Filing this one from Kauai – finally cracked 7200 on the Emini, inching past it by half a point on Friday. Important week. The bounce off 6400 is now playing out perfectly with the tax-time seasonal pattern we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Forex looking risk-on. Bitcoin on a tear. Natural Gas setting up. Copper signaled short. This is the 26 April 2026 entry in the Weekly Futures Market Recap series – every Sunday I break down the week across 15 of the largest futures markets. Here is what I am seeing on the charts heading into the week of 27 April 2026.
TL;DR – This Week’s 3 Calls
- Emini finally cracked 7200, all four indices showed the same exhaustion pattern. ES, NQ, YM and RTY all printed exhaustion buy on better momentum. Cyclically due for weakness but no Big Pro Bars at the highs yet – I am sticking with the continuation-of-uptrend call.
- Forex all in uptrends – USD weak. Big Pro Bars stepped in at the lows on Euro, British Pound and Aussie Dollar. Japanese Yen the exception, still in a downtrend.
- Bitcoin on a tear, near 80K with another squeeze about to break. Gold in a downtrend after Big Pro Bars sold the 4900 highs. Silver might trigger uptrend on a break of 78. Natural Gas setting up at 2.70. Copper signaled short at 6.00.
Macro Setup This Week
The tax-time seasonal pattern played out almost perfectly: weakness into tax day, bounce after as new funds flooded into tax-advantaged investments. That seasonal tailwind technically ran out on Friday, but this rally is strong enough to keep going. All four indices showing matching exhaustion patterns means the move is broad, not narrow – bullish underneath. USD weakness is the supporting macro: Euro, Pound and Aussie all signaled into uptrends this week.
Market-by-Market Breakdown
ES – Emini S&P 500 Futures: Cracked 7200, All Indices Aligned
Cracked 7200 by half a point on Friday. Day-and-night session momentum read ~10 million – that and the day-only read still has room before printing exhaustion. All four indices (ES, NQ, YM, RTY) printed matching exhaustion patterns – broad strength, not narrow. Looking at the four indices three ways (futures / index / ETF), the futures trump everything for Pro flow signal. Daily: overshooting cyclical resistance on the lowest time frame, heading toward resistance on the intermediate time frame – that is where the trouble comes. No Big Pro Bars taking profits at the highs, no exhaustion pattern, no bearish divergence. 135-minute and 45-minute: exhaustion patterns happening but no Blue Professional bars – trailing stop miles away. 15-minute: took profits at the prior highs after Blue Professional bars appeared. Tested down to the trailing stop with Blue Professional down bar, bounced. 13,500 tick: we have put in pullback to end of trend on the highest time frame. Second cyclical turn after end of trend = trend move is over and consolidation about to start. But Better Pro Am shows Big Pro Bars buying the dips, not selling the highs. Conflict between the cyclical worry and the Pro flow read – I am going with continuation, expect a test back to 7100 early week, then next trending phase. Trade these setups with the indicators I use on the charts: Better Trading Indicators. More analysis in the Emini Trading archive.
NQ – Nasdaq Emini Futures: Matching Exhaustion Pattern
Bang, bang, bang – nice exhaustion pattern up at the highs alongside the ES. Confirming the broad index strength.
YM – Dow Emini Futures: Matching Exhaustion Pattern
Another nice exhaustion pattern up there alongside ES and NQ. Same broad-market signal.
RTY – Russell 2000 Emini Futures: Matching Exhaustion Pattern
Same exhaustion pattern at the highs. All four indices in sync – that is the signal to watch.
6E – Euro Futures: Pros Loaded the Lows
Blue Professional bars seemingly taking profits at the highs with flush patterns and a sell-off, but Pros came back in down at the lows. Blue Professional bars picking up, exhaustion buy getting it going. As long as we hold above the sequence of Big Pro Bars, Euro is in an uptrend.
6B – British Pound Futures: Pros Held the Lows
Big Pro Bars last week into the highs, got signal short, sold off, then caught by Big Pro Bars at the lows. Now above the latest Big Pro Bars. Needs to break back above the trailing stop and the background needs to turn red – but Pound is looking strong-ish.
6A – Aussie Dollar Futures: Signaled Into Uptrend
Maxed out at the highs, traded down. Big Pro Bars came in on the retrace, not at the highs – they were at the lows. Squeeze patterns, broken into an uptrend, background in red. Aussie Dollar could go for a little run to the upside.
6J – Japanese Yen Futures: Still in a Downtrend
Big reversal last week with massive exhaustion buy and Big Pro Bars – sold off super hard. One tiny Blue Professional bar but not at the lows. Japanese Yen still in a downtrend.
