Power Emini Commentary – Notes – Education – Examples
This is the Power Emini “Notes” section. Below you’ll find ongoing commentary, trade examples, charts and general short-form random posts. This page gets updated every few days, so check back soon.
The Nuances Of Protecting Target 1
9/8/2026
I hope you had a good 3-day weekend. Real quick I wanted to mention that today was another day with Microsoft 365 being down all day so I was unable to get into my PowerEmini email. This is only the second time all year but if you ever email me and don’t get a reply in a short amount of time you can always contact me at my info @ investingsystems.com email. That’s on a different provider.
I wanted to talk more about the new feature where the Trailing Stop “protects” Target 1 when price gets close to Target 2 because today was a good example of how and why it’s a big improvement. Also I wanted to dig in a little further and explain some of the nuances of this change we made in June.
You can see in this screenshot of the Alert Software where the Trailing Stop moved to the T1 level when price got within a few points of Target 2.
The idea here is pretty simple. When Target 1 gets hit and we take partial profits the trade is “in the clear”. That’s because as soon as T1 gets hit the Trailing Stop tightens to put the trade at “virtual breakeven” and there’s no risk holding additional Contracts shooting for T2 or beyond.
But sometimes price doesn’t quite make it all the way to Target 2 since it’s a “way out” Target. Today Target 2 was 20.25 points away from the Entry and price only made it 17.25 points before it started snapping back. Since price got just a few points from T2 the Trailing Stop tightened again so that if the snap-back turned into a full blown reversal, it would be protecting the gains at T1 rather than letting price go all the way back to the Entry and breakeven stop – or even further.
In this case price “snapped-back” 24.75 points from the low near T2 to the high of the counter-trend move. And it could have just kept on going. That’s the thing. We never know what price will do next at any point in time, so basically the system is choosing to reduce risk and “protect gains” by tightening the stop to the T1 level.
Trading 2 Contracts on this Alert would have resulted in a gain of +13.00 points (2x T1). That’s fairly respectable considering the system was done for the day an hour into the session.
But one thing to consider is that today was a fairly tame session. In the past there were times where T1 was say 14 points and T2 was 36 points and price made it within a few ticks of T2 but didn’t quite make it and went all the way back to the Entry. That happened enough times to make me realize that it didn’t make sense to let a trade like that go back to breakeven.
But there are certain instances like today where Target 2 would have been hit if the Trailing Stop didn’t tighten to protect T1. Everything is a compromise.
When price gets between T1 and T2 the system can react in any number of ways. It depends on how fast the approach is and how much time is spent between the targets. It’s actually kind of difficult to explain because it reacts differently depending on how the price action unfolds. There are times where the Trailing Stop might tighten 6 times in between T1 and T2 and other times like today where it just tightens once or twice.
In order for the Trailing Stop to move to protect Target 1 there has to be a 1-minute candle CLOSE close to Target 2. If it happens in a split second spike the stop won’t tighten. That’s one of those “nuances” I mention frequently.
Any time you tighten a stop the chances of it getting hit go up. That’s just basic physics and the reason we can’t use 1-tick or even 1-point stops. As traders we tend to err on the side of tighter stops and today is an example of where that can sacrifice a larger gain. But it was still the right move.
I think the chart will help show why.
Imagine holding through that counter-trend move and watching price chop around for hours and then eventually hitting T2.
The key takeaway here is that the system is going to react differently every session depending on how the price action unfolds. A similar session might have resulted in a second Short Alert but it just didn’t play out that way this time. Other similar sessions the price might have kept on going in that counter-trend move and hit the high of the day.
We never know what price will do next so “taking a win” at Target 1 is perfectly reasonable.
Labor Day Weekend
9/4/2026
It was a good end to the week as we’re headed into the 3-day Labor Day weekend. The market vacillated around for a bit after the cash open and the system gave both a Long and Short Alert. Actually the Alerts were “potential” trades so whichever direction the market decided to take that Alert would fill and we’d be along for the ride on a trend move.
The Alerts calculated “Trade Price Barrier” levels above and below the early price action which are basically lines in the sand. Any directional move will break through one of these levels and the idea is we want to trade in the direction the market decides to break-out. The system doesn’t give barriers both above and below the price action every session – it depends on what price does.
The market finally picked a direction and the Short Alert filled and hit both Targets.
But notice the time that elapsed between when the Short “Entry Pending” Alert fired off and when it actually filled. It took 25-minutes before the trade triggered-in.
Look at the time stamp on the Short Alert and the time stamp when it filled with the Entry Confirmation.
When the software fires off an Alert it’s a “potential” trade and the idea is we want “confirmation” before jumping in. Kind of like any trade setup or a candlestick pattern, there’s usually a “trigger” that confirms the entry and that validates the setup.
