Hey everybody, Today is quite an important day for me. I've finally managed to get back to break even after being in the red for 4 and a half years since I started day trading. I'll be honest, I was starting to doubt my ability to ever become a profitable trader at the end of 2020, and I thought about quitting. Investing so much time and effort for years, only to see money disappearing from your account is very hard on morale, of course. One thing that kept me going was the fact that, even though my account wasn't getting better, I felt like I was always making a little progress on both the technical side and the psychological side. I figured if I kept going, one day, I would finally turn the corner. Well, I turned that corner at the end of 2020, when I changed my approach, strategy and tools all at the same time. It took me 4 years to lose 25000$, and only 6 months to make it back. And frankly, I'm pretty excited to see what the next couple of years will look like as I'm only starting to ramp up my size. I wanted to share this with you guys because this chatroom is one of the reasons why I was able to make it work for me, and I figured it could help motivate and inspire anyone that is still struggling to find their marks and make it work for themselves. As you can see from my total realized P&L of the last 4.5 years, I had a pretty long and difficult journey. I just wanted to say this: As long as you feel that you're progressing at least a little, and if you like what you are doing, make sure that you give yourself the time and the tools to keep going because you never know when you'll be turning that corner. I surely didn't expect it, not more than a year ago I was about to call it quit, and it would have been a monumental mistake. Let this be an inspiration for those still struggling.

Hi Everyone, I am embarking on one of the exercises that Mike B has done and documented based on the writings of Mark Douglas. My goals during this exercise are the following. Goals: No micromanaging, or reflexive trading. Pre-determine entries and exits. 20 trade sample size with a defined edge. 3-4 sets of trade sample with journaling. R = $200 Daily R goals 2.5 R Max daily R loss 1.5R Edge Defined I wanted to develop my own edge based on my strength and weakness. From my journaling, and self assessment, my strength and weakness are listed below. Strength: High Risk Tolerance // Without proper use of Risk Control, this is my one huge liability. Good read of price action and Candle stick analysis Consistent Big R days. 7-20 R days. Weakness: Undisciplined Risk management FOMO, when using smaller time frames Big risky addons Big Volatility in profits and loss Micromanaging during the trade Strategy: 30 MIn ORB. Based on my experience and observation, using a longer time frame allows me to stay more in the pocket of a trade, using a bigger and well defined stops, and exits. First trade can be conducted at the open, if a well defined price range established. Else, the first trade will be conducted after the first 30 mins of ORB. Criteria for Entry: Once the price is at the top or the bottom of the range, we can take a long or short, pending on the strength and volume of the candles. For considerations for long or short, we will look at the overall trend on the daily, weekly, Pre-mkt high/low, and previous days open/close and the pivot points. Once I am ready for an entry, I will observe the 2/5 min candles, and find the lowest volume candle. The candles that follows the low volume, must have more then 1.5 x higher then the lowest volume candle, and it must move in the direction of the long or short. Long can be from the bottom of the range, or breaking out at the top. Good long entry on a bullish stock is the 9/20 trade. If the price is breaking at the top of the range, wait for a pull back (9/20), and a rising volume for the 2nd breakout point for entry. If the price is at the bottom of the range, and playing for long, wait for the first bullish candle with volume. One strong indicator that may show a sign of reverse is the spin top candle. Preferably, with a small to medium body, and long wicks. Price pivots on the 5 min is useful on price change. Most important, price range established by the 30 min ORB is very important. **Short plays will be just the opposite from above. ====================== Stock Watchlist ==================== Float - High or Medium float. > 50 Mil. Catalyst - n/a but big news is always considered. Price Spread = < .03 Volume = Higher then the normal Volume. Exchange = Nasdaq ===================== Trade management ===================== If the entry is within the 30 min range, the target exit will be the high or low of that range, pending on the long/short strategy. Stop is placed using the Kyle's dynamic hotkey with a fixed $ size equal to 1R($35). 1st partial 50% = > 1R #b/e stop placed 2nd Partial 50% = 1/2 ATR or other technical levels. #b/e stop placed Trail stop placed at 20ma of the 5 min candle implemented after 2nd partial. .25 R invested. B/E stop is removed. Share Size: Pending on Kyle's hot key. It is fixed dollar amount, and the size is dependent on the stock price. **3/4/2022*************** New trade management addedum. Take partials on losing trade to minimize risk. Also, 1st partial pending on the movement and stop size, anywhere between 20% to 50% to 100%. Biggest thing is the idea of taking partials only when green is not ideal. If the price moves against you, why wait for the stop out. Reduce your exposure, and give it a chance to play out, else stop out or close out. See this post from 3/4 for more details of implementation and the psychology behind it. **************************** Add ons. If the price is moving in the right direction, using the ABCD setup, add on 1R, if the price has not exceeded the daily ATR and the price is supported with Volume. If the price moves without volume, use caution. Possible trap setup. Day Trade Mental Check List ————————————————— Do you have a direction bias on the price? I have accepted on the unpredictability of the market. Are you certain on the momentum of a position to add on aggressively? One entry, one risk, one trade at a time. No more add ons, unless the trade is working extremely well. I believe the opportunities to make good trades are in abundance and money flows through me. Are you willing to bet on a position when it is extended? There is always a risk. Best to use your risk controls, and do not abandon it. Do you have the stops and risk control in place? I am confident on my trades, but the risk control is there to assist me, not to hinder me. Better the small daily loss, then large. Are you entries well defined technical levels, and the stops and targets defined? I plan my entries, stops, and target exits within 30 min range. Holding anything longer is just a lost cause. Entries will always be low for long, and high for short. I will have the patience to wait for the price levels to be crossed when playing a position. ================================== Technical Check off before each trade. ================================= what is the Ticker? What is the size position or Risk Level? What is the entry price level? What is the stop level? What is the target exit? What are the daily, pre-market, and moving averages? How does the L2 coincide with the technical levels above. Is the entry extended? If yes and a continuation, consider a smaller R value. Is there a large wick, that the 30 min candle closed on, that the price can retest? are the entry, stop and exit near a technical level, cam pivot, daily levels, moving average? *check diff time frames. If not a continuation, is it channeling, or sign of a selloff, or a reversal? Are we trading off the 30 min ORB, or pre-market range? If not, use smaller risk value, and bigger stops. Do not add on, unless it has moved to a different technical level, not on the first minor pullback. If trading a reversal, wait for the price hit the liquidation mark, and the moving averages and the candles to level off, and show a sign of either support or resistance, pending on the direction change. Did we check other time frames to see if the technicals of the moving average, and levels coincide with the L2 depth? How can you use the 9/20 as an entry signal? use the crossover indicators on the 2 min chart.

