AM Briefing #818 — The Prudent Trader Acts With Knowledge
AM BRIEFING
ES CHART | KEY LEVELS | SETUPS
ES Technical Analysis — AM Briefing 818 Timeline
Friday July 24, 2026
| TIME | CHAPTER |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome ES MES Futures Traders |
| 0:12 | Weekly Scripture: Act With Knowledge Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly. Acting with knowledge means doing what you know you should, whether you want to or not. |
| 1:14 | No New Drivers Today, PCE Next Week No fresh catalysts today. PCE and a few events land next week, with light earnings before the open including Intel last night. |
| 1:39 | Battle Plan Replay Feature The replay stacks the week's mapped Battle Plan trades into one archive. Reload any day, press the space bar, and toggle trades on and off to study them. |
| 2:41 | The Week In Review Sunday's 10-point short, Monday's shorts and long with a follow-through add-on, then longs Tuesday and Wednesday as price kept failing at the Bull Bear Line. |
| 3:45 | Thursday's Flush Short: 90 to 100 Points The short mapped all week finally flushed. Take-profit near 90 points at two Strong Levels, and staying behind them reached toward 100. |
| 4:48 | Overnight Long Off The Strong Level Battle Plan published early for Intel earnings, longs only. George went long multiple contracts off a Strong Level bounce and is still holding. |
| 5:25 | The System In A Nutshell Fewer, higher-quality, pre-planned entries. Risk first, base hits with laser-tight entries, never swinging for the fences. |
| 5:57 | Holding The Lotto Runner Runners fail 70 to 85% of the time, but the 10 to 15% that run add roughly 20 points a day on average. One 100-pointer a week pays for membership. |
| 6:28 | Journaling And Amy's Advice The Chrome extension makes journaling easy and honest. Advice to a member who kept trading too big: same process every day with perfect size. |
| 7:23 | Today's Map: Longs, Still In Range Price is still inside the previous day range, looking for longs, with the overnight runner protected by a stop that locks in green. |
| 7:52 | Strong Levels Like A Pinball Machine The Strong Levels bounced price off the tops and contained it at the bottoms all night, acting like the controls on a pinball machine. |
| 8:27 | Cross-Market Check And Bull Bear Line Upper distribution with upward-slanting VWAP above previous day high, NQ turning but mid-range. Still under the Bull Bear Line, so not bulls control yet. |
| 9:00 | Battle Plan 8 And Runner Stops The map ran out to Battle Plan 8, deeper than usual. For a multi-day runner, park the stop 5 to 10 points above the session high. |
| 9:47 | Membership Options: Zoom Stream The new Zoom Stream is $50 for a full month on YouTube, replacing the old $30-a-day Zoom pass. |
| 10:50 | Free Foundations Course And Boot Camp The rebuilt Foundations Course includes a trader test and TA 101. The free Battle Plan Boot Camp walks five days of trades step by step. |
| 11:47 | SITREP, Review Section, Free Content The Sunday SITREP report, nightly Battle Plan review sections, free Tuesday livestream, and the daily AM Briefing. |
| 12:41 | The $7 Battle Plan Test Drive One month of the Battle Plan for $7 plus the $50 channel for a month of Zoom, roughly $57 for the ultimate test drive. |
| 13:11 | Full Membership And The Small Room Full membership carries an upfront cover charge, a barrier that keeps the room small, tight, and focused on the same chart and trades. |
MES MICROS TRADE PLAN
The Prudent Trader Acts With Knowledge
Posted: Friday July 24, 2026
This ES futures morning briefing opens on one line of scripture… every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly. That is the whole session in a sentence. Acting with knowledge means you DO what you already know you're supposed to do, whether you feel like it or not. No new drivers hit the tape today, so George walked the week of Battle Plan trades, the overnight long he's still holding, and the Core Strategy that keeps a tired trader calm… fewer, higher-quality entries, risk first, and one lotto runner held behind your Strong Levels that can pay for the whole month. Here are the ES futures key levels today and the lessons behind them.
