Trading System Signals on 03-24-2026

Choppy pullback today with a small surge in the after hours as Crude Oil dropped. The news tape continues and this pattern reminds me of last April 7-8. Will tomorrow be like April 9, 2025? The market listens to the presidents rhetoric and responds. In recent years we have seen the Fed put (meaning the Fed will support the market and not let it drop too much). Now we have the president put (meaning the president will provide support for the market to move higher quickly if it drops too much). It is a different environment that what we saw prior to 2009.

On Monday, April 7, 2025, the market made lows on the year but the presidential rhetoric on tariffs moved the market higher for an up close on the day. On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, there is a pullback and then on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, the market surges on more tariff rhetoric and policy statements. This week, on March 23, 2026, the market made lows on the year but the presidential rhetoric based on Iran drove the market higher by approximately 1000 Nasdaq points from low to high in the pre-market for an up close on the day. Tuesday, March 24, 2026 is a pullback day. What will Wednesday, March 25, 2026 bring?

It is possible the pattern could reverse and move down 2000 points instead but you have to consider the markets relationship with the rhetoric from the White House and the "rhythm of these mindsets" and news releases.

April 9, 2025 was a day when the Nasdaq trading range was over 2,000 points. The current market is much closer to all time highs instead of the substantial sell off seen in April 2025.

Today there was a choppy pullback day similar to April 8, 2025.

Another thing that was interesting about Monday's pre-market surge is the numerous allegations of insider trading. There were some large trades 15 minutes before the news release with a notional value of $1.5 billion in S&P futures. You can see this in the futures markets volume on Monday at 6:50 am EST when there was a volume surge before the news of 4,505 contracts traded, during a typically lighter volume time period. 4505 contracts x 6,500 (price) x 50 (value of each contract) = $1,464,125,000. the news was released at 7:05 am EST, 15 minutes later.

There was some similar volume based price action in Crude Oil shorts at the same time as well.

The main point to consider is testing volume data surges with delayed price action to trade news releases for algorithmic trading systems.

Hypothetical Trading System Signals on 03-24-2026

27 System Portfolio NQ = +$3,935

Diversified Portfolio 57 (NQ Only) = -$7,440

Seven System Portfolio NQ = +$1,410

Stock Index Portfolio 37 = -$7,890

Stock Index Portfolio 18 = -$7,440

Two System Portfolio NQ = +$1,975

Silver Portfolio = +$375

50K Portfolio (Micros) = -$392 (without Gold and Silver)

Liberation NQ was on again today with some nice trades going 3 for 3.