STRATEGY Update | July 10, 2026

Trade Signals on July 10, 2026

The post-July 4th week was a strange week for price action after a massive gap up on Monday. All five days saw a similar but slightly different variation of the same pattern. At some point in the first hour, there is a nervous, flashy, and rapid selling followed by a smooth afternoon recovery with very narrow price action as if nothing happened. The VIX closed at 15.03 on the week with a low of 14.96 on Friday.

Recently we have seen VIX 15 as support for more volatility.

The Nasdaq futures closed about 200 points higher than Monday's open and about 1000 points from all-time highs.

The post-holiday price action was difficult this week and there are times when the price action feels predatory and "stop running" in nature. Its difficult to watch a rapid sell off that hits your long stop loss orders with some big slippage only to see the market stop, pause and then slowly move higher the rest of the day.

Its the type of price action that we see at times but has been more prevalent this week. When a bull market is determined to move higher, we can see sharp sell offs and recoveries as part of the cycle but historically we also see a cycle of days that "run away" in a trend.

The different cycles favor some strategies and generate drawdowns for other types of strategies. Switching back and forth between strategies will typically cause a trading program to switch to the wrong strategy at the wrong time. It is important to be consistent while also managing risk. 

If the market is due to move higher, it is certainly due for a runaway/breakaway cycle for some of our strategies like Open Range and Gap Continuation.

The market may also be due for a correction, which is a more rare event in the "modern" market.

Since we aren't prophets who can predict the future, we maintain our long/short trading systems approach.

V-Reversal NQ with Accelerated Trailing Stop Loss on Shorts

Yesterday's Stop Run Trade

The Nasdaq 100 futures dropped nearly 300 points in less than 2 minutes between 10:33-10:34 yesterday morning. 

Markets and trading strategies can go through extreme cycles where we have very unfavorable conditions, followed by more favorable conditions. We are looking for a favorable cycle next week.

The 18 System Portfolio NQ continues to be the top performer with the most diversity, last updated in May 2025 (over a year ago) with the most equity peaks in 2026. It is in a $25,930 drawdown out of a $53,475 maximum historical drawdown (based on end of day analysis) and is in a drawdown entry alert.

Hypothetical Trading System Signals on 07-10-2026