Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:50 $AMD Calls: Technicals Are Working Again
04:26 QQQs: The Range, CPI, PPI & the Supreme Court
06:01 Mega Cap Check & $AAPL
07:09 Base Retests: $RBLX, $BABA & $HIMS
10:23 Early vs. Late & the QQQs' VCP
16:17 Bitcoin's Retest & the Wall of Worry
18:58 Loud Noise & Reasons to Sell
21:39 Time Frames, $NOW & Rotating $APPS into $RIVN
24:16 The Year of Crypto? $COIN & $CONL
27:26 Alerts & Reclaims: $COIN's 230 Floor
30:07 Horizontal Levels vs. Trend Lines
37:42 Nick's Positions & $CRWV
41:58 PayPal: Value Trap?
47:33 $SANM & $FLEX
52:51 Weekly Tight Closes & the Shake and Bake
54:59 GP Shorts Silver & Futures for Sanity
57:13 $NOW, $IGV & GP's $SNOW Stop
58:50 Four Years of Market Hours & Final Words
Market Hours #162 went out live on Tuesday, January 13, with Nick, Ben and GP, "a real Tuesday." Semiconductors were going "bananas," led by AMD, and GP's calls were paying. His read: "technicals are starting to work again," and when they work, you push. The QQQs were tightening in week 12-plus of their range, with PPI and a Supreme Court decision due the next day. The crew covered base retests in Roblox, Baba and Hims, the QQQs' VCP and Bitcoin's retest, and then the year of crypto, Coinbase and Ben's ServiceNow. There was a long debate on horizontal levels vs. trend lines, plus CoreWeave, PayPal, Sanmina and Flex, and GP's silver short. The show was three days from its four-year anniversary.
Nick's setups, levels and trades
Nick said the more he leans on larger time frames, the more it takes to flip him from bullish to outright bearish. On the QQQs, the long-term moving averages all point up. They were in week 12-plus of "really horseshit choppy" sideways action without breaking back into the prior range below 580–575. The November 20 outside reversal looked like a daily head and shoulders, and he was proven wrong almost immediately. An inverse head and shoulders didn't play out either. Now it looks like one of Minervini's VCPs: draw a trend line up from the November 20 low and a horizontal line at 627–628. "We're drilling the same high and then we're putting in higher lows," a bullish continuation pattern that implies an upside resolution. If it doesn't resolve, it may just need more time. He said the rocket names, like Rocket Lab, are holding at highs after a big run off the 200-day, and he wondered how far things could go if the QQQs, mega caps and crypto all get cranking.
He said the noise is incredibly loud everywhere, not just in Minneapolis, and what he's learned since COVID, and really since the 2008 credit crisis, is: "The louder it gets, the more fear that gets pumped out there, the more bullish I get." Still, you have to manage risk if levels break. He said alerts are one of retail traders' best tools. If Coinbase stops you out at the 295–300 floor or the 200-day near 285, don't try to bottom tick it, which is how people get chopped up. Set an alert for price to reclaim the level. He went long Coinbase through the prior day's high on a little handle. Friday, January 2 was the better entry, reclaiming the 230 floor at the high-volume candle low, which was retested in November and on December 31 and reversed the next session. Horizontal floors are "a thousand times better" than trend lines, and he thinks the steeper a trend line is, the less reliable it is. In the end, lines are just places to define and manage risk.
He entered Coinbase that day and was flat on it during the show. Recent entries are CoreWeave, Nebius and Credo (CRDO), and he's still long his rocket and space names. He thought Intuitive Machines (LUNR) was a gift that day but didn't add, and he's holding Figure (FIGR) after a nasty bar. On CoreWeave, he wanted to see it retake the 84–85 pivot. The day before it put in a 50-day pocket pivot, a wide-range bar through the 50-day on above-average volume. He'd add through the prior day's high around 91, the high of the W, but ultimately wants 98 taken out. It's building something like an island setup, and the dream is a gap above 98–100 that holds. A backfill to 84.50–85 would be a gift. The midpoint of the prior candle is 84.81, and his stop is under that candle's low. On PayPal, he'd only touch it if he were bored and day trading, setting an alert near 55.89–55.90 for a bottom-tick bounce with the QQQs at his back. Longer term, you'd need a lot of conviction.
He called Sanmina (SANM) gorgeous: stair-stepping with a breakout through 160.50, the high of the October 6 high-volume candle. From there, he'd use the all-time high as the next pivot, after base-on-base moves since breaking out around 45. "I love expensive names." Flex (FLEX) has moving averages "stacked and curled" with a pivot at 65.50 to trade against. On the weekly, it's full of tight closes: a five-week tight around 32 before a breakout, about eight weeks of tight closes before taking out 54, and a three-week tight at 64. Last week looked like a "shake and bake" out of that three-week tight before resuming higher. His last word: he went to an all-male military-prep Catholic school where shaving was part of the uniform, he'll turn 42 in July, and he wants to share his story more. He explained the avatars: he came up with prop traders who stayed anonymous after the 2008 prop-industry blowup, and he's excited to put himself out there more.
