Rob C

Live trading summary of the month of June. So on Tuesday afternoon (6/25/19) I was thinking I wish the month ended today because I was up +7R with a score card of 87%, but it didn’t. I had three really bad days thus ending the month at +0.6R and score card of 84.5%. Though I shouldn’t be concentrating on my P/L, the previous four months (Feb-May) my end of month P/Ls have been in the range of +1.6R to -2.7R. Essentially, I have been flat for four months. But, just last Tuesday it was looking like a break out month for me being up +7R. But again I ended flat for the month. The two positive things I can say about the month of June is first I do feel like I have improved in my trading this month. Second, even though I have a win% this month of 42% I am green for the month (though barely). This does show that my winners are larger than my losers. I traded with Centerpoint for most of the month with mix results. The BBT deal limited me to too slow of a route so I had to drop that deal. Then there was one market open that you couldn’t short any stock. I will trade with them again in July and see how it goes. In June I reread (actually listened to) Daily Trading Coach. That was the third time I had listened to it. It seems to be a book you need to reread every few months. I am still reading The Playbook on Kindle and reading Market Mind Games on hard back. It takes a lot longer for me to read in that media. Stats for February/March/April/May/June: February March April May June Total # of trades 21 34 36 36 38 Hulk Days 0 0 0 0 0 Max Loss Days 0 0 0 0 0 Broke max trade rule 1 1 0 0 0 Hoy Key Mistakes 1 1 0 0 1 Score card 81% 81% 84.5% Goals for June: 1) Don’t go hulk. 2) Learn to control your emotions after a loss. 3) The trade score card average for the month should exceed the previous month. 4) Reduce risk per trade from $30 back to $25 until trade score card improves. 5) Keep improving health. 6) Follow the new 11 rules I specified in my June 28 weekly

Live trading summary for week ending 6/28/19. Rough week. I took 10 trades this week with a poor score card average of 81%. Win% was the worse in over 5 months at 20%. Friday, after 7 losing trades in a row that week, almost turned into a hulk day. I was able to walk away just under my daily max loss. Monday was an OK day. Tuesday I was rejected trying to short FB at the open (what a short it would have been!) due to Centerpoint’s IT issues. Then all losing trades Wednesday through Friday. So now I know where my emotional capital limits are, so I need to set new rules to prevent me reaching it again. 1) Lower risk from $30 back to $25 2) Do not increase risk size on the last week of the month. 3) Do not hold to original S/O after first partial. Something I implemented last week (don’t move your S/O after only one partial) since back testing said I would profit from it. Failed me 3 times this week. So S/O will be moved from the original level after first partial. 4) Trade half share size the day after a double stop out day 5) Two double stop out days in a row go to SIM. So I will be on SIM on Monday. 6) 2 trade a day max again. The third trade per day under certain conditions was working for me. But I can’t trust myself now. Plus it feels like a punishment if I take this away. 7) No premarket trades. This was working for me, but again I don’t trust myself now. 8] After done trading live for the day, look for a SIM trade until 7am. 9) Absolutely no trades before preflight checklist signed off. I was sloppy about that this week. 10) Increase meditation 11) Watch the will-power reservoir. I have been trying to improve my discipline (will-power) in my nontrading life. But doing too much can drain the will power reservoir we all have. So mild will power exercises during the week and the heavy lifting one’s I will practice on Friday and Saturday only. Here is my plan for this week: Concentrate on process and score card, not on W% and P/L Follow the 11 new rules listed above Do not trade AAPL until better data is seen. Though last week was OK, AAPL maybe coming back into play at the open. FB had a marginal week. It should be secondary or even your third focus for this week. AMD was no longer in play for the 2min ORB. Do not focus on it at the open. MU is in play at the open, make it your primary focus for the week. NFLX is now in play at the open, especially for the 1min ORB. Careful the way it slides through VWAP. Give it 30-50 cents of room around VWAP before considering that it "broke" through VWAP. Try trading NFLX in SIM or low shares (with wide stop out) at first.

