Mike B

Feb 3 Did not have the day I was expecting. Downloaded the new release this weekend and had everything setup. About 5 minutes into the market, I ran into issues with my platform, so I spent most of the day on the live chat with DAS getting it configured the right way. If you are with CMEG recommend Uninstall your current version before updating to the current release. Once we started from scratch, have not had an issue since. Spent the rest of the day in Sim testing hotkeys and setting up charts. Live trading tomorrow.

I I use the moving average crossover as an indicator to find a possible breakout trade. Rob C, asked me about it and if you look midway down on page 18 of this journal you will see a post and discussion between Rob and I that I think will answer your questions. About 3 months I noticed the same thing you did but could never really figure out the right entry point until I watched Thor's price level breakout video. This gave me the entry point on the trade and it has been working good as of late. If the post doesn't cover everything you need, hit me up with your questions and I am more than happy to assist.

January Monthly Recap Top Three Good Trends Emotional recognition is improving. I have been able to identify the couple of things that start to get my heart rate up when a setup is starting to appear My ability to focus on a process when the trade is developing and creating a routine to execute the moving average breakout strategy. Prior to this month I have been all over in how I approach determining if I should enter or not. I now have a process and an entry strategy to execute the trade that allows my emotions to remain in check I began developing a process to assist with the self-sabotaging acts I been having issues with entering the correct orders in the montage. I would have thought that this was basic but once I removed my focus from it and just started entering the numbers without double checking errors started to form. Bottom Three Bad Trends Self-Sabotaging acts by far have been the biggest negative trend this month. I have had several each week. Not all of them cost me as I found them before it affected the trade, none the less the acts were still there and need addressing. My emotions while in the trade need focus as those are the emotions that are causing me to reduce my profits and not stick with my trade plan I had an issue at the open where I am seeing setups that are not mine, but I am saying what direction the stock will go in. The stock than makes the move I called, which then builds this feeling of missing out on the trade even though it was not within my trade plan. I have made an effort to stop that and only worry about the trades that are within my trade plan. Focus for Next Month Top priority for next month is fixing the self-Sabotaging acts I am committing Continue to work on focusing on your mindfulness and how you are reacting to certain emotions. Start to hyper focus on your setups and not the other setups that you notice. Those other setups are not going to improve your trading just yet. Eventually you can add them to the tool box.

Jan 31 - $AMD x 2 It seemed like deja vu for me. Overall very happy with my trading on Friday. I stuck to my plan and execute it well. First trade I entered and got stopped out, but I re-entered when the setup was still valid. I got a partial and than stopped out at break even on a dynamic pullback. Not how $AMD typically acts. I probably should have gotten back in after it lost the moving averages again, but I was not like how strong the pullbacks were on both of my trades. It did eventually do what I was looking for, but oh well. Due to executing well I take the .39R loss and end the month green.

January 30, 2020 - $AMD/$QCOM Well the markets and I were not getting along very well today. At the open I placed an order on $MU for a breakout to LOD and did not get filled. Very surprising on $MU, I use to it on higher priced stocks but first time on $MU. I moved on and took a short on $AMD with the same method around 1007. Right after my entry stock started moving to my stop and stopped me out only to quickly sell of and go to my profit target. I conceed to the market and called it a morning. I came back in the afternoon a little late and just missed a great breakout on $AMD at 46.22 around 1315. This was no big deal as it happens quick often as I coming back in the afternoon, so I moved on to $QCOM. Not a normal stock I trade, but one I watch everyday as it can give some good moves. I took it on a breakout, got a partial and then it stopped me out at breakeven. You guessed it, the stock then took off up to my profit target. After the WHO conference and the market getting a little more active, I called it a day as I no longer wanted to fight with market. I will take my .5R loss and call it a day.

January 29, 2020 Coming off of three days of traveling back and forth to San Diego and I felt it. I was all out of sync today. Missing entries, inputting wrong orders, having to readjust range orders because I made it a long instead of a short. I was still able to walk away with a small .5R day so I will call it a win and be back tomorrow. I guess the one that gets me the most was a short on $JD that I didn't take. I had the setup I just didn't pull the trigger, because I had been dealing with FOMO from other setups that I was seeing. The worst part is that they weren't even my setups, so I never would have taken them. Again, just not in the zone today.

