A Heavy News Week

When the news starts stacking up, it can be incredibly difficult to get a read on market directionality. Technical traders will tell you that all news-related moves are technical moves and draw 700 lines on their chart to prove it; meanwhile fundamental traders may start shouting about how a headline will impact a forward P/E ratio or something. If you trade based on vibes, which is my personal favorite approach to trading, maybe the headlines are just convincing you that the vibes are off and it's time to go short. All three traders may even have different market outlooks or trade theses and if you're not sure what to do it may lead to you being very confused about what to do.

First and foremost, know if you're a good or bad news trader. Some people are great at knowing how events are going to react and are able to jump in and ride a brief trade knowing the market is going to keep pushing one direction for a certain amount of time. Others might know that an initial news move can typically be faded, and they'll wait to look for an opportunity to take a trade the opposite direction of that initial move. Again, some might just be able to feel out the vibes and know when or when not to take a trade during news. Or, and this is perfectly fine, you may not be a good news trader and you might wait for volatility to subside before re-evaluating any potential trade thesis or plan. I personally know people who don't trade big news days well at all and just take the whole day off and that's okay too! Know your strengths and weaknesses and play to them.

This week, we've got a lot of news. First and foremost, war headlines can happen at any moment. If you were around last year for the start of the Ukraine War, there was no worse feeling that having Putin come out and say something concerning when you were long and then you watch your trade get rekt. Expect more of the same as news happens during this latest Middle East conflict. Outside of war headlines, today we've got several Fed speakers on deck. Wednesday is PPI at 8:30am ET, followed by FOMC Minutes at 2pm ET. Thursday is CPI again at 8:30am ET in pre-market. Finally, Friday sees us get Michigan data at 10am ET. Know what's coming up, have a plan, and stick to your plan. There's no worse feeling than not knowing a planned news/data drop is happening and taking a big fat L because you were unprepared.

Here are today's NQ levels:

Current Price: 15185

Upside Targets: 15239, 15290, 15338, 15406

Downside Targets: 15171, 15125, 15074, 15046

Stretch Targets: 15469, 14996