9:22 am Eastern  - Overnight, price dipped back down into the support levels from yesterday, but this morning, we've got a little lift in the SPY. Price is still under the lower part of the zone, which is 672 - at least as of when I'm writing this. Note that yesterday during the regular session, price went up to that lower part of the zone and was promptly rejected. That should not have been a surprise to anyone following along with these Game Plans and Recaps. We already knew about those levels. And yesterday, we identified a more precise level at 671.30 and that gave us a good short trade.

Now that price is back up to the lower part of the zone, what can we reasonably expect could happen in the SPY today? There is the trendline above current price - as of 9:08 am Eastern. The trendline is in the middle-lower part of the zone, running from about 673.14 at the open to about 671.70 by the close of the regular session. Price could meet some resistance around the trendline area, but the bulls want to get price back above it and the zone. With the Fed announcement tomorrow, I'm curious to see where they will get price to by 2:00 pm Eastern on Wednesday. Often times, price is at a pivotal area leading up to the FOMC announcement days.

The bull case is for price to get above the trendline and the zone and close hourly, then multi-hour, then daily candles above all of it. That could strengthen the case for the bulls. They might be able to then climb out of this pull back they've been in for the past month and a half. Keep an eye on longer-term moving averages above price. Where they converge with the Daily Levels, the odds increase that that area will be overhead resistance.

The bear case is for price to get under 666.21 and close candles of significance under it. That could open the door to lower prices. With today being the day before the FOMC announcement, things could slow down somewhat. There's no guarantee traders will sit back and wait on the Fed - especially if they want price to get to a certain area first. But typically, the Tuesday and Wednesday morning before FOMC announcements are slower days. As I write this, I'm watching the futures pull price up even higher. They're at our SPY level of 671.85 with about 10 minutes until the opening bell. I don't have levels above the zone on the board between 674.00 and 674.36. Just know that the top of the big zone is at 675.00. So, price would need to get above 675.00 and start closing above that area for the bulls to be in the clear for awhile. But with the bearish sentiment going on for the past 6 weeks or so, don't be surprised if price meets resistance somewhere and pulls back. I'm not saying it will happen, but fake outs do happen. Be prepared for possible unusual market behavior this week. Trade well today!

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

Well, they got into the big-picture zone, hit the trendline and in the middle of all that, thy hit resistance and the bears were able to pull price down back below the zone at the close. This was a possibility we were prepared for courtesy of the Game Plan from the morning. 

The zone between 674.00 and 674.36 gave us our first two Base Hits. After the first 15-minute candle closed, price was below 674.00 and climbing. Going short at 674.00 and adding to the position at 674.36 was the plan. The combined position gave you the first 8 ES points. For example, if you went short at 674. with 2 ES contracts, you would have shorted 2 more contracts when price continued up and hit 674.36. Pulling a 4-point Base Hit on that combined position of 4 contracts was like two separate Base Hits with 2-contract position. 

Then price came down into 671.85 at 10:18 am. Going long in the E-minis gave you a quick Base Hit of at least 4 ES points.

Price got below that level and came down into the 669.66 level. Your operating level was 669.71 (with the 5-cent buffer applied), and that trigger allowed you to get pulled into a long trade. Precise trade. At least 4 points, probably more as price bounced nicely from a low of 669.71 at 12:08 pm.

Price then tried to go back up to the previous level of 671.85. A short trade against that level for a Recycle Trade attempt would have been the plan if price hadn't gotten within 20 cents of the operating level for more than 20 minutes. Since that happened, the trade was off the table, per the rules. The chances of a short trade working at the level were diminished at that point. The level was finally hit a few minutes after 1:00 pm, but we did not get into a short trade against the level. We just watched.

As it turned out, the level did offer plenty of resistance and price was pushed back down, but it's a no-trade according to our rules. That would have made for 5 Base Hits, but we're counting the 4 Base Hits that fit within our rules. We dent' pick and choose here. Every level and every trade is treated the same way. That's what the rules are for. FYI, I usually stop trading around 11:30 am, and today was no exception. So, I got three of the four Base Hit trades that were available today. The Daily Levels work and the Rules help a lot. It was a good day.

Per the rules, a total of 16 ES points for the day.