Rob C

Thursday 4/18/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. An interesting day. From a monetary standpoint today was my worse day in 6 weeks. But from a trading quality, I think it was OK. I took two live trades today, first one with MU and the second with AAPL. I was stopped out on both. I first thought that this was just the law of averages since my last 8 trades were all winners. Though I am not trying to count winners and losers at this point of my learning, one thing was nice about it. I am still on the fence if I am going to make it as a trader. I really don’t know if I am actually forming the skills yet. But it did make me think. It is difficult to have a streak of 8 winners completely on luck alone. So it made me think I may have acquired, at least, some of the basic skills. I had to end my trading day (I had a busy morning planned), so I could only briefly go over my trades this morning. Both looked like OK trades that happen not to work out. That bothered me during the day for the MU trade. Because it was a REALLY good setup. Yes they can still fail, but it made me start to second guess my setup. Finally, now I was able to examine the trade very carefully and I saw the issue. MU had a really good “Vish” setup and I needed to wait for the break 43.15 tech level. It had great TLs below it to take partials. When it broke, I shorted. It stopped twice on a level that seemed invisible and reversed and I got stopped out. Now looking at it closely, somehow the 200MA on my 5min chart got inadvertently changed to my 9MA color/line. It was supposed to be a dark thick line. I thought it was the 9MA. So there was no setup. If the chart was configured correctly I would have not have taken the trade at that moment and waited for the break of the 200MA (which occurred 4 minutes later). At first I got quite angry but got over it in a minute, because now I know why the trade didn’t work. So based on the data I had I did make the correct decision. So I will accept this as an OK trade. I saw setup that satisfied my checklist. I waited for the correct entry and I S/O at the planned spot. 5min chart 1min chart The next trade was with AAPL on a 5min ORB. I was waiting for the 5min candle to finish, but on the 4min candle the price made a new high so I went long. The price immediately reversed and broke the 203.39 TL which was my S/O point. Technically I took the share amount that 5c below that level was my S/O. But for a $200 stock it’s not easy to stop on the correct penny. So I S/O 2c too early. The price immediately reversed on my S/O and made it to my 1st partial. In hind sight I can easily say I should have waited for the 5min candle to finish. I would have gotten a better entry and gotten two partials before being S/O. But, honestly I have not done well so far on the classic entry for the 5min ORB. I have been doing better on an early entry setup, where I enter on the new high. But my sample set is still well too small to make any conclusions. So I followed my current setup, waited for the entry and S/O very close to the planned spot. So I will call this trade OK as well. What I did good today: Felt zero revenge after the two stop outs. Never thought for a second to take another trade. I took my max two trades and the trading day was over. How did I challenge myself today? Searched for answer why the MU trade didn’t work instead of my initial reaction that it just didn’t work out. What I did bad today: Not happy that I had my chart configured incorrectly. What can I do better tomorrow: I need to check the configuration of my charts more often. Yes, I am completely at fault for the MU trade. There is no excuse for having my charts configured wrong. Your platform setup is the easiest part of trading and thus no tolerance for carelessness.

Thanks Mark. About two weeks ago I lowered my % on my first two partials. Leaves me with more shares in case it runs. I have had so many trades fizzle after the first partial that I was taking higher and higher % on my first partial. A bad habit I am trying to break.

Hi Mark, that was a really good first trade. I actually have a post-it note on my station saying, "if it spikes IN your direction, get out, it will reverse." Which sadly I can't remember ever following. Though I sure remember a few trades I was upset at myself for not following that rule. It's a tough rule to obey.

Wednesday 4/17/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. I took one live trade today with AAPL. Probably my most stressful winning trade to date. The price was 2c away from S/O even times. My finger on the Sell All button for the whole trade. Even when the price finally broke out I was still in high stress mode for the remaining 5min waiting to sell my last piece. And for most of the trade SPY was dropping adding to the strain. AAPL made a nice “Vish” setup pattern. Though “powered by” was on the weak side. It did have a slight increase in 1min volume and the 2min candle engulfed the premarket 2min candle (though I usually like the 2min candle engulf the 5min candle). I have updated the setup that the wick needs to be double the size of the candle body to be called a “Vish”. I waited for the price to break the 50MA and went long. Looks like it wasn’t a clear break when I took the trade and reversed back to my S/O twice. I held on and even though it didn’t make it to my 1st partial target (which was the recent premarket high) I took an early partial since I thought the trade was going to fizzle. But that partial was the 5min high, so not too bad. I have a new rule with AAPL after the 1st partial B/E is not my S/O if there is a major TL just below B/E. So instead of B/E I moved my S/O to the $200 level, which it promptly touched twice. Then the price finally reached my planned 1st partial where I still took a partial. Again I thought this trade would S/O at any moment. But, again that was the 5min high. I then moved my S/O to the 9MA, which the price promptly touched 3 times. Then I took another partial at the same level, again I thought this trade would S/O at any moment. But then the price finally broke out. I took another partial for no good reason, then finally took my 5th partial at my planned 2nd partial level. Then waited about 5min and took my last piece at the $201 level. 5min chart when I took the trade: What I did good today: Held onto my trade even after 7 near miss S/Os. How did I challenge myself today? Successfully used the AAPL only rule for S/O levels. What I did bad today: Took 3 extra partials. Seems every time I had a near S/O experience the next pop I took a partial. What can I do better tomorrow: It’s easy to say, “take less partials.” But I need to determine a strategy to accomplish that.

