Tough Trading Environment When You're Not Careful

The S&P is gapping into our upside target this morning.

Technical Edge — 

• NYSE Breadth: 51% Upside Volume

• NASDAQ Breadth: 42.7% Upside Volume

• VIX: ~$26.75

We had some great setups yesterday in XOM and some nice upside pushes in AR and ABBV from the active watchlist below. That said, I personally had a frustrating day in the market. 

We have to keep it real here. 

None of us are perfect traders and I was far from one yesterday. Chasing on trades as entries either barely missed being triggered, or they did trigger and chopped me out, so I tried to plow ahead and “get back to even.” 

These are characteristics of poor trading and they are a double-edge sword of negativity. That’s because this type of trading usually doesn't work out and even when it does, it just reinforces a bad habit to begin with. 

Today is a new day with another chance, though. Looking back through yesterday’s trades and the action shows just how back-and-forth it was — a digestion day after a big up-move on Friday. 

Game Plan — S&P (ES and SPY), Nasdaq (NQ and QQQ), Individual Stocks

Today’s we’re getting a big gap-up to hopefully trim some longs into. I have some SPY from last week that I want to unload a bit into this morning’s pop. I would also like to trim more AR and ABBV. 

S&P 500

With this morning’s rally, the ES is into the 50% retracement, which is what we have been looking for now for a few days. That has been achieved!

After tagging 4080-ish and retreating a bit, keep an eye on