We are coming into Friday with the NASDAQ basically flat on the week after a strong gap-and-go higher Monday.  The overnight session was balanced and our profile print left an interesting shelf up above at 3567.25.  This type of incomplete profile gives us a big clue early on.  The market will most likely spill over the shelf which could take price to some interesting levels early on.  Of course, if the shelf holds, that odd behavior would tell us the market is in the firm grip of seller control on the short term.  See below:

The intermediate term continues to hang on the balance despite a valiant attempt to escape from buyers.  There was a thin market profile print yesterday, a zipper, which price slid right down through.  However, the intermediate term remains balanced.  I have noted only the lowest of low volume nodes to keep the noise level low on this chart.  See below:

Sellers took control on the short term during regular trading hours, despite our shelf action mentioned above.  On the short term, sellers successfully dictated price lower and value followed, pressing and closing the weekly gap we printed Monday and stopping precisely at last Friday’s value area high.  I expected this fat, well established profile to be revisited as these types of profiles exude a strong gravitational pull in times of mean revision.  The key today is whether we can hold yesterday’s low which coincides with the value area high from Friday.  If not, we are likely to trade through the value area.  On the upside, the market can zip right up the thin profile just like it zipped down it yesterday.  The action is thin from 3572 – 3586.  The a break of the shelf mentioned above may take price into this thin region.  I have highlighted these two interesting contextual pieces below on the market profile:

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Nasdaq futures are a touch lower overnight in a quiet session of trade.  The overnight profile shows a slight selling wick above after a wave of selling came through around 3:30am.  Today is a busy day on the economic calendar and we are currently priced to open inside range and outside of value presenting only a slightly elevated risk environment.

The intermediate term auction is still in balance and buyers responded to the late afternoon selling yesterday.  As frustrated as I was at yesterday’s close with many of my swing positions, conditions favor the longs.  If buyers can hold yesterday’s lows we may be looking at a buy-the-dip opportunity.  Below you can see what I am referring to:

When I zoom in on the short term auction you can see the downside risk.  There is a very thin profile structure below current prices and we could easily slash through these levels.  On the contrary, the profile print yesterday has the potential to show a bias to the buyers.  Value never migrated lower, instead hanging on right at Tuesday’s LVN at 3606.75.  Value also overlapped Tuesday action which suggests we were coming into balance.  The late afternoon selling may have been a shakeout because a responsive buyer came in.  The key to validating the responsive buying tail is two TPO prints which hold the line.  Otherwise, we can slide right down into Monday’s lows and potentially fill the weekly gap we printed Monday morning.  See below:

 

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Nasdaq futures are currently priced to gap lower about 10 points after a wave of selling took out Tuesday’s opening swing low at 3606.50 around 6am.  The selling accelerated at 8:30 when the PPI numbers were released.  As price currently stands, we are set to open out of value and out of range suggesting the short term is out of balance and the risk environment is high.

Risk of an opening drive is elevated today, especially given the big gap left open from Monday’s open.  The stakes are high because not only are we inside of option expiration week, but we also have prices on the Nasdaq which are attempting to escape intermediate term balance.  Paramount to achieving this is printing a higher low on the intermediate term.  I have roughly chosen 3595 as the price where I want to see signs of responsive buying.  If they do not show up, we could be in for a fast liquidation trade because mean revision will set in and the short term profile structure below us is thin.  Here is a picture of the intermediate term balance with relevant price levels noted:

In the short term auction, yesterday was a neutral print with range extension on both sides of the profile.  These prints tend to occur at or near inflection points.  The profile shows responsive selling coming in soon after we range extended higher and taking out the lows.  The rest of the action was spent printing volume in the bottom half of the profile which made for a saggy look.  My expectation was for price to balance out this profile by trading down to 3595.  I did not however expect to be waking up to these prices.  Buyers continued migrating value higher yesterday which tells me the short term auction was still buyer controlled as of yesterday’s close.  I have annotated the market profile below:

Scenario 1: market tests lower, finds responsive buying between 3595 – 3593.75 and begins rotating back to VAL 3606.50

Scenario 2: market tests lower, takes out 3593.75 and accelerates lower- opening drive down

