Price Action – One Day at a Time

Book Insight

Bryce Gilmore’s Price Action – One Day at a Time reflects a trader who spent decades living inside the market’s rhythm. His approach is not theoretical; it is the accumulated instinct of someone who sat in front of the S&P500 futures day after day, learning to see structure before others recognized it. The book teaches price action not as a set of patterns, but as a living process governed by support and resistance, trader behavior, order flow, and cyclical geometry. Gilmore repeatedly emphasizes that success comes from entering only when conditions are precise—when price reaches a defined level and the market proves readiness through immediate response. This manual guides the reader toward that level of precision by showing how professional traders act, how implied levels develop across timeframes, and how to read the smaller shifts that signal whether buyers or sellers are in control.

The structure of this book is built like a mentoring program. Gilmore introduces foundational elements—the opening price, the importance of screen time, geometric levels, swing charts, and pivot structures—and then layers them into practical trading setups that recur every day. These include 1:1 geometry trades, re-entry trades, 50/61.8 retracements, break-back entries, and daily session behaviors. What stands out is how naturally he unifies geometry, classical pattern logic, and discretionary reading of momentum, volatility, and volume into a single decision model.

This book gives traders a disciplined blueprint for timing trades with tight stops and clear invalidation. By grounding every tactic in the real behavior of ES day traders—the largest force in intraday futures—Gilmore shows why certain levels attract sharp reversals, why gaps fill, and why a pattern works only when the broader structure agrees. For developing traders, this manual bridges the gap between charts that look good after the fact and setups that you can actually execute in real time.

Core Concepts

At its core, Bryce Gilmore’s method revolves around recognizing structure and trading only where the market offers asymmetric opportunity. He teaches that support and resistance exist in degrees—major, large, medium, small—and understanding these relationships is essential for anticipating where professionals will commit size. His process begins with mapping these implied levels using daily, 60-minute, 15-minute, and 5-minute charts. Once structure is identified, the goal becomes waiting for price action to interact with those levels under the right conditions, filtering every entry through immediate confirmation.

Gilmore integrates geometric symmetry, Fibonacci levels, and 1:1 projections to forecast turning points. He then reinforces these projections with confirmation tools: Trend Wave (TWS), stochastic, DMI, OBV, and volume spikes. But he constantly reminds the reader that indicators are secondary; price action must lead.

A major theme of the book is the significance of the opening price. It defines directional bias, traps participants, and exposes where traders are positioned. Combined with swing charts, pivot levels, and intraday structures, it becomes part of a larger mosaic that helps the trader anticipate continuation or reversal.

The setups described—double-drive reversals, break-back trades, retracement entries, double top/bottom breaks, and trend-following breakouts—are not isolated patterns. They are expressions of the same underlying principle: act at precise levels, with tight stops, only when price behaves correctly in real time. Gilmore encourages traders to avoid prediction and instead respond to behavior as it unfolds, allowing the market to reveal its intent. This creates a disciplined, repeatable process grounded in structure, probability, and trader psychology.

Inside the Chart

Gilmore’s setups come alive on intraday ES charts, where structure and trader behavior are clearest. A typical example is a 1:1 projection forming into a morning reversal. As price advances into a geometric target, volume may spike and stall, producing a small top. If the next bar fails to break higher and sellers appear, the trader has a precise location to enter short with minimal risk. Stops are placed just beyond the pattern’s invalidation, usually a few ticks, allowing high reward relative to risk.

Break-back trades show how opening dynamics provide early signals. After the open, two consecutive red candles below the opening print hint that short-term control has shifted to sellers. Here, the trader sells with the expectation that momentum continues. If price reverses back through the opening line, the trader scratches or reverses—showing Gilmore’s emphasis on adaptability rather than stubbornness.

Retracement trades highlight how structure interacts with Fibonacci symmetry. After identifying a minor high or low, the trader waits for a 50% or 61.8% pullback accompanied by declining momentum and a confirming indicator shift. When price turns, entries become highly precise.

Across all examples, Gilmore focuses on immediate confirmation, clean invalidation, and letting the structure dictate action.

Author’s Edge

Bryce Gilmore brings an unusually practical depth to price action. Unlike many authors who rely on historical patterns, Gilmore traded full-time for decades and distilled every concept from live market experience. His integration of geometry, market structure, and behavioral cues is original and highly functional. He understands how professional traders think and why their habits create recurring setups. His methods are grounded in precision: enter only where the market must respond and keep risk extremely tight. Gilmore’s edge is the synthesis of structure, timing, and psychological realism; he teaches traders to act decisively when conditions are optimal and stand aside when they are not. This clarity and discipline give his work a timeless quality that resonates with both intraday and position traders.

Price Action – One Day at a Time by Bryce Gilmore