Sometimes we get an Alert and it fills on the very next 1-minute candle close and sometimes (like today) it can take quite a bit of time for price to “close past the Barrier”. 25-minutes seems like a long time but conceptually it should make sense that the system waited for the market to pick a direction and “confirm” it before jumping in.
Both yesterday and today the system issued Parabolic Stop levels which aren’t all that frequent, so I thought I’d mention that real quick. Basically they are super-tight discretionary stops that can only show up after Target 2 gets hit and are almost always going to get hit quickly.
The Parabolic Stop only shows up when price gets extremely extended in one direction and is almost certain to snap-back soon. It’s basically there to protect as much gain as possible for any Contracts held past T2 similar to the Aggressive Protection Level. Except it only shows up when price is extremely extended after making a “parabolic” move.
Honestly I wasn’t expecting much today on a Friday ahead of a 3-day weekend, but the market saw some decent action due to the “jobs numbers” that came out pre-market. Both targets got hit before lunch and that’s always nice.
It was a good end to the week Enjoy the long weekend!
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
9/3/2026
This morning was a bit unusual. It seemed like the market wanted to go higher but was temporarily sidetracked by some economic news at 10:00 (eastern).
There were 2 Long Alerts that filled and the first one came within 1-tick of hitting Target 1. When the ISM numbers that no one really cares about came out, price took a quick header back down and hit the (tightened) Trailing Stop. It’s amazing how sometimes one tick can make a difference.
Then for some reason an hour later the market took off higher and never looked back. It was probably news related too. The second Long Alert went on to hit both Targets and then some. The Trailing Stop continued to ratchet and tighten and never got hit by the cash close.
Here’s the chart of the whole session.
The second Alert that hit both Targets more than made up for the first one that hit the Stop. That’s important to know and the way it generally works out. An alert that hits both Targets typically makes up for a full stop out – even if they don’t happen on the same day.
That second alert got +46.25 points of “Traction” at the highs and only took 1-tick of “heat”. It’s interesting that the fills on both Alerts occurred at the exact same level.
Here’s what the Alert Software looked like when T2 got hit so you can see all the details in the time stamps.
There were a few short Alerts that never triggered-in while the market was chopping around and there were quite a few candles today with BIG ATR’s. It was kind of a wild session with a lot of big moves.
A while back someone asked me if we should be wary of “economic news releases” and my answer was that generally speaking the 10:00 news doesn’t have a big effect on price. The news that really moves the market typically comes out before the open. But every now and then the reaction to the 10:00 economic news does cause a move one way or the other and if there’s an active Alert it’s either going to hit the Targets or the Stop – if the news causes a significant reaction.
Most of the time it doesn’t matter and over a long period it will all even out anyway. The market moving “news” we should be concerned about usually comes out of the blue in the form of a Trump post or something a Fed member says or something unexpected and there’s no way to plan for those.
My suggestion is to ignore the news. The price reaction to news cuts both ways and the important thing is that the system is trading in the direction price is moving, so if news creates a big trend move, it’s likely we’ll be on board for it.
The system trades in the direction of the current primary trend.
Morning Trend Move
9/2/2026
Today was actually similar to yesterday. Price chopped around for the first 30-minutes of the cash session then picked a direction and made a nice trend move higher.
Both Targets got hit in the first hour and there was quite a bit of additional Traction past Target 2.
There was something interesting that you may or may not have noticed. After Target 2 got hit the Trailing Stop was still hanging back quite a bit “protecting” the Target 1 level. When price was significantly above Target 2 you would have thought that the Trailing Stop would have tightened sooner right?
The reason for that is because price basically made a straight shot higher for the entire early trend move. The system was waiting for a pullback or “counter trend move” before it decided what level to tighten the stop to. The first Trailing Stop move after Target 2 got hit was about an hour after after T2 was hit and put the Stop right at the low of the candle that hit T2.
Interesting eh?
I decided to go a little deeper than usual in this post because we have a new user that was asking me a few questions about the indicator.
So here’s the chart that shows all the levels and everything that transpired.
As you know, the indicator plots all those levels in real-time on the chart and the lines move as everything updates. I plot and maintain the lines and levels on my chart so we can go back and review what transpired. It makes it easy to go back and see how an Alert played out.
You might notice I included the Aggressive Protection Level on the chart to demonstrate how it works. I marked it in red where it says APL and notice how it was tucked right below the low of the first “counter-trend move”. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work. The APL is simply a tighter more “aggressive” stop level you can choose to use when holding any Contracts past Target 2. It only shows up after T2 is hit and is typically right below the prior pivot low.
The Aggressive Protection Level is only sent out through the System Notes and the indicator doesn’t plot it because too many lines on the chart can get confusing. That’s why the regular Trailing Stop is only one line and it moves to a new level as the Stop tightens.