Tuesday 4/16/2019 I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. I think my first run (yesterday) in 3 weeks really helped. I took one live trade today with MU. I had to go somewhere early in the morning, so I knew it was going to be a one and done day so I had to really keep to my setups. I was really watching AAPL and ignoring everything else. It had OK volume in the premarket and then got really active at 9:28am. So it had my complete focus. Then it got 400k volume in the first second of the market open. It started to setup, and my finger was on the trigger, but it never met all the setup criteria. I gave up on AAPL about 90 seconds after the open and noticed MU may have a potential setup. I waited a minute and MU finally had a good “Vish” setup. I waited for the price to clear all the MAs and I went long. Even though there were three strong tech levels below my entry point, I watched (for a whole minute before my entry) the price fly through these TLs without any respect for them. The first TL that the price showed respect was the 42.19 premarket TL. So my S/O was all the way down at 42.15. Thus, I had to reduce my shares accordingly. What MU looked like when I took the trade (5min chart): Checklist: I took my first partial at the HOTD and wow what a bad fill. I essentially sold at B/E. The price arrived at the HOTD again where I successfully took a partial. Then tried to take another partial at the 42.50 level but again got a bad fill. Then I was able to take one more partial after that before the price reversed and I sold the rest of the shares at B/E. What I did good today: I liked that I was flexible with the S/O on my MU trade and not just choosing VWAP, just because. How did I challenge myself today? Same as yesterday my finger was right on the buy trigger for AAPL but the final criteria of the setup was not satisfied and I didn’t take the trade. What I did bad today: Too trigger happy on the partials. What can I do better tomorrow: Either take less partials or smaller first partial.

Monday 4/15/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were better, still not good, but definitely better. I took two live trades today with AAPL and DIS. I was watching DIS on my main screen since AAPL/MU/AMD did not have volume in the premarket. Then the volume came in on AAPL with 400k in the first 30 seconds, so my attention turned to AAPL. Then about 30 seconds later MU had a really good “Vish” setup so I switched my attention to MU. I was ready to go long if it broke the 50MA on the 1min chart. But it didn’t and my attention went back to AAPL. AAPL had a “mini ABCD” setup and went long at the break of the 2min candle body. I took my first partial at the HOTD, which was only 10c away. It’s not a rule to take a partial there, but I notice I don’t regret it when I do. Then the price tried to break the 199.82 too many times unsuccessfully that when it touched it again I took another partial. Then all out at B/E. The next trade was a 5min ORB with DIS. It had an ABCD formation within the 5min. I went long when it seemed to have bounced from the 9MA which was at the same time as the break of the 5min candle body. Since DIS is at an all time high, I only had the high of the day as a target. In these situations I will use the high of each 1 min candle to take a partial until I ran out of shares. What I did good today: I really liked trading outside of AAPL/MU/AMD that alone made DIS an interesting trade. How did I challenge myself today? My finger was right on the buy trigger for MU but the final criteria of the setup was not satisfied and I didn’t take the trade. What I did bad today: That was a “B” setup on AAPL. At least it was a setup, but probably should have let that one go by. It just happen to be a small winner by luck. What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to get better letting so-so setups go by. On the positive side, if I am starting to be concerned about taking the “B” setups maybe my issue of taking trades with no setup has improved.

