The markets gapped up and were dead flat for two hours, then came back to fill the NQ gap (but not the ES) over lunch before the Fed. On the announcement, it went up first, then pulled back to where it started, and then finally took off to the upside on 1.8 billion NASDAQ shares.

Net ticks: -3.5 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 ended up closing it for a 4 tick loss after an extended period of time with nothing going on:

NQ Opening Range Play triggered short at A and stopped, triggered long at B and worked:

ES Tradesight Institutional Range Play:

NQ Tradesight Institutional Range Play:

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.

Triggered long at A at 4831.75, hit first target for 6 ticks, stopped second half 2 ticks under entry which was a bummer because it stopped us exactly out and then ran hard: