ES 3hr UpdateNo idea what this market is doing, it wants the gap fill but can't figure out a way to get there, lol. It did fill the gap up from last night though.
Indicators are neutral, Powell speaks Wed, ECB meeting premarket Thu so I dumped my gold premarket today. Basically a wash trade, I wish I had figured out what was going on sooner. If ECB cuts rates, you'll see the EUro drop, which could cause a drop in gold in US dollars. Also, Euro gapped up last night which scared me, because that gap also needs to fill.
All cash, can't keep up with the news while I'm working. I saw automakers got an exemption though, lol.
We'll see a gap up Thu if ECB cuts rates, so staying cash, not shorting anything. I gotta fly out to WA to get my house ready for sale next week, might just take a break unless I see something.
WIth Trump in office, teh market is bound to go oversold again, might just wait until I sell my house before resuming trading. We'll see.
ESM2027 trade ideas
S&P 500 E-mini Futures – Bearish Setup Ahead?Price recently tapped into a key resistance zone where an imbalance was filled by a wick, showing signs of potential exhaustion. We could see a liquidity grab above before a significant move down toward the 5,150 level. Watch for a reaction in the highlighted resistance area – this could be the beginning of a bearish reversal. Major support sits lower, where a larger move might find footing.
🔹 Resistance tested
🔹 Imbalance filled
🔹 Bearish reaction anticipated
🔹 Targeting the 5,150 zone
Let me know your thoughts – do you see the same setup?
S&P 500 and Bitcoin are bearish. Big dump incoming.We bounced back thanks to Trump's bullish announcements but we're right back up at major resistance and we're moving sideways. With major resistance, you want to see price cut straight through like a laser. You don't want to see price hesitating. A bearish geometric pattern leading up to resistance almost always rejects and retests the lows.
SPY Futures April 2025Trump imposes new tariffs on imports from China, investors panic, and the market chops. A good level to look at on SPY Futures for the next couple weeks is 5528.00. I believe a break upwards can give bullish investors some confidence , while a rejection could bring even more downside. If we break upwards, possibly revisiting 5840.00, we're going to have to see if we can break that level and get back to the all time high. If we reject and price falls, the level to look at is 4833.00. A break of that support could mean a lot more downside in the coming months. But we're going to have to be patient allow Trump vs China to unfold.
ES - Day Trading Analysis With Volume ProfileOn ES , it's nice to see a strong buying reaction at the price of 5075.00.
There's a significant accumulation of contracts in this area, indicating strong buyer interest. I believe that buyers who entered at this level will defend their long positions. If the price returns to this area, strong buyers will likely push the market up again.
Uptrend and high volume cluster are the main reasons for my decision to go long on this trade.
Happy trading
Dale
Friday Closeout | TA & Macro Recap + ES1! Game Plan📈 Chart Overview
Current Price: 5,312.75
Daily Candle: Slight green candle, suggesting an attempt at recovery or a pause in the recent downtrend.
📈 Price Action & Technical Analysis
SMA 9 (thin white): ~5,309.92 – Hugging current price, curling upward.
SMA 50 (light blue) : ~5,759.54 – Above current price; Below SMA 200; indicating bearish pressure. (Death Cross)
SMA 200 (thick cyan): ~5,890.90 – Above current price; Curling downward; longer-term downtrend signal.
Structure: After a heavy decline in early April, price bounced on changing tariff paradigm, but is stalled short of the Prior Swing Support.
This could be: A bear flag forming. Or. A basing pattern for a short-term reversal.
📈 RSI (14 Close)
Current: 41.48 (37.49 MA)
Interpretation: Below neutral (50), momentum is weak. A move back above 50 would be bullish. A turndown could indicate further weakness.
Recent Bounce: RSI bounced from ~21, indicating the recent lows were oversold. Currently appears to be consolidating.
