Leaderboard

So this morning I had some anxiety because all four days this week have been green, and most of them 3R, I was afraid I would have a red day today and mess up my green run. I posted my concerns in chatroom in off topic. Had people comment that if my trades this week were good just keep doing the same thing, and trust my process. That helped settle down my nerves. Ended up +2.4R for the day. My first trade was a loss, that used to put me in a mental state that caused me to make bad entries, revenge trade, etc. I didn't even need to calm myself, I took a good entry on a 5Min Engulfing pattern and it just failed. I didn't do anything wrong as far as I can tell. Thanks to Scooby Doo, Tradecraft Trader, pilotfish, kharp83 for chatting with me in the pre market about my anxiety. BBTFamily Trade 1 Roku made an engulfing 5 Minute on the second candle, I entered and put my stop below VWAP, it failed. Trade 2 I continued watching the stock and found a BO down to short. Almost 3R trade. Trade 3 CCL BO above VWAP. MU trade 4 Tried another BO above MA VWAP, SPY looked like it was going to run up. 1Min also looked like it was curving up. TSLA trade 4, I tried to enter once at VWAP, the order didn't go through because I entered a millisecond too late, the price shot up a dollar so my hotkey couldn't figure $10 because my position would have been less than 1 share. I then moved my stop up and got one share. Got scared during consolidation above VWAP, so I moved my stop up so I would only lose 2-3 bucks if it fell. If I would have kept my stop in place I would have been a part of the big run up 15 minutes later. Final trade, ROKU a break above VWAP. On my last partial I moved my stop up like normal, it was a small position but if I would have kept BE stop in place I would have not been stopped and had another run up. I hope this week was a breakthrough. My trading has improved greatly. My dumb mistakes are far and few between now, I don't let losing trades effect the rest of my day.

3-20-20 AIS 0800, 6.5 hours, 6.5/10 PAT: Chasing. Placing hard stops. Only PB#3 in live. TEVA first two trades were PB#1 in SIM -1.3R two min orb failed and a reentry for a 5min orb. took partials on the way down and stopped myself out with a manual trailing stop at previous partial +3.2R PB#3 Live third trade live. Trending the 9ema on the 2min with initial risk above VWAP. Once it chopped and the MAs dropped to the 5min I reset mt stop to a new 15min high. Stopped out. -0.5R PB#3 Live Trending the 9ema on the 5min. partial and an accidental add then took a partial right away. AND I did the same thing again, arghhhhh. (I have been distracted with other things and I need to be very carefull). took another partial on price action change.) All out a new 15min high. I flipped the position in SIM and let it come back to BE. I told myself to take the partial at .49 but I hesitated and lost the profit +2.6R Cons: Slight mismanagement on an add and the scalp on the reversal Pros: pretty much stuck with one stock for the day and found a few trades in it Rs: +4R

Friday 03/20/2020 I had a well-being score of 7/10 this morning. I took 1.5 live trades with UBER, and CCL (sort of). My watchlist: AMD, UBER, TSLA, MSFT, CCL, and AAPL. I made a hotkey mistake at the open with CCL making an accidental trade. I was about to quickly get out but L2 looked good so I held for a bit for break even. I won’t mention it any more. As for UBER, there was a level created at 22.60 the last 7 minutes of PM, plus another level at 22.75 from PM. There was no 1st min volume, but solid volume the next two minutes. I also like the 200MA-1min just above, I always feel that level as a magnet at the open. I went long at the break of the 22.75, got a terrible fill, but my stop was a little lose since I assumed the bad fill. My target was 23.60 (a recent PM high) and stop was the 22.60 PM level. The price moved up quickly then leveled out and created a support level at 23.42. So I decided when it broke down through that level to sell half the reamining shares. Then all out at the break of VWAP. What did I do good today? Recovered from that hot key mistake on CCL. What I am grateful from today? I am always grateful for a green Friday.

