S&P 500 Emini Day Trading Gap Friday October 23, 2009

S&P Emini 500 Futures opened at 1077.00 Thursday, one tick below the Wednesday close.  Prices dipped over the next 30 minutes culminating in a bottoming tail hammer that filled the open gap from the Tuesday, October 13th close of 1070.50.  The index then rose in small increments of congestion to just above the opening price before breaking out at 2:00.  From then until the close, the market put in half of the days 22 point range before backing off 4 points to close at 1088.50, just 2 ticks above Tuesday’s close.  Volume was above average at 2.4 million contracts, and the 22 point trading range was well above the 15.3 point 14 day average true range.  Five of the last 7 trading days have closed within a couple of points of 1088.  This indicates a market that is still trying to decide on direction.  The daily charts are slowly moving off the overbought indicators, but still are on the high side of the averages which are still stacked to the bullish side.  Watch for a break below the 20 ma on volume as a signal the markets are heading lower.