ESH6 Jan, 20, 2016

A weird day. Big gap down at the open, and for the first time I can recall, the price moved well below the Buy entry and stayed there.

There was unusual trading during the day: the break down below the Buy level was precipitated by a large order (6,600 contracts) suddenly dumped in a consolidating market and covered immediately by an offsetting order 2 ticks away.

This was just at the end of the first-hour range and it had the effect of dumping the market to the lowest price in two years. Wiped out all the gain made in 2014 and 2015. At that point the Plunge Protection Team came to the rescue and squeezed the shorts to pieces..

In terms of trading, if you were going long at Nat’s buy level you got stopped out twice in the morning. But the third entry was good for about 30 points. Not sure if anyone would have traded that, but it was there.

Oil futures Jan 20, 2016

Oil was a different story. It broke the Buy entry — also very unusual — and stayed down for most of the day, before returning to the buy level for the close. Those inflection lines clearly mean something. Still not sure what to do with them.