Daily Log - July 16, 2025

The day initially looked like it might shape up to be a range day. Price action began consolidating into a tight sideways range shortly after the open, offering very few clear trade opportunities.

Then, some unexpected news from POTUS. The market turned fast and erratic—while price still respected general price action behavior, there weren’t any clean entries. And even if something had shown up, getting filled in that chop would’ve been a challenge.

The news created two large legs down followed by two big legs back up, pretty much confirming we’re in a broad range day. At the moment, price is hovering near the top of the range, around the ONH and the market open.

The market stayed in a sideways consolidation for nearly two hours before finally attempting a breakout above the ONH. It was a painful watch—price just moved sideways in a tight 4-point range. There was a small failed breakout (FBO) of the mini range that I could’ve considered taking, but these aren’t really my favorite setups. I’m still not great at timing them, and they tend to throw me off more often than not.

The market eventually broke above the ONH and attempted to continue with a second leg of the wider uptrend. However, the attempt lacked strength, and the market quickly slipped back into consolidation mode. There were signs that a spike and channel structure might be forming, but it wasn’t clearly established—especially so soon after the breakout above the ONH.

Overall, not a great day. Price movement generally followed the market cycle and wasn’t too difficult to read—but it was either extremely fast or painfully slow. And through it all, there just weren’t many clean setups worth taking.