Book Review of Mastering Trading Stress by Ari Kiev Trading in the Zone discussed very well what state of mind one needs to trade without stress. The Daily Trading Coach explains how to practice to get into that state. But what do you do with the stress while you are working toward that state, which may take years? I was hoping this book would help during that interim. For me it didn’t. The way the book was written is about half of it was case studies. He would discuss a concept than have multiple examples (interviews with traders) to show how they are handling that situation. So if you learn by example after example than this is the book for you. But it didn’t work well or me. Here are some of the memorable quotes from the book. But, I don’t consider them very new if you already read Trading in the Zone. When traders fail to acknowledge and learn from their negative emotions they begin to make decisions based not just on what they think or know but also how they feel. They forget discipline and trade according to momentary, spontaneous impulses that they later regret. Once again let me state the rule of behavioral economics that stems from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s studies as well as others: Most people are willing to accept risks in order to avoid losses but have a built-in tendency to avoid risks when seeking gains. To succeed, you must probe the reasoning behind why you are trading at your current size. In order to maximize your risk-taking ability you have to get bigger, and to do this you need to determine exactly what is getting in the way of your current risk taking. After a stressful trade you need to permit yourself to experience the full range of natural emotions. They recognize the negative impact of emotional blockage and are willing to struggle through the impasse to improve their trading. When you experience anxious thoughts, it is possible to identify them and choose how you are going to react to them. Whenever you notice that you are thinking old repetitive patterns, project your focus onto the future. One of the most powerful and effective ways to master the symptoms of stress is to choose an objective and then start trading in the terms of the objective.

Live trading summary for week ending 4/12/19. Definitely a better week than last week. My health improved enough that I was able to trade live every day this week. I changed my rule from 1+1 trade/day max (only trade a second time if first one was a winner) to 2 trades/day max. The first trade can be a looser but it must be a good trade and I have to have my revenge emotions in check. This only occurred once this week but it went well. My nerves were bad this week and the incident from the previous week of back to back -2R losses still haunt me. Three days this week I did not take a second live trade. I just thought I had one good trade let’s not ruin a good day with a potentially bad second trade. But this will impede my learning if I go back to one trade a day. I still had simulator switching issues this week as well and worked with DAS support again. There seems to be an overly thorough way of converting the platform to my demo account. It worked but its 65 mouse clicks to convert. That’s a bit too much. My trade evaluation by week: And SIM this week: Next week I need to work on my nerves and let myself take two live trades a day again. Have a good weekend.

Friday 4/12/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were better, but then I noticed my platform wasn’t setup completely (30 sec before open). Though I got everything setup by open, my nerves were bad again. I took one live trade today with AAPL. AAPL was a “simple” 2min ORB setup. The forming 2min candle had a bullish wick and VWAP break was near the top. It also had good partial taking levels above it. I waited for it to break the 200MA and went long. Got a good fill. I assume because of my nerves I took too many partials. The first partial was planned to be the 50MA. But I took one at a nearby premarket local high. Not a horrible place to take a partial if you have no other levels, but I did. Then I took a partial at the 50MA and then took a really bad partial in the middle of nowhere L Next partial was at the 200 dollar mark and the final piece when it reached the high of premarket at 200.13, but I got a not so good fill on that. I really wanted a good trading day going into the weekend. I know I am supposedly just focusing on the process, but it was nice to get a +2R winner and call it one and done for the day. I took a break and came back and saw a good setup, but I knew after 65 mouse clicks to switch it back to SIM the setup would be gone. That deflated me to take any SIM trades and so I just watched the charts and the chatroom for a while to see what others were trading and I called it a week. What it looked like when I took the trade: 1min chart 5min chart What I did good today: I like my trade on AAPL. I finished the week on a positive. How did I challenge myself today? Took two days of “simple” setups. My trading was being dominated by “step” and “Vish” setups recently. What I did bad today: Too many partials on AAPL. What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to catch up on my weekend training/reviewing. Be prepared for next week.

Thursday 4/11/2019 My 1 year anniversary joining BBT!!! I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. But I made a decision to trade full size today again. Nerves still bad. I took one live trade today with MU . Again, like yesterday, I was staring at AAPL, TSLA and AMD since they were really setting up in the premarket, but again MU was the one with the setup. It was a nice “simple” 2min ORB setup. It had a nice small candle body with really good levels above it. It did a reasonably sized pull back and I went long. What made me nervous is the order flow seem to just stop right after I took the trade. It took over 30 seconds before the time/sales started moving again. I took my first partial (bad fill) at the HOTD (excluding PM) but it took about 90 seconds to get there, so my finger was on the sell-all button the whole time since I thought I would be S/O at any moment. Usually the 2min ORBs you reach your first target or get S/O in 30 seconds or less. Then I took my second partial just below the 42.43 TL. Then it just missed my 3rd partial (high of PM) by 1c. Then it bounced off the 42.43 TL 3 times which I use as an indicator for a reversal. I was about to exit out, but the 1min chart looked so bullish that at the 4th bounce I decided to take another partial and leave 20% of my shares. Which was good since it never reached my third partial target and reversed so fast I had some slippage on my B/E S/O. The forming 2min candle when I took the trade: Checklist: Then MU was creating a nice engulfing, but I needed to step away from the platform to “reset” my brain. When I got back setup was gone. But that is OK I really wanted to try trading SIM and see if there are any issues on the platform. I decided to count the mouse clicks needed to change my platform to Demo using the so called “no failure” way. It was 65 mouse clicks!!! And took a couple of minutes. Wow! Any way I then took three SIM trades without issue. I won’t add them to my journal except to mention they were all small winners (made it to 1st partial then retraced to B/E where I exited). I know they were SIM trades but I can’t remember ever taking 4 trades (Live or SIM) in one day and they all were winners. A good way to celebrate my 1 year anniversary! What I did good today: Didn’t get too caught up in premarket bias. Switched away from my primary watch-list when they weren’t setting up. How did I challenge myself today? Took a partial just because it felt like stock will reverse. What I did bad today: A little upset I missed my S/O a few cents. What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to work on my nerves. They are bad about 80% of the time. I can’t keep trading like this.

