We saw a powerfully downtrending market today, and none of the eight short-side setups triggered. Was this bad luck? Actually, I think there was a lot of good luck today.

Four long-side trades triggered, and three of the stocks were able to hit the threshold for moving the stop to breakeven. Moving stops to breakeven before the market tanked these stocks is good luck. Risk contained. Live to trade another day.

I don't trade the market open, because I want to lower my risk. Not trading the first 10 to 15 minutes of the session leaves my trading strategy open to missing huge trending moves like today. In the long run though, I think it's better to miss those few days that trend in one direction from the open in exchange for lowering risk on a daily basis by not trading the highly volatile and risky market opens.

Most of the short-side setups gapped down at the open and never gave a good entry signal with a reasonable target. The few setups that didn't gap down never gave an entry signal with a small enough stop.

BG LONG 67.73 67.73 $-
HD LONG 73.30 73.10 $(0.20)
HD LONG 72.78 72.78 $-
K LONG 64.48 64.48

Total of ($0.20) per share. Multiply average share size to estimate gross earnings. 1000 shares per trade would be -$200 gross earnings for the day.

Wide-range bar setups for the next trading day. The day trade setup is only good for the upcoming trading session. Additional setups may be available in the live trading room. Request your free invitation here.

Entries, targets, and stops are based on the day's likely inflection points, and natural support and resistance. Avoid trade until bid/ask spread narrows.

Bullish Long-Side Setups

NONE

Bearish Short-Side Setups

ADSK Autodesk, Inc
CAM Cameron International Corp
CME CME Group Inc
DHR Danaher Corp
DRI Darden Restaurants
EMR Emerson Electric Co
ETN Eaton Corp
ETP Energy Transfer Partners LP
FLR Fluor Corp
FTI FMC Technologies
HOG Harley-Davidson
LEN Lennar Corp'A'
NE Noble Corp
QEP QEP Resources Inc
SPN Superior Energy Svcs
TEX Terex Corp
THC Tenet Healthcare
TOL Toll Brothers

Dave Mecklenburg is Publisher of TigerSharkTrading.com.