Key Levels for September 28th the Final Two Trading Days of the Month

What you need to know for the last two trading days of the month...

The recent surge in the dollar's value has corresponded with a significant drop in precious metals, most notably in the case of gold. Gold prices plummeted by $29 per ounce today, based on December figures, breaching the $1,900 per ounce mark and edging closer to the lows seen in early February, around the $1883 mark. This marks a substantial decline of $225 per ounce (equivalent to $22,500 per contract) from its peak on May 4th.

During the September meeting, the Federal Reserve opted to maintain interest rates at their current level. However, Chairman Powell emphasized the Central Bank's commitment to reducing inflation to its 2% target. This stance implied that additional rate increases were still being considered, and the mantra of "higher for longer" remained a guiding principle.

Advantages of Trading Futures Futures Are Highly Leveraged Investments

To trade futures, an investor has to put in a margin—a fraction of the total amount (typically 10% of the contract value). The margin is essentially collateral that the investor has to keep with their broker or exchange in case the market moves opposite to the position they have taken and they incur losses. This may be more than the margin amount, in which case the investor has to pay more to bring the margin to a maintenance level. What trading futures essentially means for the investor is that they can expose themselves to a much greater value of stocks than they could when buying the original stocks. And thus their profits also multiply if the market moves in his direction (10 times if the margin requirement is 10%). For example, if the investor wants to invest $10,000 into the S&P 500 index they can either buy 25 shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) priced at around $400 per share, or 1 E-mini futures contract with a margin requirement of $10,000. If SPY increased to $401, the investor would have made $25. Over that same period, the E-mini contract would have increased from $4000 to $4010 resulting in a $500 gain (1 index point = $50.00).

Keep it profitable,

ProTrader Mike