When Price Won't Bounce Where You Mapped It, Stand Down — AM Briefing #796
AM BRIEFING
ES CHART | KEY LEVELS | SETUPS
ES Technical Analysis — AM Briefing 796 Timeline
Tuesday June 23, 2026
| TIME | CHAPTER |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome ES MES Futures Traders |
| 0:33 | This Week's Scripture & News Drivers A word on the Holy Spirit interceding in prayer. Today's drivers: flash Manufacturing PMI and Services, with a free YouTube simulcast of the Zoom session. |
| 1:02 | Tip of the Day: When NOT to Trade When price doesn't bounce exactly where you expect, willingness to trade drops 50%. That's the first warning flag to Stand Down. |
| 1:31 | Trading Monday & Journaling Tags Tag Monday as a special day-after-holiday session in the new journaling Chrome extension. A live deep dive runs 30 minutes before the open. |
| 2:12 | Monday Trade Review A discretionary long with no ideal stop loss took a full loss — the red flag to close the platform. The mapped drop-zone long gave a clean ladder. |
| 3:09 | The 7520 Strong Level 7520 was called the most important level and proved it. Battle Plan and Core Strategy combine so members could catch the move even after missing the entry. |
| 3:39 | Battle Plan 1 Long: The Notes Reclaim the 7520 Strong Level after exploring deeper BP1. Require snappy ladder-back action — and don't expect much follow-through. |
| 4:36 | Battle Plan 2 Short & Overnight 100-Pointer The aggressive BP2 short fired at 7520 and ran to target overnight. A held lotto runner meant a clean 100 points. |
| 6:05 | Bulls Control: Mapping BP1 BP1 still had to be mapped because bulls control. The leader's job is the big vision — where to go long, short, and where to be careful. |
| 6:32 | Battle Plan 3: No Entry Price reached the drop zone but never reclaimed the Strong Level, so no BP3 entry. It ran right through toward BP2's target. |
| 7:31 | Battle Plan 4 & Adding on Reclaims BP4 is the preferred long below the Bull Bear Line. Reclaims of Strong Levels above are where you add to a winning trade. |
| 8:11 | BP4 Preferred Long Notes Losing the 6/12 Friday low then reclaiming the Strong Level could provide a long. Always look to add to winners on reclaims above. |
| 9:39 | Trader Tools: Chart Buddy The old app reborn as a Chrome extension — a virtual stream deck firing multi-action sequences on TradingView from one button press. |
| 11:31 | Trade Buddy & Journaling A Kaizen journaling tool to annotate trades, partials, and Battle Plan notes on-chart, with real-time alerts synced across devices. |
| 12:57 | The Micros Trader System Fewer, higher-quality, risk-first entries with the Three-Contract System, holding runners, adding to winners, and journaling progress. |
| 13:54 | To the Chart: ES 3-Minute Price reached BP4 without quite tagging the drop zone. The one trade not to take into a preferred long location is a fresh short. |
| 14:46 | Bull Bear Line & The Pullback ES has delivered a very nice pullback and sits at the Bull Bear Line. Look for longs above and shorts below, careful when countering. |
| 16:39 | Bull Bear Scorecard The scorecard tilts bearish — short inventory, session stacking, below VWAP and the halfbacks. But short-covering risk is high at the line. |
| 17:48 | Pre-Flight Check: Am I Ready? After an L you're not 100%. Run the checklist, earn the right, prepare for a max-loss day, and trade your system not your opinion. |
MES MICROS TRADE PLAN
When Price Won't Bounce Where You Mapped It, Stand Down
Posted: Tuesday June 23, 2026
This ES futures morning briefing is built around one simple tell that should govern your willingness to trade: does price bounce exactly where you said it would? When it doesn't, that's your first warning flag to Stand Down. George walks through a Monday where a discretionary long took a full loss, then shows how the 7520 Strong Level became the most important level of the week and fed a beautiful overnight Battle Plan 2 short worth a clean 100 points. The lesson stack runs deep today: how Battle Plan and Core Strategy combine so you can still catch a move even when you miss the published entry, why you add to winners on reclaims of Strong Levels, and how to run the pre-flight check after taking an L. New Chrome-extension trader tools — Chart Buddy and Trade Buddy — get their first deep dive 30 minutes before the open.
TIP OF THE DAY: WHEN NOT TO TRADE THIS PRICE ACTION
The single cleanest signal to step aside? When price doesn't bounce exactly where you expect it to bounce. George is blunt about it… the moment he says "price should bounce HERE" and it doesn't, his willingness to trade drops by 50%.
