turn your head and cough

Shorts squeezed again!  lol
Right back into our pitchfork, safe and sound

Price opened just under the 20-day MA, which coincided with the 50% retracement of our most recent swing highs/lows.  A strong breakout candle, a close above the 61.8% retracement and a W-bottom pattern breakout set up today.

Price gaped up big today and didn't go any further than a 50% extension based off the Previous day's Close to today's Open.  This also coincided with a 150% extension as measured off of the previous day's range (low to high):

Being that the year is in it's last month, take a look and see where we are on the grand scale.  The S&P500 yearly chart puts us right under a confluence of resistance; the 23.6% level from the 1960 lows to the 2007 Highs and a 61.8% level from the '07 Highs to '09 Lows

However...The more times price tests Resistance...

amazing how well that 50% level was our S/R zone

squeeze gap

Recent downside momentum in the markets was broken today with a wide gap up, triggering stops overhead.  Where did price resort back to?

SPY returned to the 50% retracement as measured High to Low (11/9-11/16), closing right above the 20-day

While the gap up (from the PDC to today's Open) couldn't quite extend to the 100% mark (came within 7-cents):

The Original Amateur Hour

Down and Down she goes, and where she stops nobody knows:

no indicator day

Trading off of a momentum indicator on a trend day like today would have you screwed six ways to Sunday.  Here's what buying a momentum divergence left you with today on the 15-min:

While on the 5-minute one would be sliced and diced:

  So, on a day when Advancers/Decliners are severely out of balance, the TICK starts of with -1000 and can barely get back to zero, and the rest of the breadth indicators are flashing sell, just turn the squiggly line indicator off.
What were some reasonable targets to aim for?
Fib Retracement as measured between the PDC and today's Open had a great proportion:

and the Fib retracement off of the PDH & PDL had similar results

midpoints

Here are a couple of 2x-bar midpoints that were tested today. 
11/10 RIMM showed a 2x momentum bar

This morning price gaped down within $0.03 of this midpoint and bounced strongly, filling it's gap within 5-minutes.  Once the intra-day momentum bar (second 5-minute candle) went beyond it's 50% midpoint, it became apparent that the opening drive was just a short covering.  Price returned to this 11/10 midpoint and measured a 50% extension beyond it:

V exhibited a 2x momentum bar back in October, however, it was already tested once before:

This morning we gaped down and an attempted gap-fill failed, which coincided with the 10/13 midpoint.

Most recently, OXY had a strong session 3-days ago

This morning a gap-down lost momentum right around this midpoint level, leading to a short shakeout

Monday SPY intraday

A look at the SPY for Monday 11.15
Price retraced 61.8% between the high of 11.11 and the low of Friday 11.12

  So, we gaped up this morning (upward momentum).  Drawing a Fib. retracement line off of the close on Friday and today's Open what do we see:

- Following the gap up momentum, price wicked the 50% retracement before returning to the Open.  NOTE: The above chart uses the closing time of 4:15 EST.  Using a closing time of 4EST  we get a nearly 100% retracement after the open and a 100% extension, the proportions of momentum and it's extension do not change).
- As price returned to the open the upward gap momentum carried us to a 50% extension.

The 15-min chart shows two strong bars early in the day (the green bar being a 2x-bar).  Notice the midpoint of these bars and their respective Support/Resistance qualities.

Using the squiggly line tool, we only really got one signal out of it today, that being a sell divergence (which would have been a test to sit through).

using momentum

  An issue I've always had when in a trade, or looking to enter a trade,  was trying to project where my price target should be.  I'm flipping through daily charts, looking at wicks, moving to 30min chart bollinger bands, getting a target number in mind and then wondering, "Why'd price stop there and not my arbitrary target?"
One of the easier methods I have found for projecting a target (for at least half position) is simply projecting a Fib. Retracement off of the most recent momentum impulse and using the 50% extension as my "at least" target.  In other words, a measured move, dur!

Momentum Impulse
     A movement in price that exhibits a wider range in a shorter period of time.  Of course this is relative to the issue and timeframe you're looking at, but it should be obvious when you look at a chart and see big versus not so big bars, and sideways versus linear movement.  Especially obvious in the opening session where there are gaps with continuation or rejection.

Here are two examples from today:

APA gaped up this morning and within 10-min retraced half of the Close-Open gap range.  Normally I would look for support from this 50% level, so a failure can tip off weakness.

The 50% retracement  failure led to a gap fill, giving us a momentum leg.  I'll then measure these 3 candles, as it represents momentum.

  At this point I wait and see how/if/where price is going to retrace this momentum impulse.  APA showed a wick rejection close to the 50% retracement (an excellent confirming signal!) so I'm thinking short and looking for any further retrace testing.  What followed was increasingly narrow price contraction before a failure of the lows.
  My primary target = 50% extension off of the initial impulse.  Afterwards you can judge strength of price for potential further downside.  As you can see, each extension level (50% and 100%) was sliced through on a solid bar, while the 150% extension was wicked and followed by short covering.

RIMM had a similar open this morning.  Momentum on the gap up, but the 50% failed to hold any support, instead showed strong downside momentum.

  Following this downside momentum price wicked no more than 38% of it's previous  momentum.  Price then broke down, hitting our primary and secondary targets (50% & 100% extensions), though instead of slicing through them (as they did in APA) they were wicked (not necessarily a sign of continuing momentum).

So, once we can pinpoint momentum we can at least determine a primary target and size our position accordingly.

As an aside:
   I've noticed that when you have strong directional momentum that isn't immediately tested (like in the APA chart where we had a wick test near the 50% almost immediately) then price tends to drift back in that direction for a test.  Case in point, AGU today, notice how we have 15-minutes of downward price momentum and zero testing of the previous bar's range.  Once price found support it then drifted up to test the range that it previously sliced through: