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I admired the other traders that post their trades on the BBT site. I have been trying to get the courage to start. If I am embarrassed to post the trade, I shouldn’t have taken it. So I want that consequence on my shoulder. So I promised myself when I switched from Etrade-pro back to DAS, which is much easier to journal, I would post my trades. I have been live for 3 months now. First week live on DAS. 1st week of February Risk: $25/trade Max allowable trades per day: only 1. I am having an over trading issue that I am trying to resolve. So I have a self-imposed limit of one trade per day. Friday 2/1/19 Well being score of 5.5/10. My one allowable trade was with FB. I do apologize for the chart. This was my last trade with Etrade-Pro which doesn't automatically show entrance/exits. The tech level I drew at 167.51 was too weak to act on (that is why I drew it in yellow - stronger ones are orange) so I let it go by. After the 2min candle the price sat for awhile, until it started to move and I went long. I took a partial at 1R. Price just missed the second partial at 2R by a few pennies. The 5th 1min candle spooked me and I exited. Monday 2/4/19: I gave myself a “well being” score of 4/10, which is below allowable limit to trade live. So I traded on SIM. Made 3 good trades, but since they were on the sim I won’t journal them here. Tuesday 2/5/19 Well being score of 5/10. My one allowable trade was with AAPL. A very bullish 2min candle was created and I went long as it passed the recent premarket high. I didn’t have a strong technical level for the entry or exit so I cut my shares in half (so only a ~$12 risk). Got lucky on the last exit. Wednesday 2/6/19 Well being score of 5/10. My one allowable trade was with MU. Stock made a nice ABCD inside the 5min. I was going to wait for the 5min candle to finish, but when it made a new high on increased volume I went long at 9:33am. It fizzled quickly and I got all out when it looked like it was reversing. Thursday 2/7/19 Well being score of 5.5/10. My one allowable trade was with TWTR. I made a mistake on this one. But, it didn’t cost me much to learn a good lesson. I have learned to be sloppy when zooming in on a chart not to look carefully at the tech levels because Etrade always lists the next level you drew on the edge of their chart. So you always know the next level with a quick glance. So I was careless when zooming in on TWTR and caught the 2nd tech level and not the first. The price dropped below the tech level I was going to short on, but I thought the risk/reward was so large I let the price make a new low of the day. Once that happen I shorted. Once the price dropped a little the real tech level appeared on my chart and I realized I trade now has a 1 to 1 risk/reward ratio. If I was aware of this level I would have shorted at the 31.1 level I drew where the risk/reward was OK or just not trade it. Usually, when I realize the risk/reward is wrong I get out of the trade. This usually occurs when you get a bad fill. But, since the price was moving in the right direction I waited for the 1st tech level to close the trade. It missed by a penny and retraced. Since this is not a real trade anymore, just one I am trying to get out, I stopped out at break even. Friday 2/8/19 Well being score of 6/10. My one allowable trade was with MU. The tech level I drew and the 1min VWAP coincided making it a strong tech level and I really like it when the 1min VWAP and 5min VWAP get a large separation. I took the trade at the 1min VWAP and made the 5min VWAP the first target. This trade had a very tight stop out level (just below 1min VWAP). I took the first partial at the 5min VWAP with the plan to take the next partial at the 2nd target (200MA). But, I got cold feet and made the 2nd partial in the middle of nowhere. Then all out a few cents below 200MA. It's interesting what a different perspective I get on my own trades when I post them like this. After what I thought was a good week trading and was reasonably happy after reading my journal entries, I now look at the these trades posted and I am not really proud of any of them. They look quite haphazard and not well thought out. The Friday trade with MU would be the closest, but not quite. Something for me to think about. Thanks for reading, Rob

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.

Hi Mike, Respect for your way of organizing and trading!! I'm now one month in sim and the only thing I do is jumping from one trade to another. I tell myself this is all for practicing. What stocks do work for me, which strategie, what hour of the day works best for me, etc etc. But I know there has to come a time that I have to go back to basics and get more organised. Your posts are a great reminder for me. I probably won't do things as extended as you do, but it might help me to take some steps in that direction. I also read Mark Douglas and it gives me confidence that I can survive the learning curve. Great to see that other traders (you for example) practice it in the live trading. Thanks for sharing, Mike!! Regards, Peter

Week Six Recap Weekly stats o 2.5 R/R (Goal: above 3.0) [record: 2.7] o 87% (Goal: above 80%) [record: 93%] o -$125.41 (Goal: $250) [record: $20.80] Highlights o Good ABCD trade in MU on Wednesday o Going back to sim until I’m trading consistently again. Ongoing things to work on o Only taking ORBS, ABCD, MA Trends and Double Bottom/Tops o Getting good entries on solid setups

I just got a response from them regarding the VWAP pre-market bug. "Thanks for following up with us again. I apologize that we didn’t have a resolution for you. We are in the middle of replacing our chart engine with a new one. I will keep an eye out for this as we wrap up the transition in the next few weeks." I'll definitely follow up on this and provide updates here if/when it gets fixed.

