The markets gapped down and we had some perfect setups for Value Area plays, particularly on the NQ, but neither triggered. Instead, we broke lower, and we had a small winner on the NQ, which couldn’t just keep going but had to stop out the second half of our trade first. See that section below. We are now out of earnings season and things should get back to normal. NASDAQ volume was 1.8 billion shares.
Net ticks: +2.5 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:
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.
Triggered short at A at 3549.50, hit first target for 6 ticks, and stopped second half over the entry before eventually breaking down hard:
