Daily MES Pre-Market Levels

Support and resistance reference points for the Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures contract, computed each trading morning from prior session data. Facts about where price has traded — not predictions, not advice.

About the Daily MES Levels

Each weekday morning before the U.S. equity markets open, we compute and publish a set of support and resistance reference levels for the MES (Micro E-mini S&P 500) futures contract. The data comes from the real MES contract traded on CME Globex — not from a stock-market ETF proxy. If the data section above is not visible, it means the current session’s levels have not yet been fetched; new levels publish each trading morning at approximately 8:05 a.m. Central Time.

The levels fall into two categories. The first is pure historical fact: prices that actually traded in the prior regular-hours session and in the overnight Globex session. These include the prior day’s high, low, and close; the overnight high and low; and the prior week and prior month extremes. They require no formula — they are the prices the market printed.

The second category is deterministic computation: widely-used formulas that take prior-session price data as input and produce reference levels as output. These include the floor-trader daily pivot and its derived support and resistance levels (R1, R2, R3 and S1, S2, S3), the weekly pivot equivalents, the session’s volume-weighted average price (VWAP), and the volume-profile point of control (POC) and value-area edges (VAH, VAL). None of these formulas contain a directional opinion — the same inputs always produce the same outputs.

Every level is labeled with a standard abbreviation (listed in the legend below), a price, and a confluence count when more than one independent source falls in the same price zone. The levels are sorted by price, with resistance above the reference price and support below.

How to Read the Levels Ladder

The resistance ladder lists all computed levels above the reference price, with the furthest level at the top and the nearest at the bottom — reading top to bottom, you encounter resistance levels in the order price would reach them moving upward. The support ladder lists levels below the reference price in reverse: nearest at the top, furthest at the bottom.

Each row shows a price, the labels of the methods that contributed a level in that zone, and a confluence count when more than one method agrees on that area. A row labeled PDH · D-R1 with a count of 2× means the prior-day high and the first daily pivot resistance both landed within the clustering tolerance of that price. A row with no count displayed has a single contributing source.

The reference price row (center, blue) is the last-computed reference price for MES at the time the levels were calculated. Levels are always computed relative to this reference, not the current market price. If the market has moved significantly since the levels were published, the ladder may not represent current proximity accurately — always check your own broker’s chart.

Context Table

The context table shows the raw reference data behind the levels. This includes the prior session’s high, low, close, and range; the overnight Globex session high and low; the prior week’s high, low, and close; and the prior month’s high, low, and close.

The prior day’s range is the difference between the high and the low of the regular-hours session. A wide range — 30 or more MES points — indicates a volatile prior session where support and resistance levels may be farther apart than usual. The overnight range shows how much price moved during the Globex session preceding the cash open; a wide overnight move often means the levels that matter most at the open have already been tested.

Weekly and monthly extremes provide broader structural context. A price that coincides with the prior month’s high represents a level tested over a much longer time horizon than any single session or overnight period, and tends to attract more attention as a reference point.

When Are Levels Updated?

New levels publish each weekday morning at approximately 8:05 a.m. Central Time (9:05 a.m. Eastern), before the U.S. equity market cash open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. On weekdays when levels have been published, the as-of line at the top of the data section shows the session date. If the data is more than 30 hours old, an amber banner notes that the displayed levels are from a prior session and may not reflect current market structure.

On weekends and market holidays no new levels are published. The page continues to display the most recent session’s levels with the stale indicator active. MES futures trade nearly continuously — Sunday 5:00 p.m. to Friday 4:00 p.m. Central, with a one-hour daily maintenance halt — but the computation pipeline runs once per regular session, not continuously intraday.

If the levels data section above is not visible, the fetch either returned no valid data for the current session or a network issue prevented the request. The educational content on this page is always available regardless of fetch status. For the full methodology behind how these levels are computed, see the methodology guide.

Label Legend

Every label in the levels ladder corresponds to a standard price reference. Pivot levels (D-P, D-R1 through D-R3, D-S1 through D-S3, W-P, W-R1, W-R2, W-S1 through W-S3) use the classic floor-trader pivot formula applied to the prior session or prior week respectively. See the methodology guide for the full formulas and clustering algorithm.

PDH

Prior Day High — highest price of the prior regular-hours session

PDL

Prior Day Low — lowest price of the prior regular-hours session

PDC

Prior Day Close — closing price of the prior regular-hours session

ONH

Overnight High — highest price during the Globex session before the cash open

ONL

Overnight Low — lowest price during the Globex session before the cash open

PWH

Prior Week High — highest price of the most recently completed trading week

PWL

Prior Week Low — lowest price of the most recently completed trading week

PMH

Prior Month High — highest price of the most recently completed calendar month

PML

Prior Month Low — lowest price of the most recently completed calendar month

D-P

Daily Pivot — central pivot: (Prior High + Prior Low + Prior Close) / 3

D-R1 / D-R2 / D-R3

Daily Resistance 1, 2, 3 — derived from the daily pivot formula stepping above the central pivot

D-S1 / D-S2 / D-S3

Daily Support 1, 2, 3 — derived from the daily pivot formula stepping below the central pivot

W-P

Weekly Pivot — central pivot computed from the prior week’s high, low, and close

W-R1 / W-R2

Weekly Resistance 1 and 2 — derived from the weekly pivot formula above the weekly central pivot

W-S1 / W-S2 / W-S3

Weekly Support 1, 2, and 3 — derived from the weekly pivot formula below the weekly central pivot

VWAP

Volume-Weighted Average Price — prior-session average price weighted by volume at each price level

POC

Point of Control — the price level at which the most volume traded in the prior session

VAH

Value Area High — upper edge of the price band containing approximately 70% of session volume around the POC

VAL

Value Area Low — lower edge of the price band containing approximately 70% of session volume around the POC

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the daily MES pre-market levels?

The daily MES pre-market levels are a set of support and resistance reference points for the Micro E-mini S&P 500 futures contract, computed each weekday morning before the U.S. cash open. They are derived from the prior session's high, low and close, the overnight Globex range, prior week and month price extremes, floor-trader pivots, session VWAP, and the volume point of control. These are observations about where price has traded and where deterministic formulas point — not predictions of direction and not trading advice.

What does the confluence count mean on each level?

The confluence count shows how many independent methods produced a level in the same price area. A zone where the prior-day close, the session VWAP, and the daily pivot all land within a few points of each other has a confluence count of three. Higher confluence indicates more widely-watched areas, but it does not guarantee a price reaction. See the levels methodology guide for the full clustering algorithm.

How often are the levels updated?

Levels publish once per trading day, each weekday morning before the U.S. equity cash open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. They reflect the prior trading session's close, the overnight range, and the prior week and month extremes. On weekends and market holidays the page shows the levels from the most recent trading session, marked with a stale indicator. Levels do not update intraday.