ZN – 10-Year Notes Futures: Junky, Some Big Pro Bar Activity
Junky, junky, junky. Some Big Pro Bar activity this week. Signal short at one point but unclear. Better opportunities elsewhere this week.
GC – Gold Futures: Still in a Downtrend
Up at the highs at 4900 we maxed out with signs of weakness, signals short, Big Pro Bars at the highs – exhaustion sell got the move going. Down, down, down. No Blue Professional bars picking up the lows. Gold still in a downtrend.
SI – Silver Futures: Watch for Break of 78
Exhaustion sell, Blue Professional bars came in. Needs to break back above 78 and Silver might trigger into an uptrend. No Blue Professional bars taking profits at the highs in the prior move – Pros came in on the retrace down. Watch for Silver to break 78.
BTC – Bitcoin Futures: On a Tear, Near 80K
Up to almost 80 on Bitcoin after a lot of Blue Professional bars active. Little profit-taking by Blue Professional bars at the highs but no Big Pro Bars, no exhaustion buy. Just signaled into a squeeze pattern over the weekend. Let us see if that squeezes into a trending move above 78-78.50 – another go at 80K is coming.
ETH – Ethereum Futures: Holding Above 2100
Breakout above 2100 – they just bought everything up here, bought everything in the stack getting this going. No real exhaustion buy at the highs, exhaustion sell on the recent dip. Watch for Ethereum to hold this week and get back up through the trailing stop.
CL – Crude Oil Futures: Waiting for the Next Pro Entry
Big Pro Bars mid-sequence. Did not pick it up at the lows but during the volatility they got involved above the Blue Professional bars. Little profit-taking up here. Background gray, no exhaustion buy patterns. Looking for the next time Blue Professional bars come in – if Crude weakens and gets caught in the zone below 92 with Pros stepping in, that is the long signal.
NG – Natural Gas Futures: Setting Up at 2.70
Down at the lows, Big Pro Bars came in with exhaustion sell. RAMBO patterns – amateurs got too excited and it sold off. But into 2.70 again: exhaustion sell, Big Pro Bars. Got pushed lower with RAMBO but amateurs could be wrong-footed early on the breakout, and wrong-footed on the breakdown if we get above 2.75 on Natural Gas this week.
HG – Copper Futures: Signaled Short at 6.00
Big Pro Bars into the highs and finally a blow-off type move with Big Pro Bars at the highs – signaled short. Tossing around 6.00. Fundamental position is everyone expects 60, not 6. Signal short this week on Copper.
Pattern of the Week: Why All Four Indices Aligning Matters
This week is a textbook case of broad-market confirmation. When all four indices (ES, NQ, YM, RTY) print the same exhaustion pattern at the highs simultaneously, the move is broad and bullish underneath. If only one or two had printed and the others lagged, that would be a narrow-leadership warning sign. When they all align, the rally has real participation – and even though the cyclical patterns say we are due for a turn, the Pro flow data (still no Big Pro Bars taking profits at the highs) says hold and look for continuation. Read more on this approach in Follow the Pros, Fade the Amateurs.
Looking Ahead to the Week of 27 April 2026
Continuation of the Emini uptrend, test back to 7100 early week then likely next trending phase. Forex risk-on – watch Euro, Pound, Aussie continuation. Yen still down. Bitcoin breaking out of weekend squeeze for a run at 80K. Silver watch for break of 78. Natural Gas above 2.75 confirms. Copper short.
Full Transcript (click to expand)
Full transcript of the video above, cleaned for readability.
Intro (00:00): Saturday 25 April 2026, 9:31 PM Chicago time. Finally cracked 7200 – inched past it by half a point on Friday. Important week. Before getting to the charts, talking about running TradeStation on a Mac because the last ten days have been rough. TradeStation only runs on Windows, you use Parallels emulator software. Latest Parallels update (26.3.1) broke things badly. Stick with 26.2.2 or downgrade. Chuck Kaye worked through this with me – thank you Chuck. Problem was memory management with TradeStation data flooding the data cache.
Emini Daily (02:37): Bounce over the last couple of weeks plays out almost perfectly with the tax-time seasonal pattern. Weakness into tax time, bounce after as new funds flow into tax-advantaged investments. Monster read – 10 million on better momentum on the day-and-night session. All four indices showed similar patterns. Day-only session (at-es.d) was 5.3 million, prior was 7.2 million – some way to go before exhaustion on day session data. Shows people were wrongly positioned and forced into covering or going long at the highs. Cyclical pattern on Better Sine Wave – broke above resistance on the lowest time frame, overshooting toward intermediate time frame resistance. That cross is where trouble comes. No Blue Professional bars taking profits at the highs, no exhaustion pattern, no bearish divergence – other elements not suggesting an important turning point yet. The seasonal pattern ran out Friday but this one is stronger.
