Rob C

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.

Wow! Great week Mark.

Live trading summary for week ending 3/29/19. A good week, from a trading quality standpoint. Except for one trade, which I missed my entry but took the trade anyway, the rest of the trades were OK. They had a good setups, execution and risk management was good. My trade evaluation by week: Lots of good learning this week. This week I restarted trading the open with a scalp trade. I use to scalp for the first 3 months of live trading. But with a 1 trade/day rule, starting February, I didn’t want to waste my one trade on a scalp. I had issues successfully switching to SIM on one occasion so I did have an accidental 3 trade day this week. This weekend I will analyze my trades for this month and determine my game plan for next week and April. Have a good weekend.

Friday 3/28/2019 I had a wellbeing score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were good. I didn’t want to repeat what happen on the last day of February. February was a good month but I traded like an idiot on the last day which mentally seem to make the whole month seem like poor results. So I decided last night no scalp trades today, since they can go real bad sometimes. So of course, like clock work both MU and AMD are in play and have a really nice scalp setup showing up in the premarket. So it was a good test of FOMO control to watch them pop without me and reach my target. I must have been really picky today because at the 2 minute mark I still didn’t find an ORB that I like, Finally MU came back down to test VWAP. If it bounced from VWAP and there was a really good R/R to the HOTD (which is also at a tech level). It did bounce and I went long. The price did pop up and missed my first target by 2 cents then came back down and I stopped out at my planned price. Since it was a loss, that is the only trade I allowed myself to take. The forming 5min candle when I took the trade: The stop out: What I did good today: Was pickier than usual on choosing my first trade. How did I challenge myself today? Fought the FOMO, stuck to my plan. What I did bad today: MU was setting up more for an ORB like AMD has been doing lately. It would have been better to take a partial entry and waited for a better entry or confirmation. What can I do better tomorrow/next week: Do my weekend prep work. There’s lots of charts I need to evaluate. I am also looking forward to analyzing my trades for the month.

Same with me, I was terrible on the SIM (until recently). No discipline and lots of hotkey mistakes. I traded much better when I went live (though still not adequate). Its amazing how few hotkey mistakes occurred when I knew that the button had real money behind it. I am better on the SIM now since I use it infrequently.

Thursday 3/28/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were good this morning. An interesting day. I actually took 3 trades today though I have a 2 trade/day limit. The third trade was supposed to be in simulation. I am having an issue with the simulator. I seem to only be 50% successful switching from live to sim. I double checked the order settings both on the platform menu and the montage but it’s still very iffy. I had two trades today on AMD and one on LULU. AMD had a scalp setup both long and short. And yes I scalped it in both directions. The first scalp was long. I entered when it broke the 25.18 TL and first partial (large partial) was at the Boullinger band. Then out at B/E. The there was a scalp setup in the other direction. I went short on the new LOTD with my first target 200MA and a second target the 24.89 level. I took a large partial at the the 200MA and S/O at B/E. These partials on scalps aren’t working. I may have to stop that. I switched to SIM and double checked it. Then I liked LULU (great R/R and a near 1st target) and decided to make this SIM trade as realistic as possible. Though I like the slow and steady up swing to VWAP, if I was really trading this live I would give it a large room and a wide S/L. So I set my S/L at the 5 min 20MA. Then I went long and quickly checked if it was on SIM. It was not. But since I took a realistic trade and my nerves were good I stayed with it. I took my first partial at a premarket tech level (168.77), though not sure where I got that level from. Then took partials a bit arbitrary. Then all out on the 1min new low. What I did good today: Nerves were good. Great S/Os at B/E. How did I challenge myself today? Handled an accidental live trade well. What I did bad today: Took an accidental live trade. What can I do better tomorrow: Need to figure out what is wrong with switching from Live to SIM.