📈 MACD (12, 26, 9)
MACD Line: -132.13
Signal Line: -125.86
Histogram: +6.27 and rising
Interpretation:
MACD is negative (bearish territory), but the histogram flipped positive, showing momentum may be improving.
Bullish crossover is in progress, but at the moment, weak. A potential signal for a short-term upside move.
🎯 Key Levels
Resistance: 5,300 (Prior Week Base Levels) to 5,384 (Prior Swing Support) is current price zone of interest
Support: Recent low just above 5,000 is critical — a break below should continue the downtrend.
🧨 Volatility Outlook
TVC:VIX falls well within the 'Risk off Zone'.
TVC:VIX spiked to 52.33 before receding to its current 29.65
📈 Macro/Fundamental Analysis
Interpretation:
In high TVC:VIX environment, with Tariff, Fiscal, and Political Uncertainty, price action will likely remain mercurial. This is likely to persist into the foreseeable future.
TVC:DXY Dollar weakness has continued. Likely causes include: Fed Cut Expectations increasing & Decreasing Demand for US treasuries TVC:US10Y . I expect the weakening dollar to persist. All else qual, a weakening dollar is bullish for asset pricing, though, in the face of expect growth challenges, the effect is negated.
I expect US10Y sales to continue to struggle, in the face of inflation risk and rising trade tensions.
Bearish Possibilities:
Expect continued talk about 'firing' the current fed chair. The market should react poorly to these threats if they intensify or become increasingly probable.
Failures on trade talks with major trading partners.
Bullish Possibilities:
Improved earnings or earnings guidance, though, I expect this is unlikely.
Successes on trade talks and deals with major trading partners.
Fed Rate cuts - though - i expect this is highly unlikely.
Fed QE - thought - i expect this is highly unlikely in the short term, barring an explosion in TVC:US10Y yields.
📆 Economic Calendar / Earnings Schedule
Econ Calendar: Relatively Light Next Week
Thursday - 830AM - Initial Jobless Claims
Thursday - 830AM - Durable Goods
Friday - 10AM - Michigan Consumer and Inflation Expectations
Notable Earnings Calendar:
Verizon NYSE:VZ - Tuesday
Lockhead NYSE:LMT - Tuesday
Ratheon NYSE:RTX - Tuesday
Tesla NASDAQ:TSLA - Tuesday
Boeing NYSE:BA - Wednesday
Google NASDAQ:GOOG - Thursday
Intel NASDAQ:INTC - Thursday
Pepsi NASDAQ:PEP - Thursday
Proctor and Gamble NYSE:PG - Thursday
T-Mobile NASDAQ:TMUS - Thursday
🔍 Summary
🔻 Trend: Bearish below 50- and 200-day SMAs and recent 'Death Cross'.
🧩 Momentum: Turned bullish, with flat to fading strength.
🧠 Tactics:
Short Term: Expect Ranging with slight bullish upside. Likely good day trading environment.
Medium Term: Dead-cat bounce or Early Reversal ...? Watch for:
Daily Close above the local swing high's or Low's
If we breakout higher, look for further Daily Rejection at the moving averages (especially SMA 50).
If we breakdown lower, look for a retest of the 5000 psychological support, down to, 4832.50.
Absorption dayAfter the S&P break to the downside on the daily chart, the expectation is that on Thursday the market will trade inside the range of Wednesday's action as the market absorbs what happened with fundamental comments on Wednesday. New bearish news could push the market lower but that is not expected for Thursday.
Buyers entered the S&P 500 on FridayStructurally in the S&P 500 daily chart it appears that buyers entered the market on Friday but it is in a tenuous situation because all it will take will be a comment, a negotiated deal or some other tariff situation that can create tremendous volatility for this market. If those fundamentals do not occur the expectation would be a firmer S&P 500 starting in the Asia session Sunday night at 5 o'clock Chicago time.
