Like My Dad Always Said; Life’s Too Short

Danny Riley (DBOY)

It's best for me to start the OP after the regular session opens because it tends to give me a better feel for what to write. I am not just saying this because I have nothing else to write about, but when you have so many good traders all going live, throwing up charts, talking levels, news, and mindset, it gives me a menu of things to think about or write about. The continued buildout of the chat software and the ability to move from five or six forums, all in one place, is not like anything the trading community has ever seen. I want to assure you about one thing: I don't write the Opening Print for financial benefit. Every penny goes back into the company to pay the costs. I do it for the love of the markets, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. I also write because I know the struggles I have in my life and my trading, and I see and  understand the struggles of others. Like they say, if trading were easy, we would all be millionaires, but it's not easy, and anyone who says it is is kidding himself.

I believe there are specialized traits that the really great traders have.

1. Emotional Discipline: Keeps fear, greed, and frustration from controlling decisions.

2. Patience: Allows traders to wait for high-quality setups instead of forcing trades.

3. Adaptability: Allows them to recognize when market conditions change and adjust accordingly.

4. Humility: Allows them to accept being wrong and cut losses without arguing with the market.

5. Decisiveness: Allows traders to act quickly when a valid opportunity appears.

6. Resilience: Helps traders recover psychologically from losses without revenge trading.

7. Self-Awareness: Allows them to recognize personal weaknesses, emotional triggers, and bad habits.

8. Independent Thinking: Means making decisions based on evidence rather than following the crowd.

9. Consistency: Means following a repeatable process instead of constantly changing strategies.

10. Curiosity: Drives traders to continually study markets, evaluate mistakes, and improve.

I do not pretend to have all of those abilities. In fact, there are only a few I feel I can say I have. I have always talked about how trading and life have a lot in common, and one of the lessons is that you don't have to be right all the time to be successful. Think about it: a trader can be wrong on more trades than they're right and still make money if they manage risk and let their winners outweigh their losers. I think life works much the same way. You don't have to make every right decision, take every opportunity, or avoid every mistake to build a successful life. You just have to make sure your mistakes don't destroy everything you've worked for. And there is one thing trading and life don’t have in common: There will always be another trade, but there won't always be another opportunity to make things right with the people who matter most. The markets will open again tomorrow, but life doesn't promise you another tomorrow. Protect your capital, protect your health, protect your family, and never let a bad day turn into a bad life.

I used to tell the customers who used my S&P desk on the CME floor this all the time when they would call up and say, "I missed this long or short." I heard this thousands of times, and the PitBull was at the top of that list... Trades are like buses. If you miss one, don't fret; another one will come along soon...

Is the Music Over?

By Bo Parsons

Electronic exchanges and high frequency trading were just the beginning of the algorithmic volume takeover of the markets. Now, considering Artificial Intelligence and its super ability for everyone to use the same technology, one must wonder when the music is going to stop playing, and who will be left running in a circle? Crowded trades always feel crowded, but they don’t always feel so obvious when they turn. Could this mean that everyone is now way too short? Yes, it could. But once a major trend change begins, the same technical behavior that drives markets to over-stretched levels can also work the same way on the way down. The Age of Information has brought us not only to crowded trades and trade ideas, but also to crowded trading strategies. Firms with large capital and super high-speed connections and machines hire incredibly smart Human Intelligence that codes the same algos to take liquidity, take liquidity, take liquidity – holding the bid firm on the way up, and liquidating everybody on the way down. The speed and volume and incredible efficiency of our markets and their participants are truly impressive. But where will they all be if the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth pillars begin to crumble amidst global unravelling? I don’t know if the end is near, or if this is just another beautiful opportunity to buy the dip, but I do know that they’ve enjoyed the Band well past the last call, and the Band sometimes also needs to get some sleep. The best traders I’ve known always seem to be on the lookout for times to start selling mattresses, and however it works out for them, at least they know they won’t be sleeping in the dirt.

© BPTC 26 LLC

A full-time ES futures trader based in Colorado Springs. Bo joined the Pitbull Traders family to give back to the trading community the same way his father mentored him.

