In this January 20, 2026 market commentary, Dave Barnhart reviews the intraday trade setups he posted earlier for the SPY and QQQ ETFs. He outlines the bullish and bearish threshold levels he had identified (SPY bullish above 682, bearish below 679.50; QQQ bullish above 609.50, bearish below 607.50), the target zones (S3, S4, etc.), and the price action that unfolded throughout the trading day. For SPY, he notes that the price reached his bullish target of 683.70 (S3) but failed to hit higher targets, while a short‑side opportunity materialized when the price broke below 679.50 with increasing volume, supported by the 4‑ and 8‑period exponential moving averages. He details the volume‑driven break‑retest‑breakdown pattern that signaled the short entry and the subsequent price decline toward 677 and lower targets. For QQQ, he describes a bullish move that hit the 614.87 target, missed a higher S2 target at 615.54, and then reversed, again showing a break‑retest‑breakdown with rising volume that could provide a short entry near 607.50. Throughout, he emphasizes the importance of volume spikes and EMA behavior in confirming entries. The video concludes with a call to like, share, and subscribe, a preview of tomorrow’s setups, and a brief promotion of MobyTick’s partnership with TrendSpider for real‑time institutional trade data.
Chapters
Good afternoon, traders. It's Tuesday, January 20th at 3:38 PM. Let's review our trade setups we had for today, and it was a decent day. We had SPY and we had QQQ. SPY bullish above 682, bearish below 679.50. So 682, it— we had a couple opportunities pre-market, 682, 683. Then at the open, pulled up at the target again, and then here we go, 683. All the way to 683.70. That was our target here, which was S3, and then we had 684.97 or something. Uh, that quite didn't hit that one there, 684.77, but there were definitely some targets here, especially this S3. And then this wound up rolling over, so we were bearish below 679.50. And so when we mapped this out, we were We were, we were here. I think we were super early in the morning in the first few minutes or something like that. And so this went down here to a low of 679.05, but this hasn't come back and retested this. So there was a great opportunity here on the short side. So we had this, we didn't hold this S3. So what we're looking for is a break below with increasing volume. And so there was the break, this retested, it upthrusted, couldn't make a higher high there, but on the downside, look at this increasing volume. And then, so that's the break, there's the retest, increasing volume on the way down. We couldn't hold the 683 level, and this is a pretty good shorting opportunity. You see this down here. And so this all the way down, and with the 4 and the 8 exponential moving average, the red one's the 4, this all the way down, no reason to get out. All the way down here. Now this might have scared you off a little bit, hitting this, the 680.50, uh, and then maybe closing above right here at 110, closing above the 4 exponential moving average. That might have maybe gotten you out there. This turned around, increasing volume again, and we didn't stop for this S4. So this has been really strong on the way down. Now we were bearish below 679.50, and that actually occurred here, and then we're down at 677 as well. So we had targets of 679, 677.50, and then 675 if that was actually going to occur. So anyway, there was our entry on the downside. Long-winded is because there was another opportunity here to get in a little bit earlier. So let's go ahead And look at the QQQs. So the Q's, this was pretty decent here. Look at this. This opened, went up, almost touched our 4 exponential moving average and moved below. We've got massive volume today. So we were bullish above 609.50, bearish below 607.50. So the 609.50 occurred pre-market, went up to 611.50, came back, tested the opening, and then we came all the way up here. to 614.87, and this was our target here, which turned out to pretty much be the top there. And then, um, our next one, if this would have held— break, retest— 615.87. This is a 615.54, would have been a 2.7 million share print, but this here didn't hold this S2. We got this, we got this break of this cam, retesting, and then break below. So we're looking for the increasing volume as well. The break of this was pretty good. Break, retest, breaking down again, increasing volume here, getting in all the way to the downside. So anyway, when we mapped this out was super early in the morning, so 6:07:50. This one hasn't occurred yet. For the entry point, we're down here at the 607.57 level. We'll see. I might update this later or tomorrow. See where this actually ended at the end of the day. This is getting close to our entry point here at the 607.50. So this is just breaking down now into the close. So we'll see what actually happens there. All right. There you have it. Those are your results for the two trade setups for today. So please like. Share, subscribe, do all of that great stuff, and we'll see you later. We'll actually see you tomorrow with all new trade setups. Happy trading. MobyTick has partnered with TrendSpider to bring real-time institutional trades to your charts. Click the link in the description below for more details.
