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Hello Everyone, I just finished three months of live trading this past Friday, and about two weeks before finishing I came to the realization that something had to change if I was going to make it through the learning curve. After reading “Trading in Zone” and watching Mark Douglas’s “How to Think Like a Professional Trader” on YouTube, I decided I would create a 20-trade sample set to work on three areas of my trading. (1) Thinking in probabilities (2) Discipline to not give into FOMO (3) Holding my winners longer I figured since this is basically testing out a theory presented in one of the recommended Psychology books, I would make the results public so everyone in the community can see it. The desired outcomes I am looking for at the end of the sample set are: (1) Getting away from thinking trade to trade, and start thinking in a series of trades (2) Taming FOMO, so I do not get over excited and enter a trade too early (3) Confirm my profit taking plan is profitable over a series of trades. All of my indicators, confirmations, and risk analysis that defines my edge is based on information obtained in Andrew’s book and the lifetime Webinars. Edge Defined Strategy: 15 Min ORB – I chose this strategy specifically to force myself to deal with FOMO each and every day. I will caution that my edge does not appear every day, so there will be days that I do not take a trade. While tracking 5 Min ORBs and 15 Min ORBs for the last three months (total of 165 Stocks), I was surprised to see that 15 Min ORBs that meet my criteria appear more frequently than 5 Min ORBs. The percentage of them working is almost the same. 5 Minute ORB Pullback Met Parameters - 52 of 164 Total trades within parameters that have worked - 41 of 52 (78%) 15 Minute ORB Pullback Met Parameters - 55 of 165 Total trades within parameters that have worked - 41 of 55 (74%) Stocks for Watchlist: I select up to three stocks to watch based on the following criteria % Change – Gapped at least 2% but not more than 10% Catalyst – Needs to have fundamental news of sort. Vol – >100,000 Float – High or Medium float (> 50 m) ATR - .50 to 2.00 Trading – Must be trading higher than normal volume Exchange – I prefer Nasdaq over NYSE Edge Criteria: I have three parts risk analysis, indicators, and confirmations Risk Analysis: 1:2 or Greater Indicators: Must meet 2 of 3 Trades within the ATR Small share size with high volume Has a direction upward or downward (higher highs, higher lows, lower highs, lower lows) Confirmations: Must meet 3 of 4 ORBO closes above VWAP/ORBD closes below VWAP No large wicks/candles (wick cannot be larger than body, candles body not larger than ½ ATR) Closes near VWAP (needs to be within $.30) Has a pullback prior to breaking the opening range (cannot go past planned stop) Profit Taking Plan: As I am with CMEG, I have found you have to be very selective on when to take profits otherwise you are giving the money you make back in commissions, so I developed strict criteria for taking profits. Plan A – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1 (this allows me to be at break-even if the stock moves back to my entry point), all out at profit target (+/- $.03) Plan B – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1, 1/2 at profit target, all out at technical level or my first out Plan C – 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1, 1/2 out near the profit target if stock stalls near it, all out at the profit target or my first out. Share Size: I am taking share size based on a fixed dollar amount. Thanks to KyleK29 & fjmocke for the hotkey setup. Daily Trading Goal: My daily trading goal is to trade only within my edge, stick to my profit taking plan, control my emotions, and be disciplined. If I meet these then it is a green day regardless of what my P/L says.

I use Rocketbook for writing my daily rules/notes and upload them to my online Journal in Google Drive. It's pretty cool https://www.amazon.com/Rocketbook-Everlast-Reusable-Notebook-Executive/dp/B07CZDXVH5/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1549411256&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=rocket+book&psc=1 FOMO is hard to overcome. Especially when you hear Andrew talking about trades. I used to mute the chat too. Now, I've learned to not really pay too much attention to the chat. I still have it on and I hear it, but I don't use it to trade. When I used to listen to the chatter, I would get FOMO and enter into bad trades. Now, I just ignore it for the most part. We should only take trades that look like like our predefined setups. I monitor a number of stocks at the open, and for the first 8 minutes I just look at the patterns as they are being formed. When I see one of them that is starting move in a way that it may turn into a good setup, then I focus my attention on that one stock and wait for the right entry price. The right entry is critical to a good trade. Once I am in I set my STOP range order. Sometimes, I end up overriding my order or updating depending on how the price is moving. Yes, not honoring defined stop losses is a big issue for a lot of traders. Every time I went Hulk it was because I ignored my stops. Sometimes I even made it worse by averaging. That is why it is so important to address this issue. I totally understand your concern that with stop loses you you may take losses more often. The only way to address this is to set a rule to limit how many trades you take per day. I have a rule of maximum 2 trades per day. Hard stop loses will not help you if you keep taking trade after trade. I absolutely recommend you set yourself a limit on how many trades you take. You should also set a Max Loss per day limit int the DAS Account controls, there is a video in the education section that shows how to do this. At the very least set up a DAS alarm the will tell you when you have lost X number of dollars. X being your max loss per day that you have defined for yourself. My Max loss per day is 2% of my account equity and my max loss per trade is 1% of my account equity, that is why after two losing trades I am done for the day. The limit of 2 trades per day also helps me look harder for good setups. Since I only do two trades a day, I don't want to waste them in questionable trades. It took me a while to switch over to the 2 minute chart. I was so used to the 1 minute chart that the 2 minute seemed very strange and lacking data. Now, I feel the opposite. I haven't used a 1 minute chart in 2 months. When I see one, like in your post, I have a hard time reading the signals because I am so used to the 2 minute chart.

Hey Mike really impressive notetaking journal you got going! Putting in that work off the trading screen is huge for improvement. Great job.

February 5, 2019 $AMD (3 of 20) - Stopped out Sample Set Results P G S 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Picked the wrong stock to enter today out of the 2 that met my edge. Not getting a full night's rest definitely made it hard to focus this morning.