Sean Pledger

Last week I planned to investigate charting software and continue researching technical trading, but as we’ll be covering more of that subject this week in class I will peruse that this week instead. On the 11^th the next USDA report will be released so I plan on watching the news feeds closely over the next few days to get a sense of what traders are expecting. This would be a situation where options might be appropriate. If the news coming out on Thursday causes any sort of price shocks like the one seen 2 weeks ago, holding a put and a call on one commodity might be a quick way to make some money. Instead I will try to offset some of my other positions prior to the news release in anticipation of a shock. If nothing dramatic happens then I’ll just pick up where I left off. However, if there is a price shock them I’ll likely take the opposite position once the price has settled for the day. This would be in anticipation of over eager traders running the price above or below the short term equilibrium. For instance, if wheat jumps dramatically up, after the price has slowed its rate or rise I’ll short it.