Scenario 3: market tests higher finds responsive selling at 3606.50, balances out above Monday VPOC 3597.50 and then goes for overnight gap fill to 3608.75 then VAH 3614.75

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It seems as if each time we see a few progressive up days in the Nasdaq we soon see a session of heavy selling which unwinds all the progress made.  This behavior has conditioned astute swing trades to fade the rips.  The question now is whether we see more of the same or instead the market begins climbing a wall of worry.  You can see a few recent examples of what I am referring to on the following daily Composite chart:

With the long term in balance and a bit of skepticism about joining strength, we have to question intermediate term balance.  I have expanded my intermediate term profile to encompass 26 sessions of trade because price was escaping the shorter 18 session balance.    As you can see below, we are trading up into the thin upper tail of our balance.  This zone is where action can become rather interesting as the pull of mean revision is strong but with enough propulsion (buy flow) we can escape balance and swing higher.  We left a big gap in the chart yesterday which suggests strong buying but also leaves a sloppy chart behind.  I have marked the key levels below which buyers need to defend to keep us on a swing higher ascent:

The short term is buyer controlled.  Although the larger timeframes show balance, on the short term we are out of balance and exploring higher.  Price action and volume were dynamic enough yesterday to press our entire value area above the prior (Friday’s) day’s session.  One cannot predict whether such upward progress will continue, however we can monitor the continuation via some key price levels.  Between the price levels highlighted above, and the ones below, we can determine if buyers are coming in today and initiating into strength by defending these key levels:

 

 

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The Nasdaq is about to gap up into the week.  Conditions are consolidating and bracketed on the intermediate timeframe and a break away from this zone will require some volume and conviction.  We can see two high volume nodes on the balance with price trading between the two and plenty of unresolved levels inside the toothy profile.  How this resolves will be very telling, although the long term suggests the sellers have a slight edge.  Below you can see the key levels within the intermediate term balance, as well as the bracket extremes:

The short term shows the formation of balance Friday, however we are set to open outside of balance, outside of range which suggests we are opening out of balance.  In this environment the risk of an opening drive in either direction is high.  The gap below should be respected and signs of weakness may suggest the gap fill trade will take hold.  This is even more likely given the fat, high quality distribution below, which we are likely to revisit. See below:

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We continue to observe the Nasdaq opening swing over here.  As always, your thoughts are appreciated because the more we discuss, the more we learn.  Thank you Zen for writing an anecdote of sorts last week.

Some notes, less noise.  Have a look:

MONDAY

 

TUESDAY:

 

WEDNESDAY:

 

 

THURSDAY:

 

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It has been a busy morning in the futures market as premarket participants digest CPI data as Janet Yellen prepares to speak.  The reaction thus far to a slight uptick in CPI was a pop and fade.

The intermediate term auction continues to appear seller controlled with swing trades showing a series of lower highs and lows.  The question now is whether market supply will continue driving prices down on the intermediate term, or if instead price will stabilize and revert to the mean.   There is data supporting the latter outcome and that my expectation.  However, I respect the trend playing out on the intermediate term and must be willing to shift my stance should my expectation not occur.  I would not change this vision of a bracketed trading range developing if we took out our recent swing lows, but it would be a progressive step.

On the day timeframe auction, little changed between Friday and Monday.  We printed an inside day where our daily range was within the range of Friday and we also printed a neutral day with range extension to both sides of the initial balance.  Both of these characteristics suggest indecision on the part of buyers and sellers.  We printed an excess low yesterday which suggests we may see some follow through by swing buyers today.  I have highlighted this excess low as well as a few other observations on the following regular trading hours NASDAQ market profile:

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We have some early strength in the NASDAQ index futures.  The question on everyone’s mind this morning is whether we will see the early weakness get faded by strong sell flow or whether the higher advertised prices encourage buyers to enter the marketplace.  The former has been more prevalent for the last two to three weeks.