Friday 6/28/2019 I had a well-being score of 6.5/10 this morning. My nerves were actually OK. I apologies I did not make a screen cap of my trades so you will not see the charts today. Sorry I really did not want to look at them again. So today’s journal entry is more of lamenting and reflection, not analysis. Today was my worse day in 5 months to end my worse week in 5 months and destroyed what would have been my best month since I went live. I usually have bad days on my last day of the month, but I lost control today. I was having a pretty bad week already. Tuesday Centerpoint had an IT issue and would not allow any shorts (my short entry was rejected twice on FB) and thus missed, what would have been likely my trade of the month. Though I kept the FOMO in check, it did weigh on me. Wednesday was my first triple stop out day in 5 months. Thursday was a double stop out day. I did not get a chance to exercise or meditate on Thursday. I was worried last night how my nerves would be on Friday, but when I woke up they were fine. I just thought I am trading half share size today (Friday trading rule) so the worse I can do is –R. So I guess I really didn’t know my emotional capital was completely spent. So what I felt as no nervousness was more likely numbness. I opened up my platform as usual in the morning, though a few minutes late, and I almost instantly took a trade very early in the premarket. I have never done that before and I have no idea how to trade that early. The reaction to take a trade was instant, I was not prepared for that. Yes, looking at MU without checking the time looked like an OK setup. But that could be a horrible setup for that time in the morning. Yes it did have an ABCD pattern and I went long. At first with small share size. But was caught in the headlights and missed my entry. But I took the trade anyway after it ran 20 cents. 20 cents!! That should be my target not my entry. Obviously it retraced and found a new bottom. I added to my long and did actually take a first partial. I took too small of a share size once I remembered I am in premarket and took another partial. The price started to reverse. Recently I have not been stopping out at B/E if I only take one partial. A new rule this week, which I have used now 3 times to disastrous effects. But B/E was a good spot to move my S/O to since it was the new support level. Once broken I should get out. Instead I was holding to my original stop out. A few cents above my original stop out I got so disgusted with myself I exited. The price immediately reversed back and headed higher. So if I exited at B/E it would have been a positive trade or held to my original S/O. Instead I caught the low. This triggered even more emotional issues and after the price moved a bit up I went long again (chasing it again). At that point I didn’t want to look at it again. Without thinking clearly I set a range order with a tight stop and walked away to finish with my usual morning routine. Yes I had a stop LIMIT order at low volume premarket where I should have used a stop market order. I came back a few minutes later assuming I had been stopped out and saw the price well below my stop limit and still active. Now I really started to lose it and added to my position at the new support level. I did choose a S/O level and I did make a very rough calculation of risk, then rounded up the share size, ignored the premarket price slide and ignored my first entry. Thus my risk was way too high. The price dropped and I did get out at my planned S/O minus the slide I must have had. I immediately closed my platform without recording screen captures of my trades and walked away and went to work early. It was almost 4 hours later I decided to look at my P/L. I glanced at it and closed my platform quickly as I wasn’t sure if I could trust myself. It was bad, but luckily it was just slightly below my daily max loss limit. I think that would have crushed me after 5 months of never breaking my max loss to finally break it. I was also still slightly green for the month. I took a big hit to my monthly score card average, I was actually proud of my score card this month until the last day. My score card for the day: What I did good today: Live to trade another day. How did I challenge myself today? Turned off my platform and walked away. What I did bad today: Lost control. What can I do better tomorrow: Well I found where my current limits are for emotional capital. I will create a plan and post in my weekly how not to reach those limits again.

Yes. It took me two months, with numerous phone calls and emails, to get my CMEG account activated. I find phone calls a little bit more effective but still poor. But after using them for over 3 months (before I switched to Centerpoint) I found the [email protected] email MUCH more responsive than the new account email. You may want to try them. Hopefully they won't kick you back to the stagnate new account department.

