Trading Update: Thursday February 26, 2026
E-mini end of day video review
S&P E-mini market analysis
E-mini daily chart
- The Emini is continuing to disappoint trend traders on the daily chart due to the market being in a tight trading range environment.
- The bulls who bought above the February 24th stop order are sufficiently disappointed with today’s reversal down. February 24th was a bull reversal bar that was overlapped by several bars in the tight trading range. This lowered the probability for the bulls.
- It is easy to become hopeful for a breakout when the market is in a trading range. However, it is important to recognize that most stop orders inside of a trading range will force traders to buy in the upper 1/3rd and sell in the lower 1/3rd, which is the exact opposite of what traders should be doing.
- Until there is a clear breakout with follow-through beyond the range, traders should assume that the breakout will fail.
- Overall, traders should assume that this trading range on the daily chart will likely continue for the next several weeks. This means that traders should expect several reversals intra-day and disappointing follow-through after trend days.
E-mini 5-minute chart and what to expect today
- Today formed a strong downside breakout on bar 1 following yesterday’s climactic bull channel.
- Because of the higher time frame context, it was reasonable for traders to expect disappointing follow-through after the consecutive bull bars on the daily chart.
- The bears formed a strong selloff down to bar 13; the selloff was extreme. This increased the odds of a bounce and a deep pullback, which the bulls got with the rally up to bar 24.
- Because the selloff to bar 13 was strong, there will be bears willing to sell all the way down to bar 13 and scale in higher, better that the market will test back down to the low closer later today.
- Next, the bulls are hopeful that today will form a credible major trend reversal following the test back down.
- The bulls are hopeful that the test down to the 13 low will lead to a higher low. Next, the bulls want a strong upside breakout and test of the bar 24 high.
- While the selloff on bars 26-27 was good for the bears, it lacked strong follow-through to bar 36. This increases the odds of a trading range and buyers below, scaling in lower.
Yesterday’s E-mini setups
Richard created the SP500 E-mini chart.
Here are reasonable stop entry setups from yesterday. Chart shows each buy entry bar with a green arrow and each sell entry bar with a red arrow. Buyers of the Brooks Trading Course have access to a near 4-year library of detailed explanations of swing trade setups (see Online Course/BTC Daily Setups) linked to the Brooks Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns product.
The goal with these charts is to present an Always In perspective. If a trader was trying to be Always In or nearly Always In a position all day, and he was not currently in the market, these entries would be logical times for him to enter. These therefore are swing entries.
It is important to understand that most swing setups do not lead to swing trades. As soon as traders are disappointed, many exit. Those who exit prefer to get out with a small profit (scalp), but often have to exit with a small loss.
If the risk is too big for your account, you should wait for trades with less risk or trade an alternative market like the Micro E-mini.
Summary of today’s S&P E-mini price action
Richard created the SP500 E-mini chart.
See the weekly update for a discussion of the price action on the weekly chart and for what to expect going into next week.
Trading Room
Al Brooks and other presenters talk about the detailed E-mini price action real-time each day in the Brooks Trading Course trading room. We offer a 2 day free trial.
Charts use Pacific Time
When times are mentioned, it is USA Pacific Time. The E-mini day session charts begin at 6:30 am PT and end at 1:15 pm PT which is 15 minutes after the NYSE closes. You can read background information on the market reports on the Market Update page.
