Card 1: the opening rotation, 3:33 to 4:15 pm

The course's first card is that of the NQ's most readable window: the forty minutes after convergence. It rests on the near-daily move described in module 2, the cheap sweep of an edge followed by a rotation, and on the absorption read in MBO at the end of the sweep. Distances are written for a VXN of 20 and recalibrate (module 4).

The mechanism

After convergence, the NQ looks for its place between the opening price, the pre-market range and the overnight range. Stops sleep below the pre-market low (those of the 2:30 pm and overnight buyers) and above the high. On a thin book, a few dozen contracts are enough to go and get them. The sweep goes 20 to 40 points below the edge, triggers the stops, and a bid absorbs that flow of stops: iceberg reloading, bar delta flipping, price motionless then back into the range.