Thursday 6/27/2019 I had a well-being score of 7/10 this morning. My nerves were OK. I took two live trades, one with FB and one with AMD. A double stop out day is not what I needed after my triple stop out day yesterday. But, that’s what I got. FB gapped up 1% and had OK premarket volume and an OK premarket action. I really liked this setup. A miniABC pattern from premarket with a nice 1min hammer (with strong volume) at the open. I waited for the price to break the high pf premarket (which coincides with the break of the 1min candle) and I went long. My target was the 190.75 level with my S/O at the low of the previous candle (also 50MA). I took a little bit light on the shares since that 190.02 daily level was still looming above my entry. I thought it was a clean break of the premarket high when I entered, but I guess it wasn’t (or the daily level at 190.02 was more powerful than I thought) as the price immediately reversed and I was stopped out less than 1 minute later. My second trade was with AMD. AMD open with two bearish 1min candles. I waited for the bounce from VWAP and went short. My target was the 200MA-5min and VWAP was my S/O. The 200MA-1min was in the way. But, it previously broke through it. The real question was if it will break of the LOTD. But, the R/R ~4 was too good to pass up. So I did take the trade, but at half share size. It never broke the low of the day and I was S/O just above VWAP as planned. My score card for today: What I did good today: I kept my risk management under control. I was stopped out twice but my P/L is only -1.3R. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with $30 risk/trade. What I did bad today: I didn’t check the strength of the levels during my premarket prep. I have been good about that lately. It would have told me to be suspect of the FB trade/entry. What can I do better tomorrow: Must complete my full premarket checklist. I was running a little late so I cut corners. If I can’t complete it I shouldn’t be trading.

Wednesday 6/26/2019 I had a well-being score of 7.5/10 this morning. My nerves were good. I took three live trades, two with FB and one with MU. I knew I was going to make a hot key mistake this week. And since I convinced myself of it so of course it happen. Three times, in the past few days, I mentioned on the BBT website or in private email that I like my DAS layout since I only made 2 hot key mistakes in 5 months. Luckily I recovered from today’s hot key error in about one second and it didn’t cost me anything. When I wanted to exit the trade I clicked the Sell ¼ button instead of the sell all. By luck the price popped up then I clicked the sell all button so no harm done. FB and MU were my two main focuses this morning. FB had a bullish 2min candle forming and I liked how it couldn’t break VWAP the three times it tried and I went long. Since it was an OK setup and not great I went with small share size when it cleanly broke the 200MA-1min. The 200MA-5min was my target and VWAP my S/O. The price did make it to my first partial, then struggled for 2 minutes and I got stopped out for a loss. My next trade was with MU which was forming an ABCD inside the 5min ORB. I waited for a bounce off the 36.67 daily level and went long full share size. Target was the 37.29 daily level with stop out at 36.59 daily level. I was able to make a first partial but 6 minutes later I was stopped out for a loss. Due to my new rules I am allowed to take a third trade in certain situations. Though today was only the second time I have used that rule. My final trade was with FB. The price was holding the 200MA-1min for several minutes and I went long (small shares) when it bounced again. Target was 200MA-5min though I was hoping for HOTD with VWAP with my stop at VWAP. Though it had held the 200MA for several minutes, the moment I took the trade the price instantly reversed and immediately broke down through the 200MA and quickly broke through VWAP where I was stopped out. My score card for today: What I did good today: I kept my risk management under control. I was stopped out 3 times but my P/L is only -1.5R. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with $30 risk/trade and took smaller partials. What I did bad today: Both FB setups were B- setups. They weren’t bad, but that doesn’t mean I need to take them. What can I do better tomorrow: This is my first triple stop out in 5 months. I feel OK now, but I am thinking I should go half shares tomorrow or until I get my confidence back.

Thanks for reading them. As a lower limit it has worked really well for me. I have painful data that shows that a wellbeing score of 4.5/10 is the lowest I can have and still trade full share size live. 4/10 I switch to half shares. 3.5/10 or lower I use SIM only. It will probably take another year to determine a general correlation. Since my wellbeing score goes up with warmer weather and since I am new to trading my trading has improved at the same time. Yes, I have been told that I am too negative on myself. But I do like the phrase I use in my journal. It helps me vent and reset.

Thanks for the recommendation, I just downloaded the book. Yes its very good.

