Futures Trade Reports
Focused on 10 futures markets (including indices)
cATEGORIES
Walking Through 10 Volatility Breaches in Futures Markets
We had more Volatility Box breaches today, than we’re typically used to seeing. Today, we had 8 out of the 10 markets we look at breach, giving us a total of 10 trade setups.
In today’s video, we’ll go through each of those 10 trade setups in slightly greater detail. While the indices all presented us with losing trades, we had other markets like Gold and Silver help make up for some of those losses.
If we had to extract 2 “takeaways” from today’s trading, those would be:
1. If you have to
Preparing for MSFT and TSLA Post-Earnings Moves
With earnings season started, we’re going to use the free Smarter Earnings indicator to show you how you can plan and prepare for likely post-earnings moves.
Download Smarter Earnings indicator (free): https://www.tosindicators.com/indicators/smarter-earnings
Starting with the Futures Volatility Box, we had two trade setups today in Gold. The first setup was a stop-out, which cost us 4.5 points per contract, and had us switch from our Aggressive Volatility Box models to our Doomsday Aggres
Adapting to Changing Volatility Conditions
If you’re looking to trade volatility, it’s critical to have tools to very easily, but reliably measure and rank the volatility across markets, and adapt.
Today, with the Volatility Box, we had the luxury of adapting to each index market’s respective volatility — and we saw that differ across the 4 major markets.
For example, today, here were the rankings of the 9 futures markets that we look at, with their respective Volatility Box models:
ES, RTY – Scalper
NQ – Aggressive
YM – Doomsda
Day Trading the Nasdaq Futures
We have a systematic process that we follow every single day, for day trading with the Volatility Box.
Using the note we sent out at 7:30 am PT to all of our members, we’ll cover the Nasdaq and Copper futures markets, where we had trade opportunities set up today.
Specifically on the Nasdaq futures (NQ), we had 3 different setups that met our Trade Plan rules, and triggered. All 3 of these were winners, for a net P/L of +$1,560.
On the Copper futures (HG), we had one trade setup which took
Fades in the YM, RTY and NG Futures
We had three markets in which we had Volatility Box breaches today – the DOW, Natural Gas and Russell futures markets.
In the morning, we sent out a note to all of our members with a list of all 9 futures markets we look at, along with the Volatility Box models we were using for the day. These models are selected based on the First Hour test, and we let price action dictate to us if and when we should switch.
We had a total of four trades that set up today:
1. A long fade in Natural Gas (win
SPY, QQQ, DIA and IWM Buy Zones and Triggers
We saw a broader sell off in the indices with Friday’s trading, leading many top weighted holdings to start to pull back to entry zones.
In this video, we’re going to use a few different perspectives (and indicators) to create a game plan, with specific levels that I’m interested in buying as support on the SPY, QQQ, DIA, and IWM.
We’re going to use the following tools for the analysis:
1. Put Call Ratio in the Utility Labels
2. Market Pulse Line
3. Fibonacci Retracements and Extensions
4.
Expecting a Trending Down Day in Nasdaq 30 Mins After the Open
We had an early heads up to expect a trending day in the Nasdaq (/NQ), Copper (/HG) and Crude Oil (/CL) futures markets.
The Nasdaq was the clear winner for the day, but all 3 markets made moves in their respective trending directions. We had our notification at 7am PT that we should expect a likely trending day in the NQ futures.
At that point, the Nasdaq was trading closer to 10,100. By the end of the day, the Nasdaq had traded down to 9,927.25. That’s a move of ~1.7%+, which had significa
Trading Psychology – S&P vs. Nasdaq Futures (Winner vs. Loser)
Trading psychology, and managing emotions throughout a day, is often times the difference maker between a good and bad day.
As traders, our job is to follow our Trade Plan rules and execute trades that meet conditions in which we have a probabilistic edge. However, this is usually much easier said than done, as emotions and human nature to avoid loss / rejection starts to take over.
Mark Douglas’s Trading in the Zone is one of the best books on trading psychology, and truly training the mind
2 Setups in the 30-YR Bond and Weekend Trade Updates
Our Trade Plan rules typically keep us on the right side of the market. In today’s case, we ended up being TOO cautious with our rules, at the expense of missing multiple setups in the 4 major indices markets, almost all of which worked.
However, our rules usually do keep us out of trouble — which was proven in our 2 setups in the 30 Year Bond futures market (/ZB). In our first setup, we hit both our first and second target, giving us a nice win.
The second setup was a little different, tho
How to Easily Identify a Trending Day (Before It Sets Up)
Trending days are some of the most powerful ones, if you know the signs for which to look out.
Unfortunately, more times than not, keeping track of things like the market internals ($TICK, $ADSPD, $PCVA, etc.) can be overwhelming, and lead to analysis paralysis with no real action.
The Volatility Box makes identifying a Trending Day super easy – a chart bubble pops up notifying you to expect a likely trending day. It’s that easy. In the case of the /ES futures, we had the heads up at 7 AM PT
Ranking Volatility in ES, YM, NQ and RTY Futures
We show you how to rank the 4 major index markets and their respective volatility, in just a few minutes.
As part of our Volatility Box Trade Plan, we have our first hour test, which helps us determine and adapt to the day’s volatility. In today’s case, what we noticed was the DOW and Russell futures giving us signs of being the more volatile markets, while the Nasdaq was on the opposite end of that spectrum.
We perform the First Hour Test for our indices at 7 AM PT, less than 30 minutes into
Managing a Small Loser in the S&P 500 Futures
We’ve had a nice winning streak with our futures trading over the past few weeks, which ended today with a small loser in the S&P 500 Futures. We also discuss a couple trade setups in COST and KR.
Our Trade Plan is designed with a set of rules in mind to keep us out of trouble, more times than not. In the case of the /ES futures, our rules did just that. We had an opportunity to short the S&P 500 as the markets slammed into our Volatility Box levels in the 10-11 am PT hour.
However, we did n
Day Trading the Russell and Copper Futures +$1,580
The Russell Futures (/RTY) has been more volatile than its index peers as of recently, which has also led to us finding some really nice Volatility Box fades.
We had a nice winner earlier in the week, and that same trend continued today. In the Russell futures, we had two trade setups that triggered, both of which were winners. One was via our new Scalper Volatility Box, while the other was via the Conservative Volatility Box.
The first day trade in the RTY futures was good for +5.6 points, w
Short Entry in the Russell Futures +$820
We had one entry in the Russell 2K (/RTY) futures today, at 7:40 AM PT, which led to a nice winner of +$820 across both contracts.
The short came in the RTY as price slammed into our Volatility Box, levels giving us an opportunity to try and scalp the markets. Our risk was 4.8 points, to try and make 4.8 points on the first contract, and 11.6 points on the second contract (with a break-even stop).
Once we got our Edge Signal confirmation, that was the green light to enter the trade, with a s
Day Trading /NG Futures for a Small Profit +$100
A step-by-step guide on how to trade natural gas futures and profit consistently.