LEARN
Guides to reading the market's day
How to form a view before the open, how to tell a session worth trading from one that is not, and how our own instruments reach a call. Written properly and signed, by Lewis Talbot.
Looking for the current session instead? Today's market bias is published daily, with the last completed call in full. Need a number rather than a guide? Try the free market hours clock, position size calculator or tick value calculator.
BEFORE THE OPEN
Forming a view while you can still act on it: which way the market is leaning, and whether the session is worth trading at all.
- 10 MINOCT 2026
Election night for ES and NQ traders: when results land and how the futures trade through the night
When US polls close in ET and UK time, how ES and NQ trade through election night, and what past election nights did to the next morning's open.
- 8 MINOCT 2026
Earnings season for ES and NQ traders: how big tech's results move the index, and when
How big tech's results move NQ overnight, when reports and calls land against futures trading hours, and how ES and NQ day traders plan around an earnings season.
- 9 MINSEP 2026
Month-end and quarter-end rebalancing: what the flows do to the close, and how to trade the last day
Why funds rebalance at the end of each month and quarter, which way the flow goes, what it does to the closing auction, and how day traders handle the last day.
- 8 MINSEP 2026
Options expiration and quad witching: what they do to ES and NQ, and how to trade them
What expires on the third Friday, why expiry can pin the index and jolt the close, and how ES and NQ day traders handle monthly and quarterly expiry days.
- 9 MINSEP 2026
How many points do ES and NQ move in a day, and how far will today go?
How far ES and NQ travel in a typical session in points, percent and dollars, why the figures online disagree, and how to size today's move before the open.
- 8 MINSEP 2026
When not to day trade: the days worth sitting out
The days a day trader is better off skipping or trading smaller: scheduled news inside the session, days too small to pay, thin holiday markets, and the days you are the risk.
- 9 MINSEP 2026
How CPI, jobs reports and Fed days move stocks, and how to plan around them
When CPI, the jobs report and Fed decisions land, why they move stocks more than anything else on the calendar, and how to plan a trading day around them.
- 9 MINAUG 2026
How to find your daily market bias: 5 methods, and where each one fails
Five ways day traders work out the market's bias for the day, from higher-timeframe structure to an automated news read. What each is good at, where each breaks, and how to stack them.
- 8 MINAUG 2026
Trending or choppy? How to tell before the market opens
Most losing days are not wrong-direction days, they are right-direction days traded in chop. Here is how to read whether a session is likely to trend, before you put anything on.
TOOLS AND SOFTWARE
What a trading stack actually needs to do, and which parts of it are worth paying for.
HOW OUR ENGINE WORKS
The detail on our own instruments: how a call is reached, how it is graded, and how to fold it into your process.
- 5 MINJUL 2026
How to use a daily market bias as confluence
What confluence means in trading, and how to treat a daily market bias call as one more input alongside your own setup. A practical framework, not a buy button.
- 6 MINJUL 2026
How the engine works, from the morning news to a graded call
A full walkthrough of the daily pipeline: reading the morning's news, weighing factors, the 0 to 100 conditions score, the news veto, and self-grading at the close.
- 5 MINJUL 2026
Reading trading conditions: what a 0 to 100 score tells you
DIRECTIONAL, MIXED or CHOPPY: how to read a trading-conditions score, what each band means for your day, and why the honest call is sometimes not to trade.
- 5 MINJUL 2026
Why we grade our own calls, and how to read the record
Most tools show you their best week. Here is why every one of our daily calls is graded against the real session, how flat days are marked, and how to read any track record honestly.