🚨 I’ll be live at 9 a.m. ET🚨
It’s a massive week with huge earnings and the FOMC ahead — we’re breaking down key S&P 500 levels between 7,400-7,600 and whether strong earnings save this market or trigger a correction [tap to join us for the Daily Profit Plan]
I’ve been watching something develop in the market that’s driving traders absolutely crazy — and honestly, it’s one of my favorite setups when I spot it early.
This is where strategic adaptation matters. I don’t want to sell the lows or buy the highs, so I’m choosing to play it safe, stay conservative and let volatility do what it needs to do. That means reducing tail risk and refusing to force trades while the market works through this pattern.
While bears are getting excited about what looks like a potential topping pattern and bulls are frustrated by the lack of follow-through on rallies, the market is actually forming what I call a broadening pattern — and it’s acting like a middle finger to everyone stuck in directional thinking.
The Broadening Pattern That Changes Everything
A broadening pattern is the market’s way of trapping traders on both sides. Instead of delivering a clean head-and-shoulders top that bears are hoping for, it creates expanding volatility with higher highs and lower lows — pure whipsaw action that punishes anyone married to one direction.
What makes this pattern so valuable is simple: If you recognize it, you’re willing to trade both ways. You stop fighting the market’s rhythm and start working with it.
Right now, we’ve been stuck in roughly the same 200-point range for about four weeks. That’s not a market ready to break out decisively in either direction — it’s a market setting up for continued two-way action.
How I’m Positioning for the Range
Since I’m trading conservatively bullish strategies like Waterfall Income, if the market pulls back and then rallies to all-time highs, every trade I’m stacking into can get paid.
But I’m not going to stack the same strategy week after week at the highs. I’ll put on some core income trades on the bounces — the first layer of the Waterfall method — but I won’t keep adding at the top of the same range. That’s how you get hurt when the pattern finally resolves.
The traders getting frustrated are fighting for direction in a market that isn’t ready to choose one. Those who recognize the broadening pattern can respond to moves in both directions while maintaining a broader directional bias.
That’s why this is such a useful pattern. It creates opportunities on both sides, but only if you’re flexible enough to take them.
Instead of being stubbornly bullish or bearish, you can respect the range, manage risk and position for the swings while the broader structure still suggests an eventual resolution to the upside.
This is what separates profitable trading from frustrating trading — pattern recognition that keeps you flexible instead of stubborn.
I’ll see you in the markets.
Chris Pulver
Chris Pulver TradingÂ
Follow along and join the conversation for real-time analysis, trade ideas, market insights and more!
- Telegram:https://t.me/+av20QmeKC5VjOTc5
- YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@FinancialWars
- Twitter:https://x.com/realchrispulver
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealchrispulver
Important Note: No one from the ProsperityPub team or Chris Pulver Trading will ever contact you directly on Telegram.
*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.Â
P.S. Don’t Let Market Noise Trick Your Portfolio Today
I just finished going through my morning chart checks, and if there is one thing that stands out today, it’s how much noise is floating around the market right now…
The media loves to hype up these earnings cycles, but if you look under the surface, the “Mag 7” tech giants are no longer moving together as one happy family.
They have decoupled violently.
Some are sitting on coiled springs ready to launch explosive post-earnings moves… while others are sitting on dangerous trap doors.
Trying to navigate that kind of market alone… guessing whether to buy or sell right before the bell… is a quick way to stress yourself out and put your hard-earned capital at risk.
I don’t want you leaving your account to chance today.
That’s why today at 2:30 p.m. ET, Lance, Roger, Emily, and I are going live for our Mag 7 Earnings Blitz Roundtable.
We’re getting together to walk you through our complete game plan so you can trade this earnings cycle with confidence and clarity.
When you join us live in the room today, here is what we are handing you:
- Our Mag 7 Power Rankings: Get our exact ranked list showing which tech giants offer the largest post-earnings setups… and which ones are toxic traps.
- The #1 Market Catalyst: Find out which single earnings report on the calendar carries enough weight to move the entire broad market.
- The AI Spending Verdict: Learn what hundreds of billions in AI capital spending really mean for the next leg of the AI trade.
- The Two-Way Trade Setup: Discover a clever way to target these big post-earnings moves without having to predict whether a stock goes up or down.
- Your August Earnings Plan: Leave with a clear, stress-free roadmap for the upcoming August earnings blitz so you know exactly what to do when the news hits the tape.
We put this event together because we genuinely care about your success in these markets.
You’ve worked way too hard for your money to take blind coin flips today.
We start at 2:30 p.m. ET sharp.
