Below is a traditional hourly Candlestick chart of the nearby SP500 Futures contract overlayed with simple moving averages, trendlines, and a sin wave.

Below is a daily chart of the nearby SP500 Futures contract daily highs and lows. These highs and lows are plotted in order of occurrence. Simple moving averages of these values are also shown. In addition, this chart plots an oscillator. This oscillator is created by differencing the high or low from the 7 item displaced moving average. The moving average is displaced by 4 items.

This daily chart below shows the nearby SP500 Futures contract's highs and lows for each day. Note that the angle of each line shows which price came first.

Below is an hourly chart that sums the number of SP500 Futures points that have changed each hour for 1, 2, and 4 days. This is calculated by first determining the hourly midpoint then differencing each hour and summing the hourly differences. The result is the 'Points Oscillator'. Note 7 hours is the equivalent to one trading day (day session only).

Below is a daily chart that shows the difference in points from each high to low and from each low to high. An 8 period sum is also drawn. Note the peaks and troughs in the SP500 Futures to the 8 period peaks and troughs. This is another way to quantify volatility.

Below is a chart which shows the hourly range. This information is valuable is visualizing how often price shocks occur and how extreme they can be. Knowing when volatility is low or high is of value to option traders, and is useful in adjusting or dynamically setting 'price stops'.

Below is a daily chart of the nearby E-Mini futures contract closing prices. This chart also shows the 4 day sum of the daily percent changes. Notice how the market typically bounces bewteen the 4.05 and 3.95 markings on the right side y-scale. This represents +5% and -5% boundaries.

Below is a chart of the CBOE's total put to call ratio.

Below is a daily chart of the CBOE's closing prices of the VIX (volatility) index versus the SP 500 index.

Below is a daily chart of the U.S. Government's Daily Treasury Statement. It shows the US Treasury's daily net cash flow and the YTD cash flow along with the SP500 nearby futures close. The reason behind this chart is simple. If tax receipts, or revenues to the Government are up, America is growing. If tax receipts are down then the macro economic engine is slowing down. This chart doesn't tell us if the government is spending more or less and it doesn't tell us if corporate America is stronger or not. Tax receipts originate from many sources such as individuals, corporations, inheritance, trust funds, and other sources. However, if the red line is rising, the Government is getting more money or taking in more money. So you can see, 2003 was worse than 2002 and the dramatic September spikes occur just before the Governemnt closes its books on its fiscal year. As of 9/16/03, the 2003 September spike represents $4.3 Trillion versus 2002's spike of $5.7 Trillion. This means America gave the Governement less money.

On one hand, this is good. We are giving less money to the Government and hence we get to keep more of our hard earned dollars. And if the Government were reducing its spending, then this would be a positive. Unfortunately as you can see, the Government received less money and it spent more (as was reported in the media). So the Government is in more debt than last year.

On the other hand, this can be interpreted as we earned less and therefore we owed the Governement less. In this scenario, America is weaker than is was last year. Both companies and individuals (which make up the bulk of tax receipts) are earning less. So despite the media's hype that things are getting better, the fact is tax receipts are down. So there is a disparity between what is perceived and what is real. This chart attempts to focus on what's real so that any hyperbole can be identifed and refuted.

One simple view of this Summer rally of 2003 is that is was entirely politically induced. Once the first shot was fired in Iraq the market started its rise in late March 2003. The fear of the unknown dimished and we could quickly see our superiority. Then 7 weeks later, Congress approved a reduction of the tax on dividends. This long awaited retreat from the "double taxation" on dividends renewed investor interest in returning to the stock market. In addition, companies increased the offering of  dividends and increased their propensity to announce stock buybacks as they would now increase their retain earnings (keep more of their profits). So investors and companies had an incentive to buy more stock. Then in July, the Government tax rebate checks were issued. This money was was to fuel a buying spree which of course lifted the expectation of increased retail sales. This in turn was why a late summer rally in stocks has appeared, when in the past, this is traditionally the worst time of the year. The retail sales figures released in September and October will show everyone if the Government's "gimmick" will work. Unfortunately, job losses still outnumber job gains and this must be reversed if Government truly wants to fix our economy. As you'll see, these job losses will lead to increased forclosures and bankruptcies which aren't the postive recovery signs that everyone is looking for.

Below is a daily chart of the volume activity during the pre & post market hours. The NYSE doesn't have a pre-market trading period in the USA while the NASDAQ has both a pre & post market. For trading times, please check each exchange.

Below is a daily chart of the nearby SP futures closing prices along with our "Tick Oscillator". As you can see, our oscillator coincides with short term market tops and bottoms. In addition to the oscillator, we use the tick to determine the intermediate trend. Notice the difference between the 4 day sum of the High Ticks and the Low Ticks. When the difference between these two gets too wide, prices tend to move lower. When the difference between these two gets narrower, prices tend to move higher. Also notice that between April 2002 and July 2002 that both the High and Low 4 day sums increased in tandem. This isn't normal and was problematic. How did the market-makers or specialists get the number of stocks up and down in a four day period to increase simultaneously?

Below is a daily chart of the nearby SP futures closing prices that shows how many points changed in a given amount of time. This shows that prices are indeed range bound in the short term. For evidence, look at how many bounces there are in each time frame.

Below is a daily chart of the nearby SP futures closing prices that shows how prices move in relationship to a 4 day Simple Moving Average. This chart shows the closing price movement with regards to the 4 day Stochastic, 4 Day Rate of Change, 4 Day High, 4 Day Low, 4 Day Deviation from the Simple Moving Average. In addition, some major trendlines are displayed.