April 11th Trade Journal & Market AnalysisApril 11th Trade Journal & Market Analysis
EOD accountability report: +1566.50
Sleep: 6 hour, Overall health: going thru Flu symptoms
**Daily Trade Recap based on VX Algo System **
12:08 PM Market Structure flipped bullish on VX Algo X3!
1:00 PM VXAlgo ES X1 Sell Signal (2x Signal)
Today was a very choppy for the early part of the day, tested pre market lows and almost broke it because of consumer sentiment.
We eventually bounce and started moving upward toward the 5 min and 10 min resistance , and eventually broke out with the market structure flipping bullish at 12:08, we went back for a 1 min MOB backtest and pushed up further.
Monday plan; look for back to support as noted on the video
Using Put Options to Protect Your Stock PortfolioCME: Options on E-Mini S&P 500 Futures ( CME_MINI:ES1! )
Last week’s bloodshed of global financial market made history. Nearly all major asset classes fell into a market turmoil driven by tariffs and retaliations.
Let’s focus on the US stock market:
• Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7.76% in the week of March 31st to April 4th, making it the 4th worst weekly performance on record
• S&P 500 slipped 8.77%, the 4th worst week in history
• Nasdaq Composite fell 9.18%, the 2nd worst week
• Russell gave up 9.34%, the 3rd worst week
All four stock index futures were in negative territory year-to-date. On Sunday evening, E-Mini S&P 500 opened 178 points lower to 4,932, losing 17.1% YTD.
All parties ultimately come to an end. After two years of double-digit gains, the unstoppable US stock market finally cracked. As more tariffs and retaliations are expected to escalate, I am afraid that we are only seeing the beginning, rather than the end.
For stock investors, this is a good reminder of market risk, something we always talk about but seldomly pay attention to. The “return of investment” should be focusing on the repayment of your money, a safety issue. Only after that should we talk about the gain from the investment. It is a necessity to protect your portfolio to achieve long-term growth.
Trading with Options on E-Mini S&P 500 Futures
For investors with a diversified portfolio, Put Options on the E-Mini S&P 500 futures are effective and cost-efficient tools. Investors who long the stocks will lose money, should stock prices fall. Put options would gain in value, providing a hedge to the portfolio.
The following illustration shows a hypothetical example, given:
• An investor has a $250,000 portfolio holding a diversified pool of U.S. stocks
• CME E-Mini S&P 500 futures ( NYSE:ES ) have a contract size of $50 times the index value
• The June contract (ESM5) was quoting at 4,935 Sunday evening Friday, making the notional value of 1 contract $246,750, approximately equal to our portfolio value
• Assuming the portfolio moves closely in line with the S&P 500
• The investor wants to limit the loss of his portfolio to 12%. If the S&P 500 index is currently around 4950, a put option with a strike price of 4350 would roughly correspond to a 12% decline
Hedging trade illustration:
• The investor buys 1 put option on the June futures with the strike price of 4,600
• CME quote on that Put option is 223. As the contract is $50 times the index, the premium upfront for one put option contract is $11,150 (223*$50), ignoring any commissions
• The put premium is calculated as 4.46% of the $250K portfolio
If S&P drops to 4,200 (-15.15%) by the end of April:
• Without the put, the portfolio lost $37,879, assuming the same loss with the S&P
• The 4600-strike put is now 400 points in-the-money
• The investor sells the put and receives $20,000 (= 400 x 50)
• The loss of portfolio will be 37879+11150-20000 = $29,029
• With an E-mini S&P put protection to mitigate loss from the stock portfolio, the investor lost 11.6% (= 29029 / 250000), which is 3.5% lower than the S&P loss and with the preset loss limit
If S&P drops to 4,000 (-19.2%) by the end of May:
• Without the put, the portfolio lost $47,980, assuming the same loss with the S&P
• The 4850-strike put is now 600 points in-the-money
• The investor sells the put and receives $30,000 (= 600 x 50)
• The loss of portfolio will be 47980+11150-30000 = $29,130
• With an E-mini S&P put protection to mitigate loss from the stock portfolio, the investor lost 11.6% (= 29,130 / 250000)
As we can see here, when the S&P falls sharply, the investor will be able to cap his loss to 11.6%. In a “protective put” strategy, we would consider the option premium an insurance contract for owning stocks. If the index rises, the portfolio return would be lowered a little because of the premium upfront, that is, the cost of insurance. However, the protection is a lifesaver if the index falls.