Jan 19 -26 Weekly Recap Top Three Good Trends The number one thing I did well this week was focusing on my process prior to my entry and ensuring that I took the entry if it met my trade setup. I was very patience on waiting for my setups to appear. I did not force any trades and when I noticed myself starting to get anxious, I was able to calm myself down and put me back into the right state of mind. After each trade I was able to relax, take the trade for what it was and start to focus on another trade. Bottom Three Bad Trends In the beginning of the week I still ended up with the same issues with inputting orders into the montage. After it happened on Tuesday, I put together a routine together which allowed me to have no other issues for the remainder of the week. I did have some issue with patience this week while in the trade. I wanting to get out of the trade and not let it run its course. I had some issues exiting at the proper levels and sticking with my planned exits. When I was only trading Orbs at the open, I found it difficult to manage more than one trade at a time, so I made a decision that I would only trade one stock at a time. I am going to have to modify this as with my MA-S-PLBO strategy, once I got the limit orders and range orders set, I need to get back to my center screen to look for another opportunity as I can be in trades for over an hour and during that time there have been other good setups. Focus for Next Week Developing a plan to trade more than 1 stock at a time Focus on what is causing the self-sabotaging acts on inputting orders into the montage Mindfulness while scanning stocks

Don't worry about, here to help

Welcome, Keep up the journal, it will help tremendously as you gather more and more data on what you do well and not so well.

Hello Bobby, It took about a week to get the account approved. It took about 48 hours for the wire transfer to hit the account after I sent it. Biggest thing for the wire transfer is to ensure you follow the directions in your account portal for quick processing. Hope this helps

Janaury 23, $PCG I feeling a little behind the markets all day today. Missed a 5 min Orb on $MU, and a 15 min Orb on $JD. I knew coming into today that I was just not on top of my game. I wasn't tired but I could just feel my mind was not operating at the speed it was the past couple of days. I was able to keep myself calm and I got a setup for a breakout on $PCG. I was a little worried about it prior to entering because, I just like the previous trades, I had missed my normal entry. If you look you can tell the entry came on the second time it broke the price level. When I saw it hold the moving average and go for the break, I decided to enter anyways. I should have moved my stop up from my original stop and it would have given me a better risk to reward. I ended up cornering myself and introducing added friction to the trade as I was on a time crunch with taking my daughter to school and I had not gotten the partial yet. I have no plan for this situation, so tonight I developing a plan when this happens again. I was lucky and got the partial prior to leaving and set a range order for my 2R level. As it is a morning trade I only look to get to 2R on this. Overall, a good day and I will take it. I am not worried about the run afterwards, because it in not within my current plan. Maybe later I will start at looking to take advantage of these. Once I get through 20 of these moving average breakout trades, I am going to consider looking at increasing my risk per share. But for right now I need to gather data on this setup.

I usually look on the 1 or 2 minute chart for the touches. Once you start looking for them you will be surprised at how easily they jump out at you.

Hey Rob, 1. I use 2 minute for step 3 only. If I get more that is better 2. I will trade it on the break out of 2 if the level 2 support it, but I prefer 3 touches 3. The ascending/descending triangle almost always appear because of the requirement of no new 5/15 high/low. 4. It depends on the stock, I prefer it to not be equal. Meaning you can tell there is more bids then asks or vice versa.

Hey Rob, Here is a break down of what I look for on what I call a moving average cross over layered with Thor's PLBO strategy. The numbers coincided with the images below. For this example I am looking for a long. 1. After 7:00am I switch my layout to where I have 1 minute thumbs on my center screen and two trading screens on the side (2 second image). I am looking for the 9/20 to cross while sloping towards the 50 MA on these thumbs. 2. Once I see that indicator I pull the stock up and I look to see if it will or has made a new 15 minute low. If it has than I move on. I do not want it to make a new 15 minute low if I am going long. 3. I than go to the 5 minute chart and look or the same thing 4. I than move to the 2 minute and check to see if the 9/20 moving averages are sloping to cross the 50 MA. 5. I than determine if there is an entry point by looking on the charts to see if there is a price level that continuously is getting tested. If there is I mark it and than go to the Level 2 to see if there are orders building up on the other side of that level. If there are, I check the risk to reward, then input a stop limit order for the entry just above that level. Let me know if that helps. It can be confusing as it has a lot of moving parts. I got eaten alive in August because I didn't really have a defined area to take an entry. Once I added Thor's price level breakout to it. It has been producing solid results.

