Author: Willis Bennett

Gap Up / Gap Down

Daily Continuous

Spoke last week going into expiration a gap can be a tenuous area for technical considerations — that said, the gap that opened trade last night’s is more indicative of a technical reply to recent activities. From a trade perspective would advise caution letting– the market define its bias consideration.

Major Support: $3.554, $3.374, $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086, $4.593, $5.333, $5.496

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Bullish Storage Release — Little Effect

Daily Continuous

First day as prompt and a bullish storage release could not provide the inertia to push price up towards the Feb action as prices ended just about where they started. Must be some indecision by the trade as to how active the market will take the price.

Major Support: $3.554, $3.374, $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086, $4.593, $5.333, $5.496

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March About to Take Prompt

Daily March Contract

Switched over to the March contract as the behavior of the expiring Feb contract is not providing valuable information for analytics. The market will still have to address the $1.00 discount provided to the March contract. What do the forecasts have in store for the market.

Major Support: $3.554, $3.374, $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086, $4.593, $5.333, $5.496

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What Do You Know

Daily Continuous

Wrote in the Weekly my hesitation to print a Daily yesterday and I suggest you read it. Some asked last week when this run would end and I mentioned that it depends on when the shorts are done covering and the forecasts moderate. Guess the shorts weren’t done until later in the day and the weather is still potentially have an impact on price. Not from the Feb standpoint — but the March price. Not sure where Feb is going to settle but odds are it will be at a significant premium to March and that will be where any forecast implication will be felt. Through all that volatility in Feb, March stayed “calm”

Major Support: $3.554, $3.374, $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086, $4.593, $5.333, $5.496

EXPIRATION WEEK

Weekly Continuous

I will be honest with you when I started to write the Weekly report I had just enjoying the Denver Broncos efforts in loosing the AFC championship game (no I did not go rather my daughter and son -in – law wanted to witness the game), so I sat and started to this only to witness a moment in trading I had not in years (Hurricane Katrina comes to immediate mind) so I broke off continuing and decided to wait to publish today (Tuesday) after the fireworks were done and trading resumed – if it did. You now know why I try not to trade the expiration of a contract and mentioned last week that, I would not be trading the Feb contract and sticking with the March prompt. The following was what I was going to start the Weekly with before the abortion.

On last Thursday, after surging $2.293 from last week’s closing price (including a gap between $3.230 – $3.380), February traded through the December high. Prompt gas trading through the calendar December high during January is not all that unusual, prompt February has done that in three of the last four years. What is unusual is doing that after trading to and through the December low (technically considered an outside month). Since organized trading of natural gas began during the spring of 1990 that has happened exactly ONCE before…in January ’24 and the reversal was in the opposite direction.

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Weather Driven Short Squeeze Continues

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Wow– prices started to challenge the highs from December in the after market last evening climbing up to $5.345 where the highs from December were $5.496. A client asked how long will this continue – my response was “as long as the forecasts remain this bullish and there remains a significant short interest in the market”. According to the CME website-volume from Monday and Tuesday hit 1.52 million contracts and open interest fell 40,000+ contracts. The Tuesday trade will likely maintain a similar trend for those two elements.

All this buying has the market approaching slightly over bought status. While the RSI has some room left to rally the price run has challenged two standard deviation over the 20 week SMA (see chart below).

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Gap Starts Trade Week

Daily Continuous

A distinctly negative bias at the end of last week, reversed quickly yesterday based on a significant modification to weather forecasts creating a technical reversal higher. Discuss some of the ramifications in the Weekly section, but the market has now extended the action I expected this week. Still a negative bias but the market will have to take a couple days and trader’s interpretation to gather support for further gains.

Major Support: $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.372, $3.467, $3.554, $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086

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Lower Low Established

Weekly Continuation

On the previous Friday (01/09) February fell $.238 while 1,084,681 contracts changed hands and open interest increased an extraordinary 53,147 contracts. The only explanation, characteristic of such extremes in market internals, is overly enthusiastic speculative short selling. On Monday the late coming short sellers were taken to the woodshed. With February gaining $.240 nearly Friday’s loss, open interest fell 37,369. On Tuesday as the prompt traded the week’s high but faded to a gain of only a penny the total number of contracts outstanding fell another 7,515. Once that bloodletting (buying to cover ill – timed shorts) was complete February suffered a $.299 loss and began the expected decline toward establishing a lower low and testing support bracketing $3.

Weather forecasts over the weekend turned dramatically bullish and the bullishness left a gap in the Holiday trade (expect that gap to be tested when forecasts modify). Prices rallied up to the 100 day SMA before backing off. Would expect that was fueled by short covering after last week’s declines.

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It Was A Lower High?

Daily Continuous

There was a lower high with yesterday’s trade, but I would of liked a test of $3.55-$3.60 as a solid lower high before the collapse of the gains sending price to a lower low. Guess the storage release has a bearish bias. Lower targets have not changed from the beginning of the week.

Major Support: $3.16-$3.148, $3.136-$3.024, $2.93
Minor Support/Resistance :
Major Resistance: $3.372, $3.467, $3.554, $3.787-$3.831, $4.063, $4.086