Before jumping into action, the investor needs to run a correlation analysis using the daily value of the portfolio against the S&P 500 closing prices. Here is how:
• Some trading software has correlation feature built in already
• If not, pull 1-year daily portfolio balance and 1-year S&P closing prices, export them to Excel. Run correlation test with these two data series using Excel data analysis tool.
• Alternatively, we could drop the data into ChatGPT and ask AI to do the work for us.
If the correlation is greater than 50%, it means that S&P 500 is a good fit to hedge the portfolio. If it is not, we could try the correlation analysis using the other stock index closing prices, such as the Dow, the Nasdaq 100 and the Russell 2000. Then replace E-Mini S&P 500 futures with the stock index futures contract best fit the portfolio.
Happy Trading.
Disclaimers
*Trade ideas cited above are for illustration only, as an integral part of a case study to demonstrate the fundamental concepts in risk management under the market scenarios being discussed. They shall not be construed as investment recommendations or advice. Nor are they used to promote any specific products, or services.
CME Real-time Market Data help identify trading set-ups and express my market views. If you have futures in your trading portfolio, you can check out on CME Group data plans available that suit your trading needs www.tradingview.com
ES Premarket Update3hr MFI is headed quickly to oversold, and the dollar index is bouncing back a little. FUtures are also green.
I expect the market to bounce up when MFI gets oversold, so possibly a gap up which sells off then market goes back up?
Gold trade is on hold until currency direction is determined. The dollar will eventually break though, so holding the small position I bought yesterday morning..... that way I'll watch gold. We'll see where that goes....
US dollar is oversold on 3hr and daily charts, so there's a chance it will bounce back up.... or maybe it just goes into full tank mode and ignores indicators. Hard market to judge.
April 14th Trade Journal & Market AnalysisApril 14th Trade Journal & Market Analysis
EOD accountability report: +565
Sleep: 6 hour, Overall health: recovering, cant seem to get over 6 hour sleep.
**Daily Trade Recap based on VX Algo System **
9:30 AM VXAlgo ES X1 Sell Signal (triple sell signal)
9:41 AM Market Structure flipped bearish on VX Algo X3
11:02 AM Market Structure flipped bullish on VX Algo X3!
12:20 PM VXAlgo ES X1 Buy signal (Triple buy signal)
2:11 PM Market Structure flipped bullish on VX Algo X3!
3:20 PM VXAlgo ES X1 Sell Signal (triple sell again)
Today traded inside the zone, tested the 10min MA from the other day, held very well and bounced strong.
Bot alerts were on fire today.
Tuesday plan: Look for a backtest to support again on 48 min and push up to the MOB.
April 17th Trade Journal & Stock Market AnalysisApril 17th Trade Journal & Stock Market Analysis
EOD accountability report: +816.25
Sleep: 6 hour, Overall health: Testing out new supplement, Sleep has been low, but energy level has been good. (testing out Ocimum tenuiflorum for sleep and adding Ginkgo Biloba W/LM)
**Daily Trade Recap based on VX Algo System**
9:29 AM Market Structure flipped bearish on VX Algo X3!
11:05 AM VXAlgo YM X1 Buy Signal
11:47 AM Market Structure flipped bullish on VX Algo X3!
3:30 PM Market Structure flipped bearish on VX Algo X3!
3:40 PM VXAlgo ES X1 Buy signal (double signal)
**Monday plan--> **watch for rejection of 48M Resistance for breakdown to 1D MOB