Hi JD, thanks for the post. Yes, I always keep aware of that. I always click a few tickers to make sure my account doesn't change in my montage before I try and take a sim trade. It is a terrible feeling of lack of control, when I watch the video reply, of when you see you montage list your demo account and then you click buy and then you see your position window with your live account. Sadly, I have had this issue when I only traded SIM for the day as well.

Wednesday 4/10/2019 I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. But I made a decision to trade full size today. Too many days on SIM and half shares. Nerves on the bad side. I took one trade today with MU . AAPL, TSLA and AMD were the stocks really setting up in the premarket, but 9:32am arrived and I still saw no 2min ORB setup. Then MU formed a mini ABCD setup. MU bounced nicely off of VWAP twice. I went long on the second VWAP bounce with 41.83 as my S/O and 42.12 as my target and 42.00 as my first partial. I got a bad fill which dropped my R/R to slightly below 2 (~1.8) but I thought good enough to hang on plus trade immediately went into my favor. I was concerned that my first partial level was too strong as a TL that it may not punch through. That has happen to me before and it looked like it was about to happen again as the price bounced hard off the 42.00 and moved back down to within 1c of my B/E where I almost S/O. But an instant later it moved higher. That near S/O got me nervous and I took another partial though it was not at any TL. Then it reached my target where I took a partial. I got a bad fill on my last partial and the stock started heading down where I exited completely at B/E. When I took the trade: After that trade, I took a few minutes break from the platform. When I came back I didn’t seen anything setting up well except MU again as a short. But I wasn’t very convinced so I decided to take it as a SIM trade. I switched my platform to SIM and I was surprised it took a live trade. After I worked with DAS support, I have taken a few SIM trades without issue. But, apparently there is still an issue. I immediately got out of the trade and started a long chat with DAS support. After a long chat and two uploaded videos I am left still in doubt of the platform. Tech support thinks that since one of my 4 montages did not have the “global” clicked caused the live trade. But I did not use that montage for the trade. After clicking the “global” I tried it a few times and got a live trade again! But, when I manually switch over every montage, one by one, even though I will not use the montage for the trade, the SIM seems to work, But that is almost 50 mouse clicks to safely switch from Live to Demo. Besides being painful, in case I make a mistake with one of those clicks, I am back in a live trade again. DAS tech support said I should make some videos and email it to the developers. I guess it is possible my layout is unusual enough to cause some issues. What I did good today: Waited for the setup, didn’t force a trade just because the time was 9:32. How did I challenge myself today? Finally took full shares in a trade. It’s been awhile. I didn’t want to lose my nerve. What I did bad today: Took early partials. What can I do better tomorrow: Need to control my nerves on the partials.

Yes, for large share size Etrade is great. One price. L2 is free, Trade-Ideas is free and so is the platform. I asked about linking DAS, Etrade said no. Etrade's short list is excellent, as good as IB, which is definitely better than CMEG. I cringe every time I see another recap how they had a great trade shorting ROKU, which usually there are no shares available to short on CMEG. But, you can't just click the short button on Etrade-pro for the "hard to short" stocks like ROKU or CRON for example. You have a couple more key strokes agreeing to pay extra money to take the short (essentially it is usually about double the cost). I liked Etrade-pro and still use it for swing trades. But it seems my personality is more tailored to the open which Etrade-Pro is not adequate. Plus Etrade has no risk controls.

