“Fresh week, fresh traps.”
Opening Notes
The room kicked off with the usual Monday optimism — coffee-fueled greetings, charts streaming, and a hint of caution as Manny reminded everyone:
Attack on a Monday morning at your own peril.
(No truer words spoken today.)
We also had the morning resource pack:
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Daily Trade Strategy
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Range Calculator
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CFTC Rule 4.41 Disclaimer
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PTG Charts streaming
Everything needed to trade like a pro (or at least avoid feeling like you’re trading with oven mitts on).
Morning Session: The Bull Slips on a Bar of Soap
Early price action started messy. Rising wedge chatter, setups flashing, and then the first theme of the day emerged:
No conviction from the bulls.
Breaks went unprotected. Reclaims never held.
Manny’s setups were flashing — then ghosting. Setup #3? Narrow miss. Setup #7? Apparently cursed.
Classic Monday chop.
Price repeatedly toyed with the PTG Daily Range Calculator targets and 75% ranges, but nothing stuck. Bosier cycled long entries like a gentleman and a scholar; Manny took a lay-up short to erase the early sting.
The 6870 level?
Once it cracked… toast for the bulls.
Midday: Trend or Trash?
By late morning, structure looked like a Tepid Sell rather than a freight train. Manny observed:
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No green 15-min candle yet → caution.
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Market grinding lower but not nuking → balance building.
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Distribution risk? Yes.
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Emotional trading risk? Also yes.
PTG narrative: “Not inspiring rhythms today.”
Accurate.
Afternoon: Chicago Bears Open the Trapdoor
The day’s main storyline:
Chicago Bears eying the trapdoor 6845 → 6835.
Break it… hold it… and value shifts lower.
All three levels?
Hit. Tagged. Fulfilled.
Right down to the day’s low tick at 6835.25 — “Go figure.”
Then came a small counter-squeeze courtesy of the NVDA export news bomb, a quick 2% pop, and just as quickly… the market took that enthusiasm, folded it neatly, and placed it straight into the trash.
Bulls attempted reclaim of 6856, then 6847 AVWAP, but both rejections were cleaner than a newly Zamboni’d ice rink.
Late Day: The Bears Jog It Into the Close
Despite a surprise $1.5B → $2.4B MOC buy imbalance, the market absorbed it instantly — a true liquidity statement piece.
Final notes:
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Late edge favored the bears.
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No entry for setup #4 despite Manny’s unwavering patience.
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“HOPE is not a strategy!”
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And the room collectively agreed:
Waiting all day for the closing move is no way to trade.
Final Thoughts
A lower-timeframe grind, higher-timeframe controlled decline, and textbook fulfillment of PTG Cycle Day 3 violation levels, money box, and projection levels.
A day where:
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Bears had ball control.
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Bulls had no counterpunch.
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And traders who sat out?
Arguably got paid the most.