I'm guessing not at the moment, the club looks pretty quite here. But will ask anyway - are there any meetup groups here, or any interest in getting something going? I'm in the south bay.

I am actually a SoCal Member. I will be visiting the Bay Area because I am a Phillies Baseball Fan as well as a lifetime BBT member. Love to meet some Bay Area BBT Traders and talk trading. I will be at Oracle Park for the games and available any other time to grab a beer and talk trading.

Hi Everyone, COVID has brought pros and cons. For the cons: way too many zoom calls at all hours of the day and night. There are no boundaries anymore for personal life or even eating and taking a shower in the morning. For the pros: more precious time with family (I have a 4 year old son) although there are days we long for school to reopen. I came to the conclusion that there are more important things to do with my time and life is too short. The timing and our situation was right to enable me to retire from the semiconductor industry (retired a little early at age 60). I am now focused on Intraday trading as a business. I started in sim in early March, which was fun because all of the NFT momentum. I made a single trade for $8200 and had six green days in a row before the honeymoon ended. But I was up $16k in March. Proceeded to draw down in April, but never went negative. I was spending too much time trading and developing bad habits. I started to only trade two or three days a week and spend the rest of the time learning about what I was trying to do. Currently I am finishing my business plan and putting together a solid Tradebook. I joined the community today and look forward to learning and helping (when I'm able). I use a MacBook Pro 15 (2019) and that has presented some unusual challenges. I've sorted them out. Let me know if you also have issues. Maybe I can help, or learn what to watch out for. I use Trade Ideas for scanners. I have an IBKR account for paper trading with TWS, but It is not ideal for live trading. I have a live trading account with Lightspeed and use Lightspeed Trader as my platform. I use OneNote and Excel for journaling/tracking. I haven't started live yet, but am targeting to do so in June. The BBT community has already been of great help and influence on my development. I look forward to getting to know more as part of the community. Thanks Jim

great strategy

lol yeah that's what makes it fun though right!! I definitely will! I took 2 PRs Friday and they worked out to be a couple of great trades, thanks for including all the detail in your recaps.

It is just amazing to watch Andrew, even today, where he decides he wants out of the trade then waits for B/E and gets out with no loss. I knew I would never be able to do that with a hard stop. If the hard stop is there you always wait for the hard stop to trigger. But with the mental stop it is more plausible to exit with a small stop. But after a year of trying I never got the hang of exited a trade before my stop but still for a loss. That takes a level of mindfulness and discipline that I haven't reached YET. But in the mean time I will use the hard stop so I can make some money while I develop that skill.

@Jennifer Olson Thanks!! I've been getting my butt kicked recently though lol. I swear right when you feel like you got it figured out, that's the exact moment you just lost it. Hope all is well, I'm always down to chat about price action, hit me up anytime!

Your recaps are great Chris!!

@Rob C No PDT rule makes sense, that's pretty sweet, you'll have to let me know how the training is. I have the same problem with the hardstop, but then if I mental stop out before the hardstop I get irritated if it turns around and moves in my direction, so now I usually let it hit my stop.

I liked trading stocks that stayed in play for weeks and you got to know the way they trade. So I was thinking Futures you could learn 2 or 3 instruments and get to know them well and trade them for years not weeks. So I am taking a training course (a bit pricey), they train you on the ES first. I was surprised how many retailers trade the ES. I guess the really large margin and no PDT rule attracts them. Hard stop is a must for me now trading so close to the open. The issue I have is if I have a hard stop I tend to wait for the stop. When I was making mental stops and the trade started not to look good I exited before my stop.

@Rob C How are you liking trading futures? I've worked in SIM with and without hardstops, definitely a must for me too.

@Christopher Patterson That's awesome! I'll check out your recaps

I was designated an essential worker, so I was still working onsite at my employers half the time. So from a personal standpoint my trading has not changed too much. Though I started to learn Futures this year. I studied for 4 months then I have been trading on the SIM (Ninjatrader) for 3 months now. From a technical side my trading has changed quite a bit. I usually trade 1/2 minute ORBs. Soon after the pandemic the fallen angel setup changed. A strong stock dropping to VWAP doesn't seem to stop falling at VWAP. You have to wait and see where it reverses and wait for a hammer to form before you can go long. Sadly, about twice a month I still go long at VWAP, out of reflex and get stopped out. Also the ORBs keep starting earlier and earlier. Today I went long 17 seconds after the open with ROKU. Due to the early ORBs I had to start using hard stops this year. Though all of last year I used mental/manual stops. But that close to the open you blink and the price is sitting at -3R. So I need the hard stop now. I hope everyone is safe and also were not impacted by the wildfires.

I just went live risking small size and was trading from 6:00-800, then 9:30 - 11:30, then I'd try and catch the close. However after doing that just for a few days I realized it's not worth it, at least for me. The parabolic reversal strategy depends on a stock getting OVER extended which requires a lot of effort in the form of volume. So I really feel it's best to trade them the first 1 to 2 hours the market is open...then go live your life I was profitable in SIM doing that, it's been a little rocky since going live but I expected that, it's why I risk small size. I post video recaps everyday if you're at all interested. Hope all is well!

That's awesome, what time of day do you like for trading PRs?

ORBs are tough imo, I feel like prior to covid there were a lot more A+ 5 minute orbs, now I see more people do 1 and 2 minute ORBs which are tough too haha. I'm all about the parabolic reversals!!! :) I used to trade all the setups, now I just do PRs, I like it a lot.

That's awesome. Trading is coming along, I'm getting decent at swing trading but my day trading is improving slower than I would like. Mostly have been focused on ORBs since have to work the rest of the day. What about you, favorite strategies?

How's your trading coming along? What's been your approach? I'm studying math, I really do enjoy it, but the longer I've been in academia the harder it's been to balance math / trading / gym / life : P

That sounds amazing. I've been working from home so get some more time in the morning to trade before I have to jump on calls... one of the few positives from all this. What are you studying?

I took a semester off and doubled down on trading and hiking. It's been pretty sweet : P How are you doin?

Hi Bay Area Traders, How's trading going, anyone making any super fast improvements through covid-times? It's been nice to spend more time trading.

I am from Monterey, CA. I just joined BBT lifetime member like couple of weeks ago. Right now I am in sim. Any body interested here to become my trading buddy so that we can discuss about trading.