For today’s presentation of the intermediate timeframe, I chose to build out the volume profile based upon the 72 trading sessions completed thus far this year.  From the volume profile emerges some unique clues into whether the intermediate term is balanced or readying to explore lower for value.  The pattern of lower highs and lows gives sellers a clear momentum edge on the intermediate timeframe, but what is volume suggesting about value?  We do show some consensus of value around 3550 which you will notice is below the midpoint of our annual profile.  This suggests value has built lower and adds support to the idea of a continued migration lower.  However we do show a semblance of the bell curve too which makes the mean revision trade still a viable thought, although one which needs to engage sooner than later.  Also, any bounce which materializes much be carefully observed verses the very low volume node at 3580.  If price cannot gain acceptance above this level we would further expect price to continue lower.  I have highlighted these observations and a few others on the following annual volume profile distribution:

The short term auction suggests buyers have an edge this morning.  We had a rather thorough auction during our globex session which built an excess low which can be seen as a thin tail below the profile.  This suggests responsive buying and sellers drying up.  As the USA comes online we are seeing the large value area from Friday gain acceptance via volume building higher on our current profile.  This creates the expectation for trade through Friday’s value.  I have highlighted Friday’s value area and the key levels inside of it on the following market profile chart:

Taking our attention out to the long term we can see the buyers no longer clearly in control of the long term auction according to the daily chart.  We are trading below our moving averages which are flat at best and some moving lower.  We are still above February lows and we may see a balanced, bracketed trading range form.  Overall the long term auction is in balance until we take out the February lows.

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Equity futures gapped lower overnight displaying strong follow through on yesterday’s trend day.  As the USA comes online the S&P is down nearly 10 points and the NASDAQ about 20.  We have an hour until the cash session begins to recapture some of this downward progress but this is otherwise known as a pro gap.  Essentially that means the risk is elevated beyond a level most retail traders can handle in the event they attempt to fade the move and close the overnight gap.

I am of the opinion that with the right tools we can formulate a sound method of participating in this gap, and the most important tool today is market profile.  On Wednesday morning, I highlighted two key price zones which tell the story on the NASDAQ.  One was a low volume price zone above.  We traded ALMOST the entire range of that upper zone before stalling and being rejected out.  Auction logic would suggest a move to the lower end of this bracket to see if buyers possess the same conviction they had down here.  This takes us to February 4^th, a rather interesting day.  Have a look:

I won’t get too deep into observation of the above except to say this type of well defined profile structure is VERY useful for leaning on.  I will look to buy as close to the value area low at 3431.50 as possible.  Here’s the current market profile picture:

The intermediate timeframe auction is in clear seller control.  They have this timeframe locked into a pattern of lower highs and lower lows.  I have highlighted a few very interesting low volume nodes we are coming into this morning on my volume composite:

Finally, the long term auction.  On the daily I show balance with sellers still pressing.  But on the weekly, there is something keeping me on the buy side, a squiggly line.  We may overshoot this reference point, given the markets current velocity, but I am leaning on this level nonetheless until we make a clean break:

 

 

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The NASDAQ futures drifted higher over night on low volume ahead of the jobs report at 8:30am.  The initial reaction to the jobs report was a move higher.  The report itself was mediocre-to-decent news thus an initial positive reaction is good, but not of the strongest conviction.  The strongest conviction would be a positive reaction to a bad employment report.  The strength was quickly faded by a strong bit of sell flow.  It looks like the opening may be interesting today.

The long term time auction is buyer controlled.  This can be seen as a series of higher highs and lows on the a daily chart of the NASDAQ composite.  If sellers can succeed over the next few days at printing a lower high verses March, we will likely see the long term auction transition into a balanced state.

The intermediate term auction is in balance.  Overhead supply came into effect yesterday morning and the resulting trading day was a press lower.  The action probed prices back to the midpoint of this intermediate term balance where my expectation was to find buying.  I will be watching the price action around 3632.75 for an early directional bias on the day.  I have highlighted this level and a few other observations on the following volume profile chart:

The short term auction is very indecisive but I would call it a semblance of balance.  Value is roaming somewhat aimlessly.  We have a strong developed profile overhead which price rejected away from yesterday and since then we have been inching back upward toward the reference zone.  I have highlighted this key upside profile as well as a few other observations on the following market profile chart:

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