$QQQ Daily Close — Sep 9Invesco QQQ Trust Series IBATS:QQQMTrades-TTSQQQ Daily Close — Sep 9 Choppy price action. QQQ closed 716.35, down 0.28%, and the previous day low at 715.57 broke — low of 714.02 — before price closed back above it. The good thing: the market is still holding the @ripster47 5-12 EMA cloud. That level has now been defended two sessions running. On today's candle Volume was low again — 25.61M against a 30.9M average, 83% relative volume. And the bar itself: price pushed to 719.70 and gave the whole move back to close at the open. That advance had no volume behind it and produced nothing. Range 5.68 against an 8.97 ATR — 63% of a normal day. Close finished below the middle of the bar. Here's the read. Sellers took out the previous day low and couldn't generate any volume behind it, so supply didn't show up at the break. But buyers didn't show up either — that push to 719.70 died on nothing. Both sides are absent. The pattern worth seeing Volume this week: 34.3M, 23.4M, 28.9M, 32.8M, 22.9M, 25.6M — against a 30.9M average. The only above-average day was last Friday, and that was the profit-taking bar. Every up bar in this entire move has come on below-average volume. Meanwhile the highs keep stepping down: 721.86, then 721.89, then 719.70 today. Closes too. Price is leaking lower each session with nobody behind it in either direction. That's a range compressing, not a trend. Compressed ranges resolve — they just don't tell you which way in advance. My trades and my levels My trades went well in the morning. I added long over the Daily 20-21 MTF @ripster47 EMA cloud. The @ripster47 5-12 EMA cloud is the risk now — price is sitting right on it. For a confirmed long, the market needs to move above today's high at 719.70, and I want volume back above 30M when it does. Without the volume it's just the seventh light up bar in a row. One mechanical note that mattered today. Price wicked below the 5-12 cloud and closed back above it. My exit rule is a 5-12 Break on a closing basis, not an intraday tag. If your stop was sitting inside the wick you got taken out of a position that's still valid. The rule exists for exactly this bar. Below the cloud on a close and this becomes a 5-12 Break, which opens the @ripster47 34-50 EMA cloud at 710–715. Targets unchanged: 724.20, then 730, then the all-time high at 748.65.