AM BRIEFING

ES CHART | KEY LEVELS | SETUPS

BATTLE PLAN BASICS: HOW THE PLAN IS BUILT

Every night the Battle Plan publishes three things. Learn to read them and the session stops being a guessing game and becomes a mapped board.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

• The squiggly lines: These mark where we are interested in looking for shorts and where we are interested in looking for longs. Click the Battle Plan number and it opens the notes for that specific level.
• Strong Levels: The horizontal lines are the levels George considers the most important for the week. We map our Battle Plan trades against these Strong Levels.
• The drop zone: You wait for price to get into the zone. Price drops down, reclaims, comes back and gets you into the trade.

Once you are in, taking initial profits before the next Strong Level is often the best idea. Even so, this setup was still a 36-point trade if you were running the 3-Contract System.

YOUR BEST LEVEL IS WHEREVER IT IS

Today’s first trade of interest was 55 points away from price. That is normal. Sometimes your level is 50 points away, sometimes 100 points away. It is not always sitting right next to where price is trading today.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

And that is no big deal. You wait for price to drop down into your drop zone. If it gets there, you watch the price action and use the Core Strategy to tell you where the bulls should respond or where the bears should respond… long or short.

TODAY’S STRUCTURE: BACK INSIDE FRIDAY’S RANGE

The weekly high sits above with a double distribution up there. We had Battle Plan Shorts mapped high and Battle Plan Longs mapped lower. Price is now basically in the middle of last week’s range… the muddy middle, not the most perfect place to look for a trade.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

George mapped a long down into his zone and got the little wicked candle right where he was looking, with some ladder-back action to pop long. We are all back inside Friday’s range. It is not bearish. Bulls still control, shorts are counter, small if at all. The 55-point pullback we needed to get into the long has already printed.

• Bias: Bulls control. Shorts are counter. Small, if at all.
• If you are long: Try to stay long.
• If you are flat: Let the price action lie 15 minutes before the open, then decide.

WHY BATTLE PLAN 1 EARNED THE LONG

One reason George liked the Battle Plan 1 long: the Dow was showing really good signs of strength, hanging up in its range, while the Q’s had grabbed the low. Price had made it to the edge of the drop zone. That confluence is what turned a mapped level into a trade worth taking.

It printed a green day and ran up roughly 20 points. We do not map many shorts… we only mapped two of them last week. The plan leans with the bulls because the bulls are in control.

NEW TOOL: THE HALL OF FAME REPLAYS

George built a new animation feature in the Hall of Fame that plays back the top Battle Plan trades so you can watch them unfold. It is only a couple weeks old, so there are a handful of trades on it so far, but it is a cleaner way to study what made each one a great Battle Plan trade.

Some ran 100 points, some ran 12… the point size does not negate that it was a great Battle Plan trade. You can turn on the Strong Levels for that specific week, and keyboard shortcuts let you rewind and step forward: left arrow rewinds, right arrow advances, so you can watch a specific location as many times as you want. Notes are being added to each trade. Find it at microstrader.com under Hall of Fame.

THIS WEEK: A NEWS WEEK AHEAD

Nothing on the calendar today, but the week fills in fast. Keep an eye on the releases and let the price action lead.

And remember: if you are not a full member or a YouTube channel member, come join the Zoom simulcast on Tuesday. The Foundations course goes live tomorrow too. George is on the trainers live 15 minutes before the market opens.

COMMON QUESTIONS FOR ES FUTURES TRADERS

What are the three things the Battle Plan publishes each night?

A: The Battle Plan publishes squiggly lines showing where to look for shorts and longs, notes attached to each numbered Battle Plan level, and horizontal Strong Levels marking the most important prices for the week. You map your trades against the Strong Levels and wait for price to enter the zone.

What is a Strong Level in the MES micro futures trade plan?

A: A Strong Level is a horizontal line George considers one of the most important prices for the week. Battle Plan trades are mapped against these Strong Levels, and a common tactic is to take initial profits before price reaches the next Strong Level.

Why is my best trade level sometimes 55 or 100 points away from price?

A: Because levels are placed where the structure matters, not where price happens to sit today. Your first trade of interest can be 50, 55, or 100 points away. That distance is the plan working as intended… you wait for price to drop into the zone rather than forcing a closer entry.

What is a drop zone and how do I trade it?

A: A drop zone is the mapped area where you are waiting for price to arrive. When price drops into it, you watch the price action and use the Core Strategy to see whether the bulls or bears respond, then take the long or short if the response confirms.

How much did today’s Battle Plan long produce?

A: The mapped long was a 36-point move when traded with the 3-Contract System. Battle Plan 1 specifically printed a green day and ran up roughly 20 points, helped by Dow strength and the Q’s grabbing the low into the drop zone.

What does “bulls control, shorts are counter, small if at all” mean?

A: It means the market bias is bullish, so long setups are the primary trades. Short trades are counter-trend and should be taken small if you take them at all. That is why the plan mapped only two shorts last week.

What is the 3-Contract System?

A: It is Micros Trader’s core position-sizing framework where you scale outScale In/Scale OutAdding to (scaling in) or reducing (scaling out) your position as the trade develops. Our 3-Contract System is all about scaling out—taking profits at different levels while letting a runner work. Full entry → of a position across multiple contracts. You bank initial profit on the first contracts and hold a runner for a larger move, which is how a single mapped level turned into a 36-point trade.

What is the Hall of Fame replay feature?

A: It is an animation tool at microstrader.com that plays back the top Battle Plan trades. You can turn on the Strong Levels for that week and use left and right arrow keys to rewind and step through a move, with notes added to explain each trade.

What is the muddy middle and why is it a weaker spot to trade?

A: The muddy middle is the center of a prior range, away from the clean edges where levels live. Price sitting in the middle of last week’s range is not the most perfect place to look for a trade because there is less structure to lean on, so patience matters more.

📅 Upcoming This Week

Hit the bell — every AM Briefing and live trading session this week is already scheduled on YouTube:

• Tuesday, Tue Sep 29: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Wednesday, Wed Sep 30: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Thursday, Thu Oct 1: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Friday, Fri Oct 2: AM Briefing · Live Stream