alan knuckman joins from us the cm the. so glad she is shaking her head yes, nodding in agreement. i would be worried if she said otherwise. alan, from from the cme, talk about oil and commodities. we mentioned natural gas is down big-time today, about 4% drop. oil looks like it is hell-bent to go into the 80s, doesn't it? >> not so fast. we made new six-month lows and actually closed positive. that could be beginning of something. maybe a double-bottom what we come into here recently. looking at natural gas i'm leaning for a bit of a pull back. it come back to the breakout area. futures, 4.10 was breakout area around come back to that level. the eng tracks natural gas, broke out about 20. you can lean on that as support level. upside target is still 23. i will remind you winter has just started. david: gotcha. understand. are you buying ung right now. >> ung on these levels an leaning on 20 on weekly closing basis and looking natural gas an leaning on $4 on a weekly closing basis as well. >> kim, year not getting positive numbers and we had one today for strong numbers for dow and

we'll talk to alan knuckman in the pits of the cme. alan, start with you. let's talk about investors in general, alan? what is your sense, all the investors who stayed on the sidelines in 2013. there were quite a few. are they coming back in 2014? >> i don't know just yet. i think they're spoiled by the conditions and they think they missed out on it and don't want to jump in until there's a selloff and when there's a selloff they're too scared to get in. we had a selloff yesterday. dow down 150 points. we came back. 140 points off the low. the dow is not a barometer we want to use but it would be positive if it wasn't for ibm. s&p closing in on new highs once again. when you look at futures, we did not make new highs last week. cash did. i see more upside. 1880 in s&p is my next target. david: eric, let me give you a reason why some investors are skiddish about this market. it has to do with earnings. we put together a chart from earnings from 2013. as you might guess, in a year that was as gangbusters as last year for equities we had above average earning

joining us from cme group alan knuckman and jared levy are here for a round of traders unplugged. great to have you on the show today. let's start with topic number one: sector swami - tech led the way in 2013, what s&p sector is your pick for the new year? alan: i'm going back to the old standby. follow the money. go back to the financials. we're not even at the halfway point of the selloff that we had from 2007-2009. a lot more upside--- those guys know how to make money. it doesn'tmatter what happens with interest rates, they're going to be in great shape. jared: i like the financials as well but i think you have to get specific. don't just buy financials all together. i think you want to watch out for some of the big mortgage lenders but companies like goldman sachs and jp morgan, i think those guys will do well. wells fargo might have a tough time. my favorite sector actually continues to be tech but more specifically cloud computing and server providers. that's where i'm putting my money in 2014. alan: that's over my head. you have to think about some of the things that are

joining us now is alan knuckman of trading advantage, one of our traders who noted it would be a big year for stocks. alan, what was behind the big move? > >it was just a great year. for those that didn't fight the market i made a contrarian call last december when everybody was really negative just from the fact that everybody was overloaded in one direction. the market obviously goes the other way a lot of times and it was a great big year for a lot of bull participants. > >you also made some calls on individual stocks, starting with facebook. this was a stock that was basically left for dead. people were not loving this stock but you liked it. > >i really liked it from a risk-reward standpoint. that's how you have to look at the market. you have to look at it---if you buy it what are you risking it to and what is the upside potential of that play? so facebook had been cut in half so there was limited risk on the downside. it wasn't going to go out of business in my estimation. we saw a big resurgence and also saw a similar thing in microsoft. everybody looked at it as dead money. 3

joining us for traders unplugged alan knuckman and scott shellady. at the bell gentlemen topic number one: gender bender last year hedge funds run by women out performed those run by men-- is it better to go with the ladies? alan: the answer is yes, but i would say both performances are terrible. 10% for women and 6% for menhedge funds did terrible. you would have been much better off to buy the spiderreturn 25% but look at marissa mayer and look at meg whitman. they are doing it. scott: i'm not gonna touch this with a 10 ft. pole. all i can say is these 3 things: 1i'm sorry. 2it's my fault. and 3it'll never happen again. that's how i steer clear of that question. angie: moving on to topic number two: ford in chinahenry ford back in the day said it was better to pay higher wages because that leads to more profits. so what do you think is better here? to maybe buy an etf in china or to actually buy ford stock? scott: i'm gonna stick with ford stock. i'm not really trusting of china and their numbers at this moment in time. i'm also leery of their banki

alan knuckman and scott schellady join us. topic number one: wish list, what is your one wish for traders? alan: i wish people used more discipline. i wish stops were mandatory. when you bought or sold something that you had to put in a stop clause. it could only be a small percentage of your account. no one trade could ever hurt you badly. scott: of course, alan knows more about your trading than you do--- alan: i'm trying to protect you from yourself. scott: i'm going to go for fair and equitable trading which means that i think that the market needs to get rid of the algorithmic traders and the high frequency traders. i think that's something that the genuine old fashioned traders have been having to deal with as of late and i don't think that's been good for the market. they serve no real economic function. alan: who cares? it's one penny here, one penny there. it doesn't matter if you're holding something for 10 years. scott: i've got nothing to worry about alan. you put my stops in for me. chuck: topic number two: level h

