There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Web sites geared toward investors and traders, including the one you are on now. It’s easy to get a case of information overload. I have picked out 11 essential North American Web sites I feel all futures traders should bookmark. Knowing how to make sense of the data that influences markets can be invaluable to confirm what you see on a chart, clarify information you are getting from the media, and in developing trading strategies. They are listed in alphabetical order, not necessarily order of importance.
Bank of Canada www.bankofcanada.ca
The Bank of Canada is Canada’s central bank, and it determines monetary policy for the country. The BOC defines its principal role as to “promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada.”
You will find a schedule of policy meeting dates on the site, as well as policy announcements and the full text of meeting statements. You can compare these statements with those of prior policy meetings and get a sense of how the tone has changed over time, and why. These statements are very carefully written, and typically, the BOC will make only slight changes (if any) from one meeting to the next. Thoughtful analysis of the statements can provide you clues when the BOC might decide to change short-term interest rates.
The BOC also provides a quarterly “Monetary Policy Report,” which is a big-picture summary of economic conditions in Canada, with a detailed summary of the current economic climate and its implications for inflation.
We all have opinions about monetary policy, inflation and the economy, but all that matters for Canadian traders is what the Bank of Canada thinks. The BOC policymakers will base their interest rate decisions based on what they are thinking, even if you think their view is wrong. When you read the policy meeting statements, you’ll notice they often refer back to the most recent “Monetary Policy Report,” and how conditions have changed since.
The Bank of Canada employs many respected economists who provide a multitude of reports and white papers as well. You’ll find all kinds of unique and detailed information on the site. If you trade the Canadian dollar, bonds and/or Canadian stock indexes, you’ll want to visit the BOC Web site.
Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com
There are dozens of news Web sites, and there is really no real reason to pay for news today. The Bloomberg.com site is the fist site I check every morning to get an overview of what’s going on in the markets. Bloomberg’s reporters seem generally balanced, and the site offers a variety of audio and video clips in addition to written articles. You could spend the entire day on the Bloomberg site and not get through all the news. You’ll also find economic data release calendars with analysts’ forecasts, commodity quotes, and extensive information on stocks, including PE ratios, earnings estimates, and more.
Of course there are also good sites such as Reuters and Dow Jones, but Bloomberg is particularly focused toward active traders and investors, and is a good place to start
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) www.bea.gov
The BEA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and focuses on a collection of economic indicators. The BEA “produces economic accounts and statistics that enable government and business decision-makers, researchers and the American public to follow and understand the performance of the nation’s economy.”
It’s a good site for deeper research on topics such as how gross domestic product has progressed in the country. The data it provides is fairly thorough. However, I don’t find this site the most user-friendly. It can be difficult to find the information you are looking for. But if you trade currencies, bonds, stock indexes or other financial instruments, this site will help you get the full story on U.S. economic conditions if you do a bit of searching.
CME Group www.cmegroup.com
All traders should spend some time on the exchange Web sites for the products they are trading, and CME Group has done a fantastic job consolidating information about their products. It’s in the exchange’s interest to get traders interested in their products, so they give you as many tools as possible to make that easier to do so.
Not only will you find contract specifications and other information about each product, you’ll also find a variety of useful educational materials. The CME Group education section contains various tutorials, webinars, and articles, sorted by topic. The exchange explains just about anything you can think of related to trading futures, from spread markets, to margin calculations to carry trades. You’ll find all the logistics you need to know to trade these markets on the CME Group Web site, including real-time and historical data, charts, and daily market commentary, all in one place. I’ve come up with a number of different trading strategies just by surfing this site. It’s a great place to generate trading ideas.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) www.eia.doe.gov
The EIA Web site is the place to go for information on the energy markets. Petroleum inventory data is released weekly on Wednesdays, while natural gas data is released on Thursdays. You will see highlights of the reports as well as more detailed explanation of what went into the numbers, including reasons a number might be higher or lower than expected.
You can also pull data from Excel-based reports on the sites, and see weekly stocks in the form of a spreadsheet. If you are handy with Excel, you can build models based on this data and update them weekly. There is a lot more that goes into these releases than just a bottom-line number, and you can dive deeper here. For example, the natural gas report shows storage levels and includes charts that show how storage varies at different times of the year.
The EIA also provides long-term and bigger-picture information. It provides forecasting and analysis, including energy outlooks containing factors influencing the markets, both in the U.S. and on an international scale. There is a variety of information on other energy sources on the site as well, including renewable energy, electricity, renewable fuels and coal. Half of the electricity generated in the United States is coal-powered, and it competes with natural gas.
The EIA has the resources to conduct fairly detailed analysis that private sector analysts might not to be able to do. If you trade crude oil or natural gas, this site is a must-read.
