SPY Friday 3/7 — Choppy Range AnalysisState Street SPDR S&P 500 ETFBATS:SPYA1TradingHub The Setup: SPY gapped down aggressively at the open, dropping from the ~679-680 pre-market area straight into the low 670s. That gap-down immediately established the bearish tone for the session. Key Levels Defining the Chop: The range was essentially bookended by two levels — Previous Day Low (~675.95) acting as a ceiling and the ~671 area acting as a floor. That gave you roughly a 4-5 point chop zone, which on a 15-min chart is tough to trade cleanly. Why It Chopped: PDL as Resistance Flip — Your annotation nails it. Once SPY broke below the previous day low, that level flipped to resistance. Every attempted bounce got stuffed right at or just below 675.95. Buyers couldn't reclaim it, but sellers couldn't push through the 671 floor either — classic compression. Below Pre-Market Level (~677-678) — The declining red MA (likely VWAP or a longer EMA) was sloping down through this zone, adding a second layer of overhead supply. Even if price cleared PDL, it would've run right into that dynamic resistance. No Catalyst to Break the Range — After the initial gap-down selloff, volume likely dried up in the afternoon. You can see the candles getting smaller and more indecisive from roughly 1:00 PM onward, with wicks on both sides — textbook range-bound exhaustion. What This Tells You for Monday: 671 is the line in the sand. If that floor breaks, you're looking at a move toward the 669.84 level marked on the chart. 675.95 (PDL) needs to be reclaimed for any bullish reversal case. Until then, rallies are sells. The fact that price closed near the bottom of the range (~671.50) rather than mid-range suggests sellers still have control heading into the weekend. Scalping Takeaway: On days like this, the play is to fade the extremes of the range — short near 675 with stops above PDL, long near 671 with tight stops below. The middle of the range (672-674) is a no-trade zone. If you caught yourself getting chopped up in there, it's because the risk/reward inside that zone was garbage — the edges were the only clean entries.