it's getting hot on the floor of cme group with alan knuckman and scott shellady ready for a heated exchange in today'ts traders unplugged. let's start with topic number oneemerge urge: the emerging markets have been big news this week. so what do you think about some of the etf's? alan: i think eem is a buy here at these levels. we're at about 38 right now and 36 is at 2 ½ year supporttraded between 36 and 44. we were just at 44 in december. if it gets back to those levels to go to 52. so we got a lot of upside potential with a level to lean on as far as risk. the world is not coming to an end today. scott: it's traders unplugged, not unhinged alan. what we've got today with the situation we've had over the last 15 yearsthis is a buy but not today. we have to wait six months until these things are put to bed and then suddenly they all recover. give it six months and then you can buy it. angie: topic number 2cold cash. how do you profit from the polar vortex and natural gas is not an option. scott: i'm gonna say the way you profit from it is let is pass. i don't think that there is any way t

alan knuckman and scott shellady join us from the floor of cme group. they are here to warm our hearts with traders unplugged. good morning and let's get it going with round number 1. scared and scarred. is the vix sending off signals that investors fear a selloff is coming. alan: i think people are usually wrong and they open interest in the vix is reached its highest point ever. the vix has been below 10 back in 2007it was at 987. so we still have a lot of downside as the market gets more complacent and goes higher. scott: we've seen this happen before and i don't think it's gonna go down as much as folks expect. we did have a non participatory rally last year. i still think there's a lot of money on the sidelines alan: so you're bullish? scott: i think we're gonna taper because it's a failed economic policy, the economy's not doing well. they'll do another stimulus and/or they'll add to the stimulus. alan: i don't even know why! where's the market gonna go? scott: at the end of the year it will be up. angie: round number 2long odds. quicken and warre

for traders unplugged alan knuckman and james ramelli. ready to rumble on our show. good morning guys. let's start with a new gold standard. gold had a deficit last year. so what gives with gold? alan: first time in 13 years that gold is actually negative on the season. i liked it last summer, i liked it last fall, i like it even better now. swiss national bank lost $10 billion because they didn't hedge their gold position which i think number one is stupid, but that's a sign that usually kind of bottoms get put in when you see those capitulation type news stories where people can't take it any wonder. james: right, and you know we've seen that a of couple times over the last year though and yet the price action has continued lower. so i'm not quite ready to jump in at these levels yet. i think there is some more downside here. you know if i were looking to get long, i definitely would not be doing it unhedged. i would definitely look to collar this off, you know, selling up-side calls to buy down-side puts while owning the underlying. great way for me to stay protect

alan thatbring in alan knuckman. we have come full circle.h where we ended wendy 13. -- 2013. >> that was a huge, extended move. people are nervous about how we have not extended these gains. but put it in perspective, we are still at the highs, almost everything of they. >> will we continue to make new highs? >> i think we have gotten very spoiled, obviously. big gains last year. you can probably not expect that for this year. the trend is still solidly up. --hing has changed the throw to throw my optimism off. fear that the market could fall down. >> in terms of fundamental news, earnings are not fun that's fantastic. ups really struggled through the holiday season with a lays and incurring cost from that -- d lays and incurring cost from that. these are longer-term trends. slower pc sales. citigroup coming out. we have had big companies coming out -- >> i don't think struggling is the proper word. we are getting hiccups. things are progressing, things are fine. what is most important to me is how the market reacts. even when we had a negat

beenng me now is alan not -- knuckman. why are you bullish on ge? for distressng stocks.een done 4%. it is a big, big boy. the index has been down. the ge stock has been down 11%. 11% in less than a month. that is a huge dip. from a risk, reward standpoint -- you can look for to hold on a weekly basis. thehe main reason for selloff is because after the earnings came out, we heard from jeff and while -- imlet and he failed to meet the forecast of profit margin and i drove the selloff. is that correct? think was technically driven. the stock it traded between 20 and wendy five a year-and-a- half. 25 for a year-and-a-half. i want to lean on the 25. people are more concerned about global volatility or market volatility, ge is not something that will go away. it is a big multinational here. it is a conservative play, but it gets back up to the 28 level again, it targets another three dollars of that. >> why not just buy the stock? why do you think you will get a better payday from playing the risk reward were a shoe? -- ratio? >> it is the january 2000 $1620 -- june oruary 16

allen not meant joins us now men the forum -- alan not -- alan knuckman joining us.r everybody. they have had some issues with the product themselves. there are some extra transparent pants. why do you think the stock is going to turn around? >> a lot of these issues were self-inflicted. i am looking for a rebound. important point. it is the midpoint of the last five years. 40 is a lot to lean on. we are looking to hold on that. i'm looking to buy an option and have some staying power and wait for a bit of a turnover. i am looking at this as a discount. is down 25%.r >> if you are so bullish on the stock why not make a shorter term that? moreu always want to have time than you need. i'm looking at an option that has five months at a time. that 40 call is going to cost about nine dollars or so. is going to act like a stock. leaning on the 40 level, which is very important. is 60.ide target they will get the leverage the options offer. >> you are ultimately paying for that game -- that again, right? why not take a little bit more risk? >> the beauty of this position is

alan, thanks for that, alan knuckman from trading advantage. for today's edition of "worldwide exchange." "squawk box" is coming up next. whatever happens, we hope you have a profitable day. [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. >>> welcome to "squawk box." general electric and morgan stanley get ready to roll out results. intel misses and offers a weak forecast. that stock is lower this morning and a new report says that the target breach appears to be part of a broader scam that affected several other retailers. it's friday, january 17th, 2014. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe k