Friday. The first trade of the day usually has limited trend expectations, but it can often mean the difference between having a good trading day or not--but you only have seconds to make up your mind about it. And moreover, if multiple contracts are being used in a money management scheme to retain a partial position, then the first trade of the day can last the whole day. In any case, a decision to take one direction over the other in the first few minutes after the opening requires a clear and concise rule-based approach for immediate decision support. Take the course Pivots, Patterns and Self Recognition and learn why a buy signal occurred for the initial day's trend so quickly after the opening today. (Click to expand the chart above.)