Daily Market Recap – Friday Hey everybody, it’s Zach. Happy Friday! 🎉 I’m full steam ahead on getting the Futures Trading Program filmed, edited, and out in the classroom. Until then, I’ll keep posting daily market reviews. Honestly, these quick reviews are more dynamic than typing everything out. Morning Setup This morning at 6:30 a.m., we had the Core Consumer Inflation numbers released. I wasn’t even planning to trade this early—I usually sit down closer to 7:00 a.m.—but the report sparked a nice reaction in the market. The market came in with an uptrend and some light consolidation. After the report, price broke to the upside. The 15-minute chart was particularly helpful today—it filtered out noise and gave me clear guidance along with the hourly chart. We came above the moving averages and lifted nicely on the report, but the move was a bit too far, too fast. I didn’t catch that initial push and instead looked for opportunities after the pullback. Trades & Key Levels - First Attempt: Took a long at 82, stopped out at 58. I was looking for a bounce, but the market kept falling. - Second Attempt: Re-entered at 602. This one worked better—I hit my target profit and got back to even on the day. - Impulsive Mistake: Took a blind long outside of my trading plan. Got stopped out quickly. Still working on patience and avoiding impulsivity. - VWAP Trade: Went long off VWAP at 661.50 and took it up to 684. Solid winner ✅. - Short at 702: Correct read, but I closed prematurely. Market continued much further without me. Overall, I had several profitable small trades, though many were managed too tightly. I often took points off the table too soon rather than letting the trade mature. Lessons Learned 1. Patience is key. I need to trust my setups and let candles close before entering. 2. Avoid impulsive trades. Blind entries cost me today. 3. Trade management. Several trades were good ideas, but I exited too early. Holding just a little longer would have turned small wins into bigger ones. 4. Respect structure. VWAP and higher time frames gave solid signals—when I trusted them, the trades worked.

Happy Thursday, traders! It’s September 25th, 2025, and today’s trading session brought some unusual challenges — but also some solid learning opportunities. Between calls, meetings, and life distractions, I had limited screen time, which forced me to rely on patience, discipline, and structure. Market Context Before diving into the trades, let’s zoom out: - Trend: The market has been in a downtrend since Monday’s high near 25,000. - Pullback: Over the last three sessions, price steadily pulled back. On the daily chart, it still looks like a pullback inside a longer-term uptrend. - Key Support: Yesterday’s fall landed directly on the 200-hour moving average, which acted as strong support. This gave me a bias for a bounce today, but shorts still looked favorable after the early recovery. Pre-Market Trades Knowing my morning would be packed with calls, I took a few early trades: - Long from 56 → 71 (+15 pts): Solid scalp using support levels. - A couple of stop-outs: Entered too soon and got clipped by tight stops. The takeaway: Pre-market can provide good opportunity, but only if managed carefully with wider context in mind. Market Open Action At 7 a.m., price was sitting around 24,570. The open brought steady selling pressure: - Early longs too soon: Tried fading the first drop, risking ~6 points. The entries were premature, costing me ~40 points total. - Recovery trade: Waited for confirmation, added contracts after a retracement, and caught a clean move back up. This helped recover earlier losses. 👉 Lesson: Don’t buy on red candles. Wait for structure and confirmation before stepping in. Key Structures & Signals - Wedge formations: Price action built both descending and ascending wedges, which created strong setups once broken. - Buying dots + moving averages: On the 2-minute, buying dots aligned with the 20 EMA — a strong signal to stay in trades longer. - Support levels: Prior-day support and hourly moving averages provided reliable bounce zones.

