Trading System Signals on 01-26-2026

The daily dollar range in Silver futures (SI) today was $80,000. Silver futures made a high at 1:04 pm EST and then made a new low at 4:37 pm EST to expand its daily range. While the quotes show it was up +2.52% on the day, it gave back $80,000 per futures contract in 3 hours and 33 minutes. This is an 8% move on a $1 million trading account. Silver futures moved in a $16 range today which is about 50% of its lowest price in 2025.

The value of a Silver futures contract at its peak today was $588,500 when it was close to $118. The SIL contract which is 1/5th of the value had a value of $117,700 at its peak with a dollar range of $16,000. The moves we are seeing in Silver are unprecedented and very large stop losses of $10-20K per contract would be a consideration in this type of daily range for Silver (SI) futures. These stop losses would have to be stop limit orders that may not get filled and monitored around the clock (or while in the trade) to manually manage, and chase with a limit order in case this market made a fast move and leaped past your stop limit order. Stop loss and market orders aren't accepted in this type of market environment.

"Investing" or long-term trend trading in Silver, if you don't already have a position, would need a risk tolerance that could handle a pullback to the $35-$50 level which would be $55K-$70K risk trading only one Micro Silver (SIL). This is a 5.5 - 7.0% risk on a One Million Dollar Account trading 1 Micro Silver.

The equivalent point value move in the E-mini Nasdaq futures to get the same dollar range of Silver (SI) futures today would be 4,000 points.

Gold traded above $5,000 per ounce for the first time ever in today's trade.

In general, what looks like a massive trading opportunity is more of an illusion in this type of market environment. If you hold Silver long term and already had a long-term position, and can withstand large swings, then this move would have been beneficial. Trying to trade it now or trying to take a new position in the futures would require some larger than average risk tolerance and capital.

With Gold trading above $5,000 today and a very long term history of the Gold to Silver ratio being 10:1, some are calling for a price of $400-$500 in Silver. Anything is possible in the futures market and a Global Reset for currencies and inflation could take it there.

I wanted to outline the latest risks when trading these markets.

While the metals are surging and traders look ahead this week to FOMC, big cap tech earnings, and a potential government shutdown, the VIX is at 16.19 and the stock indexes remain directionless and stagnant overall since October.

Another Sunday night gap down was bid up to Friday's close in the pre-market with a slow drift higher during the day session, followed by mean reversion into this close. Stock indexes have a holiday feel with the cold weather "shutdowns" in many parts of the country.

Steady state markets with some tone are the type of markets that we prefer to day trade with algorithms. The precious metals are anything but steady state while the stock indexes have been stagnant and toneless in their overall price action this year.

The hypothetical trading system signals for 01-26-2026:

Diversified Portfolio 57 (NQ Only) = +$215

Stock Index Portfolio 37 = +$215

Stock Index Portfolio 18 = -$695

Two System Portfolio NQ = -$830

Silver Portfolio = -$7,150

50K Portfolio = +$155 (without Gold and Silver)