Tuesday 4/09/2019 I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. So traded at half shares. Nerves on the bad side. I took two trades today both with AAPL . The first trade was a 2min ORB, a little before 9:37 on a Vish setup. I went long when it broke the 200MA. The instant I took the trade the stock reversed to my S/O. Then the instant I S/O it reversed back. Thus, it should caused maximum emotional response. But I was pretty good about. All I thought,” was this actually a Vish setup or a Step setup?” Which is a good question. The 1st 1min candle was very bullish so I waited for the price to clear the 200MA and went long. But by the time I went long the body of the candle is almost the length of the wick. Still bullish, but not “very”. So I should have treated it as a Vish setup and taken it as it broke VWAP, though that is only a 1.8 R/R so marginal. Or call it a step setup and waited to finish the 2min candle. Either decision would have been profitable. But treating it as a Vish setup when it became a step setup caused a full –R S/O. The moment I took the first trade: 2min candle 1min candles Since I seemed to be in control of my emotions, I took a second trade. I waited for the “step” setup to occur and went long again when it cleanly passed the 200MA. It reached my first partial but then went back to B/E. So there is a new S/O I am trying (only for AAPL). If there is a large or several large tech levels just beyond my B/E, I still hold until they are breached. Yes it makes a winning trade into a losing, but I have seen this happen way too often where I stop out and it reverses right after in my favor. So it went passed my B/E 3 times but each time bouncing off of VWAP until it finally ran. I was able to get 3 more partials, missed the 4th one by 2c, then exited when it cleanly broke back through TLs. What I did good today: Finally had a live trade that ran. For the last month they only seem to happen when I am on SIM. Controlled my emotions really well after S/O. How did I challenge myself today? Planned for a S/O to go beyond my B/E (back to the original S/O before the partial). It worked out but was stressful. What I did bad today: Took the wrong setup on a trade. Need to re-evaluate setups on the fly. What can I do better tomorrow: I will check my data and have a detailed definition of a “very” bullish candle by tomorrow.

Monday 4/08/2019 I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. So traded at half shares. Nerves OK. I took two trades today, AAPL and MU. Though AAPL was a well executed trade, MU was not and has left me feeling pretty sour about my trading today. AAPL was not in play in the premarket, but we got about 0.5M shares in the first minute which puts it back on my radar. A near perfect 2min “Step” setup occurred except it was veto’d by being above the 4sig Boulinger band when it broke the TL. So waited for the 3rd 1min candle and when it broke the 197.08 TL I went long. It made it to my 1st partial but missed my 2nd partial by a couple of pennies. Then I exited at B/E. Very disappointed with myself on my second trade with MU. To me this was an early 5min ORB, than a late 2min ORB, which makes it ridiculous that I never glanced at the 5min chart before or during the trade. I liked the steady upward trend on the 1min chart. But, I didn’t have a good S/O price. Using just below the 42.50 TL was too close and VWAP was so far I would not have a 2 to 1 R/R. So I chose the bottom of the 1min candle as my S/O loss and chose the share size accordingly. The big problem with that is I never use that as a S/O. So I just made a big compromise to my trade, just so I could force myself to take it. Then I took the trade right at the Boulinger band. That is allowed (as long as it doesn’t go passed, but again frowned upon). Then for my final setup mistake, I never glanced at the 5min chart. All of this analysis was on the 1min chart. If I just glanced at the 5min, I would have saw the 50MA right above my planned entry, thus immediately vetoing the trade. Not seeing that I went long when it broke the 42.50 TL. I was even wondering, when the price bounced off an “invisible” TL at 42.59, why that was and too bad since it’s a couple of pennies from my first partial. Of course that was the 5min-50MA it just bounced off of. Then for no reason I decided to S/O when it broke the 42.50 level, though my planned S/O was lower. Of course it instantly reversed, after my S/O and reached my first target (almost reached my second target). So if I kept to my planned S/O it would have salvaged the trade. What I did good today: I took a good 2min ORB trade on AAPL. How did I challenge myself today? I waited for the AAPL trade to come to me instead of chasing it. What I did bad today: MU, Yikes! I took a bad setup and then mismanaged the trade. What can I do better tomorrow: I don’t want to make the mistake of not looking at two time frames. I made this mistake a lot in February and don’t want to start again.

