Several calls and triggers today, some working and some not, as the market volume dropped off sharply to only 1.5 billion NASDAQ shares by the close. We had a gap down in the market and then pressed lower, came back a bit (exactly hit the 50% retracement of the gap before lunch), and then fizzled in the afternoon as volume never came back. See ES and NQ below for trade summaries.
Net results of the day if you took all five trades (one is questionable in my mind and I didn’t take) is a loss of 9 ticks. See details below.
Here’s the ES and NQ with our market direction tool, Seeker count, and VWAP:
ES:
Nice setup under early lows triggered at A and stopped at B. Technically triggered again about a minute later, although I don’t necessarily agree that you retake something that stops out without letting it consolidate again first. If you did, the second trigger was short at C in the same bar as the original stopped out. That stopped at D. We then had the ES retrace 50% of the gap and stall out right the LBreak, a perfect setup for the afternoon, but volume never came back in and it triggered early at E and stopped at F:
If you took the initial trade, the immediate retrigger, and the later long, there was 21 ticks of net loss.
NQ:
Even though they split the NQ down to 4 ticks per point a couple of years ago, we still count every HALF point as a tick (so two ticks per point, at $10 per contract per tick).
Mark’s NQ short triggered at A, hit first target at B, lowered stop right over the entry and stopped out on the second half there for basically a net 3 tick gain (6 to target and flat on second). Then, my long triggered at C, hit first target at D, raised stop twice and stopped in the money at E for a net 9 ticks):
