Gold, Oil & Indices (Equity & Bond Indices)

I also have found that the ES is best for volume analysis, bid/ask delta. Enormous vol in ES makes for better "feel".

Eurostoxx short some euro banks short... SPX no trade. I wrote will go short RUS2000 friday no matter what... last was already too late. But I am short european midcaps and financials.

I agree and "Standing Aside" is a perfectly legitimate trade strategy. I don't intend to try be a hero catching fantastic moves from the highs/lows. I shall reserve judgment on which instruments to trade but the s & p futures will be one of them.

@Asad Im staying out of CL for the mean time...we are in for some violent moves over the next few days. Especially if the situation in Saudi gets worse, though I doubt it will

I think that Ashraf makes a very good attempt at a very difficult, almost impossible, task. Fundamental analysts (and economists) mostly get things wrong most or all of the time. Staying ahead of the fundamentals curve is darned near impossible from a trading perspective. His style is a little premadonnarish but what do we expect from someone who must surely rate in the very top tier of his particular niche ?

Overall I think he does an exceptionally good job and we should forgive the premaddona characteristic which may hesitate to acknowledge a few failures now and then. After all, by the time the failure is confirmed Ashraf has raced on to the next scenario with his brain exploding with intake of new information from the markets.

I have grave doubts about traders who claim they have some kinda divine gut feeling. The way to trade markets is to utilise the patterns created which provide accurate trading parameters. By all means try to integrate Ashraf's fundamental bias but relax your tight risk control at your peril.

I have been trading crude for some years. Its one of about 30 instruments I trade. In the last coupla months I have about averaged 50% of the range of every swing on the 120 min chart, or 60 min for more detail. I trade the swings long and short with the daily timeframe perspective always on my radar. Very often Ashraf's analysis for the larger intermarket correlated perspective will help to strengthen my general bias but my trade methodology never changes and Ashraf input never ever influences my money management and risk control rules.

I EXPECT Ashraf to get things wrong sometimes. I expect any expert player to be a premaddona :-) Think brain surgeons ! :-)