Live trading summary for week ending 4/05/19. A very tumultuous week. Looking at the data, it actually looks like a good week, but it surely wasn’t. Monday took a trade on a bad setup, then got a bad entry and instead of getting out quickly (for a small profit) I held on to the original S/O which is no longer valid due to the bad entry. Got hit with a -2R loss which is highly unusual for me. The trade just before it was a nice winner so only a small loss for the day. But, it really hit me emotionally. Then Tuesday my well-being score was too low for live trading so I traded SIM, but the SIM did not work and my trade was inadvertently live. Since I was supposedly on SIM I took a trade on a volatile stock, I usually would not trade, for practice. The shock I was trading live caused a delay in my S/O and I got another -2R loss, back to back days! I have not added that trade to my data set since it was a mainly a platform issue. It took a while but DAS support figured out the issue. Then Wednesday and Thursday my well-being score was still too low for live trading so I traded SIM. Both days were good trading. Finally, Friday I was able to trade live again and traded well extending my max trade rule from 1 + 1 trades/day (only trade a second time if the first trade was a winner) to 2 trades/day maximum. My trade evaluation by week: And SIM this week: I need to get my health back next week so I can trade live more. But, this was the only time I got sick all year so I shouldn’t complain. Have a good weekend.

Friday 4/05/2019 I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. So I can finally trade live today!! Nerves good, eager to trade. I actually took two trades today and the first one was a loss. This was the first time in 10 weeks I allowed myself to do this!! The plan for April is to control my emotions enough by the end of April to start trading more. Hopefully by the end of the month I can trade up to 3 times a day and allow two losses. This week I was waiting for the right day. Monday nerves were high and trading was a disaster. Tuesday-Thursday I was on SIM. But today nerves were good and my first trade was a loss. Now the plan was, if I had a 1st trade loss and to me it looked like a good trade that just happen to get stopped out, I will take a break come back to the platform and if I still think the first trade was a good one, look for another opportunity. Both my trades were with AAPL. I already knew today was an interesting day when it was 9:33am and I hadn’t taken a trade yet!! I can count on one hand the number of days, in the last 3 months, that I did not take a trade in the first 3 minutes. But I didn’t see any good 2min ORB setups, so I waited. Then AAPL set up really nicely with a “Vish” setup. Plus I liked the two bullish looking previous 1min candles. You must wait for it to break a major TL or the setup is not complete. I waited for it to break the 196.50 level then went long. Got a good fill. The forming 5min candle looked like this when I took the trade: Though the setup was good, I got quickly stopped out. Since my well-being score was only 4.5/10 I only took half shares, so it only cost me -0.5R. Then I evaluated my trade which looked fine and stepped away from my platform for less than a minute. When I arrived back the same setup was still valid. I waited for the price to break 196.50 again and went long. This time the price popped. I took a first partial at a minor premarket tech level. Then two more partials before price dropped to B/E. I let the S/O slide a few pennies. This was decided a few day ago. What I keep seeing is when there are multiple TLs right next to each other, just below my B/E I S/O at my B/E and the price bounces back a couple of pennies below my B/E. So I let it drop below the TL to make sure then stopped out. Most of my shares were already sold so it didn’t cost me much to confirm the S/O. So I am quite happy with my day. It’s nice to go into the weekend with a good trading day. What I did good today: I was patient!! I actually waited when I didn’t see a 2min ORB setup. I didn’t force the trade. How did I challenge myself today? Made a second trade after a loss, feeling no revenge. What I did bad today: I am worried that I am trading AAPL too much lately. What can I do better tomorrow/next week: I am hoping I can keep going with the 2 trade/day max rule to replace the 1+1 trade/day max rule.

Thursday 4/04/2019 I had a well-being score of 4/10 this morning. So still stuck in SIM trades today. I took a lot of trades (5 trades – that’s a lot for me), taking advantage of being in SIM and all of my trades were brief. My first trade was with AAPL. I took an early 2min ORBU when price broke through 2 TLs and HOTD. The price action was not good afterwards and I made two quick partials. Then got S/O at B/E. It immediately reversed and ran, but not sure how I would have done this different except get back in as a 5min ORB. My next trade was with MU, wow that was a fizzle. It had a mini ABCD and I went long after it broke the 42.8 TL. I made it to my 1st partial than dropped quickly and S/O at B/E. My next trade was with TSLA. This was my one bad trade. I missed the break of the 200MA because I was trading with MU. So I should have waited for the break of the 5min candle. I didn’t and got stopped out. I knew this wasn’t that great of a trade when I took it so I went half shares so it only cost me -0.5R. Then I waited for TSLA to finally break the 5min candle. I went long. The price did make it to my first partial, but then fizzled and got S/O at B/E. FB was my last trade. It was holding VWAP for 10 min and having trouble breaking the 177.12 TL. When I thought it cleanly broke it I went long (got a great fill) and was able to get two partials before getting stopped out at B/E. Not a very exciting day. Nothing ran, one S/O, 3 fizzles and one small winner. I know Tradervue will probably call my “fizzles” winners. But, if this was live they would be just enough to pay for commissions. So I don’t really call them winners. On the other hand, if I was trading live my first partial would have been larger shares. I was taking smaller partials today since I was on SIM and not as nervous. What I did good today: Good stop outs. I had a lot of practice with that today. How did I challenge myself today? Traded outside of AAPL/MU/AMD. What I did bad today: First trade was too early. What can I do better tomorrow: I am really hoping I feel well enough to trade live tomorrow.

