S&P 500 (ES)
Prior Session was Cycle Day 3: Overnight Auction:
Bulls took a joyride into the 6790–6800 upper target zone before promptly dropping the keys and stumbling back toward the 6750 Line-in-the-Sand pre-RTH. That set the tone: flexibility or fragility — pick one.
🐂 Bull Scenario Review
The plan was simple:
Hold 6750 → press back toward 6790–6800.
Reality?
Price spent more time threatening 6750 than embracing it.
Any early optimism evaporated faster than Manny’s weekend vitamins.
Still, dip-buyers did show up at 6740 and again around 6720… but conviction was thin and easily shoved aside.
🐻 Bear Scenario Review
Below 6750, sellers were tasked with tagging 6735–6725.
Mission accomplished with authority — 6735 nailed, 6725 probed, and later in the session the 6714.75 Daily Range Target hit to-the-tick.
Momentum eventually dragged price toward the 6695 neighborhood, with the Cycle Day 1 Average Decline Projection breached, confirming a meaningful sell-short CD3 day.
Range was 143 handles on 1.815M contracts exchanged
For greater detail of how this day unfolded, click on the Trading Room RECAP 11.17.25 link.
…Transition from Cycle Day 3 to Cycle Day 1
Transition into Cycle Day 1: “Bricks on Ticks & the Jackhammer of Doom”
A fresh Cycle Day 1 dawns, but the average decline projection (6730) has already been punched in during yesterday’s rebalancing sweep — meaning today’s auction begins with the homework mostly done and the tension dialed way up.
The S&P 500 (ES) now sits at a structural inflection point, having probed the 6650–6690 zone twice without printing so much as a token daily higher-high close. This is the classic setup for what I call “Bricks on Ticks” — each rally attempt gets weighed down by another metaphorical cinderblock as persistent sellers keep hammering the auction lower.
Picture a jackhammer driving into concrete: unrelenting, rhythmic, and loud enough that even the Bulls’ morale starts to crack before price does.
For the Bulls, the mandate is simple:
Launch a full-scale counter-attack and print a decisive daily reversal bar to neutralize the current momentum bleed. Anything less, and the Bears will continue their concrete-breaking symposium with front-row seats.
And hovering above all of it?
A BIG mid-week volatility grenade — NVDA earnings. The Street is treating it like a market-moving oracle, and whichever side positions most effectively ahead of it may very well own the cycle.
Strap in. CD1 just opened the next chapter.
Of course, nothing changes for PTG…Simply follow your plan. Take only Triple A setups and manage the $risk. ALWAYS HAVE HARD STOP-LOSSES in-place on the exchange.
PTG’s Primary Directive (PD) is to ALWAYS STAY IN ALIGNMENT with the DOMINANT FORCE.
As such, scenarios to consider for today’s trading.
Bull Scenario: Price sustains a bid above 6695+-, initially targets 6715 – 6725 zone.
Bear Scenario: Price sustains an offer below 6695+-, initially targets 6670 – 6660 zone.
PVA High Edge = 6799 PVA Low Edge = 6698 Prior POC = 6757
ESZ
Nasdaq (NQ)
Prior Session was Cycle Day 3: CD3 delivered the full two-sided buffet, and both camps showed up hungry.
Bulls opened the session by following the DTS script to the letter, driving price straight into the 25,250 target zone with precision—printing an HOD of 25,254, just to show off their aim.
But the Bears weren’t about to let the Bulls have all the fun. Once price cracked below the LIS at 25,078, sellers seized control and marched the auction lower, not only tagging the 24,900 objective but casually exceeding it for good measure.
Rotational swings dominated the session, offering a rare treat: plenty of clean opportunities for both sides to get paid—a true “everyone eats” kind of day.
By the closing bell, however, the narrative swung in favor of the Bears, with the market settling in the lower quartile of the day’s range, signaling who ultimately dictated terms.
Range for this session was 629 handles on 727k contracts exchanged.
…Transition from Cycle Day 3 to Cycle Day 1
Transition into Cycle Day 1: The new cycle doesn’t tiptoe in — it detonates onto the field with the 25,025 average decline projection already flattened like fresh roadkill on a high-traffic Athenian highway.
The Spartan 300 mounted a valiant shield-wall at the CD1 average decline, but the Persian horde — numbering in the tens of thousands and marching with algorithmic precision — simply overwhelmed the line.
Today’s Cycle Day 1 opens as a true tug-of-war for directional control, with neither side able to claim early dominance. Yet the rhythmic war drums of sellers ahead of NVDA earnings echo across the valley, reminding bulls that reinforcements may be late to the party.
In this arena, the victor takes the Golden Prize — and rest assured, there are no participation trophies handed out at this fight.
Of course, nothing changes for PTG…Simply follow your plan. Take only Triple A setups and manage the $risk. ALWAYS HAVE HARD STOP-LOSSES in-place on the exchange.
PTG’s Primary Directive (PD) is to ALWAYS STAY IN ALIGNMENT with the DOMINANT FORCE.
As such, scenarios to consider for today’s trading.
Bull Scenario: Price sustains a bid above 24900+-, initially targets 25025 – 25098 zone.
Bear Scenario: Price sustains an offer below 24900+-, initially targets 24760 – 24730 zone.
PVA High Edge = 25252 PVA Low Edge = 24952 Prior POC = 25142
NQZ
Economic Calendar
Trade Strategy: Our tactical trade strategy will simply remain unaltered…We’ll be flexible to trade both long and short side from Decision Pivot Levels. Continue to focus on Bull/Bear Stackers and Premium/Discounts. As always, remaining in alignment with dominant intra-day force increases probabilities of producing winning trades.
Stay Focused…Non-Biased…Disciplined ALWAYS USE STOPS!
Good Trading…David
“Knowing is not enough, We must APPLY. Willing is not enough, We must DO.” –BR
*****This trade strategy report is disseminated for “education only” and should not be viewed in any way as a recommendation to buy or sell futures products.”
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