Session started with a decent size gap up. Bar 1–3 formed a triangle, and when we got bar 4, a big bear breakout bar, I took a chance on a short betting on the overnight gap being closed. I took both contracts off at +6.00 pts. since we had news coming out at 9.00 CT.

Price stalled and it looked like it could become a small trading range. The EMA kept holding, with dojis printing, and the bears looked weak.

Bar 11 was a great bear bar forcing bears to sell right into the 20 EMA. Bar 12 was a great-looking bull bar trapping the bears, so I took the long. It was pretty close to the range midline and a 50% pullback of the bear leg.

My target was +5 pts. on the first contract and the 2nd one at the daily high, but when it stalled I took it off at +3 pts. It would have worked out, but again the slow movement put me off and I exited early.

Price did move up to the range high and stalled. When it printed a nice bear breakout bar I entered short. It was also a Lower High double top close at the range top. I was selling above the EMA so that was not great, but the lack of bull momentum made me take a chance here. Price did bounce off the EMA multiple times, indicating that the bears were not strong either.
Bulls tried to break out of the top of the range multiple times. After 1 hour and 45 minutes I closed the trade for a -12 pts. loss. It was just chopping around the top of the range and the probability of a fade back into the range was getting more and more 50/50.

I took my dinner break and when I got back the market was still chopping around this small tight range, completely untradeable on the 5M.

The bears finally managed to get a breakout lower, but it was like 3 hours after I was expecting it, so I had no trust in today’s price action structure. I decided to call it a bit earlier than normal due to the lack of movement and structure.