Emini 135-Minute (06:59): Nice uptrend, broke above the trailing stop. Exhaustion patterns happening but no Blue Professional bars. Trailing stop miles away, breaking through resistances. Going higher until we see bearish divergence and Blue Professional up bars.
Emini 45-Minute (07:40): Nice exhaustion buy patterns. Bearish divergence on the zero line – wait for flush. Amateur bars at the highs, cyclical resistance important – but we are just going to keep pushing higher.
Emini 15-Minute (08:00): At the end of last week, Blue Professional bars into the highs – that is why I took profits. This week, signal short but did not come with super high average trade size, did not really go anywhere. Came down to test, Blue Professional down bar at the trailing stop, bounced. Overcooked because we got all these end-of-trends as we head up.
Emini 13,500 Tick (08:52): Why overcooked – broke into uptrend above cyclical support on the highest time frame. Two strong weeks. Pullback to end of trends rippling through the time frames – lowest, intermediate, highest. Why did we not go short at end of trends? Did not come with confirmation – no Blue Professional bars or exhaustion patterns breaking into a downtrend. Just put in second cyclical turn after end of trend on the highest time frame. That generally means we are played out and the trend move is over. But Better Pro Am – Big Pro Bars came in buying the dips, not active at the highs. Last Blue Professional bars on Friday’s activity but not big with background in blue. Background red, in an uptrend. The dips were Pros stepping in with exhaustion sell, bullish divergence – opposite of short-covering rally. Cyclical pattern has me worried but Better Pro Am says we have not seen exhaustion buy at the highs, not enough Blue Professional bars. Possible to have a little weakness, test back to 7100 area early week, then get going again. Talked myself into continuation of the uptrend.
Euro (11:53): Blue Professional bars taking profits at the highs, flush patterns, sold off. But Pros came in at the lows. Blue Professional bars picking up, exhaustion buy getting it going. As long as above the sequence of Big Pro Bars, Euro is in an uptrend.
British Pound (12:16): Pros took profits. Big Pro Bars last week into the highs. Signal short, sold off, caught by Big Pro Bars. Now above the latest Big Pro Bars. Looking strong-ish.
Aussie Dollar (12:55): Maxed out at the highs, traded down. Big Pro Bars on the retrace, not at the highs – they came in at the lows. Squeeze patterns, broken into uptrend, background red. Could go for a little run.
Japanese Yen (13:21): Reversal last week, huge exhaustion buy, Big Pro Bars, background blue, sold off super hard. One tiny Blue Professional bar but not at the lows. Still in a downtrend.
10-Year Notes (13:45): Junky. Some Big Pro Bar activity this week. Signal short, but other opportunities this week.
Gold (13:56): Up at the highs in a downtrend. Maxed out, signs of weakness, Big Pro Bars at the highs, blue background, exhaustion sell got the move going. Signal short. No Blue Professional bars picking up the lows. Still in a downtrend.
Silver (14:20): Exhaustion sell, Blue Professional bars in. Needs to break back above 78 to trigger uptrend. No Blue Professional bars taking profits at the highs in the prior move – Pros came in on the retrace down.
Bitcoin (14:49): Up to almost 80 after lots of Blue Professional bar activity. Little profit-taking at the highs, no Big Pro Bars, no exhaustion buys. Signaled into a squeeze pattern over the weekend. Watch for squeeze breakout above 78-78.50 for another run at 80.
Ethereum (15:13): Breakout above 2100. Bought everything in the stack getting it going. No exhaustion buy at the highs, exhaustion sell on the dip. Watch for Ethereum to hold this week.
Crude (15:43): Big Pro Bars mid-sequence. Did not pick it up at the lows but got involved during volatility above the Blue Professional bars. Little profit-taking up here, background gray, no exhaustion buys. Looking for next Pro entry – if Crude weakens to below 92 and Blue Professional bars come in, that is the long signal.
Natural Gas (16:22): At the lows Big Pro Bars with exhaustion sell. RAMBO patterns, amateurs too excited, sold off. Into 2.70 again: exhaustion sell, Big Pro Bars. Watch for break above 2.75 this week.
Copper (16:53): Signaled at end of last week. Big Pro Bars into the highs, blow-off type move, Big Pro Bars at the highs, signal short. Tossing around 6.00. Fundamentally everyone surprised it is 6 not 60. Signal short this week.
Wrap (17:20): Hope your trading is going well, looking forward to next week.
Want These Calls With the Indicators I Use on the Charts?
Every market section above was called using my Better Trading Indicators – the same Big Pro Bars, RAMBO patterns, exhaustion buy and exhaustion sell signals you see in the video. They work on TradeStation, NinjaTrader, MultiCharts and TradingView. See the Better Trading Indicators and trade Monday with a plan.
