environment, little upside progress has been made by risk-sensitive currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand Dollars or by the Euro over the past several days.”

Sure, and my research, which is better than their research, indicates I am going to be very rich someday . . . . Right after I am elected President! (Hummm, King has a nice ring to it.)

Research shows that high frequency trading benefits the market

In contrast to claims that high frequency trading has damaging effects on the market, new research has discovered the exact opposite: that it actually benefits the market. The findings come from the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre (CMCRC), an independent academic centre for capital market research, based in Australia, which also found that dark pools may be cause market damage.

read more

The DOW at 4:00 is at 13172 up 2.71 or 0.02%.

The 500 is at 1403.93 down 0.18 or 0.01%.

The $RUT is at 796.88 down 2.61 or -0.33%.

SPY is at 140.76 down 0.01 or 0.01%.

The trend is fractionally positive and the current bias is down.

WTI oil is at 93.45 trading between 92.60 and 93.94 and the bias is neutral.

Brent crude is at 114.11 trading between 113.20 and 114.29 and the bias is neutral.

Gold is down today at 1599.11 trading between 1614 and 1590 with a neutral bias.

Read a bearish report here: Dr. Copper’s Head & Shoulders

Dr. Copper is at 3.35 down from 3.38 earlier.

Earlier the USD rose from 82.61 to 82.58 and currently trading in a very choppy fashion and is at 82.56.

The 500 at the close.

The $RUT at the close. Notice that it stopped at the 50 day MA.

The SPY at the close.

The DOW at the close.

More headlines from Europe read, Political/policy risks in the EZ are rising and Five years on, the Great Recession is turning into a life sentence.

Jobs Growth and Population Growth: Facts and Consequences

Keynesian clowns are concerned about the decline in government jobs in the past few years. They want the government to step up spending and hire more workers to make up for the loss of jobs in the private sector. Here is a chart from reader Tim Wallace that will help put the recent loss of government jobs in a better perspective
More…

Question?

If Stimulus Works, How Come We Need More Of It?

** RRR = Risk Reward Ratio

To contact me with suggestions or deserved praise:

[email protected]

Written by Gary