CHART COURTESY OF BARCHART.COM
September Coffee has been in a slow downtrend from $1.60 per pound to $1.20 per pound all year long with two short lived boosts: $1.55 to $1.65 in January and $1.35 to $1.50 in May. Since mid-June, coffee has been trading around $1.18 to $1.25. The chart shows a blip on Thursday July 18th to $1.34 followed by Friday's close at $1.2270 per pound.
Date Open High Low Last Chge ----52 Week----
07/19/13 12790 13025 12175 12270 -485
07/18/13 12750 13400 12665 12755 -40 -------High----
07/17/13 12545 12920 12530 12795 +200 07/23/12 19700
07/16/13 12340 12675 12320 12595 +270 --------Low----
07/15/13 11930 12410 11860 12325 +385 06/20/13 11710
DATA COURTESY OF BARCHART.COM
The dailys do not show how fast and fleeting the trade was on those days. To get a clearer idea of the extent of Thursday's "flash boom crash" and Friday's crash we need to look at the intra-day charts:
ALL CHARTS COURTESY OF BARCHART.COM
Oddly enough while the above Barcharts do not show it, $1.34 did print and it was fleeting. The boom started with the decisive trade above $1.30 at 7:21 AM (US Central Time) and then the $1.34 touch at 7:27 AM. Only limit orders need apply and not the $1.34 limit! The first crash was the 400 point move to $1.27 at 12:10 PM and the final crash was the second 400 point decline to the $1.2275 per pound level near Friday's 1:00 PM close.
The dollar value of the 37,500 pound coffee futures contract at Friday's closing price of $1.2275 per pound was $46,031.25. The exchange minimum margin for coffee as of Friday was (and still is) $2,750 per contract or 6% of the contract value. A 7 cent move in coffee (the daily range on Thursday and Friday) equals $2,625 or roughly one's entire margin requirement. Woe to the speculator trading coffee on exchange minimum margins.