Tuesday 6/25/2019 I had a well-being score of 6.5/10 this morning. My nerves were fine. I took one live trade with MU. More issues with Centerpoint!!! See below for details. I wanted to short FB at 9:31am and Centerpoint rejected my order saying unable to short this security. This is FB!!! I tried again at 9:32am and again there were no shares for short. If you haven’t seen FB’s open, trust me that would have been my trade of the month. After my trading day ended I called Centerpoint and they said they had a DAS and Vision (the clearing house) IT issue and the easy to short list was not uploaded to DAS. Thus, nothing was shortable on Centerpoint today (unless you use their locator app). They said they were alerted to it and fixed it well after the open. Honestly, when I look at the FB,MU,AMD,AAPL,… I don’t look to see if the “S” is there on my montage. Looks like with Centerpoint I will have to add that to my preflight checklist. Very disappointed with Centerpoint. Luckily MU has a long setup so I was able to take a trade today. Back test data says that MU is good with the 3min ORB. I saw MU make a mini ABCD/pendant and really hold the 33.47 daily level. I went long at the break of that level. I did take 3 partials, all small ones (trying to work on my partialling). Then SPY started to drop and I was thinking about exiting or take another partial if it broke the 33.64 level which the price has been respecting. But my subconscious thought, “you have already taken 3 partials, let it ride to B/E in case it’s a pull back.” That’s fine but my subconscious forgot I took small partials today and I still have half my shares left. So I let it ride to B/E where I exited. Well that’s part of the learning curve I will have when trying to teach myself to partial better. My score card for today: What I did good today: Recovered quickly from FB shorting issue and took another trade. Very happy how I don’t feel any FOMO missing the great short I would have had on FB. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with $30 risk/trade and took smaller partials. What I did bad today: Should have partialled or exited MU when it broke the support with SPY falling like a rock. What can I do better tomorrow: Checking short availability, on all stocks, will be on my preflight checklist.

Some details of the Centerpoint’s BBT offer I learned trading with them the last two weeks. First, I used CMEG for a little over 3 months. They were adequate but I prefer a US based broker, the commissions (CMEG) were quite high since I am still trading small shares, I was a little disappointed with the shorts availability and there were some technical difficulties (though no major ones). I applied to Centerpoint with the BBT offer and had an account in 2 days. This was much improved over the 2 months it took to get an account with CMEG. I have been trading for Centerpoint now for an 11 days. Starting on the first day I had issues with my orders being filled. I do trade very close to the open (within 1 or 2 minutes) so bad fills are common. With CMEG I would get a bad fill 15% of the time. I define a bad fill as one that alters the trade. Thus my entry is so bad that I need to immediately exit the trade or one of my sell/covers is so bad that it changes my profit from good to mediocre. This 15% I thought was acceptable due to my style of trading. Then I started with Centerpoint and about 50% of my trades were plagued with bad fills. I even had a fill miss my market limit order and didn’t fill at all. That was the first time since I have been live a long order was not filled (and this was a trade with very liquid FB). When you place the trade the order sits in the order window and you wait and watch the hallow triangle on the screen until the order goes through. I contacted Centerpoint (BTW the customer service at Centerpoint was good) and I was informed that the BBT deal limits your route to the CPGO route. This route is for lower price but not as fast. If I wanted a faster route (they recommended FAN) I would need to remove myself from the BBT deal. The price would increase from .35 min, .005 for comm+ECN to min 0.95 and Comm+ECN=0.00732 (for the FAN route). Since I am still trading low shares and lately have gravitated to the higher price stocks this is a 3X increase. So I did ask them to remove me from the BBT deal and I would give it a try. It’s true the FAN route is really fast. Feels like I am back in the simulator. I have made 16 trades (tickets) using the FAN route so far. Looking at the logs and video all 16 had excellent fills. I haven’t tried the new LAMP route for CMEG yet. I happen to move over to Centerpoint just before they activated it. But from the video that Carlos posted the speed has increased from the previous routing. From the look of it I don’t see any dramatic speed increase comparing the LAMP vs the FAN routes like I did with the NSDQ-CMEG route. There may be a difference but since I have not tried the LAMP route I can’t say for sure. I was also expecting the shorts to be more available. I was surprised the first day when Centerpoint listed no shorts available for ROKU. I see traders with IB short ROKU so that was disappointing. There is a short locator with Centerpoint. But that takes a few more mouse clicks (and costs more) so it would not be useful to me since I tried at the open. Summary: if you trade close to the open, where the fill speed is vital, I don’t recommend the Centerpoint deal with BBT since you are limited to the CPGO route. Outside that small time window (>10min from the open) the CPGO route should be fine.

