Weekly Trading Recap: July 20 – July 24, 2026
Market Overview
It was a week that started ugly, briefly recovered, and then gave it all back. The MES opened Monday at 7,534.75 and closed Friday at 7,440.75 — a loss of 64 points (-0.8%) on the week. The weekly range stretched from 7,411.75 to 7,563.0 — 151.25 points of travel — and the structure told the story: distribution, not accumulation.
Monday set the tone with a 51.5-point selloff. Price opened near 7,534, briefly tagged 7,552, then reversed and closed near the lows at 7,483. Iran-related geopolitical fears rattled the Nasdaq and broader market, with chip stocks dragging the index lower. Classic gap-and-fail session.
Tuesday and Wednesday saw the bulls respond. Tuesday was the week's strongest session — +23.25 points, closing at 7,545.75 as earnings news lifted the market. Wednesday followed through, pushing to the week's high of 7,563.0 before settling at 7,540.25. For a moment, it looked like the Monday selloff was getting fully erased.
Then came Thursday. The MES opened at 7,450.0 — a 74-point gap lower from Wednesday's close — and tagged the week's low at 7,411.75. The Nasdaq sank more than 2% as earnings updates from large technology companies revived concerns about heavy AI spending, while soaring oil prices amped up inflation worries and lifted bond yields. Alphabet dropped 7% and Tesla fell 14% following their earnings reports — the first Magnificent Seven names to report this season. It was the week's pivotal session and it came out of nowhere.
Friday was a directionless drift — down 7 points, closing at 7,440.75. Stocks attempted to stabilize after the sharp Thursday selloff but couldn't find conviction. The 10-year yield closed the week at 4.68%, up from 4.57% — a meaningful move that continued to weigh on multiples. VIX settled near 18.58. Not panic, but not comfortable either.
Two days of recovery, two days of hard selling, and the sellers won. The week's high and low are the key levels to carry into next week.
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DT Algorithm: 4W / 6L | -67.0 pts | -$335
Lifetime: 182W / 89L (67% win rate)
Losing week. I'll be straight about it.
Monday split results. The first long at 7,537.50 exited cleanly at 7,545.0 for +7.5 points at T2. The second long at 7,531.25 stopped out at 7,515.65 for -15.6 points — Monday was a seller's day and that second attempt caught the reversal on the wrong side.
Tuesday was frustrating given how strong the day ended up being. The first long at 7,531.75 broke even at 7,531.85 (+$0). The second at 7,546.50 hit T1 at 7,551.70 for +5.2 points. The third entry at 7,551.50 was closed at end-of-day at 7,546.50 for -5.0 points — momentum had already stalled near session highs by the time that trade was on.
Wednesday is where the week went sideways. The first long at 7,533.25 trailed out at 7,538.85 for +5.6 points — a good execution. But then the algo tried to participate in the push toward the week's high, entering at 7,554.0 and 7,560.50. Both stopped out, for -15.9 and -17.0 points respectively. Those two entries were buying directly into what turned out to be the week's high at 7,563.0. No fuel left. Those two stops alone account for the majority of the week's loss.
Friday added two more — longs at 7,495.25 and 7,480.0, both stopped out near -16 points each. Friday had no bounce. The algo was looking for a reversal off a key level and Thursday's sellers weren't done yet.
The honest takeaway: this was a week with two false breakout setups on Wednesday and a session on Friday that gave no footing for longs. The algo's long bias is by design — it fits the market's long-term drift — but weeks like this are the price of that approach. The 67% lifetime win rate holds, and that context matters when looking at a single rough week.
No TF trades this week. The weekly structure — sharp reversals, no sustained directional move, a 151-point range without clean trend days — didn't produce valid TF setups. Sitting out is part of the edge.
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Next Week
We close at 7,440.75, sitting in the lower third of the week's range. The 7,563.0 level is now near-term resistance. The 7,411.75 low is the line in the sand below — a sustained break beneath it would invite more downside and likely shift both algorithms to a more cautious posture.
The macro picture gets louder next week. The remaining Magnificent Seven names — Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon — all report earnings. After what Alphabet and Tesla did to the tape on Thursday, the market's sensitivity to AI capex commentary is high. One disappointing call and we could see another gap down. On the data front, Q2 GDP comes in midweek, and any read that fuels rate concerns will compound the pressure from an already elevated 10-year yield.
For DT, I want to see price find structure before committing. If we open with a clean consolidation above 7,411 and show some stability, the algo will look to engage on long setups. If we open with immediate follow-through selling below that level, the expectation is patience — wait for a defined range before taking risk.
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