Articles

The Dow had a good pull back last Friday – "employment figures" the so called reason why, is not so relevant. If you have a look at a daily DOW chart you will note that it has had a sharp rise since the 3rd week of November, not to speak of the splendid rise since March.

My wife remarked to me at a New Years Eve party that there is a lot of optimism in the air. That's not hard to find at this time of the year, but she is right, people are and have been much more optimistic of recent weeks.

I suspect from some of the feedback we receive that many readers are still torn between media hype and the underlying reality. This is a real issue particularly when you start off trading, but if it is any consolation, even experienced traders are at a quandary at times as to what to believe.

Over past issues Aaron, Jordan and myself have spent increasingly more time looking at overseas futures markets. To step outside your own backyard, in terms of markets to trade, can be a daunting process for a new trader. So what could be an incentive to step forward into the face of that uncertainty? A series of successful paper trading results would go a long way to being all the fuel that would be required, to turn desire into reality.

The Dow Jones is the leading indicator for the global markets and most traders have noticed recent movement in this market and wondered how far it can travel and when we may see a pause in the strong bull run. Since March this year the Dow Jones futures contracts DJ-SPOTV has rallied above 10,000 points, a level not seen since mid 2002. Understanding the upcoming movement in the Dow may give us a lead into the movement of our domestic market. The chart below shows the strong run since March this year.