ACT WITH KNOWLEDGE — DISCIPLINE IS DOING WHAT YOU KNOW
The prudent trader applies what he already knows. The fool knows the rules… and breaks them anyway, over and over, then wonders why performance never improves. That gap is where the emotional loss and the financial ruin live.
George shared a prospective member this week, Amy, who said she keeps blowing accounts and keeps trading too big. His advice was simple. Trade the same process every day, with perfect size, and become the trader you were meant to be. That is the entire system distilled into one instruction.
Trader Lesson 1
Acting with knowledge IS discipline… you do what your plan says whether you want to or not. Knowing the rules and breaking them anyway is how the account bleeds. Same process, every day.
THE CORE STRATEGY — FEWER, HIGHER-QUALITY ENTRIES
The Battle Plan exists to keep you calm and calculated. It forces you to slow down. You will not see anyone here swinging through the big fences. This desk is risk first.
- Pre-planned: Every trade is mapped and published the night before. Nothing is hidden and nothing is improvised.
- Laser-tight entries: Base hits after base hits, with tight, well-located entries at Strong Levels.
- Risk first: Fewer, higher-quality opportunities beat a pile of forced trades every single day.
This is how you build futures trading discipline that survives a full session… you narrow the count and raise the quality.
Trader Lesson 2
Trade fewer, higher-quality, pre-planned entries. Risk first. Base hits with laser-tight entries beat swinging for the fences… slow down and let the Battle Plan do the work.
HOLDING THE LOTTO RUNNER
George is long overnight with multiple contracts off a Strong Level bounce… and he's still holding a lotto runner into this morning. The question every trader asks is why bother, when most runners fizzle? Here is the math he laid out.
- The odds: 70 to 85% of the time, the runner does NOT go, go, go.
- The payoff: The 10 to 15% of the time it DOES run can add roughly 20 points a day on average… that is freaking amazing over a month.
- Why hold: The Battle Plan tends to produce one trade a week that goes 100 points. A single one of those, on even one micro, can cover your membership.
Yesterday's flush short proved it. George called his take-profit near 90 points at two Strong Levels. Stay behind those levels and play perfect chess, and the same runner reached toward 100. That is how you manage a runner in ES futures without giving back your green.
Trader Lesson 3
Hold a lotto runner behind your Strong Levels. It stalls most of the time… but the one that runs can add ~20 points a day on average. One 100-pointer a week can pay for everything.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW — MAPPING THE SAME SHORT ALL WEEK
The Battle Plan replay now stacks the whole week's mapped trades into one archive you can replay over the weekend, one space-bar press at a time. Walking it back tells the story of a market that kept trying and failing to reach the Bull Bear Line.
- Sunday night: A clean 10-point short in the trade review.
- Monday: Three shorts and a long live on Zoom, then a beautiful follow-through with an add-on.
- Tuesday & Wednesday: Longs in all the right places… price kept collapsing back in every time it reached for the Bull Bear Line.
- Wednesday night into Thursday: The short we mapped all week finally flushed. It only went 10 points on some days… this time it delivered.
Knowing which way to trade was half the battle. When George said "now we're looking for longs," that direction call did most of the heavy lifting.
Trader Lesson 4
Answer one question before you hunt entries… which way should you be trading? We stalked longs only all week. Picking the correct side is half the battle.
TODAY'S MAP — LONGS ONLY, BATTLE PLAN 8, STRONG LEVELS HOLDING
George published today's Battle Plan early last night because of Intel earnings. The bias was clear… looking for longs only. Price is still inside the previous day's range, and the Strong Levels are behaving like the controls on a pinball machine, bouncing price off the tops and containing it at the bottoms.
The map ran all the way out to Battle Plan 8. George rarely maps that deep, but he knew it was time. Those deep levels helped carry the long higher. On his overnight runner, he pulled his stop back as far as he could while still locking a green trade… if nothing else came, he'd be happy with the Friday result.
