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Wednesday 7/16/2019 I had a well-being score of 4/10 this morning so I only traded SIM. Today was one of those days showing why I don't like trading SIM. I took a trade on a bad setup and immediately got stopped out. Then I started taking lots of trades and breaking lots of rules. Yes its all on SIM, but these are bad practices that will weaken my resolve the next time I trade live (hopefully tomorrow). What makes things worse is my last trade was a big winner, thus helping to solidify the bad habits. I will not journal any of my trades here, though I will review all the video tonight to see if there was anything to be learned. I hope the rest of you had a better day.

16.Jul.19 Green Day (1R) 4 Trades today. 1 Win, 1 Loss, 2 Break even Watchlist: I had $SQ(Hanging man on Daily), $JPM and $WFC on the watchlist. But I was trying to catch the Pullback ORB breakout entry setup in one of the 10 stocks I had up on the monitor. I did take it in $FB. Modified my layout recently and ended up making a hotkey mistake due to that. Also, Lot of people in the chatroom had issues with DAS and connectivity. I stopped Trading after that. Trade 1: $AAPL. 10 mins after the open $AAPL bounced off all MAs and opened above MAs. I love this setup (similar to Fallen Angel setup). Took it long realized that It was in SIM, din't want to chase it in Real. BUT, when i put in a range order to profit out the SIM trade, I put my Live account by mistake. Didn't even notice it until the order was kicked, now I had a Real position shorting $AAPL. Got out immediately without much damage. Could have been a disaster, if I had moved out of my machine. Trade 2: $FB was forming ORB and offered a pullback (10min chart). I waited for the price to break the high of 1st and 2nd candle and Entered Long. 1 Partial at strong resistence above. I took only half the size as it was $FB. So My profit was 1R against the risk of 0.5R. Entry - $204.95 Stop - 25c Exit - $205.4 Trade 3: $MU. Tried this new setup in Live today. Double Bottom with hammer on 2 min. I took small share size as stop was wide. Got 1R. Price later moved to 2RR (MFE price). Trade 4: $ROKU. Trend Trade, after hammer on the 5min (I find similarity to the DB hammer setup), went Long. partialed at HOD. and Got stopped out. I should have given wide stop for $ROKU. I didn't. Entry - $110.38 Stop - 15c Target - $111 (4R) Exit - $110.8 and then stopped out. Good: Tried new setups with small share sizes. Was particular about taking share sizes within my Risk for the Trade. Stoped trading Live, after some people had issues with DAS (unable to close/cancel positions). Improvement: My stops are too tight. I should have given 30-40c to $ROKU (considering I took only half share size and would have fit within my Risk of R). I am so confident of the setup working out, I am keeping tight stops. Mistake. These kind of stokcs need large Stops, unlike $MU or $AMD.

16/7/19 after a disappointing day yesterday, going to try to be more cautious today. been reading a book on VPA which im going to try to link to my charts as they develop throughout the day... Trade 1: Chased a 5 min ORB and got stopped out... stupid! # Trade 2: 5 min orb on MU, took one partial then stopped out at break even. took the reversal above VWAP with one partial then stopped out. Getting into trades way to hastily. Trade 4: not really a setup just bearish volume, took one partial then stopped out at break even. Trade 5: MA trend trade on ROKU just a quick scalp courtesy of andrew... Trade 6: heard kurt speaking about trend trades so waited for a low hammer on NVDA for an entry and it worked out pretty well. Trade 7-2000: just putting the 15 min chart in to show how ridiculous this looks. some were scalps on the way up, others were trying to get in fo a reversal and getting stopped out. and although it looks pretty bad i actually made a big profit on it, respecting my stops and then getting in again when the setups were ready so taking this as a win. Overall a very stressful day and i probably over traded and didnt take good setups in the morning. i think when i dont get a good 5 min ORB i tend to jump into things too quickly so in future going to really sit on my hands if i dont get into a good ORB and wait for something to setup. apart from that i was good at taking quick stabs at trades and getting out if its not ready and back in when it was.

