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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.

Thought I would share my journal template with those interested. It's still a work in progress and I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Each day I capture the DAS Trades log and closed P/L. Also add a few notes about emotions, health, state of mind, etc. Then for each trade (in/out), I log the detailed entry, stop, target, strategy, etc. There are additional comments where I jot down my thoughts and areas of improvement. I have a summary sheet which contains a running total of all trades to date: And from this I can graph an equity curve: As well as calculate statistics things such as: Average Risk/Reward by Strategy Number of Trades by Strategy Win Percentage Etc, etc. Here is the data presented graphically in another post. I'm still learning in the simulator, so I haven't really found any use for the statistics yet. However, the data is there for when I am ready to analyze and review my performance quantitatively. Let's see your journal templates!

Not sure if this is the right forum for this as I couldn't find one where it "fit" the criteria perfectly, so move it as needed. In the documents linked below is an example trading plan that I created many months ago from various sources, as well as my own thoughts. I've developed many business plans in a similar fashion and the way I get the most done is by typing up a list of questions, printing it out, and writing (or typing) thorough answers to those questions. You then wait a few days (reset your mind) and return, putting those answers into concise statements / paragraphs to form the basis of your overall business plan. For a trading plan, you may never do the second part (putting it into concise paragraphs), that's OK. The intended purpose of a plan (for business or trading) is to make you think and develop a vision for what you feel is success and how you intend to go about reaching your goal. Just like a business plan, you may deviate from it, you may go slower than you projected, and / or you may alter it along the way. It doesn't matter how you use it after you create it, it's just there to put you back on the tracks if you come off or serve as a reminder to the longer term goal if you're having a short term struggle. Some Tips: - I encourage you to really reflect on your answers, get granular with them, the more you get out of your head now is the more you'll be able to power through in the end. My last major business plan I wrote risk-aversion scenarios for coupe d'etat's (it was for the Middle East) and an assortment of what-if's related to the region - you won't need that here (although, maybe you have terrible in-laws and it's not out of the question), but it helps to think complex (possible) scenarios through as you'll be more prepared to react if it happens. - Set realistic goals. I took a few psychology courses on goal setting at university for my degree and they all seem to agree. Break the goal up into small obtainable steps and build momentum. So don't say "I want to be a billionaire in 5 years," reframe it as "In 5 years, I'd like to have my house paid off entirely, and I'm going to do it by ...". A goal too far out of reach or without structure is useless, even if there's a slim chance. The document has questions for the following sections: - Introduction --> Just a brief overview of what's intended. - Overall Goals & Strategy --> Questions regarding your intended trading goals and strategy. - Education / Evolution --> Questions about how you're going to gain knowledge and evolve to meet your goals. - Psychology --> Questions for how you plan to deal with the psychological aspects of trading. - Timeline --> Your intended timeline of milestones. How you plan to progress through it. - Future You Statements --> Prejourney Statement (message to yourself to be read after you've completed the journey, written in the future-sense like you're talking back at yourself.) - Time Statements --> Done at certain intervals, a quick journal of your progress so far. - After Completion Statements --> Area for you to reflect after this leg of the journey is over and you're about to start the next. Documents: Template File (with example data): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hKLkaPc4pYXNIpjv26ud3pFLWbeBogvL/view?usp=sharing Template File (blank, just questions): https://drive.google.com/file/d/14VL_ZVk1gBgqpKNeYwiNJDYwfWfSF2gS/view?usp=sharing