Wednesday 3/27/2019 I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. My nerves were better this morning. A very disappointing day. I had two trades today both on AMD. There was no scalp setup so waited for the 2min ORB. I took an early ORB (9:31:11) with a very bearish candle. Checklist: This was the same setup as yesterday on AMD and it didn’t work out so why did I try again? The first level to take a partial was too strong and it bounced. I was able to take a partial at that level (25.69), then S/O at B/E. The next trade I was waiting for a clean break of the 25.69 with VWAP as my S/L. same setup as my previous trade. But AAPL caught mt attention on another chart for an instant. When I look back the price passed my entry by about 5 cents. Thus I should not have taken the trade. But since my finger was on the trigger my FOMO took the trade and I went short. Now I have a bad R/R and my S/L is far away. So I pulled my S/L in just above the 25.69, though there is no technical reason to do so. I then got S/O at that level quickly. The price then went up to 1 cent below my original S/O plan, reversed and had a huge run down which I missed. What I did good today: Stayed to my 2 trade limit though very painful to do so. How did I challenge myself today? Recovered emotionally from the bad trading today quickly (for me). I thought it would bother me all day. But I was OK an hour later. Not fast enough to trust myself with another trade, but a big improvement from me. What I did bad today: Didn’t follow my plan on the second AMD trade. Since I missed my entry I should either not take the trade or wait for the setup to emerge again (which it did). What can I do better tomorrow: Control the FOMO. Today was a big lesson that it is OK if you miss an entry.

Tuesday 3/26/2019 I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. My nerves were bad this morning, but I had time for extended breathing exercises which really helped. I had two trades today both on AMD. First trade was a scalp. Both AMD and AAPL both were setting up for it. AMD looked a little better so I focused on it. Of course AAPL was the better one J I took the trade as it broke the high of the day with a target 10 cents away (the green line). The enter fill had a 3 cent slide and so did the exit. Thus I made very little from the trade. I did plan to take a large partial instead of all out due to a strong second target. Then got out at B/E. My second trade was with AMD. AMD had a very bullish 2min candle forming with VWAP near the end of the candle. A really nice setup. Chart when I took the trade: My checklist: I took the trade when it made a clear break of the 1min VWAP. My target was at 26.32 where both a tech level and 200MA resided. There was a strong first target as well, the 50MA which was just ~1.5R from away. The price did hit the first target but it bounced from it so fast that I was unable to take a partial. I watch the video and it looks like I can’t blame myself for missing the partial, it was REALLY a fast bounce. Then price reversed and I got stopped out. So it seems I am still not ready to trade after a loss. This was a reasonably good trade that happens to be a loss and my mental state was not ready to take an impartial trade afterwards. Another thought bothering me. Since I have not done my “homework” the last 3 weekends due to family and work commitments, I was thinking maybe this wasn’t a good trade. Of all the stocks AMD changes its personality the quickest. I like using 50MA as a target (for AMD) for the first partial since it tends to pull the stock toward it but if the stock is strong/weak it tends not to repel it. I wonder if that has changed in the last 3 weeks. I will be definitely reviewing charts this weekend and will find out. What I did good today: Stopped out right on target without emotion. How did I challenge myself today? Successfully fought through the urge to revenge trade. What I did bad today: I haven’t reviewed charts in 3 weeks. I am wondering now if I am making poor decision based on old data. What can I do better tomorrow: I will try and review charts a little each day to catch up.

Monday 3/25/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were really bad this morning, heart was pounding on both trades. I made it worse because I was a little rushed this morning with a late gappers list so unable to do breathing exercises before open. This was the third weekend without preparation for the week. This should be the last weekend like this. Will definitely be working hard to make up for it next weekend. APPL was setting up as a possible scalp so I was watching it at open. A whole minute went buy with no scalping opportunities. Then on the second minute it was setting up, though the target was 30 cents away which is a bit of a stretch for AAPL, but since the stock was moving so much today I gave it a try. So I went long when it broke the 20MA with a target of the 50MA. It didn’t make it, though close. I did take a partial at the high but it reversed so fast I only got a dime out of it. I did plan on taking a 50% partial not the full. Then it stalled and I got out. I did get my 10 cents. 10 to 20 cents is a normal scalp for AAPL. Next trade was a 2min ORB on AMD. My instinct was to take the trade when it crossed the 26.38 tech level, but the 5min 200MA was there to reduce my R/R <2. So I waited patiently for the price to cleanly break it. The candle was still below the <0.5*ATR criteria. I waited for a clean break of the 200MA then went long. Checklist: I usually take a large first partial on 2min ORBs, but I was more confident on this trade than usual, so my first two partials were small. Then AMD was setting up for a mini ABCD for the 5min ORB so I waited. Then I heard Andrew taking the trade. There were no good TLs to take partials on except the $27 level. So I tried to take partials on the 1min candle highs. I missed the last one since I was waiting to see if it would break $27. It didn’t and I got out when it showed weakness. What I did good today: Was more patient at the open. How did I challenge myself today? Traded through my nerves and took smaller partials What I did bad today: Aimed to high on an AAPL scalp. What can I do better tomorrow: Really need to work on my nerves. Will try and do some prep work tonight.