Hey Rob, Yes it is planned but my entry is more based on a price level breakout that Thor discusses; however, the setup is based on the moving averages crossing over. I will make a post tomorrow about the process with some screen shots. Basically, I am looking for 9 and 20 to cross on the 1 minute while sloping towards a cross of the 50 on the 1 minute, while at the same time the 9 and 20 on the 2 minute are sloping to cross the 50. Then I am moving to find the price level with a build up on the level 2 for the entry.

Glad to here.

Jan 22, $MU Got a nice setup early in the morning today on $MU and unlike yesterday, I executed the partials much better. I took a partial at 1R and my out at 2R. It did run a little bit past my 2R level but would never of made it to my next level. For me right now it all about sticking to a workable plan and executing it. I am not worrying about the few cents here or there that I miss out on, because when I was doing that I ended not getting those few cents on top of messing up my other partials. I have plan and I am sticking to it. Ended the day at 1.5R and completed this sample set of 20 twenty trades. I am not seeing my orb strategy set up very often but I believe that is because of the current market. I am fine with it. I know it works and eventually it will start appearing again. Until than I will keep trading this moving average cross-over layered with Thor's PLBO. See you all tomorrow in the chat.

Hey there, 1. You shouldn't have to change to limit. The only thing I notice different is you have no variance in your price. Everything is set to 0. I would try to change it to .01 and see if that helps. I have not had any issues getting filled at the prices I want with the scripts below. 2. Yes definetly change the TIF to "Day". Once you go live if your script or montage is set to "Day+" it will not execute. I learned that the hard way. 3. Here are my hotkey scripts Live Script Long StopPrice=Price-0.01;DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Ask-Price+0.01;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= Ask+0.05;TIF=DAY;BUY=Send;DefShare=200;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice-0.1 ACT:SELL STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos TIF:DAY; Short StopPrice=Price+0.01;DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Price-Bid+0.01;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price=Bid-0.05;TIF=DAY;SELL=Send;DefShare=200;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice+0.1 ACT:BUY STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos TIF:DAY; SSR DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Price-Ask;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price=Ask;TIF=DAY;SELL=Send;DefShare=200; Sim Script Long StopPrice=Price-0.01;DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Ask-Price+0.01;ACCOUNT=TRCME0877;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price= Ask+0.05;TIF=DAY;BUY=Send;DefShare=200;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice-0.1 ACT:SELL STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos TIF:DAY; Short StopPrice=Price+0.01;DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Price-Bid+0.01;ACCOUNT=TRCME0877;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price=Bid-0.05;TIF=DAY;SELL=Send;DefShare=200;TriggerOrder=RT:STOP STOPTYPE:MARKET PX:StopPrice+0.1 ACT:BUY STOPPRICE:StopPrice QTY:Pos TIF:DAY; SSR DefShare=BP*0.97;Price=Price-Ask;ACCOUNT=TRCME0877;SShare=17/Price;Share=DefShare-SShare;DefShare=DefShare+SShare;SShare=Share;Sshare=DefShare-SShare;Share=0.5*SShare;TogSShare;ROUTE=SMRTL;Price=Ask;TIF=DAY;SELL=Send;DefShare=200; Let me know if this helps, or if you are continuing to have issues.

January 23 - $MU I had a decent day, but still having some issues with the montage input. I am going to do some remediation today on it. I am not sure what is but I will see with the DAS replay today what I keep messing up. Other than that it was a day to be patient. I had several setups in the morning and early afternoon, but just as they were getting to my entry order, the stock would reverse and break the setup, so I would move on to another stock. $MU though was not bad today. I got a good entry at 58.71 and set my limit order to partial at 1R, except that instead of covering I added to my position. I quickly implemented my crisis response plan and covered some and set my break-even to may new average cost. Unfortunately, the stock pulled backed to this level and I exited. Had I not had this error the stock would have made it to my 2R level and the plan would have worked. This is a perfect example of why you need to focus while in the moment and execute well. The good thing is that I did not get over excited and just managed what occurred after that.