Learn about Bo’s trading-consulting services

Yesterday’s ES session started with an overnight bid, but the cash market could not hold it. December ES opened Sunday evening at 7626.00, dipped to 7625.25 and worked up to 7662.00 before the opening bell. The last Globex five-minute bar closed at 7649.00, up 23.00 points from the overnight open and 35.00 above Friday’s official settlement.

The regular session opened at 7649.25 and pushed to 7693.75 during the 10:25–10:30 a.m. ET bar. That was the high. ES was back near 7654 at noon, around 7638 at 1:00 p.m. and below 7626 at 2:00 p.m. The morning rally had turned into an afternoon selloff.

At 3:50 p.m., the last-trade snapshot was 7578.25. ES made its 7570.75 session low in the final five-minute cash bar, which closed at 7576.25. The separate 4:00 p.m. last-trade snapshot was 7578.50; those are different observations, not interchangeable closing prices. Official settlement was 7574.50, down 39.50 points from Friday. Cleanup trade recovered to 7587.00 by 5:00 p.m.

In the end, ES lost 73.00 points from the cash open to the regular-session bar close. NQ also struggled, falling 582.50 points from its 28721.25 cash open to its 28138.75 regular-session close before recovering to 28223.75 at 5:00 p.m. ES cleared volume was 2,539,896 contracts, versus 1,998,904 Friday. The table separately sums 1,931,052 contracts from the five-minute bars. The lesson from this tape was straightforward: the overnight bid and first-hour rally did not survive the afternoon.

Buy-side reveal gave way to a late sell imbalance

At 3:51 p.m. ET yesterday, the MIM’s all-market MOC snapshot showed a $1.9B net buy imbalance: $5.2B outstanding to buy against $3.4B to sell. Dollar lean was 60.8% buy, but symbol breadth was narrower, with 357 buys versus 325 sells, or 52.3% buying.

The buy balance reached $2.4B net at 3:55. One minute later, outstanding sells rose from $3.1B to $4.1B, approximately $984.0M more unmatched selling, while outstanding buys declined to $3.5B. Net flipped to $552.0M sell as coverage changed from 681 to 675 symbols. That sell-side increase matters more than calling a shrinking buy balance a “fade.” Snapshot changes do not identify gross new orders, cancellations, or who submitted them.

The chart then showed $708.0M net selling at 3:57, a brief $498.0M buy balance at 3:58, and renewed selling of $461.0M at 3:59. By 4:00, both outstanding sides had contracted to roughly $934.0M buy and $1.8B sell, leaving $867.0M net sell. That contraction is compatible with normal pairing; it is not proof of liquidation or the auction’s executed result.

The displayed stock tables put NVDA and AMD among the largest buys, with GOOGL and COST leading the sells. Technology led the displayed sector buying, while staples, communications and utilities offset it. At the selected reveal, Nasdaq’s positive dollar balance contrasted with 65.3% of its symbols on the sell side. These overlapping market groups should not be added together.

Historical size rankings and day-to-day comparisons remain unestablished because the dashboard and historical feed disagree. The next auction’s test is whether buying broadens beyond the heavyweight names and survives the late updates.

Want to follow the auction pressure behind this recap? Explore the MIM’s live imbalance snapshots and sector view.

How the NYSE and Nasdaq auctions work

How to read the MIM

Today in The Pit: Quick Draw Bo

Join Quick Draw Bo (Bosier Parsons) in The Pit today, Tuesday, November 3, at 9:15 a.m. ET.

Open today’s scheduled session on YouTube.

Don't trade the open alone. Join us live in The Pit for free, follow the conversation, and bring your questions.

Economic Calendar

Earnings Calendar

Polaris Trading Group

Polaris Trading Group followed a sharp change in character yesterday: an overnight rebound and early upside repair gave way to a full reversal and fresh downside objectives. David began with a Cycle Day 2 consolidation framework, then tracked the market back through its key references while managing an A4 short. The session emphasized adapting to price rather than remaining attached to the morning's recovery.

Overnight setup and Cycle Day 2

• David described the overnight advance as an automatic rally following Friday's deep decline. His initial upside targets at 7645–7655 had already been fulfilled before the cash session.