Monday 6/24/2019 I had a well-being score of 7/10 this morning. My nerves were not as good as recently, so I decided to trade at $25 risk today not the planned $30. Also, I changed my DAS setup to help with partialling, so maybe it’s not wise to change two things on my DAS setup on the same day. I took two live trades with FB. FB premarket action and volume was good. It sold off immediately at the open and I was waiting for the rebound and bullish hammer. One did form about 2.5min after the open and I went long. The candle was still slightly red when I took the trade but still quite bullish looking. My target was the high of premarket at 193.39 with a stop out level at 192. It tried a couple of times to break the 192.50, but couldn’t and retraced to my stop out where I exited. Now why did I not use the 200MA-1min I am not sure. I probably thought the 192 level, which coincides to the 200-5min, was strong enough. Any way I was wrong and the price instantly reversed as I exited the trade. What it looked like when I took the trade: FB bounced at the 200MA-1min and I went long again at the VWAP. Same target but the 200MA-1min as my S/O. It took quite a bit of self-control to hold until the new 1min high before I take my first partial. I also reduced the size of my first partial. I took my next partial at the 50MA, then I lost my nerve and took two bad partials. At that point I told myself the next partial is at my target (high of premarket) or S/O level. It took 3 minutes but it reached that level. I decided just to partial not exit since it may run once it breaks that level. It didn’t and I exited when it made a 1min low. My score card for today: What I did good today: Recovered quickly from the S/O and quickly took another trade without feeling the need for revenge. How did I challenge myself today? Used a smaller first partial. My first and last partial I waited patiently. What I did bad today: Partials 3 and 4 were still bad. What can I do better tomorrow: Over all partialling was better than usual. Still need more time to improve on it.

Hi Mike, good to see you back.

Wow, Wednesday and Friday were your best days!!! That's a great sign that things are heading in the right direction.

Live trading summary for week ending 6/21/19. I took 10 trades this week with a good score card average of 87%. Win% was solid at 60%. I was green every day this week, which hasn’t happen in the last 4 months. My well being scores were also much improved this week. Though a third trade per day is now allowable, I never took a third trade on any day this week. I discussed my issue with bad fills with Centerpoint this week. They said this was not unexpected since the BBT deal is limited to the CPGO route, which is designed for low cost and not speed. I asked them to take me off of the BBT deal so I can use a faster route, they recommended FAN. So the comm is now min 0.95 and Comm+ECN=0.00732 (for the FAN route) compared to the slower route BBT deal (.35 min, .005 for comm+ECN). Since I reduced my share size this month and have been mostly trading high price FB, it’s almost a 3X increase. But, I am hoping to bring my share size back to where it was by the end of July so the min cost won’t effect me much. So I am going to stick with Centerpoint for probably a couple of months to see how good they are before I decide if I need to switch to IB. What was really good about this week was I didn’t have a trade that I was upset at myself for taking or managing it. Yes I still have a huge room for improvement, but looking back I was OK with every trade this week. So I am going to change my risk per trade from $25 to $30 for next week. Here is my plan for this week: Concentrate on process and score card, not on W% and P/L Do not trade AAPL until better data is seen. Make FB your primary focus. Stock still very much in play for 1min/2min ORBs. AMD is still in play again for the 2min ORB. Do not take 1min ORBs on AMD wait for enough of the 2min candle to determine direction. MU is now in play for 1/2/3min ORB. It is good enough that you can interchange it with AMD as the secondary focus based on premarket data or opening volume. A third trade per day is allowable if you stopped out of another trade early that didn’t feel right any more. Will currently stay with Centerpoint as my broker. Changing my risk per trade from $25 to $30 for next week. Have a good weekend.

