Proper context can start the day with a solid win and make all the difference.

DAILY SCHEDULE First, watch the pre-open Tour recording HERE <<== Then, meet in the chaRTroom here by 9:15 ET for updates and Q&A

Through the prior close... Friday's inside day offered nothing predictive or insightful to the bigger picture. It developed almost exclusively in negative territory, trending up from a gap down after mostly ranging sideways overnight. The morning's bias-down held tests of its 2581.00 target down to 2577.00. Its recovery filled the gap back up to Thursday's 2594.00 futures close by 2 points, and another dip's recovery filled the gap back up to Thursday's 2596.75 cash session close. Nothing about Friday's session was predictive, let alone indicating the uptrend had ended short of testing the rally's next higher objective at 2606.00. By the same token, nothing indicated that upside momentum had resumed, or that the recently formed Ascending Triangle would bother breaking higher before forming a reversal setup, and in either case ultimately collapsing. Overnight action's new info... Sunday night's open gapped down 4-6 points and and soon extended that to 2582.50. A consolidation there resolved down sharply to probe Friday's lows by 3 points testing 2574.00. Ranging sideways through midnight 3-4 points either way around 2574.00 persisted through Europe's opens, but eventually broke lower again to attack 2567.00 at Thursday's gap down. Now a bounce is testing 2574.00 as resistance. If, then... (notes to accompany the Tour recording) Has so much selling pressure been expended overnight that the open inhibits reinforcements, and becomes more attractive to buyers? Simply greeting today's open under Friday's 2577.00 low would continue to make the current range vulnerable to launching a downleg. But the overnight dip is already testing Thursday's 2566.00-2568.00 opening range. Maintaining its break through a relevant window could take 2606.00 of the table. But recovering back above Friday's 2577.00 low through a relevant timing window would still allow that downleg to be delayed by a brief visit to 2606.00 or higher first. I suspect that even if we knew for certain that 2606.00 would be tested, gapping down may not begin recovering until after the 10:15 bias timing window has lapsed. First Trade... [Click here to view the Bias parameters] Exiting the open at 9:45 under 2574.00 would be likely to extend under the 2576.00 bias-down signal at 10:15 to renew the bias-down signal. Exiting the open at 9:45 above 2579.00 would be unlikely to extend back under the 2576.00 at 10:15

Post-open recovery hits resistance. The 2567.25 overnight low had recovered back up to Friday morning's 2577.00 "higher prior low" and ranged sideways into the 2575.50 open. A quick dip down to 2571.00 was reversed up to 2580.00. Friday morning's low was recovered through the opening 15 minutes of volatility. Extending higher overlapped the 2584.25 bias-down signal at 10:15 to invoke the grace period. A pullback to 2580.00 was recovered to attack 2587.00. But the 2584.25 bias-down signal wasn't recovered at 10:30. Officially, this is a bias-down environment. But it is a late bias-down, by a 2-tick margin, after already meeting its bias-down target. Not the most reliable. Above 2588.00 would signal that the recovery was extending. Back under 2582.50 would start to signal another dip to the 2576.00 bias-down target underway.

MON afternoon signal (triggered at 1:20 ET) SPX ES Bias-up: above 2588.50 2588.75 ...would target 2595.75 2596.00 Bias-down: under 2575.50 2576.00 ...would target 2570.00 2570.50 Signal status: LATE NO-BIAS, TESTED BIAS-UP SIGNAL . BIAS VIDEOS... INTRO // EXAMPLE 1. At 1:20, trading above the bias-up signal or under the bias-down signal would put into play a test of its bias-up or bias-down target. 2. Not triggering either bias signal at 1:20 would be "no-bias," and the bias signals should define the bias environment's range. -- A test of the opposite bias signal would be targeted if one bias signal was tested before triggering no-bias. 3. Touching the bias signal within 3 minutes either way of 1:20 would invoke a grace period through 1:30 to trigger a late signal. -- "Late" signals don't require testing the opposite bias signal, but it's still likely. 4. Still testing the bias signal at 1:30 after invoking the grace period would trigger "noN-bias," with no bias influence.

Fluctuating back up to the morning's high. This morning's 2588.75 high was also a buy signal, which was only touched and not triggered. Its resistance reacted back down to 2577.50 before the bias environment lapsed. The noon hour's entry quickly recovered 2588.75, and the noon hour's exit is still fluctuating around it. But now 2588.75 is this afternoon's bias-up signal. And it held as resistance through 1:30 after invoking the grace period, triggering a late no-bias environment. Resistance is likely to hold, but recovering 2590.50 would be credible for extending higher anyway. It would be "no-bias trending" and require being retraced, unless the signal were delayed until the bias environment had begun lapsing. Meanwhile, back under 2585.25 would start to signal a deeper dip with potential down to this afternoon's 2576.00 bias-down signal.

Monday's gap down was less than 2 points under Friday's 2577.00 low. And the first post-open action probed it down to 2570.75. But not down to the 2567.25 overnight low, and not for long, before recovering 2577.00 and never looking back down. Of course, while preoccupied with not looking back down, the recovery attempt was having difficulty getting past the open's highs. Opening selling pressure was brief and optimism was impatient, two errors the recovery attempt made. More prolonged post-open weakness, not necessarily deeper, would have struck a bullish balance between pessimism and optimism. That could have launched a bigger recovery, instead of struggling to attract reinforcements. The ongoing range now becomes more dependent on 2571.00 support where 2567.00 had been critical previously. Meanwhile, the range becomes more vulnerable to simply collapsing into a new downleg, instead of first probing fresh highs at 2606.00 or higher. Details and other markets coverage are discussed in the post-market Wrap recording here. Monitor overnight Globex trading in the chaRTroom here.

TUE morning signal (triggered at 10:15 ET) SPX ES Bias-up: above 2587.75 2588.00 ...would target 2595.50 2595.75 Bias-down: under 2575.50 2576.00 ...would target 2568.75 2569.25 Signal status: BIAS-UP, BIAS-UP TARGET MET . BIAS VIDEOS... INTRO // EXAMPLE 1. At 10:15, trading above the bias-up signal or under the bias-down signal would put into play a test of its bias-up or bias-down target. 2. Not triggering either bias signal at 10:15 would be "no-bias," and the bias signals should define the bias environment's range. -- A test of the opposite bias signal would be targeted if one bias signal was tested before triggering no-bias. 3. Touching the bias signal within 3 minutes either way of 10:15 would invoke a grace period through 10:30 to trigger a late signal. -- "Late" signals don't require testing the opposite bias signal, but it's still likely. 4. Still testing the bias signal at 10:30 after invoking the grace period would trigger "noN-bias," with no bias influence.