That is the FIRST sign you should not be trading this price action. Price not honoring your mapped levels is not a small thing. It tells you the read is off, the structure is squirrelly, and the edge you planned around isn't there. Warning flag, warning flag, warning flag… and you need to listen to that.
Trader Lesson 1
When price doesn't bounce exactly where you mapped it, your willingness to trade should drop by half. That's the first sign to Stand Down — not the last.
MONDAY TRADE REVIEW: ONE L, ONE GORGEOUS MAPPED LONG
Coming off a long holiday weekend, Monday opened "all up up and away" with big targets overhead. George called a discretionary long where there was no ideal stop loss — and took a FULL loss on it. That loss was the red flag: price did not bounce where he expected, so he closed the platform and walked. Six points. No big deal.
The short discussed in that same area would have paid everything back and far more. But the trade actually mapped — the only one mapped that session — was a long into a freshly drawn drop zone that gave a clean ladder back. Two entries were on the table, most traders who took it did very well, and the instruction was simple: close your platform and walk. The 7520 level George flagged as the most important proved exactly that.
Trader Lesson 2
A discretionary entry with no ideal stop loss is exactly where losses live. When it fails to bounce, close the platform and walk — a six-point L is a small wound, not a story.
THE 7520 STRONG LEVEL: FROM BATTLE PLAN TO CORE STRATEGY
Yesterday's most important level — 7520 — was where two Battle Plan trades were crafted: a long (BP1) and an aggressive short (BP2). The overnight session did a LOT. Price barely dipped into the drop zone, then ran hard, setting up BP2 beautifully. The short fired right at the level and pushed all the way to target.
Here's the punch: had you held a lotto runner from the short's entry down to target, there was a 100-pointer on your hands. George doesn't map many shorts — but when he does, they can pay really well. The notes told the story in advance: "this could be a fantastic trade if presented" alongside "don't be shocked if this trade doesn't work." The big vision on the chart is the whole job of the group leader.
The key combination: even if you miss the published Battle Plan entry, a full member running Core Strategy had other entries into the very same move. Battle Plan and Core Strategy together are what let you participate.
Trader Lesson 3
Miss the Battle Plan entry? Core Strategy still gets you into the move. And a lotto runner held to target is how an ordinary short becomes a 100-pointer.
WALKING THE LADDER: BP3, BP4, AND ADDING TO WINNERS
Because bulls control, BP1 the long still had to be mapped — but 7520 was indeed the most important level of the week. Here's how the lower plans played out:
- Battle Plan 3: Sat in the middle of the BP2 short. Price made it into the drop zone but did NOT reclaim the Strong Level, so no entry — no big deal. Price went right through it on the way to BP2's lower target.
- Battle Plan 4: The preferred trade, marked in green. Price dropped under the Bull Bear Line down to BP4 but didn't quite tag the drop zone. Waking an hour earlier likely meant a long here off a beautiful Strong Level defense. The note: losing the 6/12 Friday low and reclaiming the Strong Level could provide a long.
The recurring instruction across all of this: look to add to your winning trade on reclaims of Strong Levels above. A couple weeks back a major "vomit" flush and recovery offered several Battle Plan longs on those reclaims. When you reclaim a Strong Range, that's a great location to ADD to a winner — not just to open a fresh position.
Trader Lesson 4
Reclaims of Strong Levels above your entry aren't just new trades — they're add-on locations. Pressing a winner on confirmed reclaims is how you scale into a real move.
TRADER TOOLS: CHART BUDDY & TRADE BUDDY GO LIVE
The old cross-platform Chart Buddy app got reborn as a Google Chrome extension for full members — submitted with a "several weeks" estimate, approved in one day. Two tools ship together, both activating from a lightning-bolt icon in your address bar when you're on a TradingView chart, with settings that sync across devices.
- Chart Buddy: A virtual stream deck. One button press fires a multi-action sequence on your TradingView chart — change symbol, change timeframe, toggle indicators and folders on/off, adjust scaling, and more. One push, many actions.
- Trade Buddy: Built on the Japanese concept of Kaizen — constant, never-ending improvement. Annotate your journal directly on the chart: longs, shorts, take-profits, partials, leverage metrics, real-time alerts, the battle plan news alerts, and on-chart Battle Plan notes from members.
Together they feed the full system: take fewer, higher-quality, pre-planned, risk-first, laser-tight entries with the Three-Contract System, play perfect chess, hold a lotto runner for the big moves, add to winners, journal your progress, refine your trade plan in the dashboard, and analyze behavioral patterns with uploaded NinjaTrader CSV files. A deep-dive demo runs live 30 minutes before the open.