Thanks Mark. I only mildly recommend the book. I hope to write an online review this weekend.

Great sticking to your stop loss on MU. I am sure my nerves would have taken control and I would have bailed around 10:30am.

Wednesday 4/03/2019 I had a well-being score of 3/10 this morning. Not sure why I even got out of bed. Obviously only SIM trades today. I had an extended chat with DAS support yesterday and they finally discovered why my SIM trades were randomly SIM/Live. It seems the “Global” box has its limits. I guess my layout was unusual enough that the SIM account did not transfer to my scripted keys. But it’s fixed now and all trades were SIM today. And of course since they were SIM I had a really good trading session. I took three SIM trades, two with AAPL and one with AMD. My first trade with AAPL was an early step 2min ORB. Since I finally had time for chart review last weekend I saw that my 2min ORB Step setup needs modification. But I haven’t finished my back testing on at least 3 stocks so I don’t have it as a rule yet. But I did finish my back testing on AAPL so I was trying to follow it today. So my new 2min ORB checklist (at least for AAPL) The only part of the setup that wasn’t fully satisfied is the 2nd candle was not the same size or larger than the first. But it was pretty close so I am OK with that. This is what it looked like when I took the trade: But I was stopped out at the 50MA. Then when it crossed the high of premarket I went long again and this time it worked out. Actually AAPL was still running but I had so few shares left and I really wanted to get into a fresh trade so I exited. So, even though this was in SIM, I still walked away from my platform, after my first trade, for a few minutes to reset. When I came back I saw I missed several chances with AMD on a 10min ORB. I would have liked to gone long at the 28.50 daily level or at least at the break of the 10min candle. Instead I only had the HOTD setup. I went long at HOTD but kept my stop at the 28.50 so it wasn’t that many shares. Anyway I got two partials in and then all out when it broke back through the 20MA What I did good today: Fought through a really low well-being score to trade OK. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with new 2min ORB step setup rules. What I did bad today: First trade was too early, even though it had almost all of my criteria satisfied. It was just too early to take an ORB. What can I do better tomorrow: Need to get my health better or I won’t trade live for the rest of the week. And as usual I need to be more patient with entries.

Tuesday 4/02/2019 Wow, this month is going bad. I had a well-being score of 4/10 this morning. So I had to use SIM trades only. I have been having trouble with the DAS SIM lately. In general more than half the trades are actually live when I try to trade SIM. Today as usual I followed the instructions in BBT website. I changed the order settings in the menu, then I changed them in montage and I even used the account change hot key. I actually was so involved in the trade, it was a few seconds before I checked if it was live or SIM, then I got caught in the headlights looking at my positions window and exited the trade well below S/O. I took a more aggressive trade on a low float for practice since I thought I was on SIM. Not sure why I was so confident it was on DEMO. It’s amazing how the montage will say my demo account (I checked right before I took the trade and checked it on video) and the platform still took the trade live. Another day with -2R S/O. What a month so far. Will call DAS support later today. As of now SIM is completely off limits. I see Etrade just started paper trading. I may use that instead for SIM days.

I remember my -1k loss day very well. That was the day that I can pinpoint that things got better. That day was my 4th episode of going hulk and my worse one. Each time was the same. 2-3 weeks of good trading and all the money gained out the window in a few minutes. I tried a few different methods to rid myself of my over-trading and going hulk with only short-term success. Instead of going hulk I was going to daily max loss about half the days.Then I made a few changes: - Changed my platform back to DAS, mainly for risk controls. - Held myself to a $25/trade risk - Posted my journal on the BBT website everyday. I think about this on almost every trade, "am I sure I want to take this trade and have other traders read and think, what the heck was this newbie thinking"? The trades I don't think that are usually my bad ones. - And the big one. Hold myself to one trade a day maximum. Now I am pretty sure my level of discipline is much weaker than the average trader so I needed to be more strict. Plus, I have a real over trading issue that I need to address. So I needed to be much more strict. Can I say I overcame my revenge trading quickly, Heck no, it was very painful to walk away after a winning trade and excruciating to walk away after a losing one. It hurt every day for weeks. But it did finally change things. After almost a month at 1 trade/day I allowed myself a second trade if the first trade was a winner. And after 2 months I still have that rule because I still can't recover from a loss quick enough to trade again. Then today I traded terrible and I had zero instinct to trade again. No feeling of revenge at all. I broke many rules on the trade and my first instinct was, "that was too painful for me to even SIM trade, I going to walk away and help my wife get the kids ready for school." The good news. You do forget about the loss as soon as you set goals that don't pertain to that loss. My goal was to have the discipline to walk away after one trade. After a couple of days that was my new goal and the -1k lost all importance. As Andrew and the rest of the BBT instructors say, "it was part of the tuition." All of us could have had very happy, satisfying lives without reaching inside of ourselves, to our deepest part of our psyche and pull out our darkest demons and confront them. Who does that? I spent the previous part of my life making an effort to avoid doing that. But, we are doing it and I finally feel better that I am.

