Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:40 GP: XBI Rotation & "Rotation for the Day"
05:48 Nick: Let the Trades Come to You
07:21 IBB Breaking Out Like Gold in 2023
11:31 The KOSPI Flush & a Bidless Market
15:09 $MU: Trending, Not Broken
23:52 $QCOM: Bearish Patterns Turning Into Bear Traps
26:27 Three Weeks and Go: $INTC, $GLW & the Trump Sector
30:34 $TSLA, $NVDA & "No Edge, No Trade"
35:44 Trading the Trader: Journals, Accounts & Visualization
44:56 $SYM, OUST & the Food Names
52:14 $COIN, AMBA, $VST & $INTC at 130
58:58 Viking, $GOOGL, $AMZN & the McClellan
1:05:10 Final Words
Market Hours #181 went out live on Tuesday, June 23, with Ben, Nick and GP, on a rough day for chips, memory and tech. The KOSPI fell 10% overnight, SK Hynix fell 12%, and Micron was down about 20% from its high in a day. Meanwhile biotech kept breaking out and the IGV eked out a green day. GP's message was "less is more," which turned into a new motto, "no edge, no trade." The middle of the show was about trading the trader: journaling, separate accounts and visualization. The last stretch was a run through the chat's charts, from Viking to Amazon's do-or-die level.
Nick's setups, levels and trades
Nick agreed less is more: let the trades come to you and don't force or chase. The question for bulls is whether the market is rewarding breakouts or backfills, or just rewarding letting things ride. He admitted he'd been overtrading. It hadn't hurt him much yet, but he was watching his own tells. After ripping so hard off the lows, some volatility up here should be expected. He was long Moderna, HIMS, Oscar and GH. Moderna and HIMS started as day trades that kept working, "more lucky than good." He'd play the sector through IBB, XBI or ARKG, maybe with options, because individual drug names are hard. IBB's monthly looked like a massive cup and handle that absorbed selling into the highs, the way XLE did off its 2020 lows.
He didn't see memory as broken: "Price is trending." A melt trade grinds and looks sloppy without a full pullback. MU, at about $1,000 a share, was sitting on the 10-day and respecting the 10 and 20. That wasn't a reason to chase, but it was a place to add to an existing trade, since the right entry was near 450 and anyone in from there was up 100%. Measured moves give perspective, not a hard exit, which is why he sells about 80% at a target and lets 20% ride. On Qualcomm, a head and shoulders with a 190 neckline sat on the 50-day. Given how many bearish patterns had turned into bear traps, he'd almost lean bullish, even if the neckline broke and got reclaimed. He thought IBM was a sharp trade, though he'd only have had alerts on the May 21 candle's high and low. On Tesla, the previous Thursday's wick low was a day-trading pivot. He suspected it might capitulate around 350 and didn't think the trend was clear until it held above 415–420.
His answer to "how do you trade the trader?": journal a lot. Write in the morning about how you feel before you look at a screen, then journal in the evening about the choices you made, and connect the two. He also uses visualization. He no longer pictures someone else, just his "higher self" standing over his shoulder making the best decisions, knowing perfection isn't the goal. On Ben's friend's SYM position, down about 56% from the high, he saw a cup-and-handle look on a larger time frame and a channel near 38 as a reasonable spot. With a cost basis in the teens to mid-20s, though, he'd add small, and ideally watch it go sideways up to about 55 with the 200-day near 58–60 as the level to trade against.
He'd put alerts on AMBA at 91 and 41 because it was mid-range in a massive base. He took "a dinger" in NVT that morning. On Viking, his ideal entry was around 33.50 as it cleared the W pivot, risking the day's low, and above 41–42 on the weekly, "it's off to the races." On Amazon, he saw an ABC leg down confirmed by the prior day's candle and an inside bar that looked like it wanted to resolve lower, probably to fill the gap around 210–215. If Microsoft, Meta and Tesla broke with it, that should produce an oversold McClellan reading. On the QQQs, he'd watch the .5 to .382, about 675, or a hold of 690 or a higher low. His final word: one of his tells in a frustrating market is chirping more than he should. He loves everybody and wants them to succeed.