Very well done!!! and thanks for the answer. You have done a courageous move to switch to options (big change) and a stunning work to build up confidence. As I said, very inspiring.

Thanks!! Sure, here we go: 1. the large drops in acct was "hulk" days ? Yes, some hulk days and some "deer in the headlights" days. 😄 2. Which tools u changed ? I went from DAS to TWS+TradingView for 2 reasons: 1- I wanted to trade options instead of shares, and TWS is much better than DAS for trading options 2- DAS is pretty expensive and I felt the monthly cost was pushing me to take trades to "make use of what I was paying for" and I wanted to remove that pressure. TWS is free, and TradingView is pretty cheap (around 300$/yr) compared to DAS, and I was already using TradingView for technical analysis anyways., I just love those charts and I find they are less taxing on my computer when calculating indicators in real time. 3. General or detailed info on strategy/setups and or risk reward as u profits are also very dramatic ? I used to scalp shares of stocks in play at the open using momentum, ORBs, engulfings, etc... kinda like what Andrew is doing. I was watching at least 4 to 6 different stocks every morning. I was also watching the level2 and Times and Sales for my active stock. I was using the automatic share size calculator by Kyle. It's complicated to explain exactly why it wasn't working for me but anyways... When I almost gave up in December of 2020, I decided to give myself only 5k$ for the whole year of 2021, and if I lost it all in the first week, just too bad, no trading for the rest of the year. And so, with such a little account, I had no choice to try options trading. I figured I would try to do the same thing as before, but scalping options instead of shares, and watching only 1 stock instead of 4 or 6. Since TSLA was and is still my favorite stock to trade, I decided to only look at TSLA every morning for a while and try to scalp options on it. It took a couple of months of setting up my new tools and adapting to this new strategy, and I almost blew up in the process (see the big drop to -27000 in early 2021, my account was less than 3k$ at that point), but I was able to recover and it finally started paying off. I also bought a macro keyboard to give me better control of my keyboard shortcuts and I feel like it made a big positive impact. I couldn't see myself trading without it now. So basically, I simplified my trading in many ways. I ditched the Level2 and Times and Sales windows, those were just too much information for my brain to process at the same time. I also went from watching multiple stocks to only one, which allowed me to really connect with the price action on the stock and feel what it wants to do a lot better. And I switched from shares to options and futures (I watch TSLA and MNQ for the market, so I will sometimes take trades on MNQ when I don't see anything on TSLA that I like), using only 1 contract on any normal day. Sometimes I will take more contracts when I'm absolutely certain of a move (I know there's no such thing as 100% probability but some moves can get pretty close to that) and I'll go up to 5 or 10 contracts which allows me to have those bigger green days. I also reduced my trading time to only the first 15 to 30 minutes most days, on rare occasions I will trade for the entire first hour but I try to avoid that as much as I can. Once I'll have a little green cushion (let's not forget I only reached break even yesterday), I will slowly increase my standard position size to 2 contracts instead of 1, then 3, 4, 5 etc. I'm hoping I can get to 5 contracts standard for the end of 2022, but we'll see. Right now I'm aiming for between 200 and 1000$ per day, and my max loss is around 500$ but its all good as long as I keep it under 1000$. I usually have 3 or 4 red days per month at most and they are usually more between 200-300 than 500-1000. Part of the simplification was also letting go of the chatroom, so I don't come in anymore, I trade alone, in silence. I can focus better and read the price action more accurately without the distraction. I hope that answers your questions, if you would like any other info, let me know! 🙂

Hi, You will see level 2 data always during market hours and after hours (post-market/pre-market). DAS only support level 1 replay features so you will only see level 1 data while trading with replay mode. Hope you got your answers. Best of luck..

Hello, You can only see level 1 data while trading with replay mode, so if your strategies depend on level 2 data, then a problem You need to follow your trading plan strictly to get the most out of it. Best of luck.

Hello, I use DAS for day trading and TOS for swing. I don't use VPOC study in my TOS chart. VPOC (Volume Point of Control) is available in VolumeProfile study in TOS. Best of luck.

Hey everyone, This is the spreadsheet we talked about in previous Workshop Wednesday "Trading in Probabilities" https://1drv.ms/x/s!Agc0kibqYd7fwDv0vV3G8wflrE3e Thanks!