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Monday, July 22, 2013

Coffee Flash Boom Crash Crash

Thursday and Friday were banner days for ICE (formerly CSC) coffee futures contracts.  Weeks of price action were compressed in minutes.  Here's the background.

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.

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