Agreed. I didn't feel the concentration improvement until about 3 weeks on the Keto diet. So the study was too short.

Live trading summary for week ending 3/22/19. From a quality standpoint, this week was OK. I did break a veto rule, but it was marginal (>0.5*ATR) and thus learned a lesson to measure not eyeball. And I mixed and matched setup/execution rules once this week. Another lesson learned. I took a setup with one set of rules but I executed with a different setup rules. Didn’t go well. It is unusual that the stock has two different setups simultaneously, but from now on I need to call it and executed as one particular setup. Though no major mistakes were made, my only two really good trades were on the SIM which I did not include in my evaluation. My trade evaluation by week: Need another solid week and can call it a good month. February was only marginally good and first week of March I had some rule breaks, but I have been better since. Some good lessons learned this week and started adding SIM to my live trades. It is too bad that my 5min ORB results are so bad now. But when I take a SIM 5min ORB I usually get a winner. So I need to keep taking these live until I get those fixed. I am reducing my share size on those.

Friday 3/22/2019 I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. My nerves were on the bad side. I took two trades, both on AMD. AMD was setting up for a reverse to VWAP. Actually so was AAPL, but it reversed too quickly, so I switch my attention on AMD. The checklist I used for this is: 1min candle >1%, well beyond Bollinger band (20SMA 4 sigma) and has a strong tech level to reverse on (which it did at 27.25). I took it after it reversed (always some slippage): Just after I took the trade. I really thought there was a good chance to break VWAP so I only took a partial instead of scalping it at VWAP. It reversed and I exited when it broke the 27.42 tech level (a premarket level and the 200SMA from the 5min chart). AMD then beecame immediately bearish. I was hesitant to flip postions, because I never know if it is correct due to emotions. But then I thought that I just had a winning trade, so I can’t be feeling revenge trading. Then I went short, which ended up simultaneous with Andrew. The moment I took the trade: My checklist: There was a strong first tech level to take a partial on, though my target was the tech level at 26.9. I took a few partials and my final exited more on nerves than anything else. What I did good today: Traded well on a Friday!! Which is usually my worse day of the week. How did I challenge myself today? Took a reverse to VWAP trade. It’s been awhile since I have done that. Did my first “flip” trade since I have been live. What I did bad today: Exited a trade due to nerves. Share sizes were a little light. What can I do better tomorrow/next week: Keep a better eye on SPY. Somedays I am on it, others I am not. Today I was poor at it even though it told a lot today. I have a whole screen dedicated to SPY. I need to always look at it.

Thursday 3/21/2019 I had a well-being score of 6/10 this morning. My nerves were good. I took two trades, AMD and MU. AMD was a 1min ORB. 1min candle was strong, then I tried to catch the pullback bounce off of VWAP. The bounce was so fast I had about 5 cent slippage. I took a first partial at HOTD. It immediately reversed and I S/O at B/E. My second trade was with MU. It had a really good “step” 2min ORB. But data is showing that I should wait for the 2min candle break for “Step” setups. The price finally made a clear break after 9:33 EDT. Price immediately reversed after I went long I was stopped out. I thought this was a good trade that didn’t work out until I reviewed it later and saw the 2min candle was larger than 0.5 ATR. Thus the trade should have been vetoed. I don’t measure the candle exactly, I usually just eye-ball its size and it seemed large but OK when I was trading. But it was 65% of ATR and thus trade should not have been taken. What I did good today: Good execution today How did I challenge myself today? Waited for the completion of a setup. I was dying to enter MU early. What I did bad today: I shied away from trading AAPL, which had the best setup, because I thought I have been trading it too much lately. AAPL of course was a really good ORBU. Not the first time I have done that. Also, inadvertently broke a veto rule. What can I do better tomorrow: Choose the best setup, it doesn’t matter if I have traded it every day this week. Be more mindful of 2min candle size compared to ATR. Measure it you have to.

