Wesley Chapel, Florida, February 20, 2008  -- Crude oil futures got a lot of publicity in the first couple of days of 2008 when prices reached $100 a barrel for the first time – albeit briefly – and then edged above that mark. After January’s downtrend fell more than $14 off the high, Tuesday’s surge in crude oil prices has traders thinking about $100 per barrel again. Oil sector stocks soared Tuesday as crude prices convened to close above $100 a barrel for the first time.

"They may have already missed the best part of a rally, but users of VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software had good clues more than a week ago that prices might swing up again despite talk about how the U.S. slide into an economic recession would likely dampen demand for oil and pressure energy prices," said Darrell Jobman analyst for www.TradingEducation.com. The surge in oil prices was due to many factors, which include further dollar declines, an oil refinery explosion that occurred Monday and news of a possible cut in production. Gasoline and heating oil futures also advanced as a result; a testament that no one market acts alone. Intermarket relationships between markets can be seen every day.

By analyzing the influence that other interrelated markets have on crude oil prices, VantagePoint detected underlying strength even as crude oil prices dipped close to the January low under $86 a barrel on Feb. 7 (vertical line on chart), when the predicted short-term difference (red line in lower panel on chart) crossed above the predicted long-term difference (blue line). The difference indicators measure the difference between predicted and actual moving averages and provide the first alert in a three-step process in one VantagePoint trading strategy.

The second clue came a day later when VantagePoint’s predicted neural index, a proprietary indicator, moved from 0.0 to 1.0 (2 on chart), suggesting a long position, as crude oil prices staged a big up day represented by the long white candle. Confirmation came with the turn to the upside by the predicted medium-term moving average (blue line) and the crossover (point 3) above the actual medium-term moving average (red line).

A logical place to enter on these long indications might have been above the interim January high or about $92.80 (4 on chart). By getting into a long position early, VantagePoint traders don’t have to worry about where to get onboard this rally but can just ride the wave to $100 – and beyond? – where they can observe how the market deals with this significant resistance area a second time.

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About Market Technologies, LLC
Headquartered in Tampa Bay since its founding in 1979 by Louis B. Mendelsohn, with trading software customers in over 90 countries worldwide, Market Technologies is a fast growing, Inc. 500, company and recognized world leader in market forecasting. Market Technologies researches and develops proprietary trend forecasting and market timing technologies that utilize artificial intelligence applied to intermarket and hurricaneomic analysis, in order to forecast various commodity and financial markets throughout the world. These presently include, but are not limited to, stocks, stock indexes, ETFs, energies, interest rates, currencies, metals, grains, meats, softs and Forex, covering over 600 world markets. www.TraderTech.com

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