Weekly Trading Recap: August 31 – September 4, 2026
Market Overview
It was a week that took a roundabout path to get almost nowhere — and that's not a knock on it. The S&P 500 cash index opened at 7,697.52 and closed at 7,718.60, a gain of just +0.27% on the week. In MES futures terms, we opened at 7,692.25 and settled at 7,715.00, a +22.8 point move. Straightforward headline. But the week's 144.75-point range — from a low of 7,621.50 to a high of 7,766.25 — tells a far more interesting story.
Monday kicked things off with a geopolitical gut-punch. Over the weekend, U.S. Central Command confirmed airstrikes on Iranian targets at Larak Island, the first publicly acknowledged U.S. strike on Iranian soil since late July. Markets opened under pressure, and the ES didn't bounce far — Monday's range was a tight 30 points (high 7,704.75, low 7,674.75), closing down 3 points to 7,698.75. It was risk-off, but orderly.
Tuesday was messier. The Dow and S&P 500 were on track for their worst day since August 20. The ongoing U.S.-Iran tension kept a lid on sentiment, and the ES gapped lower at the open (7,645.75), spent the day churning in a wide 52-point range, and closed down another 10 points at 7,635.75. Two days in, we were sitting near the lows of what would become the week's range. 7,621.50 — Tuesday's intraday low — was the floor the market needed to hold.
It held. Wednesday brought the reversal. The ES opened at 7,654, tagged a morning low of 7,643.25, and then grinded higher all session, closing at 7,676.00 for a +22-point gain on the day. S&P 500 and Dow jumped after back-to-back losing days as some of the geopolitical heat faded and buyers stepped back in.
Thursday was the week's standout session. The Dow had its best day in about a month, climbing 1.2%, while the S&P 500 rallied roughly 1% in its best performance since August 4. Long-dated bond yields fell and the dollar retreated, giving equities room to run. The ES opened at 7,703.50, pushed straight to a session high of 7,766.25 — the week's high — and closed at 7,754.50, up 51 points. Clean, one-directional price action.
Then came Friday's jobs report and the week gave back some of its gains. Nonfarm payrolls grew 162,000 in August, far exceeding the roughly 55,000 that economists had forecast, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1%. A stronger-than-anticipated increase in U.S. jobs drove stocks and short-dated bonds lower, with traders boosting their bets the Federal Reserve will raise rates this month. Money markets priced in an over 50% chance of a hike in September. The ES opened at 7,741.50, faded through the session, and closed at 7,724.25, down 17.2 points. We ended the week well off the Thursday high but still net positive — and notably, we held above the week's midpoint.
VIX closed at 14.53, down 4.66% on the week, which lines up with what the price action showed: this wasn't a fear-driven market despite the geopolitical noise. The 10-year yield closed at 4.78%, up slightly on the week — a headwind that never fully went away.
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DT Algorithm Performance
Week: 8W / 5L | +9.4 pts | $+47 Lifetime: 219W / 113L | 66% win rate
Thirteen trades across four days this week. Honest assessment: the week was choppy enough to keep the algorithm from running clean, but it stayed positive and the winners outpaced the losers.
Monday opened the week with a straightforward setup. The market gapped down on the Iran news but wasn't in full meltdown mode. The DT entered long at 7,690.75 and exited at 7,696.60 for a +5.8-point T1 target. Nothing glamorous — a controlled entry into a stabilizing tape with a clean scalp to target.
Tuesday was where things got interesting. The first trade — long at 7,660.75, exit 7,667.70 for +7.0 points — captured a bounce off the early session weakness. The second trade re-entered long at 7,667.50 and got stopped out at 7,651.50 for -16.0 points. The market had more downside left in it, and the algo took the stop. That's part of the deal.
Wednesday was the busiest day of the week — five trades. The first two were solid: +7.0 points on a long from 7,645.00 (near the week's lows) and +11.5 points on a T2 target from 7,661.00. Those two trades alone captured a meaningful chunk of Wednesday's reversal. The third trade got caught on the wrong side of a retracement — entered 7,689.25, stopped at 7,673.00 for -16.2 points. The fourth trade recovered with a +5.5-point T1 from 7,679.75, and the day closed out with a small -3.5-point EOD exit at 7,676.50. Messy in the middle, but net positive on the day.
Thursday was the cleanest trading day of the week, which isn't a coincidence — it was also the cleanest price action day of the week. Three trades, all winners: +5.5 points from 7,709.25, +13.9 points on a T3 target from 7,721.25, and +6.2 points from 7,756.00 as the market pressed toward the weekly high. That T3 exit at 7,735.15 was the best individual trade of the week.
Friday was a drag. The algo entered long at 7,733.50 into what looked like a setup but ran directly into the jobs-report-driven selloff — stopped out at 7,717.25 for -16.2 points. A second attempt entered 7,725.50 and closed EOD at 7,724.50 for a flat -1.0 point. When the macro overrides the setup, you take the loss and move on.
No TF trades this week. Market conditions didn't produce valid setups for the trend-following algorithm. A week with two strong directional days (Thursday up, Friday down) separated by choppy price action isn't ideal TF territory — the entries would have been late and the follow-through inconsistent. No setups, no trades. That discipline matters.
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Next Week
We're closing the week at 7,715 in MES, which puts us roughly in the middle of the week's range (7,621.50–7,766.25). The Thursday high at 7,766.25 is the first resistance level to watch. If we're going to make a run at new highs, we need to reclaim that level early in the week. On the downside, 7,621.50 is the level that held as support — a break below that opens up more downside.
The dominant narrative heading into next week is the September Fed meeting (September 15-16). With nonfarm payrolls printing at 162,000 and money markets pricing better than 50% odds of a hike, the rates conversation isn't going away. Every data point next week — particularly any inflation or labor data — will be read through that lens. Expect bond market moves to drive equity sentiment more than usual.
For the DT algorithm, a trending open to the week — whether continuation higher from Thursday or follow-through on Friday's weakness — would be the preferred environment. A choppy, range-bound Monday sets up for more mixed results like Wednesday's tape. For TF, we need to see a setup develop with enough room to run; if the market finds its footing early in the week and builds directionally, there could be an opportunity.
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Paper Trade With Quanntick
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*Disclosure: results shown are from a simulated (SIM) account. Simulated performance is hypothetical, does not represent actual trading, and has inherent limitations. Past performance is not indicative of future results.*