Day 51 - Mar 19, 2020 25 Tickets (overtrading) 4 Symbols Break Even Watchlist: No watchlist - slept in and got to screens at 6:30 UBER - Long- 1min - Momentum Breakout (ABCD Setup) $1risk UBER squeezed off the open, heard it called out in chatroom. Missed the ORB which isn't really my play. Took it on the Momentum breakout out of the ABCD. Stop just below previous low. Not a great setup here as I chased the entry but had lots of momentum. Adjusted stops every time it made a higher low as I didn’t like my entry. Took half off into 19.25 which I saw on daily, and finally at round number Good: Trailing stops along the way, taking partials at levels. Improvement: Wasn’t happy wintry, could have had a more defined risk here. RCL (Trade #1) - Short - 1min - VWAP Break and Go Cruise lines weak again, NCLH and CCL were above VWAP looking to break, took RCL as it was already under, and had a defined risk with previous day close and VWAP as stop. Took profits early as SPY was popping and NCLH / CCL were both holding VWAP - not a good sign. Covered another partial as we got to previous bounce leve. Left the rest for original stop breat of VWAP and red to green. Improvement: Too much adjusting stops and targets - need to get rid of this. RCL (Trade #2) - Short - 1min - VWAP Break and Go (Anticipation) Shorted RCL as it approached VWAP and previous day close, strong support level so should have realized I need confirmation on this. Took it too early and got stopped out right above previous high - stop loss got top tick. Good: Right Idea Improvement: Poor execution, could have played out much different if I waited for another pop and took it with much tighter stop, or could have waited for breakdown confirmation close below VWAP. NCLH - Short - 1min - Failed Pop NCLH took it at top of channel expecting it to reject and retest VWAP just like RCL. Spy also breaking down through VWAP should see some movement here. Improvement: This is not in my game plan - shorting top of the channel? That’s a perfect setup for a breakout like it did before…..also above VWAP and shorting into MA - very poorly played. Should not be taking this trade. AMD (Trade #1) - Long - 1min - Technical Breakout (Momentum) AMY and SPY pushing and looking to break HOD. Took AMD half size as it broke out on rising volume, for a momentum play looking to add more on any pullbacks. Pulled back but didn’t have the confidence to add and SPY rejected, looking weak. Made its way up to previous high holding above MA - sold partial in case we reject again. Ended up holding and ran into a big bid at 41.5 - short into it thinking we could break and push to 41.9 target, added for full size - sold partial on momentum, breakout and more as we came up to re-test. Left partial ride and got stopped out at MA. Good: Had the right call on momentum breakout Improvement: Need to have a better plan for momentum, should be taking profits right away, leaving 1/4 - 1/2 position to ride. AMD (Trade #2) - Short - 1min + 5min - Failed Pop Got stopped out on my final partial, and saw the bearish engulfing on the 5min thinking we could see a retracement into MA and potentially VWAP with stop just above previous high and MA's acting as resistance. Took partial at previous low level and another partial at MA. Left a final one to run and got took it off around same spot as my 2nd partial. Good: This was a good entry with defined risk, confirmation with MA as well as rising selling volume. Improvement: Need to be using my risk sizing hotkey - could have turned out to be a nice winner if I sized properly. AMD (Trade #3) - Short - 1min - Failed Pop (Scalp into the close) Overtrading at this point, but watched SPY and AMD sell off into the close - was pretty choked I covered my final partial position right before the drop so wanted to take a little more out of the market. Droped and held below VWAP so I shorted for a quick scalp on the pop. Sold off into previous level and into close. Improvement: Only reason I played this was to try and get P/L to breakeven - this is overtrading, in the long run will not benefit my account. Todays Review Coronavirus quarantine = overtrading. Not used to working from home, watch markets here and there and getting FOMO cases. Not happy with my discipline and ability to control. Thinking of turning screens off. Starting to see progress in ability to recognize why I am making an entry/exit and if it matches my criteria (which is vague right now) - but it is only happening around 50% of the time, other time I have FOMO, chasing, position sizing problems, over trading..... What I did well: Noticed a couple of A+ setups What I did poorly: Position sizing Need to do: Automation? or look at different journal entries. Have 1.5 weeks of SIM left - need to get this process much smoother in order to make more time and learn strategies and tools. Really want to dive deep into LVL 2 - would love to hear any suggestion on what has helped them.

Here's mine. I have a 4 monitor setup.

Hey Lenny! First, that's great that you saw and analyzed that ZM was looking strong in the pre-market and overall today. The first thing I notice is that your first entry is a bit chasing. We're already several strong moves away from the vwap. If you think there is still going to be some strength, I would try and wait to see if there is any pullback before entering. The second thing I notice is that the pre-market high at around $124.50 (the bottom dotted red line on your 1min chart) was acting as pretty strong support. So better entries for your first, second and third trades would be getting in closer to that support line and thus would have your stop loss below the pre-market high. Good job on your 4th trade though. Definitely looks like you had a wider stop loss! For the 5th and 6th I'd definitely be hesitant to go long after that engulfing red candle (the one right after you got out of your 4th trade). I think the main takeaway for me would be focusing on patience and waiting for pullbacks.

I have a CPA handle my taxes. After speaking with him about MTM that is the route I went with. With IB all I had to do was download the tax info they provide onto a thumb drive and hand it to him. Since I am 0% fluent in tax preparation, or should I say, I am 0% interested in doing tax prep, paying a knowledgeable CPA a few hundred bucks to handle it is worth the cost. At first I was nervous that he wouldn't know the difference between "normal" taxes and those of a day trader, but that was short-lived after a simple conversation. For reference's sake I pay between $325-375 USD to my CPA for both my wife and me filing jointly. Seems like a fair value to me; not to mention tax preparation expenses are a write-off. Clearly my two cents worth is hire a professional to handle it. Good luck everyone. Best, Josh P.