Allow me to illustrate the simple application of support and resistance to a very short-term trade. First, the chart:

1. As I stumbled downstairs, puppy in hand, I glanced at the ES chart and saw that it had fought its way back up to short-term resistance (see horizontal line). I figured this was a pretty safe place to short, so I sold 20 ES at 834.
2. My initial stop was set to 837, but as the market wiggled down, I was able to tighten up my stop a couple of times to the point where a profit (albeit a small one) was assured.
3. Now here's the important part…………as the ES cut below 820, I saw that it was approaching an area of a lot of activity over the past 24 hours. Yes, it could cut below that entire range, and if I was "committed" (ahem……..) I would have held on to the trade – um – forever, I guess. But I felt the profits would be better banked, so I closed the position at 822 for a nice profit.
4. The market then proceeded to push quickly to about 835; had I been "committed" (icy glare……….) a $10k+ profit in the span of an hour would have evaporated almost instantly.

The moral: respect support and resistance; cut everything else away, and these are all that really matter.

Good morning, folks. The ES has, not surprisingly, pushed from its badly-oversold level of 813 up to about 837, but as you can see from the image below, there is so much overhead resistance in the short term that it has backed away.

I made some quick green yesterday evening with a long position, and this morning I sold ES at 830.50, since the odds of weakness in the very short-term seem to outweigh the odds of strength. This market is going to continue to be treacherous until we make some serious, serious headway to the upside (over 1,000 on the S&P), which is going to take some time. Until then, those with fleet feet will prevail – – – and those overly "committed": (ahem) will regret their dogma.

Something a little different this afternoon – – I've gone through my charts and have picked out my ten favorites (which is no mean feat………..). I figured it was time to stop navel-gazing about comments and just throw some charts out there. As for market direction, I think Evil Speculator did a bang-up job with charting out the next few months, so I'll be a bum and just direct you toward his chart.

With the exception of this first chart (UNG), these are all short positions; I hope you find some of them to be of interest.

Errr, that's eleven. And I could have easily done a top thirty. Oh, well. See you in the morning.