Monday 4/01/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were bad. A bad start of the month. Hopefully I just took the worse trade of the month. First, since my nerves were bad I didn’t want to take an opening scalp. But MU was setting up so much in the premarket I couldn’t help it. I went long when it broke the premarket high and sold all when it reached the daily level at 42.56. Now all last week I have been taking a partials on scalps and yelling at myself not to since all my scalps reversed after my partial. So today I made sure and sold everything at the TL. Of course it moved another 20 cents after I sold. Figures. But my data, so far, does show I should exit all at my target on scalps. I was pretty happy with scalp of +1.4R. Since my nerves were bad I considered calling it a day and of course in hind sight I should have. I usually like to take a small break between trades to reset. But I immediately saw AAPL was setting up for a good 2min ORBD. I was planning to go short if/when it bounces off of VWAP. Now I am not sure what happen, likely nerves, but I immediately changed my mind and went long to get a scalp to VWAP. Maybe I was in a scalping mode still since I didn’t take a short break after the last trade. I do have a 1min reverse setup. But I only take that when it reverses on a TL with volume. This had neither. The moment I took the trade I was asking myself, “why did I do that?” I haven’t watched the video and not sure if I want to, so I don’t know if I got a bad fill or was I caught in the headlights. Either way my share size is now 2X larger than it should (using the LOTD as my S/O) for my entry. The price actually moved in my favor for 10 cents giving me plenty of opportunity to get out of a trade I knew was bad. But I didn’t and finally got stopped out at -2R. I only remember once last month I had this bad of a S/O and now this occurred on my first day of the month! The market was nice enough to help enforce this lesson by immediately reversing and reaching my target. Also, in time, the market showed if I followed my original plan (short at the bounce of VWAP) it would have been a good trade. Wow, I did a lot wrong on that trade. What I did good today: Fought through nerves and did a good opening scalp. Fought through FOMO and exited at the planned price. How did I challenge myself today? Traded with a larger risk/trade. What I did bad today: Made so many mistakes on the AAPL trade. Ignored my plan, took a trade without a setup. When I realized I was in a bad trade with too large of a share size I did not get out when I could have. Took a -2R S/O. What can I do better tomorrow: I need to take a small break between trades to reset. Since my total loss for today was only ~-0.5R, if I learned and retained something it was worth it.

Live trading summary of the month of March. I have not gone hulk in two months!! I have not hit my daily max loss in 2 months!! I also never looked at my unrealized gain for the whole month of March. In February I stuck to a 1 trade/day rule, which was only broken once on a revenge trade. In March I allowed a second trade a day if the first trade was a winning trade. I can’t trust my emotions yet after a loss. I did, inadvertently, break the 1 + 1 trade a day rule once in March, but I thought I was taking a SIM trade. Once I entered the trade and realized it was real I stuck with it to its conclusion. Since my equity was positive and did not go hulk in March I am increasing my risk per trade from $30 to $36. In March I read Mastering Trading Stress by Ari Kiev Stats for February/March: My plan for February through April was to complete one goal: not to go hulk. Hopefully I improved my trading skills as well, but that was not my primary goal. After two months not hitting daily max loss, I am going to try and extend the goal for April: to be able to take an emotionally controlled trade after a loss. I am not there yet. But my goal is to be there by end of April. Analyzing data from Feb/March, I have taken 41 2min ORBs with a 63% success rate. This is marginal. It is not bad enough to give up on it, but obviously needs more work. The win$/Loss$ ratio is high enough to make it profitable so there is hope. But either the ratio or winning% needs to improve. The opening scalp and 5min ORB does not have enough data, the last two months, to determine accuracy. Reviewing the data also showed me something interesting. AAPL and MU have been big money makers for me, but AMD has not. I knew my trading with AMD has been more difficult, but I was surprised that I am at a net loss, over the last two months, trading AMD. I need to shy away from trading AMD especially on the 2min ORBs.