hello bear bull traders! first off i wanted to say thank you to Andrew, Brian, the moderators, and all of the amazing members of this community. without all of you i would not have got as far as i have in my trading and I feel very fortunate to live in a time where i can have mentors that i never speak to but learn from watching the youtube videos and hanging around in the chatroom. i wanted to share my results from one year in the SIM training. My journal and excel files where i store all my trades can be found here at this one drive link: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Av0RVn6INi5egsVc5myfWu_4FeDg0g this link has all my journal entries, risk settings, hotkeys, basically all the trading information i've gathered so far. feel free to use any of it and message me if you have any questions. I read Andrew's first book about 15 months ago i was determined to at least try and make day trading a viable business for me. i spent the first three months just watching the chatroom and then started in sim right around the beginning of 2018. 12 months of simulator is a lot for some people but i trade at my job most days of the week so some days i'm distracted and some days i can't trade at all. it's been a long road but i've been having fun even with the low points. it took me about six months to start having an increasing equity curve: you'll notice that one trade really killed me. i lost almost $3,000 in one trade! that coupled with another big loser was my turning point. i knew i needed to start taking the practice more serious and start using risk controls because i am prone to letting my losers run on me. i still ended the year down about $2,300. In December i started taking sim trades of only 100 shares and then towards the end of the month i was only taking one live trade a day so as to not break the PDT rule. i got bored of trading in sim and wanted to start trading real money. i finally got my account fully funded so i've started 2019 taking all live trades. i'm already seeing how much harder it is than sim trading but i'm going to keep at it. i'm planning on starting another post of my live trades in the daily recaps as part of my new years resolution to be a more active member. thank you all again and happy trading in 2019!

Friends, I start trading 1.5 to 2 hours after market open as I have a full-time job right now and that's the earliest I can start with trading. Does any of you have any best practice for how you build a watch-list some time after the market open and find the levels which are interesting? I am using a DasTrader simulator and have a Trade-ideas subscription. Currently, I just copy Andrew's watch list in Dastrader and mark the levels the way he does at the market open but I have two things on my mind when I ask my question: 1. Some of the stocks that might have been interesting at market open are probably not that interesting anymore as they did not receive any interest from the markets i.e. volume 2. Some other stocks might be interesting now which were not on the initial watch-list that Andrew created So, how do I choose stocks at this time of the day? Thanks! Pankaj

Honestly, for me 1.5 or 2 hours after the market opens aren't the best time for trading, but hey! It's still possible to have good greats even after 2 hours of trading :D, it's just different from the opening. I've been trading last 3 weeks on all the times possible and that's to figure out my own trading strategy and the time that fits my personality. You won't get as much huge movements as you'll the first hours, but you still going to find some, so that's a plus if you are willing to trade those huge moving stocks. However, most of the stocks that time are moving slowly, but it's also good on the other hand because mostly they're movement is trending, it's easier to anticipate their movement after and hour and + from the opening. You still need to find a good entry to go with the trend. Anyway, to trade in the late market hours the stock needs the same requirements as the open, it should be in play, it needs volume, it needs to be traded by retail traders, and it shouldn't be choppy. Later on the day I trade the same stocks I traded in the morning btw, most of which are from Andrew's watch list, not all of the stocks traded in the morning are good to trade mid day anyway, check the volume, maybe they lost the interest, and they stopped moving enough to make profits. Choosing a stock isn't so difficult, mid day or market opening, I think the requirments are the same)

Charles Mackay's famous 1852 book, "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" is perhaps the most often cited in discussions of market phenomena, from the tulipmania in 17th-century Holland to most every bubble since. The story is a familiar one: an enduring bull market in some commodity, currency or equity leads the general public to believe the trend cannot end. Such optimistic thinking leads the public to overextend itself in acquiring the object of the mania, while lenders fall over each other to feed the fire. Eventually, fear arises in investors as they start to think that the market is not as strong as they initially assumed. Inevitably, the market collapses on itself as that fear turns to panic selling, creating a vicious spiral that brings the market to a point lower than it was before the mania started, and from which it will likely take years to recover. (from How The Power Of The Masses Drives The Market Download the 3 volumes of "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" (public domain) from gutenberg.org