Federal Reserve www.federalreserve.gov
This is the central bank of the United States, its monetary-policy-making body. There are 12 Federal Open Market Committee members representing the 12 regional Fed districts, and seven members serve on its Board of Governors. This is the group that makes key decisions affecting the cost and availability of money and credit in the economy. Every time Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a speech, you’ll find the full text of it posted here. You can often even see the text of the speech online before he finishes giving it live.
All FOMC meetings are announced here, and you can see a schedule as well as previous statements. This is the place to find out what the FOMC is saying about monetary policy and the economy in the U.S. They also release minutes of their meetings a few weeks later, so you can get clearer insight into the thinking and tone behind their decisions.
ICE Futures Exchange www.theice.com
If you trade softs markets, this is the place for information on trading coffee, orange juice, cotton, sugar, and cocoa. The ICE has a unique list of global commodities products, including Canadian canola and barley futures. It also has other unique global futures contracts, including brent and WTI crude, Russell indexes and the U.S. dollar index .The U.S. dollar index contract represents the U.S. dollar’s standing against a basket of six global currencies, and is a common benchmark for traders to gauge and trade their opinion about the standing of the U.S. dollar.
Statistics Canada www.statcan.gc.ca
Even if you trade only U.S.-based agriculture and/or energy products, it’s important to know what’s going on in all of North America, because the commodities markets are truly North American markets. While the EIA site mentioned previously reports U.S. energy statistics, most of the natural gas and crude oil in North America is actually produced in Canada. So if you are looking at U.S. data only, you really aren’t getting the full picture of the global market. Statistics Canada can help complete the picture.
Statistics Canada conducts a Census every five years, as well as about 350 active surveys on virtually all aspects of Canadian life. For traders, four major reports on the economy are of greatest interest: the Labor Survey, a monthly report on employment conditions, the Merchandise Trade Report, covering foreign investment, and the Consumer Price Index, which represents inflation trends at the consumer level.
Statistics Canada also has all sorts of information about the state of the energy industry, the auto sector and agriculture in Canada. It’s important to be able to find this information, and this is a good place for commodities traders to visit.
St Louis Federal Reserve Economic Research www.research.stlouisfed.org
In the U.S., the nation’s central bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, is located in Washington, and there are 12 Fed regional district banks around the country. Each bank has a unique role within the Fed system. Each has a unique Web site with interesting information.
I’ve found the St. Louis Fed’s site offers a wealth of great statistics on the U.S. economy in a very user-friendly format, including charts you can adjust and customize to view data in different ways. The site has a wide range of statistics including the U.S. money supply, savings rates, balance of payments and unemployment. Almost any economic data you can think of is here in graphic form. If someone you see on television says there is a lot of money being printed in the U.S., you can come here to find out if that’s true, and how much.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Hurricane Center (NOAA) www.nhc.noaa.gov
I watch this site closely every year between August and November, the Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricanes are probably the biggest factor affecting crude oil and natural gas during those months. The Gulf of Mexico contains tremendous amounts of energy infrastructure; ports that offload crude oil, drilling platforms in the ocean, and a network of pipelines that can be disrupted. If it appears there is potential for a hurricane to hit the Gulf (even if it doesn’t), the oil and gas companies will evacuate drilling platforms, disrupting the flow of energy.
The NOAA’s Web site displays tropical depressions forming on the Atlantic high seas before they become hurricanes, which I find the traditional media is typically late to report. The NOAAl provides frequent updates on these depressions, and the likelihood that they are expected to become tropical storms or hurricanes. You can get automatic email updates too.
There are also reports on storms forming in the Eastern Pacific. Often the public might hear news about a developing hurricane, but it’s important to know whether the hurricane is an actual threat to the energy production region in the Gulf, or will have no real impact. Sometimes the markets will react to irrelevant news of a storm that doesn’t materialize and/or doesn’t impact energy production.
The NOAA site also provides a longer-term forecast of likely hurricane activity a few months before the season begins. During the season, this site is worth visiting regularly if you are an energy trader, or trade other agricultural markets that might be affected by hurricanes.
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) www.usda.gov
This site is the launch pad for U.S. agricultural data. There are a host of economists working for the U.S.D.A who provide more information than you’ll ever hear or read about in the news. You can develop your own interpretation of the information. Generally news services like short bits of data to create excitement around, but as a trader, you want thorough information, not necessarily a sound bite. You’ll find detailed information behind the numbers here; not just the hype. The USDA crop progress reports and outlooks are closely watched by grains traders throughout the North American growing season.
The great thing about this day and age is that there is so much information at your fingertips, and it’s all free. In the futures market, we truly have a level playing field. Not all traders use it, but it’s at your disposal, if you choose to seek it out.
Aaron Fennell is a Senior Market Strategist based in Lind-Waldock’s Toronto office, and is serving clients in Canada. If you would like to learn more about futures trading you can contact him at 877-840-5333, or via email at afennell@lind-waldock.com.
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