Quote from tradingjournals:
You seem to know some deeper secrets. Please teach me.
There is really no secret at all. You will find it productive in intraday trading to keep a close eye on the dollar. The forex and bond markets are the big dogs and the equity markets are the tails.
This is most pertinent to the major equity indexes versus the forex market and much less so to individual equities. In the long run, the equity markets could appear to become less tightly tied to the dollar's value if the intrinsic value of equities were to change significantly in a direction that counters the dollars move, but in the short run the dollar and the dollar denominated major indexes should move in opposition, i.e., if one moves up the other should move down.
To simplify this relationship, think of it this way. Assume the composite intrinsic value of the S&P changes very slowly, surprisingly slowly in fact. Now imagine that yesterday the composite intrinsic value denominated in dollars is "X" and the Euro relative to the dollar is @ 1.295. If today the Euro is up @ 1.300 versus the dollar, what should "X" be in dollars today relative to yesterday, assuming the intrinsic value of the S&P hasn't changed? The value of the dollar has gone down relative to the Euro. Consequently the S&P will be worth more denominated in dollars (less denominated in Euros) than it was yesterday. The S&P should go up. And that is what you see on a short time scale. Conversely, when the dollar moves up in value relative to the Euro, the S&P tends to move down.
So if, for example, you see that overnight there was a relatively large change in the value of the dollar, but this was only weakly expressed in the overnight S&P futures, i.e., they were steady or perhaps even moved in the wrong direction, you could reasonable expect the situation to be corrected when the market opens in the morning. Let's say the dollar went up significantly overnight but the futures actually moved up as well. Then, on the open, the dollar continues to climb, or at least refuses to fall. You would expect, with high probability, that the Futures, and the S&P, would fall.
When I am trading the S&P futures during the day, I keep a close eye on the dollar futures (DX). The DX, although based on a basket of currencies, is heavily weighted toward the Euro. That is reasonable since the Euro is the currency of the worlds largest, in aggregate, economy.
Alternatively, you could monitor the Euro/USD. You will notice that this Forex pair moves, as it should, in consort with, rather than in opposition to, the broader US equities markets.
This is why I say the Fed has it within their power to move the markets -- even though guys like deadbroke apparently think the Fed is powerless and that I am nuts. By this I don''t mean to imply that the Fed is in there every day trying to screw us by pushing the value of the dollar around, because Forex market forces of supply and demand have the upper hand, and there are many Central Banks around the world that have a vested interest in supporting the dollar and will intervene from time to time in the Forex markets to do just that. But the Fed certainly can influence the value of the dollar via their weak dollar/strong dollar policies, and consequently their policy decisions do influence the market. We can see a rising equities market without any significant rise in its intrinsic value if the dollar falls rapidly.