Here’s a screenshot of the Alert Software today so you can see where the Aggressive Protection Level kicked-in and see where the regular Trailing Stop was at the time.
For the benefit of new users I also marked up the “Entry Pending” Alerts that didn’t trigger-in. The most important thing for a new user to understand is that not every Alert triggers-in or “fills”. That’s why the Alert Banner shows “Entry Pending” when an Alert fires off and changes to “Entry Confirmation” after it does fill.
On the screenshot you can see the time stamps that show how it took an hour for the Trailing Stop to tighten again after T2 was hit and on the chart you can see why my explanation for that makes sense. You can also see how the Trailing Stop moved to the exact Target 1 level as price got close to Target 2. So in cases where price gets close to T2 but doesn’t quite make it, the Target 1 level is “protected”.
One other interesting thing about today is that price just “ripped through” both of the Targets on the 5-minute timeframe. In other words the candles that hit the Targets closed well above the Targets and that’s something to think about. There are other times where price will hit a Target briefly then reverse so trying to squeeze a little extra may or may not be a good idea. It’s a potential discretionary tactic along with so many others, it’s probably a good idea to save that for another post.
But remember, you can always feel free use a different Stop than the system at any time. That opens up a lot of possibilities but for the most part I know most users prefer to trade the system as mechanically as possible. But every now and then “protecting levels” a little differently than the system Trailing Stop might make sense based on what you see on the chart. It’s always easier in hindsight.
I wrote this post a earlier than usual today because the system was done for the day early. Lately we’ve seen plenty of sessions where most of the action happens in the morning and things get dull mid-day. The nice thing about days like today and yesterday is that we don’t need to stick around and stare at the charts while price grinds around sideways.
Directional Price Movement
9/1/2026
Yesterday was the last trading day of August and it went about as expected. There was one early Alert that hit Target 1 and that was it for the day. The market basically traded sideways in a narrow range for the rest of the session until right near the close, likely due to end of month positioning. I mentioned that there’s nothing worse than sideways price action.
Today the “action” picked up and hopefully that’s a sign of good things to come.
We still have a few trading days to finish the week and then it’s Labor Day weekend and that usually kicks-off one of the best times of the year for trading – seasonally speaking. Summer is basically over except the weather hasn’t cooled down yet.
The first day of September turned out well for the ES / MES Momentum System. Both Targets got hit early.
The distances to the Targets were in the “fairly normal” range today and what you see in that screenshot is exactly what we want to see (as often as possible). Days where the market picks a direction early and makes a decent impulse or trend move provides ideal conditions for the system.
The market gapped-down at the cash session open, chopped around for the first thirty minutes, then picked a direction and made a significant “directional move” higher. That’s all the system needs. A directional move and it doesn’t have to be too significant to hit Target 1.
The only way to make money trading is with “directional price movement”. I already mentioned that but it’s so true that I wanted to reiterate it to start this month. I talk a lot about market conditions but it’s important to understand that as traders “we are beholden to market conditions”.
We can only trade what the market serves up from session to session and we obviously have no control over that.
So if the market spends the day just grinding sideways in a tight range like it did yesterday, we just don’t have much to work with. Days like today where it gives us a nice trend move, the system will capitalize on that.
And one of the nice things about a day like today is that once both Targets are hit, that’s basically it for the day. Honestly I like days where I can wrap it up early and go on to do other things.
September is off to a good start.
The Market Action Usually Picks Up In September
We’re almost past the Summer Doldrums and I’m expecting the price action to pick up after Labor Day. The Fall usually presents us with some of the best trading conditions of the year.
This Summer actually turned out a bit better than expected if you consider June, July and August as the Summer months. We made some enhancements and tweaks to the back-end Momentum System in June and that turned out to be a big improvement. So going forward I’m expecting good things and we’re constantly testing and looking for ways we can improve things even further.
I’ve mentioned a few times on the regular posts how the market “moves more points” nowadays than it used to, so keep that in mind. In other words with ES in the 7,000’s we expect larger ATR’s than when it was trading in the 2,000-4,000 levels some years back. Ten points was a big move back then but the nominal number is much bigger now. These days we frequently see 20+ point moves in just a couple five-minute candles so it’s important to keep that in mind for proper perspective. All the numbers are larger now but MES is still $5 a point.
As we get into September I’ll be posting commentary, notes and charts relating to the Power Emini Momentum System and whatever else comes to mind. This “notes section” of the website isn’t intended to be a daily recap, but gets updated with new material every couple / few days. It’s a good way for me to be able to post examples of our trading strategy and educational material to help new and existing users make the most of our system. Check back every few days.
Additional Useful Information
Moving Beyond the Trade Setup – Futures Trading Strategies to help Increase our Odds – In-Depth Article
August 2026 Commentary – Notes – Education – Examples
PowerEmini Day Trading Futures – Automated Alert Signals