Friday January 16 2026 SPY SPX ES Actionable Levels

$SPX defends overnight and then grinds 80 points higher but gives most up in regular session. Where must $SPY defend tomorrow?

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In yesterday’s letter, we wrote:

For tomorrow, we’re closely watching the key SPX levels of 6880, 6919, 6925, and 6937. With price trapped between 6880 and 6925, we expect range chop and will sit out that zone; our bias pivots on a clean hold above 6925…A sustained move above 6925—ideally reclaiming 6937—would be taken long for a run to 6950, 6972.

This is what happened. We saw a strong defense overnight of 6902, well above the critical 6880 support. This defense set the stage for an upward grind through 6925 and our key level of 6937, which subsequently triggered a move to a high of day above the 6972 target during the regular session.

Now, after reaching those highs, we faced some sideways consolidation, with multiple defenses at 6950 and rejections at 6972. Ultimately, we lost the 6950 level, which pushed us back down to the day’s low at (where else?) 6937. This movement underscores the importance of these key levels in our trading strategy. $SPY ( ▲ 0.27% )  $SPX ( ▲ 0.26% )  $ES_F ( 0.0% )  

See how well the levels work?

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Now, as we face an important Friday before short week-where must we reclaim and defend to keep a continued move higher alive?

More in the trade plan below.

Below, we’ll cover the actionable levels, how we played them today and what they mean for the next session.

The run through 6937 triggering the push to 6972 and multiple defenses of 6950 illustrate the levels doing their job. Always trust the levels.

Now we are sitting in AH right on the key 6943 support level. What does this mean and where do we go from here? Read below for our trade plan which includes actionable support & resistance levels, outlook for the next session and today’s trade recap.

Learn the system to make 1-3 low risk, high reward trades per day using SPY/SPX options.

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Trading Plan

Today’s action resulted in a solid quarter-point percentage move higher on good volume, although we did give back a significant portion of our earlier gains.

As we look ahead to tomorrow, we have options expiration (opex) and a couple of FOMC members scheduled to speak. These events may introduce further volatility, so maintaining a watchful eye on the market dynamics will be crucial.

We are receiving some great questions from beginners. This is helping us develop guides for this group as well as the course. More to come but we’ve created a separate channel in the discord just so you can not be shy about bringing those questions to the group. No question is dumb, we grow stronger together!

In fact, we’ve created this single resource as a guide. It is a living document and we will continue updating it. You must be logged into the site to read it:

https://letter.spyoptionsactionablelevels.com/p/strategy-guide-the-basics

As readers know trading after a massive move in either direction is risky.

Trying to predict when trend will break is a fool’s game because the trend can be stronger than you ever realize.

Going with the trend is hard because it has already run so far (or dropped) and move may be close to over.

All you can do is pick your entries carefully and with proper position sizing. Trading out 1-3 DTE or further also helps soften the blow.

Yes it will decrease the amount of profit but will greatly help keep you in a trade long enough to see return.

For tomorrow, we’re closely watching the key SPX levels of…

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