Ben's setups, levels and trades
Ben said IBB was finally breaking out of its range, much like the gold setup they picked in 2023, though without the years of consolidation. He had no position but was tempted, with a stop around 176, about $4 of risk. He peeled SMH and SOXL shares off at the open the day before for spending cash. He isn't in the "sell all the high beta" camp, because parabolas need to take a breath. Since April, MU was still up about 272%, so time frame matters. On Qualcomm, if he wanted to be long, he'd take it off the 50-day with a stop at 191, or down to the 187 20-week, risking about 17 points against a possible 40–50 if the pattern was fake.
He said the most valuable thing Nick taught him over the past six to nine months was using multiple accounts. Separating his long-term account from a smaller trading account makes it easier to switch mindsets and not get overwhelmed. His year's P&L was green but not great, by design, because he'd been putting money into long-term names. A friend bought SYM in the high teens and low 20s, and instead of regretting not lightening up, she asked where to buy more. He saw that as maturity. On Viking, he noted an 18-month base since January 2025 with the weekly 200 as support, so 30–31 looked good to him.
On Google, he'd said above 346 the day before and bought a few shares around 344, so it may have undercut and gone. He thought Amazon was more interesting because it was at a do-or-die level. If it can't hold 233, it's probably back in the base for a while, while Google could still drop to the mid-320s and recover. He didn't like Meta's chart, firmly below every moving average on the daily. He blamed Tom Lee's Ethereum buying for some of crypto's slump. His final word was about gratitude: "Gratitude is something we practice because life is precious, not because you're getting all the things you want."
GP's setups, levels and trades
GP said the market is "trash." XBI was glorious, the valuations are reasonable, it benefits from AI indirectly and from deregulation, and it was breaking out of a 10–12-year base. He'd stick to the index rather than pick names. He prefers XBI's small- and mid-cap biotechs over IBB's Regeneron, Amgen and AbbVie, though IBB had the better technical setup after seven months at its 2021 highs. The IGV being up 81 cents after falling from 109 to 87 wasn't real rotation. Those names "aren't leading in any capacity," it's just "rotation for the day." Summer doldrums, low liquidity and a two-month run all point to less is more. First Solar finally took out its all-time high after 17–18 years and was immediately rejected. The KOSPI, a far smaller market, fell 10% overnight, EWY went from 219 to 193, and U.S. futures went bidless. Micron had been at 1,245 before the KOSPI flush, and he'd have expected Microsoft and Meta to catch the rotation, but they faded.
He's done the work on the dollar. Its correlation to markets doesn't matter unless it overshoots. It was coming back to the January 2023 low it broke down from 41 months ago, which should be resistance. His playbook: he holds Dell, which was having a great day, and he bought IBM the day before on a tweezer-bottom candle combo that had worked at the same level three weeks earlier. He'd be out by day's end. His theory is that the charts reflect "the bipolar-ness of the options and derivatives market." Chips and memory had been doing three to four weeks of consolidation and then a move, as Intel, Micron and GlobalFoundries did, and he liked Corning for its three-to-five-week pattern. There's also "the Trump sector," stocks the administration invests in. On Tesla, the prior day's candle rejected the 200 SMA but reclaimed the 50 after months of consolidation, and then it fell 5%, about 2x the QQQs' 2.6% drop. Nvidia had an abandoned baby, which in the past has led to a false breakdown. Lululemon, Nike and Starbucks were "death." When his traditional setups don't work: "no edge, no trade."
On trading the trader, he said it's simple: edge or no edge. If you're anxious, chasing or getting shellacked, this isn't your market. "Longevity is the key to this game," more than technicals or fundamentals. He's held HIMS for almost two years as a core position he doesn't touch because it's founder-led and not expensive, and people asking why he didn't sell at 70 miss the point. Decide who you want to be. He bought OUST around 39, and it kept trying to break higher and getting rejected, though it looked great on the weekly and monthly. Dell, IBM and HIMS were working, and he pointed to food names: CAVA, Wingstop, Texas Roadhouse and Sysco. On Intel at 130, he said the gift was at 23–24. He'd wait for lower, around 119–121, near a base and moving averages, and buy only with a stop. On COIN, he said Tom Lee had been the buyer of others' distribution. Until mega caps stop selling for more than a day, he'll stay on the safe side and trim. His send-off: "Loco or Coco," a little chicken and some coconut water.
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