Below is a daily chart of the nearby SP futures closing prices that shows how prices move in relationship to Longer time frames. The 14 day Rate of Change is also displayed along with the 14 day Simple Moving Average. In addition, we plotted an unusual characteristic not readily discussed. Volatility is generally discussed but what does this mean in the real world of setting stops and trading options. We track how many two day periods have ranges exceeding 60 points. This plot demonstrates that highly unlikely large ranges tend to cluster or increase in frequency near market turning points.

 Below is a correlation chart of the SP500 Cash Index daily range in percent to volume. Note that large daily ranges can occur at any volume level large or small.

Below is a candlestick chart of the 5 minute SP500 nearby futures contract. In addition, there are several simple moving averages and trendlines. Also, note that there are 8 period simple moving averages of the 5 minute bar highs and lows.

Below is a longer term 5 minute chart of the SP500 nearby futures contract along with several moving averages. Each 5 min period is represented by its OHLC average.

Below is a chart that sums the number of SP500 Futures points that have changed each 5 minute period. There are different time frames noted on the chart. This is calculated by first determining the 5 minute OHLC average then differencing each period and summing the period's differences. The result is the 'Points Oscillator'. Note 42 5 minute periods = 210 minutes or 3 1/2 hours.

Below is a 5 minute chart of the SP500 Futures nearby contract showing the highs and lows for each 5 minute period. In addition to prices, the 200 period simple moving average along with the upper and lower band is plotted. Underneath the prices is a plot of the standard deviation. Note low levels indicate the market is ready to make a new move while high levels typically mark a slowing of the trend or reversal of the existing tend. Option traders should be buying options when the premiums are low and this coincides with low standard deviation. Option traders should be selling options when premiums are high and this coincides when the standard deviation levels are high.

Below is a long term chart of the SP500 cash index and the weekly net futures positions as reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Commitments of Traders Report(COT). These data show the actual futures contracts held by different classes of traders. The two main classification of traders is non-commercial versus commercial traders. View these groups as amateurs and professionals. Generally you want to do what the professionals are doing and not follow the crowd. The problem with this is that professionals have more money behind them and use larger stops than smaller investors. In addition, they may not use stops and thus they can sustain large drawdowns and can afford to wait for the trade to turnaround.

Next, their are three items to the chart become apparent. 1. As you can see the raw data isn't very meaningful other than to show how popular futures trading has become. Notice the rise in volume over the years. 2. In particular notice the doubling during Oct 1997. This was due to a major change in the contract size by the CME exchange which effectively halved the original contract. So, traders needed two times the number of contracts to maintain their former value. 3. Notice the frequency of the spikes. They occur every quarter as the contract expires. The open interest drops off after the front month expires and builds up again to the next expiration date ( 3 months later ).

Below is a chart of the actual net positions of the Non-Commercial and the Commercial Traders as reported by the commitments of traders report(COT). This data is processed from the data displayed above. In this chart the Non-Commercial/Commercial shorts are subtracted from the Non-Commercial/Commercial longs and their weekly actual net positions are displayed. Notice how dramatically bearish the professionals got prior to the top of the market. Also note that despite the fact that they are less short than at market bottoms, they are currently still net short. This can mean they 1. expect a bottom is forming; 2. they no longer need to hedge as aggressively as their market exposure is reduced; 3. they are now more comfortable holding cash and they're waiting for the right time to buy.

Below is a 2 year chart of the SP500 cash index and the weekly net futures positions as reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Commitments of Traders Report(COT). Here the raw data is processed into a more meaningful graph. First, each weekly figure is compared to the same week last year. This way we can remove any seasonal effects and concentrate on the net change. Next, we calculated the net long/short (which means Buying/Selling) positions of the two major classes of traders (Non-Commercial and Commercial) and plotted those. You can see that the Professionals (Commercial) were heavily short last summer and now are relatively long. If you look closely, you can also see that they were long in the Fall/Winter 2001-02 but quickly turned short during the second rally during March 2002. This brings us to our current status. Remember that this data is relative to last year's data. So the commercials are currently net long relative to last year or more precisely less short than last year. We know this by reviewing the chart above which shows us their actual current position. However, throughout this recent decline, they have have been buying back their short positions and are becoming less short. It looks as though 50% of these professionals panicked at the bottom of July 2002 but have since resumed the buying back of their short positions.

Below is a longer term view of the trends. This is a 5 year chart of the SP500 cash index and the weekly net futures positions as reported by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of Traders Report. Note how the Commercials reacted in 1998, 2000, and 2002. Remember these data are relative to the previous year's activity.

Below is a Swing Chart of the SP500 hourly Futures contract. This chart finds the highest high and the lowest low looking forwards and backwards a specified number of periods. The red circles indicate the lowest low for the specified periods with the accompanying tic volume. The green circles indicate the highest high with that periods accompanying tic volume. Green does not indicate "buying" and Red doesn't indicate "selling". In futures trading, volume can be represented in two very different ways. First, there is the actual contract volume. However contract trading volume isn't readily available to the smaller investor. The second volume measure used by many futures traders is based on the number of times the price changes. It measures activity in the trading pits. These price changes are totaled for each period and represent the Tic Volume for that period. Please note that tic volume doesn't represent futures contract volume nor is it the same as share volume which is reported for stocks listed on the NYSE or any other equity on any other stock exchange.