Ben's setups, levels and trades
Ben said GP called him "always late" last week, and he answered that he's "always early." He gets beat up for it sometimes, but if what's being accumulated is on low volume and isn't a distribution pattern, a hit doesn't break his thesis, and eventually volume comes in. On Bitcoin, he'd already "voted with my pocketbook." It came back to retest the range and pushed off it with all three daily moving averages turning: "This is a probability game, and the probability is leading me to the upside," at least to about 98 on Bitcoin. Earnings season will climb the wall of worry. "We have never had better earnings" quarter over quarter for four years, so expect "hemming and hawing from the bears." He argued there are infinite reasons to sell, and while earnings are great, about three-quarters of stocks react negatively on the report and then often recover. It's all time frame. Someone short ServiceNow that day was doing great, "but I bought ServiceNow," to build it into one of his bigger positions.
He was positioned for a crypto breakout into early October, took losses when Coinbase, Bitcoin and Strategy got destroyed, because "you can't hold through a 30 or 40% drawdown," and has since redeployed. He thinks 2026 is shaping up as a bullish year for crypto, and he pointed GP to the 2X Coinbase ETF, CONL. "The chart can be broken, but the thesis may not be broken," so get stopped out, then re-enter. Trend lines can be drawn several ways, but you can't fake Coinbase's price action at the top at 290 or the 231 low "almost to the penny." Zoom out, and the daily downtrend lines disappear. He liked CoreWeave's daily "igniting bar" pushing above all three moving averages and resting back on it, for a trade. On PayPal, from a chat question, "anything can trade": 56 has been a floor, the risk is to the low near 50, and the recent highs are above 68, so it's six points of risk for 12 points of upside. But the biggest weekly accumulation bar since the 2022 collapse was in late July 2024, and there's "better opportunity elsewhere."
He said he was "completely insane," buying the ServiceNow dip for a third week in a row. It's one of his top 2026 picks, and he was buying at a 42% discount from its all-time high, about 239.62 split-adjusted, in "one of the premier industrial software names." IGV's price action is disappointing, but he doesn't think it's the death of software. "I think we're getting ready to see a resurgence in software, and I'm just early per usual." He closed with a dad joke ("I used to really hate facial hair until it grew on me") and plans to "go figure out more ways that I can buy some more ServiceNow."
GP's setups, levels and trades
GP had been "trading the [heck] out of metals" while they trend, and he bought AMD calls. AMD tried to break down into the gap a third time, then buyers bullish-engulfed the prior day's whole range at a key pivot: false breakdown, reversal, bullish engulfing, follow-through. "Technicals work. You push." The market was still selling off from 9:30 to 10:30 every day, but it was leading with tech into earnings, where "mega caps will start to beast again." The QQQs are tightening against the breakdown gap from around November 4, and PPI plus the Supreme Court ruling could produce "a three-month consolidation breakaway gap." Microsoft and Meta are still weak under the 200-day. Google keeps leading, Amazon is getting there, Apple is "market contrarian stuff," and Tesla is stuck at 450 "because option premium sellers win" until a catalyst arrives.
He showed base retests. Roblox went from 150 to 73, a 60% drawdown, but 73 was the base, so the move made a handle on a big cup from its IPO days, and buyers responded. Baba had a 130–140 base top. Hims was beaten down 60% in three months on low volume, filled the gap and found buyers. "Your trend lines don't matter. Horizontal pivots are where things are at." He said diagonal lines are subjective because people choose points instead of events. April 9 is a great anchor, as the second-best day in NQ history on massive volume, and horizontal levels are fully objective. Coinbase's key pivot is its S&P-inclusion gap candle, and Coinbase did what AMD just did: broke down, reversed on volume and put in a bullish engulfer. These setups lining up across sectors are "building the brick in that wall of worry," and the breakaway gap is when it gets high enough to jump.
On allocation, he sold APPS that morning near $5 after two years in a miserable range, averaging about $2. He moved the full position to Rivian, which is retesting its base after breaking out, "the clean part of the trend." He said "this is the year of crypto" and that he's heavily positioned in Coinbase across multiple accounts. His stops in the low 300s and 280s saved him 70–80 points. He passed on CoreWeave because it's on its IPO journey, and on PayPal: "It's a value trap. Cheap is going to get cheaper." He needs months of accumulation. On Flex, he sees an inverse head and shoulders, possibly a bit more sideways after January OPEX. Its volume sits at the bottom, while a topping head and shoulders shows volume on the left shoulder and head as institutions distribute into strength. A gap and go on heavier volume would confirm it. He shorted silver at 88.75 against 89.20 as a day trade, after about $10–15 of gains in futures over two weeks, and he encouraged listeners to learn futures the right way for sanity during long chop. He's even joined someone else's Discord to learn more. He got stopped out of Snowflake at about 218–219, risking 2% and saving another 5% with it at 208. His last word: the show is three days from its four-year anniversary, with the first one on January 16, 2022. "Please share."
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This is not financial advice. Market Hours is for education and entertainment only. Always do your own research.
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