A quick cross-market read: the S&P 500 futures sit in the upper distribution with an upward-slanting VWAP above the previous day high. NQ is starting to turn but is still mid-range and nothing bad. Price remains under the Bull Bear Line, which is way up there… so this is not bulls control, and it is not bearish yet. For a multi-day runner, George parks the stop 5 to 10 points above the session high.
Trader Lesson 5
Once a trade is working, pull your stop back as far as you can while still guaranteeing green. Lock the day in the black first… then let the runner develop.
JOURNALING AND THE PATHS IN
George couldn't make journaling any easier… the Chrome extension refines your trade plan, surfaces your behavioral patterns, and forces you to be honest with your own performance. Honesty with yourself is the whole point.
If you want to test the system, the entry points are stacked:
- Free Foundations Course: Completely rebuilt, with a trader test and technical analysis 101.
- Free Battle Plan Boot Camp: Five days walking you step-by-step through how these Battle Plan trades are traded.
- Zoom Stream: $50 for a full month of the live pre-market Zoom on YouTube, replacing the old $30-a-day Zoom pass.
- The $7 test drive: One month of the Battle Plan for $7 plus the $50 channel membership… roughly $57 for a full month of the Battle Plan and Zoom together.
Full membership carries an upfront cover charge. That barrier is a feature… it keeps out the traders who don't need to be there and keeps the room small, tight, and focused on the same chart and the same trades.
"We believe base hits after base hits, with laser-tight entries."
COMMON QUESTIONS FOR ES FUTURES TRADERS
What does "act with knowledge" mean for a futures trader?
A: It means you actually DO what your trading plan already tells you to do, whether you feel like it or not. That is the definition of trading discipline. Knowing your rules and breaking them anyway is the folly that produces blown accounts, so acting with knowledge is following your process every single day.
What is a lotto runner and how often does it pay off?
A: A lotto runner is a small, speculative piece of your position that you hold behind your Strong Levels for a much larger move. It fails to run 70 to 85% of the time, but the 10 to 15% of the time it does go can add roughly 20 points a day on average… and the Battle Plan tends to produce one 100-point runner a week that can cover the cost of membership.
How do you set a stop on a multi-day runner in ES futures?
A: For a runner you intend to hold across multiple days, place your stop 5 to 10 points above the session high (for a short) so normal chop doesn't shake you out. On any working trade, you also pull your stop back as far as possible while still guaranteeing a green result, locking in the day before letting the runner develop.
What are Strong Levels and how do they behave?
A: Strong Levels are the high-conviction, pre-mapped price levels published in the Battle Plan. They act like the controls on a pinball machine… price bounces off the top of one, bounces off the bottom of another, and stays contained between them. Trading with these levels rather than against them is the core of the setup.
What does "looking for longs only" mean and why does direction matter so much?
A: It means the Battle Plan has established a directional bias for the session, so you only hunt long entries and ignore shorts. Knowing which way you should be trading is half the battle… the correct side does most of the work, and forcing trades against the bias is where traders give back their gains.
What is the Bull Bear Line and where is price relative to it?
A: The Bull Bear Line is the key dividing level between a bullish and bearish market bias. As of this briefing, S&P 500 futures are trading in the upper distribution with an upward-slanting VWAP above the previous day high, but still below the Bull Bear Line. That means bulls are not yet in control… and the tape is not bearish yet either.
Why does Micros Trader take fewer trades instead of more?
A: The Core Strategy is risk first. Fewer, higher-quality, pre-planned entries with laser-tight locations produce base hits that compound, while chasing volume produces mistakes. Slowing down and taking only the mapped setups is what keeps a tired trader calm and calculated.
How does the Battle Plan replay feature work?
A: Each night the replay accumulates that week's mapped Battle Plan trades into a single archive. On the weekend you can reload any day, press the space bar to play it back, and toggle individual Battle Plan trades on and off to study exactly how each level was traded.
What is the $7 Battle Plan test drive?
A: It is a low-cost way to sample the full system… one month of the Battle Plan for $7, combined with the $50 YouTube channel membership for a month of live Zoom, for roughly $57 total. It lets a new trader see the pre-planned entries and daily process before committing to full membership.
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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