Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Buy 5236.25 stop 5231.50. Short 5296.25 stop 5300.75 (filtered out for CPI announcement). 

Tuesday’s results: Buying 5213.00 bounced for 6 points before stopping out one tick from the day session low. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) gains from +7 to +21 with most major world markets leaning Bullish on low volatility.

Catalysts: CPI @ 8:30. Fed’s Bowman @ 8:45. Crude Oil Inventories @ 10:30. Fed’s Goolsbee @ 12:45. FOMC Minutes @ 14:00. 

Quick Tip: Stop Trading?

hemAll trading strategies have drawdowns (a protracted losing streak). The challenge is trading through them. You can’t stop thinking that it may “never come back” or churn for an extended period. Then you get FOMO and think if you stop now it will roar back and you’ll miss the gain. Obviously, these thoughts are destructive. Don’t go there. 

What you...

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Buy 5184.25 stop 5179.00. Short 5296.25 stop 5300.75.

Friday's Results: No trades triggered. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) gains from -50 to +14 with most major world markets flat or modestly Bullish. 

Catalysts: Nothing on the economic calendar today.  

Quick Tip: Morning Routine

Preparing for your trading day is critical. You should have a routine you follow that includes the following:

Review Market News: Start by scanning major financial news outlets for any overnight developments that could impact the market. This includes economic data releases, geopolitical events, key corporate earnings reports, and news specific to the contracts you trade. 

Check Futures and Overseas Markets: Assess how global markets are performing by checking futures contracts for major indices like the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq. Also, review how overseas markets, particularly in Asia and...

Results of Tuesday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Buying 5242.00 ended the plunge in price and offered a 9-point run before chopping sideways for the remainder of the day. The better trade was the breakout short from 4274.25 which ran 32.25 points to the turn. 

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5201.75 stop 5196.75. Short 5291.00 stop 5295.75.

The World Index: (+100/-100) reverses from +29 to -29 with most major world markets mildly Bearish. 

Catalysts: ADP Employment Change @ 8:15. Fed’s Bostic @ 8:30, Bowman @ 9:45, Powell @ 12:10, Barr @ 13:10. Final Services PMI @ 9:45. ISM Services PMI @ 10:00. Crude Oil Inventories @ 10:30. 

Quick Tip: Adjusting Targets

Your trading plan should have a basic set of entry and exit rules. Think of them as useful for “typical” market conditions. You can define typical by data...

Results of Monday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Buying 5311.00 only offered a 6.25-point move. Shorting 5306.25 ran for 24 points but not before just stopping out by a few ticks. Hoping your stop placement was looser. :-)

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5242.00 stop 5236.25. Short 5311.25 stop 5316.00. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) improves from +7 to +29 with most major world markets modestly Bullish on lower volatility.  

Catalysts: JOLTS & Factory Orders @ 10:00. Fed’s Bowman @ 10:10, Williams @ 12:00, Mester @ 12:05, and Daly @ 13:30. 

Quick Tip: Best Option Setup

Unusual Options Activity (UOA) is a great leading indicator of price. 

What are they? Identifying the best candidates starts with an extreme volume spike relative to small open interest (existing contracts not yet closed...

Results of Wednesday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: No trade triggered. 

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5280.00 stop 5274.25. Short 5274.25 stop 5280.00 if price drops below and retraces to entry. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) jumps from -14 to +21 with most major world markets mildly Bullish.

Catalysts: GDP & Jobless Claims @ 8:30. Chicago PMI @ 9:45. Pending Home Sales & UofM Consumer Sentiment/Inflation Expectations (revised).   

Quick Tip: Expectations 

“What are you struggling with?” was the question I asked a group of traders a while back. One woman said she had “expectation” challenges. She felt she needed to acknowledge that every trade cannot be a home run, or “10 to 1” as she phrased it. 

I respected her self-awareness. Expectations is not a commonly voiced trading...

Results of Tuesday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: No trade triggered. 

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5242.00 stop 5236.25. Short 5314.50 stop 5320.25 (same as yesterday). 

The World Index: (+100/-100) drops from +36 to -14 with major markets mixed. 

Catalysts: Crude Oil Inventories @ 10:30.  

Quick Tip: Great Job

Your focus when trading should be on doing your job well. Don’t think that winning is good and losing is bad though. You can do your job well and still lose. Why? Because we have no control over the outcome, only our behavior. 

Here are your main “job” components as a trader: Research, practice, preparation, execution, and review. Your trade plan should be organized along these lines. 

There are plenty of analogies that compare traders with athletes, musicians, artists,...