Monday, August 17, 2026 – Tony’s Pre-Market Playbook

NQ Playing Catch-Up
by Tony Rago

New week, new opportunities to make money! NQ bulls are playing catch-up to ES, and they did close the week above 30,106, so now they need to defend that level on a test, with 30,000 as the line in the sand. Today I’ll be watching how ES deals with 7,800. If bulls can’t hold that level, it could pull NQ back toward 30,000 or lower. The weekly pivots are sitting at 7,793 on ES and 29,990 on NQ, so those areas should give us some additional clues about who has control.

It’s still a summer tape, so I’m watching for either a range to establish itself or a full-on break of the prior day’s highs or lows. No reason to force a bias before price shows us which scenario we’re dealing with. Let the opening range develop, watch the reaction at the key levels, and then trade what we see. Let’s get after it!

👉 Full breakdown is inside today’s Pre-Market Playbook.

Check it out here and trade it smart.

Until next time,
Tony

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