The Market ProfileA way of reading the market that recognizes either time spent or volume traded at a particular price level. A market profile can be either made up of “TPO’s” (time price opportunities), or volume. TPO’s measure how much time was spent at a particular price, while volume-based market profiles measure how much volume traded at a particular price. Generally, market profile is used in the trading of futures, especially the /ES. ShadowTrader utilizes volume based profiles. value areas and ShadowTrader Pivots for /ESU22 and /NQU22 Futures are posted free every morning in the ShadowTrader Swing Trader newsletter.
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Pre market indications
| Opening In/Out Balance | in balance |
|---|---|
| Overnight InventoryA way of measuring overnight activity in the futures market by just noting how much of the overnight activity happens to fall above the prior day's settlement value (4:15pm EST close) and how much falls below. If more activity is above the settlement, then overnight inventory is said to be net long. If more is below, then it is said to be net short. If all of the overnight activity is above the settlement, then it is said to be 100% net long. If all of the activity is below the settlement then it is said to be 100% net short. The overnight inventory situation matters most and has the most impact on early trade when it is skewed 100% in either direction because when the imbalance is very large like that then the odds of an early correction increase greatly. This is due to the fact that most... | balanced |
| Current Price/Overnight Range | middle third |
| Shock and AweA term Peter uses to describe what overnight futures traders may be feeling when faced with an open that is wildly divergent from what they expected. Large gaps in either direction that are opening well outside of range are examples of this. The approach is that when the market opens in such a manner, there is often opportunity to trade earlier rather than later because of the large contingent of traders who will be forced to reverse their positions quickly. | no |
| Potential for Early Trade | no |
| Short Term Bias | uptrend broken, prices below 20sma daily |
Key Levels for Today
| 4220.75 | Top of Gap |
|---|---|
| 4180.50 | RTHRegular Trading Hours. In the /ES this means the price action from 9:30am EST to 4:15pm EST only. High / Bottom of Gap |
| 4157.00 | ONHOvernight High. A term mostly used in describing the futures market which has an overnight session and trades almost around the clock. To be precise, in the /ES this is the high made between 4:30pm EST and 9:30am EST the next day. |
| 4150.75 | Top of Single PrintsAny section of the market profile distribution that is only one TPO wide. Single prints are a sign of emotional buying or selling as very little time was spent at those levels and thus there is no value there. The endpoints of single print sections are considered to be potential support or resistance points. |
| 4146.00 | Bottom of Single PrintsAny section of the market profile distribution that is only one TPO wide. Single prints are a sign of emotional buying or selling as very little time was spent at those levels and thus there is no value there. The endpoints of single print sections are considered to be potential support or resistance points. |
| 4131.50 | RTHRegular Trading Hours. In the /ES this means the price action from 9:30am EST to 4:15pm EST only. Low / VALValue Area Low |
| 4121.50 | VPOCVirgin Point of Control. This is a point of control level that has not yet been tested (traded through) during an RTH session. If the POC gets tested during an overnight session, it does not count and remains "virgin" until it happens during a day session. 8.9 |
| 4118.00 | ONLOvernight Low. A term mostly used for the futures market as it trades almost around the clock. To be precise, in the /ES this would be the lowest price between 4:30pm EST and 9:30am EST the next day. |
Ongoing Narrative / Commentary
Gap and go yesterday that filled the large downside gap but left an almost equally large one above us. The one sided trade left another VPOCVirgin Point of Control. This is a point of control level that has not yet been tested (traded through) during an RTH session. If the POC gets tested during an overnight session, it does not count and remains "virgin" until it happens during a day session. above us as well which makes it three.