I expanded on The Process of Executing a Good Trade in this post. it takes a lot of practice to plan a trade in real-time (especially in the first 30 minutes of the market). At least a month and hundreds of attempts until you develop a process that works for you. Once you get good at planning and managing the trade, you will be able to do it faster and faster each time. Like muscle memory of sorts. Here is what works for me: Prerequisites 1. Stock is in play 2. Support and resistance identified in pre-market 3. Pre-market volume and price action is tradable 4. Know the float category (low, mid, high) and how many shares you plan to take While watching the stock 1. Spread is manageable 2. ATR/price swings accounted for (i.e, see how much the stock ticks. Is it going up/down in 0.01 to 0.05 increments, or 0.50 to $1) 3. Price action is clean and not choppy; related to above 4. Volume is good and not dying 5. Who is control: buyers or sellers? 6. What is the strategy/pattern that is setting up here? 7. Is the price getting extended? Finding an entry 1. Is the entry favourable (new 1-min or 5-min high), or will it be a chase 2. Did the stock pullback yet? If not, to which level will it test and will I survive that? 3. What's the target? Is it realistic? 4. Finding a reasonable stop at a technical level 5. Calculating the risk-to-reward 6. Executing the order; with conviction--no hesitation Managing the Trade 1. Is the live price action still clean? 2. Are we making higher-highs and higher-lows, or vice versa? 3. Are there are levels or tops/bottoms that I missed before entering that have now become a factor (i.e, a moving average on the 1-minute chart) 4. Is the market providing new information that validates or invalidates my original criteria? Is the Level 2 bullish, bearish or neutral? 5. Is it a good time to add more (if you scaled in initially), or should you take some profit off the table? 6. If scaling out, how much and at what levels? 7. Is the price action conducive to my original stop/target? 8. Is control between buyers and selling shifting? 9. Given the above, does it make sense to stay in the trade or exit at break-even, before stop, or before target? I know that is a lot to process in a short amount of time, but those thoughts go through my head during a trade. For others, it may be much simpler or even more complex.

Since everybody has different levels of experience with the stock market, it is difficult to have a one-size-fits all objective list. I am going to try to cover all the areas that you should have a firm grasp of by the end of the 3-months. It is a rough outline of what I have learned after 4 months of paper/real trading. This post will be a work in progress, but here goes. ~IN PROGRESS~ Day Trading is probably the most deceiving profession on the planet. On the surface the concept seems very simple: buy low and sell high. Then why is it that 90% of traders fail at his endeavour? Surely they aren't trying to do the exact opposite of what is profitable. Even flipping a coin has better odds at 50%. Let's take a look under the hood to see what is required to be a successful trader. CLASSES There are four classes in total. Each one runs about 1 hour, except for class 4 which is almost 2 hours. It is recommended that you attend the classes multiple times to reinforce your knowledge, refresh the concepts, as well as stay updated on any new material. It is your responsibility to go over the slides and understand what is being taught. If you have any questions, please ask them during class, in the forums, or in the chat. The community is always here to lend a hand. You should also bookmark the Bear Bull Traders FAQ and DAS Trader Pro FAQ. Some members choose to read additional day trading books, as well as practice trading replayed market data. What you get out of the course is directly related to how much effort you put in. In a sense, the entire 3-months is more of a self-paced learning program than a structured course. There are no quizzes, no tests, no projects and no scoring. It is up to you to wake up every morning and spend time in the chair mastering the trade. Nobody will hold your hand, watch over your shoulder, or monitor your performance in any way. That is how day trading is in real life: absolute freedom to stake your fortune or self-destruct and implode. STOCK MARKET BASICS -Warren Buffet once said 'The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.' This is true for long term investing and for day trading. Remember that for each transaction you see in the Time/Sales window, there is a buyer and seller. When a stock is down 20% on the day and you short it, somebody is on the other side of that transaction buying. You don't know their hand though. They could be covering their short from earlier, it could be institutions loading up for long term investment, somebody hedging an options contract, etc. Beginners often gloss over this point. Volume represents transactions being filled; a transaction always involves two parties. You are trading against other people, not the market itself. -Exchanges: NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX -Market Makers -Pre-market and after-hours -High Frequency Trading (HFT), algorithms -Bid, Ask, Spreads -Short-selling. What does it mean. -Short inventory. Why are some stocks shortable and others not -Short Sale Restriction (SSR) -Short interest, or Short Ratio -Share float -5-cent tick programs -Circuit Breaker Halts -News, earnings, and catalysts -Buyouts -Pattern Day Trade Rule >>> Make sure you understand the above prerequisites before proceeding any further. Investopedia is a great resource. CHARTS -Candle Sticks. How to read them. -Understanding Price Action. Bearish vs bullish candles. Indecision candles. -Higher highs and higher lows / Lower highs and lowers lows -1-minute vs 5-minute chart -Moving averages and how they are calculated in different timeframes -VWAP. Why it's an important intraday indicator >>> The above concepts are not tool-specific and apply to all trading platforms MECHANICAL ASPECTS -Knowing your tools (DAS) -Platform, Hotkeys, Scanners, Journaling -Order entry. Limit, market, marketable limit, stops -Level 2 -Calculating commissions and tickets >>> The goal is to familiarize yourself with DAS and be comfortable using it. For some this could take days. For others this requires weeks. TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIES -Finding Stocks in Play -Good vs. bad pre-market price action -Finding Support/Resistance Levels -Day trading Strategies. Master recognizing the patterns, entries, stops, targets. -ABCD / Reverse ABCD -Bull Flag Momentum / Bear Flag -Fallen Angel -VWAP False Break Out -VWAP Reversal -VWAP Trend Trade -Opening Range Breakup / Opening Range Breakdown -Red-to-Green / Green-to-Red -Moving Average Trend Trade -Top Reversal / Bottom Reversal -Time of Day: Open, Late Morning, Midday to Close >>> Everybody will pick this up at a different pace--learning to recognize different strategies, figuring out which one works best for you (at what time of day), etc. MANAGING YOUR ACCOUNT -Risk Management -Position Sizing -Money Management PRACTICE THE PROCESS OF EXECUTING A GOOD TRADE Putting on a trade is more than buying at point A and selling at point B. You need to combine everything you learned to get in and out of a single trade properly: 1) finding good stocks in play 2) identifying chop and staying away 3) identifying the strategy or setup 4) quickly calculating risk-to-reward 5) getting a good entry and avoid chasing/jumping the gun 6) managing the trade based on live price action and new information which the market is providing you 7) taking profit (often overlooked, yet it involves half of the entire trade) 8) you need to do all of the above while keeping your emotions in check and fighting your psychological demons >>> Over the 3-month period, you will repeat this process hundreds of times. This is where the bulk of your time will be spent. Learning to take good trades and improving on your mistakes. This is the only path to consistency. Don't waste time trading unrealistic sizes on low-float stocks because you won't learn a thing. >>>Some of your trades will turn out to be winners, some will turn out to be losers. Most likely you will have a few trades that blow up your practice account (but don't worry, you weren't taking things seriously and would never do it live, right?). GOING LIVE -Choosing a broker -Starting small and gradual position sizing -Returning to Simulator -Peer-to-peer support PSYCHOLOGY OF TRADING -Why do most traders fail here -I'm highly intelligent, analytical and very disciplined. Why this will ruin your trading. -I'm a good poker player. Good--you will be playing against yourself -Revenge -Overtrading -Fear of missing out (FOMO) -Fear of pulling the trigger -Trading scared -Averaging down -Turning a day trade into a swing trade ~IN PROGRESS~

