Rollover

by Larry Levin

The rollover from the recent December 2009 contract to the new March 2010 is, for the most part, over. The December 2009 contract will continue to trade through this coming Thursday, however, the majority of the roll normally takes place on the first 2-days: last Thursday and Friday. As you can see, we haven't traded much on these two days because of the fundamental nature of what happens: low volume dispersed over two contracts for several days.

In addition to Friday's continuing "roll" were a few economic data points. The first was the retail sales number that came in better than expected. The report was guesstimated to show a +0.9% month over month gain but surprisingly showed a +1.3% gain. If the economy is going to improve without government handouts, private retail sales need to improve with one caveat: private spending that makes up the retail sales data should never outpace one's income!

By the way, isn't it interesting that government data showed retail sales notably improving while private data like Gallop polls do not?

The other economic data point was consumer sentiment, which also showed improvement. It was just last month that the consumer sentiment had dropped sharply and now it has risen like a yo-yo from where it came. Instead of a small gain to 68.2 from last month's reading of 67.4, sentiment increased to 73.4.

Perhaps the holiday season that is upon us has made us all festive.



Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 12/11/09

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):


1) VA sell @ 11:09am at 1099.50 = b/e (1 lot)

2) Algorithm positions (3)

3) "Reading the Tape" positions (3) ...combined Secret's, Algo, & "Reading the Tape" total...+3.25



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