Any sustainable bull market needs to take a breath and rest up for the next leg. The long commodity trade that has been working for the last several months has been momentarily put on hold. So what to do as a trader? We have taken profits on longs, decreased our long exposure, tightened up stops or in some instances done the unimaginable, gone short. Yes that's right, what investors need to understand is when speculating in commodities it's only a wager on if prices are too high or too low. The contract size is the same, the leverage is the same, the risk parameters and profit potential don't change that much. The only change is the direction. I'm sorry if you only manage your portfolio as long, in commodities you will have some rough patches. As long as the global economic recovery is in question we may get some dollar strength and commodity weakness but we feel that will be temporary.

Over the course of the last 12 months this Gold market has provided everything a Gold trader could want for trading Gold. The market has yielded mammoth trading ranges, huge volatility, and good volume. As a trader I certainly realize these are uncertain times in the worlds economies and it appears the threat of pending inflation has many investors scrambling to purchase physical Gold and other precious metals to use as"Leverage" and as an alternative to buying Stock.

Most Investors consider the Gold to be a "Safe Haven" in times of economic strife. Gold is the "anti Dollar" and with Crude Oil prices beginning to rally once again the Gold Community is settling in for what I believe to be continuous roller coaster ride.

Call it what you want but traders make money on identifying an opportunity and capitalizing on it, not the why. To me inflation is a foregone conclusion, the timing is the tricky party. When you have Nassim Nichols Taleb setting up a new fund to exploit volatility and what he views as hyperinflation to come, it is time to gain exposure in commodities. When China is diversifying out of US dollars and Treasuries into commodities, it is time to gain exposure in commodities. The trend has reversed in most commodities from agriculture to metals, softs to energies and we would advise investors to allocate a portion of their portfolios to commodities.

We have continued to do our weekly newsletters and daily blogs as scheduled but have not done as many topic specific articles of late. We are reaching out to get some suggestions from would be commodity investors or active traders on some topics of interest or subjects you would like clarified. This week we will be publishing an article on why understanding the "Greeks" is important to commodity options trading. Please comment for further suggestions.

Financials

Stocks: The Dow rose 223 points or 2.7% to 8500, the S&P picked up 3.6% or 32 points to 919 while the NASDAQ gained 82 points or 5% to 1774. With May now at our backs we've put in three positive months in a row, marking the best 3 month performance by percentage since 98'. This is an improvement from the doomsayer's just months ago. We've been consistent in our assessment and still expect a 10-15% correction is around the corner. For much of May the S&P was range bound between 875 and 930 and the Dow between 8100 and 8550, will this continue? Although we expect a downward break, the move out of these ranges should signal the next direction.

Bonds: September 30-yr bonds were lower by 11.5 ticks last week; trading lower 9 out of the last 10 weeks. Prices were able to rally just over 3 basis points off the weekly lows so we should get an additional bounce. Support is seen between 116'10/116'20 with resistance at 118'20. In the coming weeks we expect a move up to 120'00/121'00. September 10-yr notes were lower by 18.5 ticks last week. Support is seen at 116'00 while resistance comes in between 117'20/118'00. As for the Euro-dollar, stay short March 10' as long as 99.095 remains as the contract high. As for options we advised clients to buy December 09' 99.00, 98.75, and 98.50 puts. Contact us for pricing. NFP # out Friday; loss of 525,000 jobs and unemployment rate just over 9% is factored in.