S&P Intra-day Turning Points

Have e-mini turning points, as they correspond to the clock, been discussed on this site?

Here's what I've noticed. Major turning points tend to occur within a few minutes of the top or bottom of the hour. I'm not talking about turning points that are obviously caused by official news releases. Just (otherwise) random reversals.

Additionally, turning points tend to occur 30, 60 90 or 120 minutes apart.

I usually notice these coincidences at the end of the day. I'm not sure how I would trade off them. I just wanted to put it out there to see if anyone uses this type of information to assist their trading.

Thoughts?

Today is a good example.

High 10:01

Had mini bounce that peaked at 10:30.

Morning low 11:04

Rebound test of resistance at 11:30 and again at 12:01

Low at 1:05

Traded 1 tick below afternoon high at 2:02

From PM high to intermediate low 29 minutes.

Bounce high at 2:58.

This also speaks to why folks draw a line on the chart at the first 30 minute's HI/LO and also at the first hour of trading. It's still followed by traders out there. And it's used in different ways ... as breakout trades ... as fades ... and also as future support/resistance price during the RTH trading session. It would be interesting to see some stats (and some charts with the vertical times marked with a line) to get a sense of probabilities for where and how price moves out of these times that are mentioned. Anyone have something like this that they can toss into the topic/thread here? I've always paid attention to the first 30 minute mark for trading ... whether index futures or individual stocks which is my primary focus.

Today, we had some of the turns I discussed in the OP.

The first low (after the opening) occurred at 9:53. The subsequent low occurred at 10:52, nearly 1:00 hour later.

The morning high was at 9:42. The subsequent high occurred at 10:13, 31 minutes later.

The rally high off the 10;52 low came in at 11:00. A low came in at 12:02. The next high at 12:32. Selloff until 1:03.

Symmetry and top (or bottom) of the hour.

Anyone interested in looking at this?

ETM,
your description of the time spans between the highs and the lows from yesterday offered a better understanding (for me) of what you are studying.

I have always been curious about times of the day... I sometimes watch the 2:00 to 2:15 time because it can be a reversal time.

Other time related matters: ... sometimes there are reversal points right at (or real close) to 10am... other times the opening momentum does not discover a reversal in direction until 10:30 or 11:00... I am now curious to see if these early reversals could possibly offer a 'tell' on action later in the day...

The middle of the week Christmas and New years should afford me plenty of time to NOT TRADE and I hope I can find some time to eyeball some charts.

as a Market Profile trader I am was never surprised by "turning points" happening at 30 minute increments considering that is the foundation of traditional MP. I was taught that in the 1980's the big traders were watching where the market was going to close for each 30 minute increment and would often try to front run the close extremes. They would watch and try to front run key swing points or else wait for confirmation of an extreme and then jump onboard. This may be giving too much credit to MP and have absolutely no influence on the time of day concepts we are talking about here. Just my point of view.

Most are probably aware of the 10 am reports the 8:30 reports the 4 pm cash close. Many also like to wait for the 3 pm Bond close . Borsolino use to like to take only long trades from 2:40 on as he had a bullish bias into the bond close. Back then you would see a pop begining often at the 2:30 closing time. It doesn't happen as often as it did in the past.

Some interesting stuff possible in this thread and I'm hoping to be more active after I shake off a bad case of the winter blues. Hope all are enjoying the holidays and 2014 rocks for anyone who stumbles upon this.