Today (Wednesday – 4/7/2021) turned out to be outstanding for day trading, allowing two-way trading – both long and short. I traded one Nasdaq 100 mini contract for 228 points or just a little over $4,500. Of course, I could have traded more contracts, and I prefer to trade at least two contracts at a time. That way, I can get risk out of the overall trade as soon as possible by selling the first contract for a profit and moving the stop up on the second one to guarantee break-even on the overall transaction. But today, I wanted to keep it simple so that I could demonstrate the trades to you. Also, I could have traded a NASDAQ 100 Micro Contract and lopped off a zero for a $450 day and 10% of the risk. Always keep the micros in mind.

Beginning with our macro-narrative, the market has been extremely bullish, reinforced today by not even flirting with any price action below the single prints or gap mentioned this morning. I have detailed the narrative in yesterday’s epilogue (4/6/2021) and touched on it again this morning.

In this morning’s outlook (4/7/2021), we came into the market expecting balance and rotation, with any gains likely capped at the Weekly Expected Move highs, and we were not disappointed in the least. I also cautioned not to take a trade right at the open (as the initial drive direction was not clear from the overnight profiles) and that turned out to be wise as the market gapped down, before starting a raging rally higher.

While the print is small, if you enlarge the chart below you will see the trades. Basically, I never trade over the New York lunch hour or the last half hour of the day – both shaded in gray. I will close trades that are already open during those times, but I don’t initiate new trades. Today is a perfect example as to why, as you will see the “kill-zone” or chop in the first shaded area representing the New York lunch hour. 

Other than that, all I did was initiate long trades on the Navigator Algo Trigger (candles turn blue), then closed them at the Weekly Expected Move high or the first orange candle (negative Algo Trigger stop). Twice, I shorted at the first orange candle at or near the Weekly Expected Move high, then covered when the candles stopped one-time-framing lower. Simple.