Wednesday 3/20/2019 I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. Hopefully spring will bring higher well-being scores. My nerves though were worse than usual. I took two trades, both with AMD. AMD quickly formed a very bullish 2min candle and I took an early 2min ORB. The 2min candle forming look like this when I went long: I did take my first partial too early (due to nerves), but other partials were OK. My second trade was also on AMD. I was looking for a good 5min ORB setup and AMD was giving an ABCD setup as well. Since there was no tech level to bounce off (to take the trade before 5min) I was waiting for the break of the 5min candle. I did hear Andrew took the trade. But, I waited until the third 1min candle bounced off the same support level (my ABCD rule), then I went long. I chose the shares using VWAP as my S/O and a little lower in case I want to add shares at VWAP. The moment I took the trade the price started dropping fast. I added some shares at VWAP, which is not usnual for 5min ORB with a very tight stop a few pennies below VWAP. Since the price blew through VWAP my buy and sell-all were about 1 second apart. It’s actually difficult to see the sell triangle on the 1min chart, it was so close to the buy. Though I waited for the setup, entered and stopped out exactly where I wanted, this trade created some emotional negativity. It took me about an hour afterwards when I reviewed the trade before I realized the issue. I took the trade as a ABCD setup, but my share size, S/O point and share adding were based on a 5min ORB. That doesn’t work. For my ABCD setup the S/O should have been just below the support level with larger shares and I don’t add shares to an ABCD set up. What I did good today: Good setups, mostly good execution. How did I challenge myself today? Took back to back trades on the same stock. That has been difficult for me to do. What I did bad today: Though I didn’t break any rules, I did cross rules from two different setups. What can I do better tomorrow: Must keep setup rules separate, even though they can occur at the same time.

Tuesday 3/19/2019 I had a wellbeing score of 5/10. I traded both live and on SIM. I took two trades, both with AAPL. I haven’t made a market open scalp trade since I was on a self imposed 1+1 trade a day maximum. If you only have one trade allowed , why waste it on a scalp? So I stopped. I use to make this trade a lot since I was live but not for the last 6 weeks with the trade max rule. At the open AAPL created a bearish 1min candle and shot through 3 very strong supports, including a level that bounced five 1min candles in premarket. When it broke that level I shorted. Not a good fill, but that is common so close to the open. The chart when I took the trade: It had a clear target, but when reached it I instinctively took a partial and not a full exit. Six weeks out of practice I guess. Then I tried to stop out at B/E but there is some slippage. Another reason not to take a partial. So I only ended up with a small gain. Due to being out of practice, I am forgiving myself not exiting fully and will call this a good trade. The partial exit on the scalp. The next trade was also with AAPL. A “Vish” 2min ORB setup. The 2min candle had a large wicks, but it still seems very bearish. I waited for the price to break that premarket level and I took the trade. At first I thought I got a really good fill. But then reality set it and I noticed I never let it fully break the tech level. It touched it and bounced hard and reversed. My AAPL checklist: I have the setup in light blue since it technically did not break the tech level so a full setup was not there. But I consider this an early entry more than a setup violation. I actually thought it did break the TL when I took the trade. But my video confirms I didn’t. So I will call this a neutral trade instead of a bad one. This was the moment I took the trade (note it was at the TL not past it): Then got stopped out: Since I took a small share size, due to so close to market open, and a good fill, I lost little on the trade. After I used up my to allowed trades, I switched to SIM. I took a trade with WHD. After trading SIM yesterday I thought it may be useful to continue. I am usually wearly about SIM since bad habits are usually formed. But I seemed to be more disciplined about SIM trades now.This was a 5min ORB, which I took a little before the finish of the 5min candle. It broke VWAP, came back to test VWAP again and I went long when it bounced from it. If I took it at the break of the 5min candle it would have pushed the edge of the 2 to 1 R/R. But, R/R was much better on my entry point. It did finally reach my target (a few cents from it) and I took partials along the way. The volume was dropping every minute, from entry, so I exited the first sign of weakness. What I did good today: Didn’t break any rules on purpose today. How did I challenge myself today? Took a scalp trade. Traded both live and on simulator. What I did bad today: One trade had a poor exit and the other a poor entry. Though neither on purpose. What can I do better tomorrow: Watch for the clean breaks of tech levels. Not the first time I had an issue with this.

Agreed Mike. I have been worried about using the sim, thinking I will reignite my old bad habits. But it seems I was reasonably disciplined on the sim yesterday. So I will try and Incorporated it into my daily trading.

