Section 5 · Pre-Market Prep
Checking Futures and Global Markets
Futures are the market's alarm clock.
Reading the Global Market Overnight
Before US markets open at 9:30 AM Eastern, equity futures have been trading around the clock. /ES (S&P 500 E-mini), /NQ (Nasdaq 100 E-mini), and /YM (Dow Jones E-mini) are the three most-watched futures contracts. They act as a live vote on where the US market will open — and often, where it will trade for the first 30-60 minutes. But futures don't operate in a vacuum. Global markets have already been open for hours. Tokyo opens at 8 PM Eastern, London opens at 3 AM Eastern, and Frankfurt runs in parallel with London. If the Nikkei dropped 2% overnight and the DAX is sliding, US equity futures will reflect that — and your momentum setups may face a macro headwind regardless of their individual catalysts. The key rule: never ignore a -0.5% or greater futures move when entering a long momentum trade. You're swimming against a tide. Conversely, a strong +0.5% or better futures environment acts as rocket fuel for breakout trades in the first 30 minutes.
3 things to know
Global markets trade in a continuous relay: Tokyo → Frankfurt/London → US pre-market → NYSE open.
/ES futures moving more than 0.5% in either direction before the open sets the tone for the first 30-60 minutes of US trading.
A gap between overnight futures and the cash market open (called a 'gap and go' or 'gap and crap') is one of the most tradeable pre-market signals.
Dive Deeper
Key vocabulary — tap each card
Practice
Global Market Session Clock
Global sessions feed into US pre-market futures — check /ES before scanning individual stocks.
Did you know?
On days when S&P 500 futures (/ES) are up more than 0.5% before the US open, the first 30 minutes of trading are bullish roughly 68% of the time. This tailwind dramatically increases the probability of gap-and-go setups following through on high-quality catalysts.