Another Opening Range play winner or two, but the rest of the calls were a waste of time in a market that again posted a very light volume day (1.5 billion NASDAQ shares). The markets gapped up, neither the ES nor the NQ quite filled, and then broke out after lunch, which was the better part of the day. Both of the ES calls would have worked on their retriggers, but I didn’t take them again due to light volume.
Net ticks: -21 ticks.
As usual, let’s start by taking a look at the ES and NQ with our market directional lines, VWAP, and Comber on the 5-minute chart from today’s session:
ES and NQ Opening and Institutional Range Plays:
ES Opening Range Play triggered short at A and worked. It also would have triggered long at B and worked, but that’s 90 minutes in on a session with a bad volume warning, plus the Comber 13 sell signal at that moment:
NQ Opening Range Play triggered short at A and didn’t work, triggered long at B and did:
I’m not really a fan of taking the IR plays hours later on light volume days. Having said that, the ES Tradesight Institutional Range Play triggered short at A and worked and long at B and worked:
NQ Tradesight Institutional Range Play triggered long at A and didn’t work (tried again later at B and did):
ES:
My first call triggered short at A under R1 after setting it nicely as the low of the opening bar on the gap up but stopped. That would have worked on a retrigger, which we usually would take. Another setup under the UBreak triggered at B and also stopped. This also would have worked the second time but I didn’t retake:
NQ:
Just a reminder that we use half points for ticks on the NQ and not the quarter point measurement that the exchanges switched to in recent years. This allows us to use 6 ticks as a key target as we do on the other contracts. It also keeps the value of a tick at $10, closer to the value of a tick on the other contracts.
Mark’s call triggered short at A at 4329.00 and stopped:
