Monday Jul 21: S&P Futures Roadmap: Today’s Key Levels and Room Strategy
☀️ AM BRIEFING
Opening Remarks
Welcome to the Microtrader AM Briefing, Episode 474. Today’s session emphasizes the foundational elements of disciplined trading and the importance of inner work over constant strategy hunting. If you’ve been in a cycle of looking for the next best setup or system, this is your call to shift focus.
The Core Philosophy: Discipline Over Strategy
A major takeaway from today’s discussion is that consistent profitability comes not from adding more strategies, but from sticking to the ones you already have. The speaker drives this home by stating: “You don’t need more strategies. You need to stop breaking your rules. If you followed your trade plan every day, would you ever blow an account? No, I don’t think so. I don’t believe your trade plan purposely makes you blow accounts.”
This insight reframes the trader’s journey—not as a constant search for tools, but as a personal challenge to maintain discipline. Everyone has a “temptation of choice,” a rule that they repeatedly break. Awareness of this is the first step to correcting it.
Essay Format Questions
- What rule in your system do you consistently break, and why?
- What warning signs or internal cues signal you are about to break that rule?
Market Overview and Key Drivers
Looking ahead at the week, the news calendar is relatively light. Notable events include:
- Non-Farm Payrolls (POW) tomorrow.
- PMI data later in the week.
- Durable goods orders.
- New home sales.
Earnings season continues, and traders should be aware that earnings from Tesla and Google on Wednesday could introduce volatility—something welcomed by traders. As the speaker notes, “We live off of volatility.”
The session also included a reminder on seasonality: “July tends to be up, up, and away. August tends to really stink.” It’s wise to temper your expectations for August’s trading opportunities.
Current Market Posture: Bullish Dominance
The ES market has shown a confirmed breakout from the range noted two weeks prior—though only barely above the previous all-time high. Despite this marginal move, indicators support a bullish outlook:
- Price is above halfback.
- VWAP is moving upward.
- Market is above VWAP.
As stated clearly: “This is not bearish. This is all bulls.”
Key levels to watch for today include the RTH low and the 1125 strong level, both acting as potential support zones.
Trading Preferences and Aversion Zones
The speaker shared specific areas they tend to avoid in their own trading:
- The upper distribution of RTH: “I just don’t like trading there. Bulls control, I’m not looking to short that, and I don’t like going long in the upper distribution.”
- Near all-time highs: “That’s another area I tend to avoid.”
Patience is the main message. The speaker says, “I’m going to need something new to get me excited to actually launch my trading platform. Other than that, it’ll stay closed until I get something really, really good.”
Microtrader Community and Resources
- Live Sessions: Zoom sessions begin 15 minutes before market open with a reminder 10 minutes prior.
- Lunch & Learn: Now flows seamlessly from the morning session without a break.
- Daily Recap Videos: These will highlight core and battle plan strategy trades.
- Free Foundations Course: Available to everyone, especially useful for new traders.
- Membership Benefits:
- Learn three bounce levels and how to use them together.
- Access to basic and advanced core strategy trades.
- Use of the Battle Plan for mapped-out long and short trades.
- Free 7-day trial available (without “strong levels”).
- Full members get the “strong levels indicator” on TradingView.
The session ends with best wishes for the week ahead: “Stay green.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How can I avoid breaking my trading rules?
A: Identify your most frequently broken rule and journal around the triggers and internal warning signs. Listening to your “inner voice” helps build discipline.
Q: What are the key levels to watch in today’s ES market?
A: The RTH low and the 1125 strong level were highlighted as the primary areas to monitor for support or rejection.
Q: What are the benefits of joining the Microtrader community?
A: Members receive daily live briefings, strategy recaps, mapped-out trade plans, and tools like the strong levels indicator on TradingView.
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The material in this course is general in nature. It does not constitute personal investment advice or personal trading advice. Any advice provided is general advice only and does not take into account an individual's risk profile or financial situation.
The author of this course content is not legally qualified to give personal investment or trading advice.
Although the author is an experienced and consistently profitable trader and the information offered within this course is given with the best intentions and made to be as accurate as possible, the author has no idea what your financial situation is and everyone has a different tolerance for risk and different investment goals.
The purpose of this course is to teach you how use technical analysis to assist in your trading, it is not intended to teach you how to trade even though many lessons do share practical techniques based on real-life trading experience.
The lessons in this course are provided as hypothetical trading examples, not necessarily ones that are profitable or robust. While the creator of these lessons has used some of these techniques to generate profits in the past, it is not guaranteed that you will experience the same results and past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Trading involves the risk of loss as well as the potential of profit. It is generally advised by successful traders to never risk more money than you can afford and are willing to lose - both on a trade-by-trade basis, and a portfolio basis.
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