Hi all, Having a journal is a must. I feel like I have learned so much about my trading in just the 2 weeks trading live because of this journal. For anyone starting out like me, if you are serious about this business, take the time to have a detailed journal. How else can we improve something we are not tracking? I focus more on the details of the trade and what I was thinking at the time, IB has tons of report performance reports that I can pull later if I want to see the numbers crunched. Here is a screenshot and detail of my journal, I have 3 main sections on my recap: Screenshot Link: Click Here Section 1: In this section I record how I feel Physically and Mentally in the morning before I start my trading day. Comment if I was able to get my morning routine done as planned. (My mourning routine is gym, sauna, get to my station and write my Journal Intro, review previous day recap, then build watchlist) Section 2: Here I add a screenshot of my Das Trader Account Report, with the me a summary of what I traded for the day. At the bottom of the page I also have additional screenshots of the detail transactions. Section 3: In this section I track some information of the stock like float size and how I found the stock. I also note down details of the trade like the strategy, position size and details of the price action shown on the screenshot. The best part about this section is the “Well Done" and "Improvement Notes”. I read on “The Daily Trading Coach: 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist” how important it is to track what you did well on a trade. This way your recap is not all negative but also highlighting the good things that you should continue to do. Software: Just some information on the software I use, I track my Journal on Microsoft OneNote. As you can see on the pages tab I track all my Trading stuff like highlights of the book I am reading and any training course notes. If you have not try this software please give it a shot. It has a lot of great features, syncs with all devices and is completely free. Thanks. Carlos M.