The Perfection Series: Pre-SetsMicro E-mini Nasdaq-100 Index FuturesCME_MINI:MNQ1!SidgateA Pre-Set Trade is a pre-positioned order at known structure, placed before the Open because the anticipated reversal may happen too quickly to manually enter. Ideal Conditions: *price is trading above the level just before the Open *structure below remains intact *news environment is neutral to favorable *no economic or geopolitical threat is evident Preferred Locations: *prior day's close *established hinge support *major value reference Objective: Participate in violent Open reversals without requiring perfect execution speed On 9/11, three microhinges formed between 08.30 and 08.48 ET in ascending values. Because newly formed structure was beneath price at the open and the news environment was favorable, pre-set entries were placed at those microhinges and caught a quick reversal that otherwise would have been hard to catch. Hinge #1 15s bars lip 8.30.30 288.50 apex 8.31.45 255 floor 8.30.45 239.50 FRVP 8.30.15 - 8.31.15 ET VAH 274.75 POC 251-253 VAL 245 Hinge #2 15s bars lip 8.33.45 351.5 apex 8.36.45 337 floor 8.32.15 282 FRVP: 8.31.45 - 8.35.45 VAH 350.75 POC 342-343 VAL 308 Hinge #3 Flat-bottom 15s bars lip 8.40.45 375.5 apex 8.47.15 346 floor 8.36.45 346 FRVP: 8.36.15 - 8.45.45 VAH 368.5 POC 355-357 VAL 352.5 Trade Management: 100-point SL > 62-point PT > SL hit double size Draw these on a 15s chart and you'll see how perfectly this worked at the 9/11 Open. "Seeing is believing." "The early bird catches the worm." Silly, trite sayings. But true. "O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost come back again." Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward Angel "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea..." Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner As humans we're all acquainted with vastness. The kind found in the universe, in literature, in faith, mortality and time. As traders we sit in our rooms and push buttons interacting with the vastness of the markets which don't care if we succeed or fail. Behind the little candles on our screens are hedge funds, central banks, market makers, pension funds, corporations, algorithms, institutions and millions of people all around the globe acting simultaneously to influence the markets. And there you are. One person. One room. One laptop. Pushing buttons. It's easy to feel very, very small. The veteran learns to inhabit his small corner of it faithfully. IF sweep THEN reclaim. IF reclaim THEN hinge. IF hinge THEN break. IF break THEN setup is valid. With Coleridge the loneliness was cosmic. The mariner was cutoff completely from all others by the vastness of the sea. Wolfe's problem was the opposite. His character Eugene was all, all alone while sitting at a boisterous, crowded dining table feasting on pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, relishes, bread and butter, peach and apple pies. Wolfe seemed to say I hunger because there is no food. C.S. Lewis said I hunger therefore I know food exists. Lewis said beauty creates a longing for a longing. By that longing he concluded that he was created for a reality outside of what his five senses could know. "A stone, a leaf, an unfound door..." are the opening words of Look Homeward, Angel. The operative word being "unfound". A great trading plan sure confounds the "unfound". All hinges and FRVPs are on here. All drawn on a 15s chart. All appear a jumbled mess on a 15m chart. Oh well.