As expected, volume was extremely light and volatility continued to come off in the early session. That said though, some of the moves into key levels were very convicted and you had to have sense enough to get out of the way. As I mentioned pre-market the OL was a little weak and any probe under the day session pivot would probably be the last clue of impending failure. Today brings up an interesting item to touch on. You will note I didn’t have the low volume at 94.25 as a potential trade today. I felt that the pivot and the strong acceptance at 92 basically “framed” the area between as a likely fast market area and as such we wouldn’t get much rejection there. Boy was I wrong. That was “the” textbook trap of the session and a perfect rejection spot. This is why it always helps to have opinions from at least two sources so you don’t miss anything. For any of you that are premium members, you have your own level work, plus mine to check it against/use as a crutch to give confidence you are making the right choices. I just wanted to bring up that NJ, RM, RO, RC, etc. and I do the same thing with each other. There are bound to be times when someone sees something the other doesn’t. In any case, here is the trap set up at the 94 handle…

And here is the Biglot confirmation trade out of my first major interim support area around the 92 handle which I called this morning. A word on trading high volume areas: I don’t normally do it but in this case I felt that the previous high failure test and then the strong support developed yesterday made it a sort of rejection/acceptance combo area worth trading. It was mostly a market structure decision though because I felt with the low volume and decreased volatility that was the obvious place for the first major turn today. Remember what I always say – you get payed off by being right in these markets. period. All the technical analysis in the world can never replace instinct and feel. I don’t know what else to say about it. I had good supporting market structure that indicated potential support, I put the rest of the pieces together, listened to the market internals going into it, the price action and large trader conviction confirmed and it set up perfectly. If you were trading to the next acceptance area or just the first sign of contrary institutional activity, there was some real meat on this one…

Have a great long weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday. Hopefully you have all had a good week. The levels have been lining up very well despite the volatility which proves once again that the auction process and its relationship to volume at price in any market is no theory.