Chopshop's blog

" We have taken testimony from dozens of witnesses and reviewed tens of thousands of documents .... We have looked at the silver market like we never have before and I think there is a window of success that has been opened for understanding about what has been going on and why .... In 35 years, there has been only one successful prosecution for manipulation. So if you ask me if the manipulation standard in the law is working, I'd have to say no .... We need to be more like the police department and less like the fire department. We need to deter and prevent things from happening, rather than merely responding. "

Phinance's phavorite political prisoner, Martin Armstrong, cautions that "the EU is in dire position", on the precipice of shattering. Since "debts will never be paid and interest expenditures are the greatest transfer of wealth in history ... Western society is falling apart ... If we do not act, civil unrest will explode. The current choice is DEFAULT or HIGHER TAXES & CIVIL UNREST ... Someone has to step forward to save us or we may be doomed. It's time to wake up for this is the future of our children and their children at stake. "

Daily charts of EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDCAD, NZDUSD & USDSGD

GATA must be gulping hard as Goldman, GETCO, Citadel, MS, UBS & DRW announce the purchase of minority stakes in NYSE Liffe U.S., which administers 100 oz. gold futures, 5,000 oz. silver futures, options on gold and silver futures, and mini-sized 33.2 oz. gold and 1,000 oz. silver futures. The long-suspected ringleader of silver futures short-sided shenanigans, JPM, was conspicuously absent from today's NYSE press release. David Simon himself (The Wire) couldn't write a seedier script of flagrant fraud and regulatory remiss.

As the VIX languishes in the doldrums of teen spirit, lulling market participants to sleep before volatility comes screaming back to life, the CME & CBOE have announced a partnership that will create futures (and options on futures) for volatility indexes across a variety of asset classes. [1] CME press release [2] Crude Oil, Gold & Euro Volatility Index charts [3] CBOE primer on just what the heck the VIX actually is

Daily snapshots of AUDCAD, EURJPY, EURUSD, USDJPY & USDCHF

After running firmly in place, going absolutely nowhere, for 29 weeks, the BKX Bank Index is (still) coiling, (still) marking time before it leaps off the ledge. Tik-Tok, Tik-Tok. In the meantime, a very quick glance at daily, weekly & 135 min charts.

While anal-ytic 'debate' about whether Chinese real estate prices have reached nose-bleed territory continues in merry-go-round circle-jerk fashion, there is only one (very simple) question to ask:

is this the kickoff to a new bull market in Chinese RE or a terminal throw-over (cause there ain't anything in between) ?

Brazil's BOVESPA and the Merc entered into a Memorandum of Understanding as Global Preferred Strategic Partners to jointly develop a new multi-asset class electronic trading platform, with capacity to process transactions in less than one millisecond for equities, derivatives, fixed income securities and other exchange-traded or OTC-traded assets. Based on technology derived from the CME Globex® trading system, this new platform will house all BVMF segments under the same infrastructure. [1] Cliffs Notes highlight of the press release in toto ~ [2] Daily & Weekly CME charts

[1] S&P 500 Futures (ES) continuous contract Daily ~ 05:05. [2] ES 514229 share ~ 05:11. [3] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:10. [4] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:19. [5] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:32. [6] ESH10 - Block Buys / Sells of 50+ ~ 05:35. [7] ESH10 Matrix ~ 05:35. [8] ESH10 1-minute ~ 05:57. [9] ESH10 1-minute ~ 07:27. [10] ESH10 1-minte ~ 07:43 [11] ESH10 Matrix ~ 07:44. [12] ESH10 - Block Buys / Sells of 50+ ~ 07:44. [13] ESH10 1-minute ~ 07:59 ... Price action this morning is within a channel that has shifted lower to 1068.75 on the up and 1062.25 on the down with 1072.75 and 1078 serving as upside extensions while any break of 1058.75 would likely test the 1051 - 54 weekly pivot

Derivatives trading volumes in January 2010 were stronger, with European derivatives volumes increasing 32.4% and U.S. options trading volumes increasing a whopping 102.4% y/o/y. Cash equities trading volumes were mixed, with European cash transactions increasing 4.1% and U.S. cash equities trading volumes declining 23.7% from Jan '09. Total interest rate products ADV of 2.7 million contracts in January 2010 increased 37.8% from January 2009, and increased 50.5% from December 2009. Total interest rate product ADV is at the highest level since March 2008 !

Ever go drinking on Thursday and awake CSIQ on Saturday ... the unbeknownst shareholder of some Chinese micro / small-cap spec-crap ? If it occurred between February and December of 2006, you may have been a victim; you may have been electronically raped. Since CSIQ' IPO wasn't until 11.09.06, below is: (1) a daily & weekly snapshot (spanning 2006) of one of my all-time favorite-st pieces of Chinagra crap ~ the shell holding company known as SEED, whose accounting extraordinaire is matched only by the protectionism afforded its sector by Beijing bureaucrats; (2) the DoJ press release (2.5.10) in toto.

(1) ESH10 1-minute at 9:05, (2) ESH10 377-minute, (3) ESH10 1-minute at 9:25 am, into 1st rez at 1078, (4) Market Internals (VOLD, ADD, TICK & VIX) ~ 9:48 am, (5) Market Internals (VOLD, ADD, TICK & VIX) ~ 9:57

As James Cameron's brainchild, Avatar, continues to light up the box office the world over, relentlessly charging towards a date with damn near every conceivable box office record imaginable, the Chinese government has (rather predictably) succumb to the specter of its symbolism and attempted to pull the plug on Avatar's unparalleled success. Good luck with that CFG ~ China Film Group; ask the RIAA how 'that' worked with N.W.A.

The quasi-communist / quasi-mercantilist nation's state-run movie distributor, China Film Group, has pulled the film of the year from 1,628 2-D screens in favor of a biography of the ancient philosopher Confucius.

Felt like sprucing it up a bit so here's a snapshot of what my central 1-minute ES Workspace looks like on TS ~ TradeStation. A look at price action on the ESH10 and VIX across the: (1) NYSE (cumulative) TICK ; (2) TS bid / ask Matrix ; (3) Fibozachi Inflection Bands™ ~ FIBs ; (4) Candlestick X-Ray™ ; (5) Elite Oscillator™