6 Trade Limit From here on out, starting today. I am implementing a 6 trade limit. If you have seen any of my daily posts, you will know that I trade a lot. I have an overtrading problem. I have no problem jumping into a trade. I've had this problem from Day 1, and I never really got rid of it, except for a a few short weeks in October. Otherwise, I average about 15 trades a day since I went live in October. In October 2018, I had a 6 trade daily limit, and I actually stuck to my rules during that time period. When I first started in sim I would enter in and out of trades with very little hesitation ( a good thing for exiting, a bad thing for entering). I took a lot of trades, but the losses were small. I never broke stop loss and I never doubled down. I knew that I had no limits and I could easily get back into the trade. When I imposed the 6 trade limit, everything was fine for a week or so, until one trade where I didn't stop out because I knew I had a limited amount of trades. I didn't want to exit that trade and lose one of my trades for the day. (Terrible Mindset) I broke stop loss and I took a big loss on the trade. Shortly after, I started to break my stop loss more and more often. I never had this problem until I had the 6 trade limit. I started to break my stop loss and even worse I started to double down on my trades. Now I was breaking stop loss almost daily and doubling down on top of that. I took some big losses, which led me to remove the 6 trade limit. I thought if I didn't have the pressure of making every trade count, that I could easily exit a trade when it was time. It didn't help, I kept the bad habit, and I still occasionally have the bad habit of not stopping out when something drastically goes against me. I no longer double down, Das Risk Controls have helped me with that. I am also getting better at not breaking my stop loss, but I still have work to do. So as of yesterday, I don't really double down anymore, I do occasionally break stop loss, and I do overtrade. I have no interest in double down anymore and I don't see that being a problem in the future. I set up my Das Max trade loss to $80 with auto stop out. So If i double down on a trade, unless I time it perfectly, it will just get me closer to the $80 max stop. So there is no more incentive to double down. In order to address my overtrading problem, I am going back to a 6 trade daily limit. I had a lot of success with this, the first time around, I just created additional problems with it. I will be bringing the trade limit back and using this coin system that I created to help me with it. Every morning, I give myself 6 Golden Coins that represent trades. Everytime I take a trade, I have to deposit one of the coins into the box. When I am out of coins, I can no longer trade. I am down for the day, no matter what the time, and I shut it down. This put a more tangible feeling to my trades. I'm literally holding trades in my hand. And I'm always thinking "Do I want to spend a coin on this trade?". I have become more selective when I use the coins, and I do a pretty good job of only taking 1 or 2 trades per time period/strategy. I have used all my coins in the first 30-45 minutes before and I had to let other solid VWAP/Reversal moves go without me. Now, when I use the coins, I keep in mind that I want to save some for later on in the day, and generally take 1 or 2 each of ORBs, VWAP moves, Reversals. I have had great success using this method to cut down the number of trades that I take. Other problems have arisen that I am working on, but it is imperative that I cut down my trades and this will be the method that I use to do it. I am forced to be patient with my trades and my setups.

A couple of us in the chat have been discussing the issue of tax (planning/preparation/etc) as it relates to day trading in the U.S. (IRS). I've done quite a bit of research on the topic as I've been preparing my own taxes for the last decade+. 2018 will be the first year as a trader, so I had some studying to do. Before I get into the nuts & bolts, let me make the disclaimer: I'm not a professional. Please do your own research, consult a professional, etc. I'm not giving advice nor am I suggesting any one thing or another. The information below is solely based on what I've found through the IRS site, TurboTax, and other resources. First, the IRS considers you one of two: an investor or a trader. If you're a (Trader Tax Status), the law considers this to be a business. There are no clear and concise numbers as it relates to activity for what constitutes a trader vs an investor. The IRS, publication 429, states this: - You must seek to profit from daily market movements in the prices of securities and not from dividends, interest, or capital appreciation; - Your activity must be substantial; and - You must carry on the activity with continuity and regularity. Link to IRS Publication 429 So once it is established that you're a trader and not an investor, we look to what forms are necessary. Those appear to be: Form 1040, Schedule D (Capital Gains and Losses) Form 8949 (Sales and Other Dispostions of Capital Assets)...to break down all the transactions) Form 1040, Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business (Sole Proprietorship)... since as a trader, the IRS considers your a business, you report your business expenses here. Many of us use or plan to use Interactive Brokers. If you're using TurboTax (online version), IB is not a partner of TurboTax. Therefore, all of the transactions won't directly upload into your filing. I've read that some people use software/service such as Gainskeeper or TradeLog. Gainskeeper is listed as a TurboTax partner. All of this is basically to complete Form 8949. With that said, I did also discover that the IRS grants exceptions to Form 8949. Form 8949 states this: Note: You may aggregate all short-term transactions reported on Form(s) 1099-B showing basis was reported to the IRS and for which no adjustments or codes are required. Enter the totals directly on Schedule D, line 1a; you aren't required to report these transactions on Form 8949 (see instructions). This is good news. So assuming you get a 1099-B from your broker, it shows the appropriate information, and a copy is sent to the IRS, you can mark the checkboxes on 8949 for Part I, checkbox A, and Part II, checkbox D. Open the form in the link above and you'll see what I'm talking about. It appears you don't have to show all of the trades (hundreds or more) you completed during the year. Thank goodness, because that would be a HUGE pain in the ass. Here is the TurboTax AnswerXchange link I found that first showed me this: TurboTax AnswerXchange - question re: how to report Scroll to the top. One last important piece of information that I found is in regards to Self Employment tax. Many say that you'll owe SE tax to the IRS since you're in business for yourself (as a sole proprietor) as a trader. That's not the case. You have to have Earned Income in order to pay Self Employment tax. Capital gains is not Earned Income. Form 429 clearly states: Gains and losses from selling securities from being a trader aren't subject to self-employment tax. When you open the link above for Form 429, the "Traders" heading shows this. Finally, this was a helpful link for me. It contains a lot of information on this very topic. It also mentions the Section 475 Mark-to-Market election. Trader Tax Status - Green Trader Tax So that's what I've found so far. I was a bit discouraged at first, thinking I would have to use another vendor (e.g.: Gainskeeper, Tradelog, etc) to track the information, but it it appears I won't have to. Of course, there are CPAs that specialize in taxes for traders, so that may be something to consider. I'm not sure on that yet. First, I wanted to educate myself on how it's all done in case I decide to do it all myself. If others have experience with this, please feel free to chime in. Thanks!