Monday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Neither trade suggestion triggered. 

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

Short 3843.25 stop 3849.00. Buy 3792.25 stop 3786.50.

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) DROPS from +50 to +7 in a world of mixed sentiment and low volatility. Historically there is no edge with this score. 

Catalysts: Nothing on the economic calendar. Elections and CPI on Thursday are the drivers this week. 

Quick Tip: Fear & Greed Solved?

Money messes with our heads. Until you get a grip on the emotions associated with trading, you’re unlikely to succeed. 

Here’s a viewpoint I learned from one of the all-time great traders, Larry Williams: “More money is lost due to overstaying positions (greed) than exiting due to the fear of losing money.” 

Fear is solved by using stops that lose an amount of money...

Friday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Neither trade suggestion triggered. 

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

Short 3843.25 stop 3849.00. Buy 3728.25 stop 3724.00.

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) EASES from +64 to +50 with most major world markets bullish. Historically the market closes lower from the open 54% of the time. 

Catalysts: Nothing on the economic calendar. Elections and CPI on Thursday are the drivers this week. Tech layoffs, lowered earnings estimates. 

Quick Tip: Intra-day Trend

If you look at a 15-minute chart of the S&P Futures from Friday you wouldn’t call it a “trending” day. It was smoothly higher during the Globex session and then reacted violently to the payrolls report swinging down, up, down, up, down and ending modestly up. 

Trend is time-frame dependent, though. In our trading room we use a proprietary...

Tuesday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Buying the 3886.00 level only offered a 9.25-point gain. Shorting the breakout offered a 28.25-point runner.  

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

Waiting on FOMC to determine potential turning points. Join us for LIVE trading during the announcement @ 2PM ET. Click here to register for this free demo. 

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) PLUMMETS from +86 to +7 in a world of mixed sentiment. Historically it’s a coin toss on direction. No edge.  

Catalysts: Maybe ADP Employment Report @ 8:15. EIA Petroleum Status Report @ 10:30. FOMC Announcement @ 14:00 and Press Conference @ 14:30. 

Quick Tip: Gold on FOMC

FOMC today. The mother of all catalysts. The stock market indexes will react violently offering some great opportunities if you’re willing...

Monday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Narrow range day yesterday, neither trade idea triggered. 

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

Short 3966.50 stop 3971.25. Buy 3886.00 stop 3880.25

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) SOARS from zero to +86 with all major world markets bullish, especially China/Hong Kong. Historically the close is higher than the open 63% of the time. 

Catalysts: PMI MFG Final @ 9:45. ISM MFG Index, Construction Spending & JOLTS @ 10:00. Dollar eases. Yield curve near recession warning. Waiting on FOMC Wednesday. 

Quick Tip: The Big Problem

Are you working on solving it? Most traders aren’t.  Why? Because it’s hard. It’s a challenge. It’s the single most impactful change you can make to improve your trading performance. Most people would do anything else rather than solve the one problem that...

Friday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested short level was only good for a 7.25-point scalp. 

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

Short 3966.50 stop 3971.25. Buy 3849.50 stop 3843.75. 

The World Sentiment Index: (+100/-100) SOARS from -64 to zero in a world of mixed sentiment. Historically it’s coin toss where we’ll end up. No edge to report.  

Catalysts: Chicago PMI @ 9:45. Waiting on FOMC Wednesday. 

Quick Tip: Exit Art

In teaching over 4000 traders in the past 13 years I’ve found the most common goal is finding better trade setups. It seems we naturally want to know when, where and with what are we going to get started. Entry rules. 

The fact is that entries are easy to find. Investing much of your research time on finding better entries is not nearly as productive as finding better exits. 

Why?...

Thursday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: Neither suggested level triggered. 

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

Short 3841.00 stop 3846.25. Buy 3723.50 stop 3717.75. 

Quick Tip: Belief #1

Success at trading, at anything, is formulaic. No one stays successful at anything without a proven formula to follow. What’s yours? 

You may think it’s your trade plan. You may think you need the hottest strategies, the best broker, more risk capital, and better sources of information. All that surely helps but the foundation for your success starts within you. It’s your belief. 

Do you honestly believe you can become a top-notch trader? Or are you thinking of giving it a try?

Trying isn’t enough to overcome the challenges of anything worthwhile. It’s a negative belief. Knowing you’ll succeed is a positive...

Wedneday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: The suggested short @ 3869.50 was only good for a 7.50-point move. The breakout from that level ran for 19.00 points to the next level.  

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

Short 3923.25 stop 3928.25. Buy 3792.25 stop 3787.00

Quick Tip: A Bag Full

Legendary golf coach Harvey Penick wrote in his best-selling Little Red Book that you could build a solid game of golf around ONE CLUB. The 7-iron. Amazing and true. More importantly, his wisdom can be applied to trading. 

Your email, like mine, is probably jammed with dozens of “how to trade” offers every day. Your choices for learning strategies, getting trained, and building your trading skills are endless. In fact, you’re probably CONFUSED. Too many choices leads to indecision. 

If Harvey were coaching you he would probably say...

Monday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: :Neither volume level triggered. 

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

Short 3896.00 stop 3901.75. Buy 3719.25 stop 3713.50.

Quick Tip: Move Stop or Not? 

Yesterday you learned how to optimize your stop placement. How about moving it as the trade goes in your direction? 

Never moving your stop is saying market conditions don’t change, which makes no sense at all. 

In our trading room we find that aggressive stop movement is warranted in certain market conditions. Slow stop movement is warranted in other conditions. Let’s define the difference between “aggressive” and “slow” stop movement. 

Using our strategy rules the aggressive exit moves the stop to breakeven for the trade itself after target 1 is filled, and to breakeven for remaining contracts after...

Friday’s Best S&P Turning Points Results: : The short @ 3731.25 ran for 18.25 points, after getting 51.75 from the prior day’s high-volume level. 

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

Short 3891.00 stop 3896.75. Buy 3702.00 stop 3696.25

Quick Tip: Optimal Stops

Limiting losses is critical for success in trading. Stop Loss orders are one important part of your risk management plan.

Where to place your Stop Loss is a personal matter. One common and sensible place is at the price your trade is proven wrong. 

Here’s how to optimize your Stop Loss placement: Log the MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion) for every trade setup, whether you took the trade or not. MAE is simply how far against your entry it went before stopping out or hitting your first profit target. 

Obviously, the maximum MAE you’ll have is the stop itself. But on all...