Yes the first thing I thought of when I logged into Centerpoint was, "where are my shorts for ROKU? They have them on IB?" They do have a "DAS short locator" system that will likely find me some, but it doesn't look like something you can use at the open. It takes too long to submit the request, etc.

Hi Tommy, just checking to see how things are going. Are you still trading? After your post I looked up Mount Yotei. I can definitely see why you like it. It also reminds me a bit of Mount Lassen here in California, though Mount Yotei is much more majestic. I have been waiting for my kids to be old enough so we can hike up Mount Lassen into the crater. As for bears I had one close contact in all my years of hiking and trail running. One day I broke one of my running rules (trading rules are not the only rules I break) and I did not slow down to walk around a blind corner on the path. So I ran around the corner to see a bear growling and running at me. Luckily this was on the east coast of United States so it was a black bear which are not very aggressive. Hope things are well and will see you again in the forums.

Friday 6/21/2019 I had a well-being score of 8/10 this morning. My nerves were good. It’s Friday so I am trading half shares. I took two live trades with FB. FB did not have much volume in the premarket, but that is OK for FB. It did have a gap though. The opening volume was huge. I took my first trade more on volume than price action, plus red to green was only 10 cents away. So I went long on the break of the premarket high. It almost touched the PDC, but price retraced and I was stopped out when it broke the 189.12 (daily level and 200MA-5min). The price bounced off the MA and I went long again at VWAP with the 200MA-1min as my stop. Over the next 3 minutes the candles were squeezing. But after 3 minutes my nerves were shot. When the price finally popped I was hitting the sell button like a wood pecker. I sold 5 times when there was only 2 levels to sell at. So I missed a good part of FBs run. My score card for today: What I did good today: 50% win rate today and still green. Green on a Friday!! How did I challenge myself today? Held onto FB for 3 minutes waiting for the move without bailing. What I did bad today: I let my nerves get to my partialling frequency again. Even worse than usual. What can I do better tomorrow: Need to design a plan, over the weekend, to reduce my poor partialling.

Mark, may I ask what your comm/fees you are paying for IB? Is it this: Commisison: $0.0035 per share (minimum $0.35 per ticket) plus routing and regulatory fees Also, what is your usual routing fee per share? Do you use let IB choose the route or do you choose? What route do you usually use or get routed to? Thx

Thursdays 6/20/2019 I had a well-being score of 8/10 this morning. My nerves were OK. I took two live trades with FB. But, first another update on Centerpoint. So I asked Centerpoint to turn off the BBT deal so I can choose my route. So I know the comm is now min 0.95 and Comm+ECN=0.00732 (for the FAN route) compared to the slower route BBT deal (.35 min, .005 for comm+ECN). I tested the route (and my hot buttons) in the premarket and the FAN route worked fine. Then I tried it at the open. My goodness, it feels like I am back in the sim. With CMEG, after you place the order, you see a hollow triangle for the order for a couple of tenths of a second before the solid entry triangle appears. With the slow CPGO route provided by the BBT deal you see the hollow triangle for usually half a second (thus you have to wait to see your entry) and I had it even miss the market limit order range and not go through at all. That’s the first time since I have been live that has happen. Now with the FAN route the order and entry are instant. I never saw the order (hallow) triangle today. I am going to give it a couple more days trading on the FAN route to see if it is worth it. Then decide if I drop the CMEG account or drop the CP account and trade on CMEG while I apply to IB. My first trade with FB was unusual. FB gapped up well and good premarket volume. Then the last 15 minutes before the open the price dropped to VWAP and was quickly bought back. What was also very interesting is the complete space between the 50MA and the next level at $194. That’s a huge gap for FB. Usually FB has plentiful amount of levels. So that got me quite intrigued. Even using a wide stop level back to VWAP, there was a R/R~5 when/if it breaks the 50MA. I never see R/R>3 at the open. So FB broke the 50MA with a nice little hammer and I went long very close to the open. Shares were on the small size due to the wide stop out I was using. Well, it was worth a try, but I did get stopped out at the planned level. It was probably not wise for me to try this setup. It’s likely the R/R can not to be too large at the open to work. You need a close level to aim for. What the trade looked like when I took it. Then FB was setting up for a short with a 1min engulfing (2min reverse hammer). But. I had to wait for the price to break some strong levels. It did finally break the 200MA-1min and I went short. My stop was tight at $190 where there was a daily level and my target was ~$188-188.50 where there were 4 levels all near each other. The price was jumpy and spiked through my S/O which made me nervous so I dumped 1/3 of my shares to reduce the risk. Two minutes later it finally started to move lower. Between the previous stop out and the jumpiness of the price I did take partials to fast as usual. The price almost made it to my final target where I exited when the price started to stall. My score card for today: What I did good today: 50% win rate today and still green. How did I challenge myself today? Used a new order route. What I did bad today: I let my nerves get to my partialling frequency again. What can I do better tomorrow: Keep testing Centerpoint, I need decide what to do by early next week.

