Power Trading Radio

Straight from teaching an Online Trading Academy Platform Immersion course in Irvine California, Derek Zelek joins Merlin to talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of automating trading strategies.  Many traders believe automation is the secret to consistency as well as removing emotions from their trading.  Merlin and Derek show a couple of examples of automated strategies and are quick to point out the shortcomings and flaws in the data that many traders input.

Minyanville.com CEO Todd Harrison joins Merlin and John to talk about socionomics and the financial markets. After a look at social mood factors which impact the markets, the trio look at look at a wide variety of current issues including the mess in Cyprus and a look at how the hedge fund industry has adapted to market changes, a lesson that all proprietary traders should learn!

Diana Hill joins Merlin to talk about the surprising lack of housing inventory, leading to bidding wars in parts of the country. This is a stark contrast to the expectations of Massive shadow inventory just a couple years ago! This market stability has helped the financial markets rally to historical highs, and possibly eclipse them! Diana talks about how china has entire cities which are empty, representing a different type of inventory: Ghost Inventory!

Tillie Allison joins Merlin for a look at the futures markets and the origins of her nickname “10 Tick”. Tillie addresses some of the money management issues she addressed early on as well as how she handled adjustments to her trading style based off of missing trades. In many cases, trades were missed by a only one tick, which is a problem for many traders. Tillie also talks briefly about how she could see her orders on the dome in the futures market.

With one day until a bevy of FOMC announcements, Merlin dives into a bunch of listener questions across several different asset classes. To begin with, Merlin takes a look at the current market setup, with a big focus on the issues facing Cypress and their banking situation. Next, he looks at what some of the risks are for trading Futures in the overnight session, which includes the indexes and currencies. Finally, a look at the broke relationship between the Euro and the S&P500 and what it may mean for markets going forward.

Scott McCormick and Merlin kick things off with a look at some important risk & money management lessons from their trading pasts and what traders should do to avoid these mistakes. Later, Scott offers some insights into multiple time frame analysis before drawing some great parallels to the market cycles from 1960-1982. A cycle that is very similar to what we are seeing in our current market.

Alan Hall began studying Elliott wave analysis and socionomics after meeting Bob Prechter in 1995. Alan’s grasp of socionomics made it easy for him to recognize the escalating housing mania, thus in 2004 he closed his building business and soon joined the Elliott Wave International staff as a writer. He received his degree in Fine Arts from Berry College, graduating into the world of the 1970s bear market. His range of job experiences spans from outdoor therapeutic counselor to decades as a custom homebuilder/designer. Alan wrote the lead articles for the inaugural issues of The Socionomist in May and June 2009. Since then, his article topics have showcased the wide range and deep applicability of the socionomic perspective. Alan has traveled widely, and been a contributor to Global Market Perspective, The European Financial Forecast and The Elliott Wave Theorist. Alan does a wide variety of research aimed at demonstrating the utility of socionomic theory.

Bob Dunn joins Merlin to talk about how, as a floor trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he anticipated traders actions as markets approached key levels. This was done with a combination of news headlines as well as watching the actions of his fellow traders as they lured in unsuspecting traders. Once they brought in as many people as possible, they would work to shake them out! Bob also goes on to talk about the recent market activity and how he would trade it going forward, especially with the gap that happened today!

The VIX hit an intraday low of 11.83, levels not seen in over 6 years! This makes buying options on the major market indexes very inexpensive! If you feel that the markets are a bit frothy, and might correct a bit, you should look to options for insurance! Steve Moses joins Merlin to talk about market volatility and his most recent posting in Power Trader Nation, in which he maps out a nice trade on PCP which might be of interest to traders. Steve and Merlin also talk about “the Greeks” and their significance on options trading before moving onto current market analysis.

Currency trader Steve Misic joins Merlin to talk a little bit about his weekly blog on Power Trading Nation, which highlights 7 different securities over a variety of asset classes. Focus shifts to the Pound which has been dropping like a stone due to so some bad economic data, then onto the US dollar vs. the Yen which has been taking off and has showed no signs of stalling out yet! Steve and Merlin look at key levels and offer trading tips, all with a strict emphasis on risk management!