We are sitting right below all-time highs. Mark pointed out this morning that VIX is back to where it was in early February before any of this started. Bank earnings came in strong across the board. The tape looks good on the surface. And I am still not calling this a breakout. Here is why. What I need to see is a gap up above the current resistance. A clean move that takes us out of this range. Until that happens, we are still inside the mess. Sitting below a ceiling is not the same as breaking through it. My 40 is still pointed up. The structure is intact. QQQ has more room than SPY right now, which tells me there is still participation in this tape. But the W pattern question is real. Are we at the top of the W before things roll back over, or are we

This afternoon the market handed us a test. We were running strong all morning. Then around 1PM it pulled back. A sharp selloff that dropped us back through the levels I had been watching, shook out a lot of positions, and had people second-guessing the whole move. I watched it the whole way down and I did not panic. Here is why. My 40 held. The W-shape that had been building through the afternoon was still intact. The wicks on the down candles told me sellers were trying to push lower and buyers kept stepping in underneath. The momentum slowed but it never actually rolled over. That is the difference between a pullback and a reversal. A pullback tests you. A reversal breaks the structure. The structure never broke. The buyers came back, reclaimed the levels, and we pushed through $693.67 into the close. That is the reclaim I needed

The market moved on headlines today. Iran news, blockade updates, ceasefire rumors. This tape is moving on headlines and each one is landing like a grenade in the middle of a trade. The put zone triggered this morning, and right as price entered, news hit at 10:45 and the 200 EMA was sitting directly in the path. The move never had room to breathe. So I stopped out of the trade early. Protecting capital when the trade does not have room is exactly what the system is built for. Here is what I need you to understand about a news-driven tape. The zones still find the levels. They found the put zone this morning. When the headlines are flying, the levels still work. The only variable that needs to shift is how much you risk on each trade. In a week with Iran headlines, Fed speakers, and earnings season, position