Overnight inventoryA way of measuring overnight activity in the futures market by just noting how much of the overnight activity happens to fall above the prior day's settlement value (4:15pm EST close) and how much falls below. If more activity is above the settlement, then overnight inventory is said to be net long. If more is below, then it is said to be net short. If all of the overnight activity is above the settlement, then it is said to be 100% net long. If all of the activity is below the settlement then it is said to be 100% net short. The overnight inventory situation matters most and has the most impact on early trade when it is skewed 100% in either direction because when the imbalance is very large like that then the odds of an early correction increase greatly. This is due to the fact that most... is quite balanced indicating a pause here although not without price exploration below the RTHRegular Trading Hours. In the /ES this means the price action from 9:30am EST to 4:15pm EST only. Low which is generally more bearish. Yesterday’s RTHRegular Trading Hours. In the /ES this means the price action from 9:30am EST to 4:15pm EST only. activity closed both the /ES and the /NQ well below their respective 20 period simple moving averages.
In the chart of the day, I’ve left the recent balance areas highlighted. Current prices in the /ES are right in the middle of the more recent congestion which could indicate some two sided trade until we resolve this area. Further weakness puts the 50sma (red) and the uptrend line (around 3900) into play.
/ESU22 – Daily
VPOC’s
- 08.16 4308.25
- 08.18 4278.00
- 08.19 4230.75
- 08.09 4121.50
- 08.02 4094.25
- 07.28 4073.50
- 07.27 3975.00
- 07.26 3924.25
- 07.13 3808.00
- 07.14 3794.25
- 06.17 3675.50
Scenarios
- Opening within range on balanced overnight inventoryA way of measuring overnight activity in the futures market by just noting how much of the overnight activity happens to fall above the prior day's settlement value (4:15pm EST close) and how much falls below. If more activity is above the settlement, then overnight inventory is said to be net long. If more is below, then it is said to be net short. If all of the overnight activity is above the settlement, then it is said to be 100% net long. If all of the activity is below the settlement then it is said to be 100% net short. The overnight inventory situation matters most and has the most impact on early trade when it is skewed 100% in either direction because when the imbalance is very large like that then the odds of an early correction increase greatly. This is due to the fact that most... means no shock and aweA term Peter uses to describe what overnight futures traders may be feeling when faced with an open that is wildly divergent from what they expected. Large gaps in either direction that are opening well outside of range are examples of this. The approach is that when the market opens in such a manner, there is often opportunity to trade earlier rather than later because of the large contingent of traders who will be forced to reverse their positions quickly. and tells us little about the potential early trajectory of the market. Let things shake out a bit before starting day timeframe operations.
- Thus far, overnight corrective activity against the backdrop of yesterday’s trending day lower has been weak. I will go with that into today’s session and assume a bearish stance unless the ONHOvernight High. A term mostly used in describing the futures market which has an overnight session and trades almost around the clock. To be precise, in the /ES this is the high made between 4:30pm EST and 9:30am EST the next day. can be taken out.
- There is a short set of single printsAny section of the market profile distribution that is only one TPO wide. Single prints are a sign of emotional buying or selling as very little time was spent at those levels and thus there is no value there. The endpoints of single print sections are considered to be potential support or resistance points. just above the settlement. Failure to repairA market profile term for "fixing" profile distributions that are missing parts that would make them complete or more symmetrical. This concept is most often applied to poor highs and poor lows which are profile distributions that lack excess on their endpoints and have two or more TPO's across creating tops or bottoms that look flat. Once a new session trades through these levels then it is as though the current activity was "pasted onto" the prior activity to complete the picture. It should be noted that repair can only occur in an RTH session. Overnight activity that trades through areas of poor RTH structure does not repair that structure. this area would be a bearish signal as would be a move into that area and a rejectionPrices are rejected when they move away from a key area quickly in the market profile. For example, let's say that futures open below the value area and start to rise towards it. Upon breaching the low of the value area, they rise just a couple ticks higher and then fall quickly back out of the value area. That's rejection. Rejection is often noted when prices move into "make or break" areas such as an ONH or ONL or prior day's RTH high or low from outside of those areas.
Rejection is the opposite of acceptance. back out.
James Dalton - Markets in Profile
For those who want to go deeper into the auction process, the follow up to Mind Over Markets by James Dalton
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