The Before And After The Bell Checklist

• November 19, 2002
• Raghee Horner

 Before-The-Bell
Checklist:

• Do
  you have the price levels of the gaps from the last ten trading sessions? 
  
  
  (See Monday’s E Files.)
  
  
  
  

• Have
  you noted any significant psychological numbers, i.e.,
  decade and century number like 900 on the ES and 1050 on the NQ?

• Are
  there levels that you have noticed that were once support and are now
  resistance? (or vice versa)
  
  

These
will be important trading levels.

• Have
  you marked the “PM” pivots of the previous trading session?  (This
  is the last buying support and selling resistance of the afternoon session.)
  
  

I will
be marking these on our E Files charts.

After
The Morning Bell:

• Did
  you note the gaps (if any) of the open?
  
  

• Mark
  both the 4 p.m. ET close of the previous session and this morning’s gap
  open price at 9:30 a.m. ET.
  
  
  
  

• Are
  you marking the “AM” pivots of the “clearing” aka the first
  30 minutes of the day?
  
  

I
highly recommend being patient and waiting for the “AM” pivots to form. These
are the first “turnaround” or pivot of the day and usually take on a small
“V” type reversal. You
want to see evidence of precisely where the buyers support price and where the
sellers create resistance. When these
levels are broken either to the upside or downside and the MACD Histogram* is
“confirming” the direction then you typically have a high percentage set up.

*
When the MACD Histogram is above the “0” line, it is a bullish environment

vs. when the MACD Histogram is below the
“0” line and it is a bearish environment.

Raghee
Horner is a private futures and stocks trader in Boca Raton, Fla. For 12 years
she has specialized in price action, charting, and trading psychology for
intraday and swing trading plays. Her focus is on trading the E-mini S&P
500, E-Mini Nasdaq 100 and the stocks she feels have particular synergy with
those futures contracts.