Wednesday 6/19/2019 I had a well-being score of 7.5/10 this morning. My nerves were OK. Looking forward spending a day with my family today while everyone else is working J I took two live trades with FB. But, first an update on Centerpoint. I spoke to them and the BBT deal (.35min, .005 for com+ECN) limits the routes to CPGO. They said that it is not a fast route and is used for lower price. But, since I trade so close to the open it’s been difficult with the slow fills. Centerpoint said I will have to drop the BBT deal on my account if I want to use a faster route, it will cost me (0.95c min comm with 0.0032 ECN). Which makes IB look better. Both FB and AMD were both setting up for an 1min ORB but I didn’t take either. I even watch the video of my trade and not sure why I didn’t take one. Both dropped fast right at the break of the 1min candle so I might have felt like I was chasing. Instead I took the 2min ORB on FB but with a tight stop at $165. Even with the tight stop I exited early. I then went short on a 3min ORB on FB and I took a wider stop (VWAP) with a target of the 184.45 with a nice R/R~3. I took my first partial way too early from nerves since I was just stopped out a minute before on the same trade. I took two more parials the second one I got a bad fill. Then FB made a bullish hammer and I exited the rest of my shares on the new 1min high. My score card for today: What I did good today: Was able to get back into a trade after a stop out. 50% win rate and still green. How did I challenge myself today? Stuck to two trades today, though with the early S/O I was allowed to take a third. What I did bad today: That first partial was terrible. What can I do better tomorrow: Figure out what to do with Centerpoint.

Your NVDA trade was amazing and your final exit was right on the mark.

Tuesday 6/18/2019 I had a well-being score of 7/10 this morning. My nerves were OK. I took two live trades with FB and AMD. I was nervous about my order fills this morning, I have not received an answer from Centerpoint (I will call today) so I took a very small share trade in premarket to test it. It responded OK. And that is when I noticed FB is really setting up in the premarket. The 200MA-5min was acting as a strong level. Just as it created a 5min hammer and broke the 200MA I went long. It retraced for 4 minutes staying above my stop level and then started to grind its way back up. I took my first partial at the 193.25 daily level and a second partial at 193.50. Then I just tried to partial at the 1min highs. When the price retraced I had so few shares left I decided to get out on the new 1min low even though I was above my new S/O at 193.25. I preferred using the time to look at my other charts before the open. I really wanted to trade something besides FB so I removed it from my watch list. AMD created a very bearish 2min candle. I went short at the break of VWAP and got a bad fill. But I still had a R/R~2 with my target of the 200MA-5min and S/O at VWAP-1min. Price reached my first partial and I got a horrible fill back at B/E. It reached my 1st partial level again and fill was OK. It missed my 2nd partial by 1 cent and then price retraced back to B/E where I exited. What it looked like on the 5min chart when I took the trade: The whole trade: My score card for today: What I did good today: Patiently waited the 7 minutes on FB while it was hovering above my stop level. How did I challenge myself today? Traded in the premarket. What I did bad today: Still too many partials. What can I do better tomorrow: Hopefully I get some info from Centerpoint today. Also I need to make some new partialing guidelines and start to test them out.

