While I've said Day Trading is the greatest game ever invented, having to compete with and out think thousands of traders world wide. All while maintaining your discipline through patience and focus, nothing compares to the game of war...the game of combat.

I wanted to highlight a few quick recent charts of how the US Dollar Index positively correlates (moves in the same direction) with the 3-month Treasury Bill Discount Rate.

It’s not the most fascinating topic, but it’s definitely important to know of this relationship, so let’s take a look at a couple of recent charts.

First, a ‘zoomed in’ view of the recent action:

You can view this comparison in StockCharts with symbols:

$IRX for the 3-month T-Bill Discount Rate (short-term)

The first attempt at a top in January ceased to be with this week's close at new highs. For the S&P there is a series of reaction lows in 2008 which kick in at 1,222 and range up to 1,260.

The Nasdaq has long since passed 2008 reaction lows and is fast approaching the first of the 2008 reaction highs.

"No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation." - Robert Rhea

Following up from yesterday’s post “Get Ready for Range Expansion Play from SPY Intraday Triangle,” we see that we indeed get the range expansion breakout trade as expected by the symmetrical triangle of yesterday.

Not only does it serve as a great example of real-time identification and follow-through of the pattern, but we see a similar though smaller compression triangle forming today at 1:00 EST on the SPY.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) chart analysis ;
1) Support mentioned in a past post was "reliable"
2) Trigger mentioned in a recent post confirmed the ABC pattern
3) Apple then had our little GVN (Gap, increased Volume, and News release)
Please remember that I have been bullish on Apple for a long time, but as a trader, I avoid the "hype" from the news media ; often turns into a buy the rumor and sell the news ....