On Wednesday and Thursday this week, I plan to paint a picture of our current beef demand and some of the things we don't always look at. But given Friday's action, I feel it's important to postpone that and talk about Managed Money and Open Interest today.

If you look at the MM table above, you can see that "the funds" were adding new Longs/buying Live Cattle up until Tuesday last week. As a whole, they've been very washy in their positions, bouncing back and forth more frequently than we're used to. This would tell me they're very uncertain about the stability of the market at these levels, or they're unsure if it can break the old highs. Regardless, it's a win that they're adding longs again. Fast forward from Tuesday to Friday of last week, we saw a big jump in futures leading to cash cattle trading dollars higher late Friday afternoon. We're not complaining, but what happened? Open interest dropped on Friday's move, on a day the market moved higher. This means shorts(sold positions) were bought back. Whether it was profit taking or hedgers blowing out at a loss, it's not the type of action you want to see on a rally. Combine that with an early Monday rally closing off its highs, and I really start biting my nails.

So MM put new Longs until at least Tuesday last week, and then we started losing shorts to end last week, driving to new highs on the move. What does that mean, if anything? Who knows since they're conflicting in nature. April futures closed today at $239.550 and last week's cash saw highs of $238-$240. As of right now, some believe cash will be higher again this week, and they need that to happen to justify where April futures are trading. Keep the following things in mind as they tend to have an effect.

• Good Friday this week, closing the Future's markets and giving us a 3-day trading weekend and thinner end of week action?

• April Live Cattle Option expiration this Thurdays and First Notice Day coming Monday. Because of this, we really need to see positive basis to avoid losing more long positions.

• April Contracted cattle coming into the mix of kills end of this week and next.

• Tomorrow's Grain Stocks and Prospective Plantings reports potentially effecting Feeder Cattle Futures?

• Front month Oil busting back above $100/barrel today and equities still making new lows of this March move.

Just a reminder to know your numbers and be prepared to protect profit when it presents itself.

-Fat cattle kill at 109,000 vs 105,000 a week ago and 103,000 a year ago

-Choice boxes up 1.13 to $394.10 and select up 1.14 to $391.01 for a spread of 3.09 on 77 loads

-CME feeder index(Feeder LRP Settlement) for 3/27 came in at $365.12

-Fed Cattle LRP’s ending last week settled at $235.35

-Hog kill at 496,000 vs 492,000 a week ago and 461,000 a year ago.

-Afternoon Pork reported up 1.01 at $97.57 on 258 loads

-CME lean hog index on 3/26 reported at 91.18

-CME pork cutout index on 3/27 reported at 96.91

-LRP’s ending 3/30 settled at approximately $90.79

BRAZIL: MG will see 1”-3”… Upgrade account to read the rest.