Monday 3/18/2019 I had a well-being score of 3.5/10 this morning so I was forced to trade on the simulator. And of course, being on the simulator, I had a great day. Actually I took my longest trade to date (both live and SIM). Could I have done that live? Unlikely, I don’t want to fool myself. I took two trades, both with AAPL. My first trade was a 2min ORB with “Step” setup. What is interesting about the “Step” 2min ORB setup is, there seems to be more and more data showing that it would be better to take the trade after the 2min candle is completed. Versus the other setups the best entry time is more random. Since I was on SIM, I decided to wait the extra 30 seconds and take the trade at the 2min candle break. Well today it looked like taking it early was better. But it’s all probabilities. I need to collect more data. My AAPL checklist: Now usually I can’t trade the same stock twice due to emotional control. But on SIM it wasn’t an issue. AAPL was setting up for a 5min ORB with an ABCD. I usually wait for the 3rd bounce off a tech level for ABCDs, but AMD/MU/SPY were are going higher and I thought AAPL may follow. So I took half a share size long. Very soon after the price fell and did it’s third bounce off the tech level and I took the other half share size long as well.Soon after I took the trade, I didn’t like the price action so I took an early first partial. Then got stopped out on B/E. Again, since it was SIM and there were no clear levels to take partials, I decided to have some fun and see if I could take my partials at the high of each 5min candle. Looks ike I got close. Then when it broke two tech levels that it was respecting I exited. What I did good today: Longest trade yet (SIM or live). How did I challenge myself today? Forced myself to trade on SIM, due to low well-being, though lots of FOMO. What I did bad today: Not happy with my well-being score. These scores under 5/10 should be a few times a year not once a week. Also, did I not finished my weekend prep again. So felt unprepared this week like last week. What can I do better tomorrow/next week: Must complete my weekend prep work!!! Need to get more sleep, these 5/6 hour sleep a night is killing me.

Mike, great discipline not to trade. I'm still working on that.

Live trading summary for week ending 3/15/19. From a quality standpoint, this week was pretty good. For the most part I took good setups, broke rules infrequently and generally managed the trades OK. Though it’s not supposed to be important at this stage of learning, my low win rate this week started to affect me and I was close to breaking my maximum trade rule on Friday. Luckily I was able to turn off the platform and walk away before taking another trade. My trade evaluation by week: This week was interesting since I finish taking 30+ 2min ORB trades since I started live on the DAS platform. 30 is the minimum trades that I will analyze the data. So out of the 31 trades my win rate on the 2min ORB setup was only 65%. My win$/Loser$ ratio was not very good either making this not a profitable setup. Yes my % is much higher when I don’t break rules, but I don’t want to look at the “what ifs”. What is interesting about the data is my win rate for stocks I have never traded before was 45%. And the win rate for the stocks that I have traded at least once before was 75%. With that info I need to make some adjustments. Now I don’t want to stop taking 2min ORBs on stocks I have never traded before, but I do want to stop the preference I have for new stocks. I am always worried I am going to get into a rut trading the same stocks every day. So if I see a good setup on a familiar stock and a new one, I will always trade the new one. With this data in hand I need to stop that habit. The preference should be in the opposite direction. That will be a focus for next week.

Friday 3/15/2019 My nerves were better this morning, I had a well-being score of 5/10. I have a new veto rule this week (Spread >0.2%) which I did consciously break this morning. Still debating if it was a good idea to do it. Of course if the trade was a winner I probably would have thought better about it. My one allowable trade today was with GDS. My GDS checklist: GDS had a bullish 2min candle forming and I was waiting for it to break the premarket high at 36.75. Price did a curtsy at that level making it a stronger setup. But, the spread was too high. This week I added a new spread veto rule. It was about .4%. Then just as it broke the TL there was a very large ask on L2. I have never used L2 as part of a decision, though I do look at it. With my finger already on the trigger I took the trade. I took less shares knowing I will get a bad fill. As bad luck would have it the spread jumped to 0.6% the moment I took the trade. Then 1 second later the spread dropped in half. But those are the breaks near the open. But, even with the bad fill I still had a 2-1 reward to risk ratio. 8 seconds later the large ask disappeared and the price fell. I exited right on my planned stop. Even with the spread veto rule break, I think this was an OK trade. The setup was there and I think the L2 signal was strong enough to take a chance over the spread. What I did good today: I kept to my 1 trade/day max rule. Huge FOMO today. I usually trade poorly on Friday and it was really nice to have a positive Friday last week so I really wanted another positive Friday. My finger was right the trigger, then I stopped myself and shut the platform down. How did I challenge myself today? First time used L2 to trigger a trade. Used an updated DAS layout What I did bad today: Broke a new spread veto rule. What can I do better next week: I need to prep and study over the weekend. I usually do, but last weekend I didn’t have a chance and felt unprepared all week.