Tuesday afternoon, the bond auction hit the tape and the NQ ripped against my position. “I just took a full stop-loss on this trade.” No hesitation. No moving the stop. No hoping for a bounce. The market surged, my stop triggered, and I was out. I watched the trade I had been short move sharply

Holding the Line Into Fridayby Tony Rago Nice breakout above the weekly open sent ES up through 6,926, leaving that 6,933 tag unfinished — and the market rarely forgets unfinished business. We opened last night with a small gap down, putting the gap fill at 6,925, and bulls will want to defend a pullback into

Back to Balance — Range in Controlby Tony Rago Big overnight range and a full retrace of that FOMC spike puts us right back inside the same balance we’ve been trading for nearly two weeks. When a market retraces an entire catalyst move, it’s telling you the auction wasn’t ready to accept higher prices —

FED Day — Two Sessions in Oneby Tony Rago It’s FED Day with the FOMC rate decision at 2:00 p.m. and the press conference rolling in at 2:30, and that alone splits the session into two distinct tapes — pre-FED drift and post-FED volatility. Early action usually stays controlled as participants position lightly, and that’s

Carving the Range Before the Fedby Tony Rago We’re carving out a clean range as the market settles in ahead of tomorrow’s FOMC, and that usually means the first move isn’t always the real one. I’m expecting more range-bound action into the announcement, but the JOLTS release at 10 a.m. has enough weight to spark

FED Week on Deck — Time to Lock Inby Tony Rago New week, fresh tape, and plenty of opportunity as we roll into FED Week and kick off contract rollover — a combo that tends to stir up pockets of volatility. I’ll take the action as it comes, but the weekly opens are my anchors

Friday morning, I drew something on the chart I’ve watched play out thousands of times. “Contraction, expansion, retracement. Contraction, expansion, retracement. Right on and on and on to the break of dawn.” The entire week had been building toward that Friday breakout. Monday through Thursday, we chopped inside a tight range. The market was consolidating.

Stalled at the Top — Waiting for a Sparkby Tony Rago Quiet overnight action kept us pinned in a tight range, and the market is still consolidating up here without the kind of aggressive buyers needed to break through the top. At the same time, sellers aren’t showing much initiative either, which leaves us drifting

Range Pressure Building — Expansion on Deckby Tony Rago We’re still stuck in a range with NQ doing its best to lift ES, but the real test comes down to one thing: ES needs to close back above its weekly open on the daily. We’ve been consolidating here for three straight sessions — that kind

Weekly Opens on Deckby Tony Rago ES bulls need to reclaim their weekly open and press into 6,888 — that’s the zone where momentum can finally shift from choppy to constructive. Same story on NQ: hold above the weekly open and make a clean push toward 25,633. Until then, we’re sitting in that familiar mid-week