Opening Remarks

Okay, let’s talk about the top trades of the week from last week.

Each night, I publish the AM Briefing, which includes our mapped-out entries—where we’re looking to get long, where we’re looking to go short. If it’s in green, that is my preferred trade. Every week, I publish the strong levels, which really give the chart a lot of structure. My traders really appreciate it.

This was the bull/bear line for last week. We never even hit it, to be honest. It was a decent week, but nothing to get overly excited about—roughly a 160-point range.

Top Trade Setups of the Week

Let’s dive into the top setups.

Battle Plan Trade #1 — and just to be clear, the numbering isn’t based on importance. It’s simply how I organize them on the chart so I can talk about them easily: battle plan one, two, three, four, etc.

Battle Plan 1 required being active during the overnight London session. I have international traders, so some of you were able to take it. That setup didn’t make it all the way to the bull/bear line, which I thought would have been an easy move. That shortfall showed the strength of the bears early in the week.

Sure, a long worked out, but it stopped short. Then we looked for price to get into this range, which it did on a dip. You got a ladder back. Did you get follow-through? No, you didn’t.

Battle Plan 2, marked in green as my preferred trade, worked out. Later, we expected Battle Plan 1 to develop again but instead got a failed short. Price moved back above and laddered up, giving another opportunity—but only if you were up in London again. Still, no follow-through in RTH. It sold off.

Core Strategy Entries

This was a great week to highlight core strategy entries. One, in particular, stood out. If you’re one of our full members using the core strategy, this entry would’ve made about 50 points.

Had you closed going into the end of the day, your stop would have likely been just under the strong range. Either stop placement worked well. But the close left me a bit confused—we came back into the POC, which is not unusual, but it looked like such a strong move that I expected a finish in the upper distribution. Instead, we closed in the lower distribution.

Battle Plan 1 had us dipping below again, then reclaiming, and getting long. Any of the ladder entries there could have worked, but again, no strong follow-through. Still, we were on the right side—long was the right idea in the overnight.

We finally got above the strong range. A double or triple tap occurred—might have been hard to survive that—but it was still the right trade idea. No follow-through, though.

Market Conditions Around CPI and NFP

Tuesday was the day after the 14-day delayed non-farm payroll report and the day before CPI. That made it a very high-alert, level 10 kind of trading week, as we discussed multiple times.

Wednesday didn’t give us any good entries via the battle plan. Even for core strategy entries, it wasn’t ideal. Had you traded only off strong levels looking for a short, there might’ve been a setup—but not a great one.

We had mapped Battle Plan 1 and 2 in advance. Battle Plan 2 turned out to be the trade of the week, and if you were trading in the Asia session using core strategy, you could have gotten long and made about 91 points.

That day we did a marathon—seven hours on Zoom, which is rare. We talked about holding long via longer-dated calls or put spreads from that area. If there was ever a spot to take some back and forth, that was it.

Trader Insights and Wrap-Up Video

Mario, one of my London traders, really appreciated the simplicity of the strong levels. Sometimes the best trading strategy is just waiting for price to hit one of those zones. That’s how we map out our battle plan trades.

I told everyone on CPI day: TP, TP. We had mapped out a short and two longs. Go watch that wrap-up video. Jackie removed some calls at 200% profit. Beautiful execution. That 91-pointer worked because that’s where I told people to take profit. CPI day was classic: see money, take money, then step away.

Friday Trading and Mental Reps

Going into OPEX Friday, no battle plan trades activated.

I streamed live again on Friday. If you’re subscribed and hit the notification bell, you would’ve seen it. Sometimes I only stream 30 minutes; sometimes the full session. Friday was a full stream.

We said: “If we get back into this range here, it’s longs only. No shorts.” Over and over—no shorts. This was the zone bulls needed to defend, and they defended well.

This might be the only wrap-up video I’m doing on that, so go check the live tab to see the replay.

Battle Plan 2 had an option for a bounce at the apex. If you took that trade, it was one of the riskier entries. If you held your single contract with a stop 5 points under the low (which I recommend), you saw a favorable overnight move—up as much as 123 points.

Weekly Chart Breakdown and Levels to Watch

Now let’s look at the week overall.

At the top, we have the overnight high, the London high, and the weekly high. Make sure to mark those. You also have the RTH high. Then at the bottom: the Asia low, which is also the weekly low.

RTH halfback wasn’t tested in the session. It’s sitting right near where we tapped out on Friday. Asia low corresponds to Battle Plan 2, still holding long from there. Price went parabolic afterward.

Also mark: RTH low (not tested), London low, IB low, and POC zones.

Glossary of Key Terms

• POC: Point of Control — the price level with the highest traded volume during the session.
• RTH: Regular Trading Hours — typically refers to U.S. equity market hours.
• IB: Initial Balance — the range from the first hour of the RTH session.
• Single Prints: Gaps in volume profile where price moved too quickly for buyers and sellers to transact.

Next Steps

We’re still technically under last week’s bull/bear line. I haven’t published the new strong levels or the upcoming week’s bull/bear line yet. That’s my next step.

Be on the lookout for the updated AM Briefing and strong levels tonight. Have a great day. Talk soon.