Have you ever considered using Kyle's hotkey for position sizing based off of $ risk per trade or BP %? I highly recommend it. The hotkey completely changed how I felt upon entering a trade. I no longer ever had to worry about having too large of a size because I was always risking the same amount.

January 13 - 18 recap, This year I decided that I would post my weekly recap analysis in addition to my daily journal postings. Near the end of the year I felt I was not giving due diligence to the weekly and monthly analysis, so in an effort to keep myself accountable I figured I would post them in this journal. Top Three Good Trends While in the trade, I did have any issue with sticking to my profit taking plan. Whenever, I began feeling that mind was racing towards justifying why something would not work out, my mantra of discipline, courage, impartiality, patience worked well to calm my emotions. Although, I gave into my FOBW a couple of times this week, I also faced it head on and conquered it. I have to remember, that you cannot pick and choose which setups are going to work or not work. It is random and the only thing you can do it take the entry when the setup appears if it meets your edge. Currently, my edge has a higher probability of working; therefore, take the trade and move on. My ability to recognize my emotions is improving, even though I was not able to catch myself sabotaging my exits before they occurred, afterwards I was able to recognize them and have begun developing a process to prevent it in the future. Bottom Three Bad Trends I was not confident on my entry and sticking with my pre trade routine and execution. I had a lot of hesitation on the entry because of a feeling of being wrong. I had several montage entry issues this week. I would enter the wrong number or flip the numbers. I need to come up with a smooth executable process for executing the entry of the price. This also goes for the excel worksheet which determines the outs My emotions right near the entry point truly ramp up and my mind starts to focus more on the reason not to be in the trade instead of the reason to be in the trade. Focus Areas Next week My psychology right before the entry Self-Sabotaging acts Stop loss placement and why I am choosing that area for a stop loss

Jan 16 Tough day to accept. I chickened out of taking an entry to the long side on $MS. I went through my process flawlessly, felt good and then at the very last moment I listened to my fear and canceled my stop limit order because I justified it by seeing an order down at 56.16 on the level 2. My stop was set at 56.10 and my entry order was set for 56.29. I think these are the toughest mistakes to deal with as you know better, but still make them. It was a total FOBW (Fear of being Wrong) that kept me out of this trade. My number 1 weakness that I confront every day. As I have to drive to San Diego, I figured I would trade between 8:00 and 10:00 which are not my normal hours as I wanted to get a trade in. Well at least my number 1 strength (discipline) reminded me different and I called it a day without taking a trade. Not sure if I will be able to trade to tomorrow, we will see how much sleep I get tonight. Safe trading everyone.

Keep up the good fight and maintain good risk management and you will survive.

Jan 15, $PINS I had an intersting morning as I seemed to just behind the price action all day. I think it is because I am a little sick and just tired in the morning trying to get going after the medicine. Came back in the afternoon and was able to get a trade on $PINS. I made a rookie mistake on my first trade as I entered a stop limit order with the wrong price. i.e I enter 12.91 instead of 21.91, so I got filled right away and than ended up getting stopped out quickly again. I disregard the trade and re-entered my stop limit order the correct way and executed the trade well. I was not over excited or anixetious while in the trade. i was pretty calm and just letting it play out and did not let the previous trade determine what I was going to do. I ended up getting a 1R, 2R partial and than stopping out at B/E.

Jan 14, I ended up not taking a trade today even though I should have taken a long on $DAL. Maybe because I had to travel to the airport or that I am not feeling well. Nope that is not the answer at all, those are just rationalizations for why I didn't take the trade. The true reason was because I was a little nervous, so instead of finishing my process on analyzing the stock and setting a stop limit order for an entry, I started looking at a couple other stocks to delay the decision. By the time I looked back at $DAL it was past my entry. I would have gotten a 1R and 2R partial before getting stopped out at the breakeven with the last little bit. Learning has occurred, tomorrow do not make the same mistake. As you will notice I changed how I track my sample sets now. Instead of tracking a sample set including all trade strategies, I broken it down so I can analyze which strategy is most successful. I may change this as the year goes on based off my needs.