Epilogue 4/7/2021

Epilogue 4/7/2021

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.

Most sideways price action does not have quite as much range as we saw today, and sometimes you have to tune down to a 2-minute or 1-minute chart to pick up trades. Today was a bit of an exception to have enough range to get decent two-way day trades out of a 5-minute chart – but there you go. We will be doing this live once a week in the new trading room beginning a week from tomorrow.

I cannot always get into this much detail in these writings. Yet, I hope you can see how our ongoing macro narrative, together with our morning outlook and identified key levels from the previous day and overnight session, can set you up for a lot of confidence in your day trading. 

You can also see the Weekly Expected Move high power, which has stunted further progress in the S&P 500 since Monday and the NASDAQ 100 since yesterday. Having said that, the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 have both blown through the levels in Asia so far tonight. 

Though rare, the market makers could be forced to buy futures to cover their bets before Friday expiration – driving the markets considerably higher still. That is the exception, not the rule, and the Europeans have not yet had their say. Also, there is still plenty of time for the market-makers to bring the prices back by Friday. So I move forward on the rule rather than the exception as the most probable outcome.

The market-generated information from today is that the market is accepting these higher prices, which remains bullish. The next piece of information will come if we break to the trading range’s upside this week, or below it as the case may be. Tonight, the Asians are breaking us to the upside, but traders and investors must confirm that in a day session as that is where the big volume resides.

A.F. Thornton

AF Thornton

Website: https://tradingarchimedes.com

A.F. "Arthur" Thornton is an expert in logic, risk/reward quantification, market fractals, pattern recognition and asset class behavioral analysis with 34 years devoted to developing algorithmic and quantitative trading systems. In addition to trading his own capital, Mr. Thornton designs custom algorithmic and quantitative trading systems for a small and exclusive group of exceptionally qualified traders.

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