9:11 am Eastern  - We're entering the last week of February, so where they close on Friday this week could be important. It will be the weekly and monthly close. The SPY has been going sideways (in the big picture) long enough that either a break out or a breakdown is becoming more probable. Another leg in the upward or downward direction wouldn't likely be an overnight thing, but there is room on the downside for a bigger reset, as we've been discussing. And if SPY 700 ever gets tagged and daily closes start materializing above that big psychological level, then there it's possible for a short squeeze to happen. That's where many market participants are betting on a down move and are shorting the market, but the market keeps grinding higher and putting their shorts more out of the money. So they cover their shorts, which helps drive price up even farther. Before that can happen, we'll need to see daily closes above 700 first. Not saying it will happen, but it's something to keep in mind.

The flip side of the coin is that the bulls just give up and/or take their profits, and let the bears pull price down for a reset. Again, there is room for this kind of thing to happen over the next weeks and months, while still keeping the overall bullish sentiment of the market intact. 

For today, the bulls need to get above last Friday's close to keep going up. The futures pulled down price Sunday evening, and the open today is likely to be a gap down from Friday's close. Getting above the bull axis of 689.44 and then Friday's high - which is 690.06 - is a start for the bulls. They'll need to establish some closes on 10 and 15-minute candles above those levels to help the bull case. The level at 693.08 might be tradable if the right conditions are present if price gets up there. The level is shown as a dotted line on the chart below, because it may not behave the same as our typical Daily Levels. It's a place for a likely bull-bear battle, but I'd still want to see more reasons in real time that would add to that level's importance before trading against it.

The level at 685.90 is the bear axis. If price dips below and resurfaces, that shouldn't be a problem for the bulls. But if we start to see more closes of significant candles below 685.90, the overall tone could become bearish for the day. The level at 684.22 is like the one above at 693.08 in that there needs to be more reasons on board before trading against it. By default, it's not necessarily a tradable level, but could become more tradeable as time progresses depending on other indicators. When price is in the middle of a big-picture sideways move, price can go anywhere at any time. There is no confirmed trend in most of the intermediate timeframes. No data releases scheduled for today. Trade well!

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

Understanding and following the Game Plan today was key. We had the levels (and the rules of the strategy, for those of you who have taken the E-mini Trading 101 Course), but the levels are just part of the story. We need to know what the levels mean - which are axis points, which should be traded only under certain parameters, and so forth. For today, there was no trade entered until 11:27 am on the Recycle trade of 682.32. The previous interactions of price with the levels broke rules that meant you should not attempt a trade at that level at that time. While 689.44 was hit early on and provided very good resistance and pushed price down, we didn't trade against it because the level was hit within the first 15 minutes of the regular session. So, we let that one go.

There was no long trade against the bear axis of 685.90 because of a Near Miss at 10:01 am. Once price got below the bear axis that helped confirm more potential bearish action to come in the market - at least for the day. We ignored the level at 684.22, per the Game Plan from the morning. There may have been reasons at the time when price got to the level that could have reinforced its importance as support, but even so, there was another Near Miss and bounce before the level was actually hit. No trade at 684.22 regardless.

Then, there was yet another Near Miss at 682.32 when it was hit for the first time. Not trading that level on the long side kept you out of trouble - price fell through that level after the Near Miss bounce. But at 11:27 am, on the Recycle trade (on the short side) at 682.32, you finally got an official Base Hit. Then no other fresh levels were hit for the rest of the day, so no more trades.

Per the rules, a total of 4 ES points for the day.