🔍 5 & 15-Minute Chart Analysis The market opened at all-time highs, consolidating in a 50-point range between $25,025–$24,975. Selling showed up immediately on the 15-minute candle, breaking 24,975 and dropping to 24,933—a 70-point slide. From 8:00–10:15 a.m., price chopped sideways with three failed pushes higher. The 8 SMA rejected each attempt, and by 11:15 sellers broke the low again, driving price to 24,790. That level held until 1:15 p.m., when buyers pushed back toward the 20 SMA. On the 5-minute, price rejected off the 20 SMA at 10:50, broke below the 8, retested the daily low, and sold off. From 24,950, we saw 11 consecutive red bars before support finally formed at 24,700. A textbook power-trend decline. ⏱️ 2-Minute Chart Analysis The 2-minute chart showed sharp structure. At 7:36 a.m., price tested the ORB high at 25,010, then dropped 60 points in 10 minutes to 24,950. After a weak bounce, price rolled over again, bottoming at 24,936. From there, it consolidated in a tight 30-point range (24,936–24,965). The inability to reclaim the 8 SMA was a clear signal that strength just wasn’t there for longs. 🎯 Trade Review My plan: look for longs on pullbacks. Here’s how it played out: - ✅ First Long (7:34–7:35) – Entered early, but moved my stop up right away. Trade failed, small loss. - ❌ Second Long (24,950) – Stopped out by a tick. Frustrating, but kept risk tight. - ⚠️ Third Long (re-entry) – Entered too high. Stops managed fine, but better shorts off the 20 SMA were ignored. - 🚀 Final Long (8:05 double-bottom) – Could have been the best trade. I recongnized the consolidation and got in at the low, but only Caught the start and end of the move, missed the middle. After consolidation returned, I called it a day early—choosing family time 👨‍👧‍👦 over forcing trades. 💡 Lessons & Takeaways - 🎯 Don’t get stuck on bias. Long-only thinking caused me to miss clean short setups. - 🛡️ Risk management works. Tight stops kept losses small, even on failed trades. - 🔄 Structure matters. Double-bottoms delivered again—simple but reliable. - ⚖️ Trading = freedom. Logging off early reminded me why I trade: more time with my kids.

Hey everybody, how’s it going? I wanted to share a quick recap of today’s session. It’s September 22nd, and this morning I traded the MNQ pretty much right from the market open. My session was short—about an hour from 9:30 to 10:30 Eastern—because my son got sick and I had to pick him up from school. My wife had already called twice, the school called too, so the market had to take a back seat today. Big Picture View 🕵️‍♂️ Looking at the higher timeframes, we’re flirting with all-time highs. Both the hourly and the 4-hour charts looked solid and suggested the market could go higher. My plan coming in was simple: wait for a pullback and then look for a long entry. And that’s exactly what happened. Around 7:41, we got the pullback I was waiting for, and I took the trade. The entry itself was good—contracts at 45 and 46—but my management wasn’t. I should have let at least one contract run toward higher prices. Technically speaking, everything was lined up: - The 8 and 20 EMAs were pointing up nicely - Clean structure on the 5- and 15-minute - VWAP was up from the open - Strong volume to the upside The market clearly had buyers, and we lifted right around 8:25. So the setup was there, but my execution wasn’t as sharp as it could have been. Where I Went Off Plan 🚧 Here’s the honest part. My first couple of trades at 7:39 and 7:41 weren’t even in my original game plan. I took them anyway—and got punished for it. That mistake messed with my psychology. When I finally did get into a great position later (clean entry, no drawdown), I was already fighting frustration and second-guessing myself. Instead of managing calmly, I cut the trade short. This is something I know I need to keep working on: not letting earlier mistakes bleed into the trades that actually line up with my plan. The Opportunities I Passed On 🤦‍♂️ In hindsight, I should have taken the entry right at 8:50—buyers stepped in hard at the open. That pullback would’ve been solid. Instead, I let it push to the high, then hesitated when price came back down around 7:58.

Today I traded the MNQ. Unemployment claims at 6:30 a.m. brought early weakness into the open. The 5- and 15-minute charts showed selling pressure, but support held at the 1-hour 20 EMA (24,360). From there, buyers stepped in → price broke VWAP and pushed into new all-time highs. The first leg ran from 24,000 up to 24,550–560. After a pullback to the 15-minute 20 EMA around 24,475, price bounced again before eventually forming a triple top and selling off. 🔎 2-Minute Analysis - VWAP held early, setting the opening range high at 24,460–475 - Weakness was clear: declining volume + breaks of MAs and VWAP - Support at 24,460 held, then the hourly 20 became the low → rally of nearly 200 points - Clean sequences of buying/selling dots showed algorithmic activity ⏱️ 1-Minute Trade Review - Trade 1 (7:37): Long near low → exited too early at 20 EMA - Trade 2 (7:48): Long on hammer → closed prematurely, 60 points total with 6 contracts - Missed short at 7:50 and exited another long too early (only 15 points) - Missed the cleanest move: 24,400 → 24,516 in 30 minutes 🚀 💡 Lessons Learned 1. Patience is key – exits were too early, leaving big moves behind 2. Trust the context – VWAP + EMAs gave strong continuation signals 3. Follow the flow – algorithmic buying/selling dots were a clear confirmation