Tuesday 7/16/2019 I had a well-being score of 6/10 this morning. My nerves were bad as soon as I woke up. I am not sure why. I took three SIM trades today. But I did not set up my platform correctly this morning and I was pulled away from my screen for the last 15 minutes of premarket. I made it back with 30 seconds until the open. I was frazzled and my nerves were bad even before I missed the last part of the premarket. I was not able to run through my checklist and I didn’t know I was in SIM until I finished trading and looked at my P/L. Since I really thought I was live and had all the stresses of live, I am adding the two trades to my data set and journaling them here. I did take a “real” SIM trade on a 15min ORB, which of course I was stopped out. I was focusing on MU and AAPL, but FB would have been fine as well. I had the scenario if AAPL was weak and broke down through the 200-5min I would go short. The problem was it did just that almost immediately after the open. Since I was still frazzled I was not quick on the draw and let it go. Sadly, it reached my target. The price bounced back and bounced off of VWAP giving me another chance. But I was caught in the headlights. It broke through the 200MA, and I didn’t take the trade. Then it passed the body of the first candle, and I didn’t take the trade. Finally I took the trade right at the level that was supposed to be my first partial target. Yikes! What a bad entry. My R/R was about equal to one. Thus, I was stopped out quickly. This is what the chart looked like when I entered the trade. After the AAPL trade I was just in time for a 2min ORB on MU. I entered at the break of the 2min candle body with a very tight stop at the 43.71 level. Maybe too tight, but I seem to get caught on these early reversals on MU. My target was the 43.34 level. The price went to the penny of my stop out but I held on. I did take 4 partials but I made an effort to take small bites. Actually, the next partial was going to be my first large partial. But it didn’t happen. I exited on weakness when it was close to my B/E. Due, to my small partialing I only made 1R on the trade. So I am flat for the day. The small partialling didn’t work out well for me today. But, I am still experimenting with the partialing. Score card for my trades that I thought were live. What I did good today: Took a classic 2 minute ORB. Nothing fancy. How did I challenge myself today? Kept cool after realizing I wasn’t trading live. What I did bad today: Missed my checklist and traded when frazzled (arriving at the platform 30sec before the open). What can I do better tomorrow: Don’t trade if not mentally ready. Take a minute to regroup. I should take a large partial when it reaches my target.

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17.Jul.19 Red day. Watchlist: $MU, $SQ, $TSLA, $QCOM $CSX. Trade 1: $MU. Took conventional ORB at the open. Took short on the pullback to VWAP, got stopped out. 1.5R loss. Trade 2: $CSX. Another ORBD at the pullback. One partial and then got stopped out above VWAP. I don't think the stop was too tight. May be I could have re-entered, but after a loss, I move to other stocks. Probably to avoid Revenge trading. Trade 3: $ AMD. $AMD and $MU were choppy today. I noted the price popping up above the resistence and also setting a trend. I took it long after the bounce (red hammer candle 1min) Price moved slightly and then dumped to stop me. Trades 4&5: $TSLA. I took long after price broke VWAP mid-day with a strong candle and offered pullback. Got stopped out. Went long again as the setup was there. my target was $257(2R), I moved it higher, once the stock was strong. But got stopped out BE. No partials. . Good: Not much, except no Revenge trading. Improvement: I need to reduce my sharesize. And analyze my stops. For the 3rd day, I am getting stoped out on good setups. I had 2R on $TSLA, but moved my target after seeing the price action, stopped BE. May be i should partial once before moving my Target to higher levels.

17/7/19 really bad sleep last night and hoping for a less stressful day today, but still finding myself excited to get into it everyday which is encouraging. Traded like a crack head. Trade 1: really nice engulfing pattern on MU, entry wasn't great just above PCL, with stop loss somewhere below that. took good partials and got out when it started stalling. Very good overall trade for me, Trade 2: looked like a false break out. volume to me looked like it was short. didnt go my way so got out. not a terrible trade just got it wrong. Trade 3: This was a false breakout but i think i was long biased because ROKU had such a good day yesterday and expected it to go higher. Took a huge loss from this and got really frustrated. Trade 4: This looked long to me, not really a setup though. If i had a better entry i wouldnt have got stopped out and it actually was long after i got out which was even more annoying but didnt get back in. Trade 5: Waited for a pullback to get into the MA trend. volume still looked like it was bearish but got stopped out as the pullback was too big. Trade 6: starting to really hate ROKU. just moves too fast and since im in sim ive just been sticking in general to 100 share size no matter how big a mover it is. definitely going to go half sizes with shares like ROKU from now on. and again im being long biased which isnt working out for me. I carried on after this but im not gonna post it in here because i think i went mini hulk so gonna give it a rest for the day and cool off.

July 16 No trading today due to work. I was able to come back in the afternoon and work on my afternoon Moving Average X-cross strategy. I am working on being able to scan stocks and pick out the ones that have a setup developing. I am still in the process of determining what I want to appear before entering. The last couple of days have been real productive with this. Same routine tomorrow.

Thanks. I surprisingly shrugged it it off easily. I am not trying to make money now. So since I thought it was real, I got in the same practice time. Of course I am saying this being flat for the day. If I was up 4R and realized I was in SIM......

If it is any consolation, you are not alone. I entered my first trade of the day in $AAPL thinking I was Live, but was actually in SIM

I learned this the hard way: After having lost several valuable seconds in enties & exits. Now I make sure that the montage is active before a trade.