The markets gapped up small, flopped around both ways for 15 minutes, and then went higher for the session on 1.5 billion shares as volume dried up ahead of Friday’s triple expiration. Opening Range plays did not work and they were wider than normal. My NQ call didn’t trigger.

Net ticks: -32 ticks.

As usual, let’s start by taking a look at the ES and NQ with our market directional lines, VWAP, and Comber on the 5-minute chart from today’s session:

ES and NQ Opening and Institutional Range Plays:

ES Opening Range Play triggered long at A and stopped, we use the midpoint when it this wide:

NQ Opening Range Play triggered long at A and stopped, we use the midpoint when it this wide:

ES Tradesight Institutional Range Play:

NQ Tradesight Institutional Range Play:

ES:

NQ:

Just a reminder that we use half points for ticks on the NQ and not the quarter point measurement that the exchanges switched to in recent years. This allows us to use 6 ticks as a key target as we do on the other contracts. It also keeps the value of a tick at $10, closer to the value of a tick on the other contracts.

If we had paused at the UPT at A, this would have been a called setup, very nice overall: