JimHuangChicago

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: S&P Consumer Staples Select Sector Index Futures ( CME_MINI:XAP1! ) Last week, new government data showed further evidence of declining U.S. inflation rates. • On November 14th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was unchanged in October, down from 0.6% in August and 0.4% in September. The headline CPI is now...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CBOT: Three-MO SOFR Futures ( CME:SR31! ) Breaking News: The US Treasury bonds are risk-free No Longer ! Last Friday, top credit ratings agency Moody's lowered its credit outlook on the U.S. to "negative" from "stable", citing large fiscal deficits and a decline in debt affordability. It has so far maintained the AAA credit rating for U.S. sovereign...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: E-Mini S&P 500 Options ( CME_MINI:ES1! ) Last Wednesday, investors cheered as the Fed kept interest rates unchanged for the second time in a row. On Friday, a soft jobs report backed up market expectations that the rate-hiking campaign is over. For the full week, the Dow was up by 5.07% in its best week since October 2022. The S&P was higher by 5.85% and the...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro ETH Futures ( CME:MET1! ), Micro BTC Futures ( CME:MBT1! ) On March 29th, I published this trade idea: “Crypto Staged a Strong Comeback in Q1.” At the time, bitcoin was quoted $28,348, up $11,800 or +71.3% year-to-date. The main driver was flight-to-safety when a series of US bank failures shocked the financial markets. On July 17th, I published a...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro S&P 500 ( CME_MINI:MES1! ), CBOT: Micro Dow Jones ( CBOT_MINI:MYM1! ) In the last two stories, I discussed how the prices of crude oil, a strategic energy commodity, and gold, a safe-haven asset, could soar at wartime. Extended reading: “Would the Middle East Conflict Push Gold and Oil Prices Higher?” Extended reading: “MCO: Options Strategy to...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

NYMEX: Options on Micro WTI Crude Oil ( NYSE:MCO ), Underlying Futures: NYMEX:MCL1! Riding on last week’s story on TradingView, “Would the Middle East Conflict Push Gold and Oil Prices Higher?” let’s explore option strategy to hedge event risk. Last week, we’ve revisited the event driven strategy and how it could be leveraged to hedge event risk: • I...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

NYMEX: WTI Crude Oil ( NYMEX:CL1! ), COMEX: Micro Gold Futures ( COMEX_MINI:MGC1! ) Over the weekend, military conflict in Gaza between Israel and Palestine shocked the world. I condemn violence against civilians and pray for the victims and their families. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss how the prices of strategically important commodities, namely...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro Russell 2000 ( CME_MINI:M2K1! ) Global financial market orbits around Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions. By concept, hiking interest rates means monetary tightening while cutting them signals easing. In reality, market perception to the Fed actions evolves over time, sometimes blurring the difference between “good news” and “bad news”. • On May...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: USD/Mexican Peso ( CME:6M1! ) What’s the strongest currency in 2023? Hint: Not the US dollar. • Although dollar index has rallied nearly 6% in the past two months, it gained just 2.1 points, or +1.9%, year-to-date, to settle at 105.583 as of September 22, 2023. • British Pound futures ( SEED_TVCODER77_ETHBTCDATA:6B ) was up 2.0% YTD, to close at $1.225 per...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: E-Mini S&P 500 Futures ( CME_MINI:ES1! ) Last Friday was the infamous “Triple Witching Day”, where US stock index futures, stock index options, and single-stock options contracts all expired on the same trading day. These phenomena happen only four times a year: on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. In 2023, Triple Witching occurs on...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Weekly Options ($Q1D-$Q5D) When I first started trading two decades ago, I was overwhelmed by the amount of data that was available. I had a hard time correlating how data relates to price movement. While observing the stock market, I have one question in particular: why does the market often moves drastically immediately after the release...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro Russell 2000 ( CME_MINI:M2K1! ) On August 25th, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered his annual policy remark, “Inflation: Progress and the Path Ahead”, at the Jackson Hole Symposium. The message is very clear: It is the Fed's job to bring inflation down to the 2% policy goal. The Fed is prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

30Y Micro Yield ( CBOT_MINI:30Y1! ), Micro Nasdaq ( CME_MINI:MNQ1! ), Chinese Yuan ( CME:CNH1! ), Live Cattle ( CME:LE1! ) On January 2nd, I published an idea titled “Year of the Rabbit: ‘Short-tailed’ Trading”. My outlook for the new year was: “In the new year, uncertainties will remain the key price drivers of global stock markets: central bank policy,...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: USD/Offshore RMB ( CME:CNH1! ) Even though the Chinese Yuan is not a component in the US Dollar Index, Dollar-Yuan exchange rate generally tracks the dollar index. If dollar gains in value, most foreign currencies depreciate against it, yuan included. When dollar is weakened, the opposite holds true. Foreign currencies appreciate relative to dollar. ...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Live Cattle ( CME:LE1! ), Lean Hog ( CME:HE1! ) Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that US inflation on food items was 5.7% in June, exactly half of its peak of 11.4% in August 2022. Food inflation is at its lowest level since November 2021. Under the sub-category “Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs” from Food-at-home, the BLS data shows...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

COMEX: Micro Gold Futures ( COMEX_MINI:MGC1! ), Micro Silver Futures ( COMEX_MINI:SIL1! ) Is gold an inflation hedge, a risk protection, a precious metal commodity, or a speculative investment? I think it is all of the above. Sometimes it could be one of them, but quite often gold puts on multiple hats, as its price could be driven by competing forces. Gold as...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro Nasdaq 100 Futures ( CME_MINI:MNQ1! ), E-Mini S&P Technology Select Sector Futures ( CME_MINI:XAK1! ) The Nasdaq 100 index tracks the 100 largest non-financial stocks listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Since its inception over 38 years ago, it has become the world’s preeminent large-cap growth index. So far in 2023, Nasdaq 100 has surged 42%, far...

JimHuangChicago Wizard

CME: Micro BTC ( CME:MBT1! ) A month’s ago, I published a trade idea titled “S&P 500: Expensive but Not Overpriced.” The S&P index closed at 4,409.16 on June 16th, placing it at one standard deviation above the three-year mean (µ) of 4027.2 at the time. On July 14th, the S&P settled at 4,505.42, up 100 points and +2.2% within a month. Market data has confirmed my...