TODAY'S SETUP & THE BULL BEAR SCORECARD
Price has already delivered a very nice pullback on ES and now sits right at the Bull Bear Line — the dividing level where you look for longs above and shorts below, and where you're careful countering. The one trade George says you should NOT be hunting here, in his humble opinion, is a fresh short into a preferred long location. If you caught the BP2 short and its 100-pointer, you're done — be a happy camper.
The Bull Bear Scorecard tilts to the bears this morning:
- Bears: overnight inventory short, overnight turn line short, session stacking, below VWAP, overnight halfback, RTH halfback, and yesterday's range — all below the indices.
- The catch: we're sitting right at the Bull Bear Line and the risk of short covering is HIGH. A big bear score does NOT mean you should be shorting. Be very careful of that.
There's another Battle Plan trade below BP4 if this area fails — a zone where the bulls need to respond — and it'll be traded live as it happens.
Trader Lesson 5
After an L you're not at 100% — admit it, then run the pre-flight check. Earn the right to trade, prepare for a max-loss day, and trade your system, not your opinion. Then you're cleared for takeoff.
"When price doesn't bounce exactly where you expect it to bounce… that is the first sign you should not be trading this price action. Warning flag, warning flag, warning flag."
COMMON QUESTIONS FOR ES FUTURES TRADERS
How do I know when not to trade ES futures price action?
A: The clearest tell is when price fails to bounce exactly where you expected it to. When that happens, your willingness to trade should drop by half — it's the first sign the structure isn't honoring your mapped levels and you should Stand Down rather than force a setup.
What is the difference between a Battle Plan entry and a Core Strategy entry?
A: The Battle Plan publishes specific tiered levels (BP1–BP6) where named trades are crafted. Core Strategy is the broader framework — risk-first entries, the Three-Contract System, holding lotto runners, and adding to winners — so even if you miss the exact published Battle Plan entry, you can still participate in the same move through other Core Strategy entries.
What is a lotto runner and why hold one?
A: A lotto runner is a speculative, low-probability extended hold from a winning trade. You risk only a small piece of an already-profitable position to capture an outlier move. On this overnight session, holding a lotto runner on the Battle Plan 2 short turned an ordinary trade into a 100-point gain.
What is the Bull Bear Line in ES futures?
A: The Bull Bear Line is the key dividing level between bullish and bearish bias. You look for longs above it and shorts below it, and you stay cautious about countering it. When price sits right on the line, neither side has clean control yet.
What does it mean to add to a winning trade on a reclaim?
A: When price reclaims a Strong Level above your entry — confirming the move is working — that reclaim becomes a location to ADD to your existing winner rather than only a spot for a new trade. It's how you scale into a real directional move while pressing a position that's already proven.
Should I short ES futures just because the Bull Bear Scorecard favors the bears?
A: No. A heavy bear score — overnight inventory short, session stacking, below VWAP and the halfbacks — does not by itself mean you should short. When price is sitting at the Bull Bear Line and the risk of short covering is high, a big score can set up a squeeze against you. The scorecard informs bias; it doesn't issue entries.
What is the RTH Halfback and why does it matter?
A: The RTH Halfback is the midpoint of the prior Regular Trading Hours range. It's a key reference level: trading below it is a bearish input on the scorecard, and traders watch it as a magnet and a defense level for longs and shorts.
What should I check before placing my first trade of the day?
A: Run a pre-flight check: Am I emotionally ready, especially after a recent loss? Am I physically rested? Right equipment and location? Enough time to trade? Have I reviewed the Battle Plan, checked the economic calendar, written a trade plan, and prepared for a max-loss day? If yes, you've earned the right to trade your system — not your opinion.
What are Chart Buddy and Trade Buddy?
A: They're MicrosTrader Chrome extensions for full members. Chart Buddy is a virtual stream deck that fires multi-action sequences on a TradingView chart from one button — changing symbol, timeframe, indicators, folders, and scaling at once. Trade Buddy is a Kaizen-based journaling tool that lets you annotate trades, partials, leverage metrics, and Battle Plan notes directly on your chart.
📅 Upcoming This Week
Hit the bell — every AM Briefing and live trading session this week is already scheduled on YouTube:
- Wednesday, Wed Jun 24: AM Briefing · Live Stream
- Thursday, Thu Jun 25: AM Briefing · Live Stream
- Friday, Fri Jun 26: AM Briefing · Live Stream
Helping Futures Traders Via Our Core Strategy Academy Training Program and Futures Trading Group – The Best Emini Group IMHO.
📍 Originally published on MicrosTrader.com
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