9:24 am Eastern -  Remember the axis level from yesterday at 690.50? The bulls were not able to get back up there to at least test it in the overnight session. And now in the premarket, with about 45 minutes until the opening bell, as I write this, price is back down to the lows they made yesterday - around the 682.83 level. That level continued to be important after yesterday's close. There's a new level for today at 682.01 that is the bear axis. The bears have been trying to pull price under that area in the premarket. It's up to the bulls to defend it. Today could get interesting.

Yesterday's close was 686.19. That would be a level that price needs to get above and close above for the bulls to maybe get a start at climbing out of this slump. Trading against 686.19 depends on if other good reasons exist in real time that could add to the level's importance as resistance. Otherwise, it's an axis gauge.

Remember we said that drops tend to happen at lows - like if price gets below 675 (see yesterday's Game Plan for more information on this). If volatility picks up today - and I think it will - we could see big swings. The Tuesday reversal candle on the 4-hour chart that we pointed out yesterday is currently playing out. Price is likely to interact with important levels today and the bull/bear battles might be substantial. Lots of pulls in the market in both directions.

For example, the Dow Jones Transportation index has been on a tear lately - busting into new highs and probably targeting 20,000. That could be significant because what DJT does is often a precursor to what the SPY will do soon thereafter. So the question is, why is the SPY in a slump while the DJT is rallying like crazy? Either the whole pullback thing in the SPY is a big fake out, and price gets a lift and they try to get up to 700 again soon - or the DJT finds its target and falls hard and the SPY continues lower. These are just a couple possibilities to be aware of.

Interesting things going on in the market these days. We've said February could get interesting. Maybe we're witnessing the start of the next big move because things seem to be gearing up one way or the other. There is a 10:00 am Eastern jobs number coming out. It could be a catalyst to some increased price movement. Trade well today.

Trading by the Ticks & Trades Strategy, here is where you would have landed for the day:

We got the substantial bull/bear battles at several levels - and a zone - today. The market did not disappoint. Plenty of movement and opportunities. If you had the Levels and the Game Plan from the morning, I hope you were able to pull some dollars from the market today. Being profitable today was entirely possible if you followed the process. Spoiler alter: 24 ES points today if you followed the rules. More points if you gave the trades more room. Things moved fast today. 

First Base Hit was a long position taken at 682.01 when price came back down into the level at 9:52 am. Nice bounce. But the bears still had the ball and they fell into the zone, triggering long trades at 679.25 and 678.95. Two more Base Hits. Then down to 676.48 for your fourth Base Hit when they bounced after hitting the level at 10:27 am. On the way back up, price took a little pause at the zone again, giving you two more Base Hits on the short side (Recycle Trades) at 678.95 and 679.25 respectively. You had six Base Hits in the bag at this point. At least 24 points total, if all you pulled was 4 ES points at each reaction.

When price got up to 682.01 a short trade was viable up there because technically, that level had not been traded on the short side yet. At 12:29 pm however, there was a Near Miss as price came up shy only 2 pennies from the operating level (which was 681.96), so no short trade when price did hit the level a few minutes later. You can see the level was still important and price fell away from it. Ask yourself what you would have done today if you had the Daily Levels and the understanding of the rules with which to manage the trades in the E-minis against them. Do you think you could have made money today? I'm willing to bet you could have.

Notice the second "After the Closing Bell" screenshot above, taken at 8:00 pm Eastern (the vertical dotted line marks the end of the regular session at 4:00 pm). A few hours after the closing bell, and the lowest level we had on the morning at 670.70 was still important. Price came down into it in the post-market session and found support in that area. Ahead of the level, but that kind of behavior is expected in low volume Globex session trading. The point is, the levels work. Also, currently SPY is below 675.00. This is a crucial area as you may recall. We talked yesterday about how big drops tend to happen from interim lows. And 675 was one place where if the bulls couldn't defend, price could fall from there in a bigger way. We will know more when we see where price is in the premarket tomorrow morning.

Per the rules, a total of 24 ES points for the day.