• The starting range was 7625–7660, with 7625 designated the Line in the Sand. That gave the room a defined area to watch rather than an open-ended directional forecast.

• His initial Cycle Day 2 expectation was stabilizing consolidation after the prior week's selling. That was a starting scenario, not a promise that the session would remain contained.

Morning recovery and resistance

• At 10:02 a.m. ET, David reported price inside the third upper target zone at 7665, followed immediately by a rejection lower. The first test therefore did not establish uninterrupted upside momentum.

• By 10:17 a.m., he described a full repair of Friday's regular-session range, with price beginning to work on the gap.

• The subsequent advance was characterized as a slow grind after early consolidation. At 10:30 a.m., David supplied 7698 as the Cycle Day 2 range-high objective, which remained an objective rather than a confirmed execution price.

Catalysts and uncertainty

• Members asked about today's election and whether it might change price behavior after Friday's swings. David said he was unsure of the extent of its influence and thought any effect might be minimal.

• That response did not establish a forecast for today's volatility. The actionable emphasis remained on the room's rules and the price structure already developing.

• Participants also discussed Nasdaq weakness during the morning, but those observations were secondary to the actual ES reference levels and trade-management updates.

A4 short execution

• At 11:11 a.m., David reported an A4 short with three take-profits and a stop trailed to even. This was a contemporaneous management update, not a reconstructed entry call.

• He reinforced staying aligned with the developing move rather than anticipating a bounce simply because price had fallen.

• At 12:28 p.m., he confirmed that an A4 short runner remained working before stepping away for a lunch meeting. The room record does not provide a final exit price for that runner.

Afternoon reversal and follow-through

• At 12:49 p.m., David identified a large reversal from the early morning high back to the 7625 Line in the Sand. The morning recovery had lost considerable ground.

• By 2:05 p.m., he described a full reversal within the Cycle Day 2 range down to 7620.

• At 2:20 p.m., price below the 7614 prior close opened the possibility of further downside. Subsequent updates reported the 7595 briefing target tagged at 2:30 p.m. and the 7575 target fulfilled at 3:43 p.m.

Technical map into today

• Yesterday's key progression ran from the 7645–7655 overnight targets through 7665 resistance and the 7698 upside objective, then back through 7625, 7620 and the 7614 prior close.

• The later downside milestones were 7595 and 7575, both explicitly reported as reached in David's afternoon updates.

• Near the close, he described price in the lower quartile of the range. For today's Cycle Day 3, his stated key was trading above the Cycle Day 1 low at 7558.25.

Lessons from the session

• A recovery that repairs the prior session's range can still reverse. The changing response at established levels mattered more than the opening narrative.

• The record supports the reported A4 management steps and target touches, but not an exact entry-to-exit profit calculation or a claim that every member captured the move.

• The practical takeaway was to keep the original map, update the directional assessment as price crossed it, and preserve risk discipline through the final hour.

DTG Room Preview

Discovery Trading Group enters today's session with a bearish technical bias, highlighting elevated volatility and a test of the ES short-term downtrend channel. The group's focus is on how price responds at support rather than assuming that a bounce will hold.

Market backdrop

• DTG reports its five-day average ES daily range has risen to 107 points from Friday's 100.0 points, underscoring the need to allow for wider swings.

• The group's overnight large-trader volume assessment is bearish heading into the U.S. session.

• Its morning analysis keeps a bearish 50-day moving-average bias, citing Monday's ES position below the 7751.00 reference.

Levels to watch

• DTG identifies 7540/35 as today's short-term channel support. A break of that area would put the longer-term 7425/30 trendline into focus.

• Potential trendline resistance zones are 7710/15, 7787/82, 7891/96, 7993/98 and 8063/68.

• The group notes that Monday's 7696/01 trendline capped the session's high before the market moved lower. Today's listed resistance and support zones are conditional references, not guaranteed turning points.

Tactical focus

• Watch whether buyers can defend the lower channel boundary and whether any recovery can sustain acceptance above resistance.

• Keep position risk aligned with the expanded range. DTG's bearish bias does not eliminate the possibility of sharp countertrend rebounds.