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Commodity Trading from your iPhone

Now you can trade futures from your iPhone! T4 Mobile for Dorman Direct runs directly on Apple's iPhone, providing you basic trading capabilities from the palm of your hand. Follow market activity, monitor positions, enter new orders and revise existing orders with ease and convenience. Try a COMPLIMENTARY 2-week Trial today!

The volatility in the commodity and financial markets has made trading futures riskier than ever. Not so long ago, a person could trade a contract of SOYBEANS and not be faced with the prospect of a 50-70 cent range on a daily basis. Similarly, the MINI S&P, CURRENCIES, and ENERGIES all have become much riskier to trade for the average investor.

With this in mind, we have shifted our focus to the MINI FUTURE contracts. With current markets conditions, it is difficult and perhaps unwise to trade a full size contract with less than $15,000, $20,000 in your trading account. Utilizing the MINI FUTURE contracts can help to minimize exposure greatly, while allowing you to still participate in the futures markets. While some markets, such as the CURRENCIES and CRUDE OIL have mini contracts that are one half the size of the full contract, others such as the GRAINS, SILVER and STOCK INDICES are one fifth the size. While there is still a substantial risk of loss with any of these MINI FUTURE contracts, perhaps one can sleep better with the decreased exposure.

MINI S&P: This morning the STOCK market opened lower amid some disappointing earnings from Bank of America as the bank saw -60 cents a share when expecting -52 cents on low loan demand, and even though IBM beat earnings forecasts they delivered weak revenue earnings that disappointed. On the economic news front this morning, December Housing Starts came in lower than expected at 0.557 million units as there was a 6.9% drop in single-family units compared to a 4% increase in November, and the Producer Price Index data was fairly flat. The market had some news to digest this morning including last night's Republican victory for the Massachusetts State Senate seat once held by the late Ted Kennedy. This victory may enable the Republicans to block President Obama's much criticized health care reform, and has sent the Democrats scrambling to figure out a way to pass SOME type of Health Care reform bill.

The STOCK market is due for a 6-8% correction after the markets magical run up since March 2009 but the market keeps chugging along to the upside as a weaker US DOLLAR and newly minted money has helped investors keep the trend to the upside intact. The Mini S&P just touched below a key 1126.00 support level, and if the market can close above the 1126.00 level look for the Mini S&P to move back up to test 1150.00 to possibly 1160.00 by month's end. However, whenever the Mini S&P closes below 1126.00 there is a chance the 6-8% percent correction is finally under way and 1100.00 to 1090.00 would not be far off. Either way, make sure you use stops to protect your position.

GOLD: The February GOLD contract is getting hit today as the market is down $30 due to a very strong U.S. DOLLAR this morning. The DOLLAR is up 90 ticks this morning at 78.55 with the belief that the worst is over in the U.S. Housing sector even though the housing start numbers that came out this morning were poor. Also boosting the DOLLAR is a belief that China authorities are taking aggressive steps to curb the bank lending in China in order to reduce inflationary risks and pop the real estate and commodity bubbles that have developed there. It is known that China still values GOLD and is still looking to purchase tons of GOLD without creating any attention to itself and what better way than to help facilitate a big move down in GOLD and the whole commodity complex.

February GOLD has good support at 1108.70 and would be an attractive buy if the market reaches 1090.00 or 1075.00 (recent low) and fails to close below those levels. Long term forecast for Gold is still higher and buying big dips still seems to be the play. Any account with less than $10,000 in capital should consider trading the Mini Gold contracts which is 1/3 of the COMEX Gold contract. Breaking through 1145.00 again in the February GOLD would pave the way for a test of the 1192.00 level.

Bill Borkowski is a retail broker at Dorman Trading, LLC. A 12-year veteran of the futures markets, Bill has traveled around the country doing the seminar circuits. Bill works with clients of all kinds, offering support to online as well as full service traders.

Commodity Trading from your iPhone

Now you can trade futures from your iPhone! T4 Mobile for Dorman Direct runs directly on Apple's iPhone, providing you basic trading capabilities from the palm of your hand. Follow market activity, monitor positions, enter new orders and revise existing orders with ease and convenience. Try a COMPLIMENTARY 2-week Trial today!