Monday 6/17/2019 I had a well-being score of 7/10 this morning. My nerves were OK. I took two live trades with FB and AMD. I continue to have issues with market fills on Centerpoint. FB looked very strong in the premarket and had really good opening volume. It made a small hammer with 1min candle and I went long when it broke VWAP. Since I took the trade so close to the open I went light on the shares. I took my first partial due to nerves since the price action was jumpy. The second partial was at a good spot. Then Centerpoint really failed me on the third partial where I had to wait 20 full seconds for my market order to fill. That’s ridiclous one minute from the open to have to wait 20 seconds. This completely spooked me. From watching the video somehow it got mixed up and took that order as a limit order even though I clicked the exactly same button as the first two partials. Then I got out at B/E with no issue with the order fill. It was a small win, but quite stressful. I really wanted to trade a 5min ORB. I started waiting for AMD to see if it would setup. The plan was if it retraced back to VWAP-1min and bounced I would short. It did right at 9:35am when the price broke the 5min candle body. I liked the trade looked good on both the 1min and 5min chart. I took a light share size since I usually lose at 5min ORBs. The price dropped quickly so it wasn’t a stressful trade. I was able to get 3 partials in and it missed my 4th partial by a penny. Then after 3 minutes of stagnation I took another partial as I was losing faith. Then all out when it made a new 1 min high. My score card for today: Poor partialing on both. FB also had a so-so entry and not the best share size. What I did good today: I really like that I waited for my entry on AMD. How did I challenge myself today? Got spooked from the fill issue, but continued to trade. What I did bad today: As usual way to many partials. What can I do better tomorrow: Contacting Centerpoint again about the routing and fill issues. I may be trading with CMEG tomorrow. I have not closed the account yet.

Thank you for your comments. ORBs close to the open is my only working strategy at the moment. It makes just enough profit to pay for me trying other strategies, which are not profitable yet. Thus my P/L has been flat for 4 months. I don't think I trade the open due to any special skills or abilities that I have. I think I am simply too impatient to wait and I see these big moves at the open and I want to try and trade them. I tried it long enough to start forming a working strategy. I trade the 1min/2mn/3min ORB depending on the stock. For 8 weeks AAPL was in play at the open and the 2 minute ORB worked the best. Now FB is the main stock in play and for some reason the 1 minutes ORB works better on that stock. Interestingly enough MU's time frame seems to be the 3 minute ORB. Not sure why the different personalities. But I back test on weekends to see which time frame and strategy works the best for the coming week.

Live trading summary for week ending 6/14/19. I took 11 trades this week with an OK score card average of 84%. Win% was only 34% but only had a weekly loss of -0.8R. The stocks I traded this week traded well, the poor performance was definitely me. Getting some concerns on the fills I have been getting with Centerpoint. I did get poor fills with CMEG that would impact the trade, maybe once or twice a week. But the last 6 days (since I started with Centerpoint), every day I get a bad fill that compromises my trade. I use Smart-Route for both brokers. CMEG always routed through NSDQ and Centerpiont always routes through CPGO which I hadn’t heard of before. I sent them an email asking info on it. I don’t like the look of it and worried that the “CP” in CPGO stands for CenterPoint and I will not get the fills I need. I asked in my email what route that is and if I can use NSDQ or ARCA without additional costs. Currently, I am not happy with the CPGO routing. Three trades this week I was really disappointed with myself. I had one trade that on the fly decided to change my methodology and add to my position though I have no rules set for this. Then I decided to change my first partial price and did not change my stop loss point. Essentially, I made a small winner into a -2R loser. The second trade was a 1min ORB with MU which looked like a really good setup, except my plan this week stated no 1min/2min ORBs on MU. Back test data shows they are low probability plays. I took the trade any way and was stopped out. The third trade was a FOMO (chasing) trade which I am usually better about not taking those. Most of my other 8 trades were OK which made my score card average OK. Here is my plan for this week: Concentrate on process and score card, not on W% and P/L Do not trade AAPL until better data is seen. Make FB your primary focus. Stock still very much in play for 1min/2min ORBs. AMD is still in play again for the 2min ORB, though the 1min ORB becoming more common now. MU is not in play for 2min ORB, but it has been looking good for the 3min ORB. So keep MU in mind if you are looking for a trade in that time frame A third trade per day is allowable if you stopped out of another trade early that didn’t feel right any more.