ES & MES Futures Trade Plan #372

ES Traders Were Warned…  

ES is at all-time highs… a small “expected range” this week… August price action dead as a doornail… no news drivers within sight… and OPEX looming on Friday…

So… “Moderate expectations.”

We expected little… and little is exactly what the market delivered most of the AM session.

Although trading opportunities were limited, traders are gonna trade. Just keep it tight.

Battle Plan 2️⃣ | ES Short Setup

🔥 30-point Battle Plan 2️⃣ | ES Short

An “aggressive” trader could have taken the positional short at 7779 as discussed on Zoom and YouTube live.

“So, look for a short here (at 97). Not a horrible positional short.”

Inside the live trading room I added, “So if you’re positionally short, you’re probably going to take a little bit of back and forth, back and forth. You just have to want to be able to handle the stop loss above the Friday close. If it releases, it’ll be an amazing trade.”

I reinforced the concept a few times. “So, if you’re short, you might take some back and forth here before it releases.”

After much back-and-forth price action… a few hours later… Battle Plan 2️⃣ presented itself again.

This short was a perfect blend of 3M Core Strategy and the actual Battle Plan mapping.

In fact, ES’s price moved in near perfect unison with the outlined mapping.

We will use Jacky’s entry for illustration. Short 96 with a lead contract and lotto runner. “I am Short 96, Trading your BP 2 with the 3M FS.”

We discussed following one contract at 50% of the move… while being aware of the Strong Level below and the drop zone for Battle Plan 1️⃣. Both potential turn-around locations. 

That said, if you’re short, stay short and hold a lotto runner. The risk:reward of this trade was too attractive to cut profits early. Learning to hold lotto runners is often the best trade futures traders can make. 

Jacky was smart and shoved his lotto runner just above the Strong Level, which was also 50% of the move. The best of both worlds. 

I was hoping price action would release like this (time-stamped video).

Tip of the Day

Right Trade, Even When It Loses:

The right trade in the right location sometimes loses. Take it again anyway.

You’re building a career on repetition of correct decisions… single outcomes are just noise.

Tomorrow’s Live Streams

Scoreboard

Points Accumulated This Week:

Battle Plan: 30+

🔥 Certainly not going to say the entry was picture perfect. There were multiple opportunities to be short. Especially if you took the positional short as outlined on Zoom.

Zoom: 25

If you took the positional short, you did well. I don’t know whether to call that a Zoom trade or not, but I certainly encourage that as an option for the aggressive traders with a clearly defined six point stop loss.

I tried to be short twice and both were break even trades, so I chose not to take a third positional trade. Sticking to your rules is always the right move.

Core Strategy: 25+

🔥 25+ FS FVG Short