(See Above) Monday started out extremely slow and ended up range bound the entire session. If you take a look at an ES chart you will see that we really never escaped the morning quicksand zone which ran from 2048 to 2058. The market had consolidated under resistance at 2055.00 when the system issued the Alert at 10:10, [SHORT – Trade Barrier 2052.00] with an adjusted 3.5 point target below at 48.50. After hitting a 1 point delta target relatively quickly, the market sold down the exact distance to take us out at full target. You can take a look at your ES chart and see what the low of the day was. The System had moved the stop down to 49 for a guaranteed exit close to target if you didn’t get a fill at full target. Total take for a 2 contract trader on that one was between 4-5 points depending on where you took your delta target. The second trade was a nice system call up at a market stall zone, 12:11 [SHORT – Counter Momentum LIMIT 2056.25]. There was little playable action afterwards and they system basically went dormant for the remainder of the session. You should have been able to finish up +5 points or more depending on how you played the trades which is great for a Monday and starts the week off with some nice risk capital.
(See Above) Today we had a light Accumulation Day with a slow moving uptrend in place. The market escaped the morning quicksand zone (which ran from 59.50 to 63.50) relatively quickly and if you take a look at your 5-minute ES chart, you can see how we bounded upward right into the close with higher highs and higher lows. You can see for the most part the Momentum System tried to keep us long all day. We took some heat on the very first trade and almost hit a full -1.5 stop, but things turned around and the trade went on to be a nice winner. (We had some wild volatility to deal with with early on and you can see that reflected in the draw-downs of the first 3 trades.) Today was a day of extremes… 6 of the 10 alerts got you to a guaranteed 1 point Delta Neutral Position or no-lose configuration, while 3 of the trades would have hit full -1.5 initial protective stop-loss if you didn’t take evasive measure to cut the trades down. You can see from the graph above that the volatility eventually died down and things started to smooth out towards the end as the market continued to push higher into the close and we caught a nice multi-point winner to cap things off and put some final icing on the cake.
(See Above) The market tried several times to break free from the Morning Quicksand Zone which ran from 2073.00 to 2076.00. There were 2 attempts to the downside but the market rebounded off of a support layer that was running below at 70-71. Later we had a freak parabolic price pop on super high volume (10k+ contracts/minute) where the market broke quickly above the top of the range, only to fade back down into the quicksand zone on low volume. Most likely this was an Algo Driven Event that got set off. (like throwing a ping pong ball into a room full of mouse traps) After a dull stretch where the market traded in a sideways congestion pattern, the selling picked up again and price dropped back below the morning quicksand zone. The system detected a down move coming and issued 3 separate alerts to get us short, but the short squeeze volatility on lower volume kept knocking us out of trades. Finally, for those that stuck around, we caught the move we had been waiting for as the system alerted us to get short at 2068.50 right as we broke down out of a descending wedge pattern. Price continued lower and ran as far as 62 before rebounding substantially. Today we caught an early winner but had to play defense through the mid part of the day because the market got jiggy and erratic on us. I issued notices through the system tweets on several of the trades to cut positions in half at B/E if possible due to the volatility. Trade #4 ended up being a full stop out but Trade #5, if you played it to full target you made it all back. Three of the trades got you to a guaranteed 1 point Delta Neutral. Today required patience waiting for just the right conditions to setup.
(See Above) Today was a High Traction Day with 4.2 times positive tick exposure. The very first trade of the day was a full stop-out which got the day off to a rocky start but notice how the system got us right back in short at the same level at 2066.00 to ultimately catch the winning runner. That first entry got whacked by a short squeeze pop and knocked us out, but the selling continued and absorbed the short covering and buying pressure in that area and the market finally succumbed to a nice 5 point drop in our favor. The 4th trade on the list got us to a delta neutral – no lose configuration quickly, but then backtracked and wobbled around the entry price for a full 15 minutes before finally busting a move in our favor and running to the downside a full 8 point move. You had to be patient on that one and sit on your hands and let the trade resolve itself. There was general-overall selling pressure at that time with room for the market to move so it was just a matter of planting a protect seed in the market and letting it work itself out. The final trade alert of the day was a nice counter trend Short right up at the highs of the day after the market had gone into a parabolic retrace back into the bottom of the morning quicksand level at 2067.00 for a nice 2.5 drop. Take a look at your ES chart and you can see how the system picked off a nice clean counter momentum entry just within ticks of turning down for a big sell-down all the way into the close. Some traders fear taking these counter momentum trades but they are trades with stops just like any other and with the right precision you can see that we can get some nice tick traction off of them when they follow through. Five of the seven trades you to a guaranteed 1 point Delta Neutral.
(See Above) Friday’s are notorious for “giving it all back” so we only trade the first 2 hours and focus on light scalp trades. (Unless there is a rip-roaring trend in progress that simply can’t be ignored, its better to close up shop early and not put yourself at any more risk for the week) You can see that we caught a nice move on the first trade out of the gate but our 2nd trade was knocked out at a full stop – to finish the brief session at a wash.
Weekly Summary – Performance Stats For Week Of May 9, 2016
Performance Stats For Week Of May 2nd, 2016 – Performance Stats For Week Of May 16th, 2016