Managing the environment

why 6% weekly loss is not as bad as you might think , at least in my head.

Hence this is the first issue , I`ll want narrow the playing field.

I will always try to use the same structure so that readers ( if someone reads) can jump direct to the interesting part.

People with extensive knowledge are not interested into the basic decision making and how I got there and on the other side someone who starts his journey and reads this for some help, won`t anything understand from Setups / Oderflow.

I always start with the recap of last week and my thoughts in reference to my situation. Then I`ll present something I`ll work on, currently it is Oderflow and execution It is followed by my targets next week and what I`ll think about it.

I will often add pictures or videos like today that you see what I did and of course I`m happy to take your understanding.

Knowledge is costly

It was a costly week, I lost 6% of my current account. If you add commissions and fees it`s more.

I`m pissed?

No not really, because I got something in return, which is experience. Could it be cheaper maybe but that was not in my mind.

Learning professional futures day trading is not harder than anything else you learn. First you need to understand that this is a profession like any other.

Take this as a profession you need to advance.

If you are not lucky enough to get a seat at a valuable prop firm you need to do that by yourself, the good educators give you everything at your hands what you need to know but structure and learning is on you.

So you need to find a way to structure and visualize the content like at the university and learn it step by step. In my early days I got told this stuff is not hard to understand it is just complex and it is.

Understanding banks 1/3 execution banks 2/3 the last 3/3 are the hardest it is the trader mindset.

As a self educated trader you will have these weeks like I had, important is that you do not ruin your account (one day you do as we all did) and I`ll tell you why.

You do not have any source of truth. Sure you have the videos and lessons but seeing a fact and taking action because of a fact is quite different. If there is someone around which tells you at the end of the day this was ok, this was bad you have a bias and can move on concentrate on the things you did not do correct.

As a self educated trader you get something told and then you need to see it , repeat it, agree that it is a thing , build it into your process. This is costs you much more energy and circles than having some sort of direction.

Thankfully I do have a “silent” personal life no topics which hold me back and some experience to do major undertakings at the same time, all my degrees I earned are done while I worked fulltime, all over the world, so I know how to structure digital knowledge and transform it into my head but let me tell you this is hard. Sometimes I structured content just to know 3 months later why I did this and what important pice of information it holds, because you don’t know.

Like the orderflow trade I brought today

The trade took place Friday started 16:05 hrs ( 10:05 AM east coast)

I already had in mind to trade a 2day reversal in S&P - It was Friday after FOMC week reduce risk over the weekend etc. there are many points we can argue and discuss but that was in my mind.

Michigan Consumer data came in low , just a few minutes ago

On the Footprint I saw rejection of the VPOC and the Orderflow was good.

Based on my methodology for a trade I need

• Supporting Environment ( as explained )

• Trade Idea ( Range extension below the overnight lows )

• Trade Strategy ( Sell any occuring access price with oderflow first target OVL intend to break)

• Access ( rejection of VPOC , Delta )

Hence I`m not really good with addons I train them lately, with micros, On SIM you would miss some important piece imho.

As you could see I took the trade with 2 micros all good 15 ticks within seconds , light absorption and then the next move. It comes to the level we approach the level quite fast, I did expect to see Absorption because it is the OVN etc. but I never thought that the OVN could hold. I was so biased and had in mind to do the addon ( what you see in the video) that I missed the reversal and volume above a LVN which shows you directly get out something is not as it should.

I took the addon and wasn`t prepared in my head. ( nobody can teach you to be prepared you have to do that by your own.)

After I took the addon I was still 15 ticks up so I decided to wait for the last HVN where now my entry sits if we get a continuation or “2nd try” of the HVN.

Of course not , Rollweek you name it, at the end I lost 9 ticks of 3 micros (3x3) it was complete on me.

4 times the speed

I do daily debriefs , where I watch my trades, I record and classify most days.

Then I looked at a educational video I watched 15 times already and there it was the personality shift or Hi/Lo Volume reversal pattern.

Exactly what I made false, use the reversal to cut and reverse the trade and profit back to the VWAP.

Believe me or not, I was shocked that I did not add this into my process yet and I was so biased.

That is just an example, I had a few of these the last week.

to believe is really hard.

But the most money I lost was because I did not believe in me and my decision making process.

All turns I expected this week are came true, If it was the S&P, the Oil or the EURO , did I trade them NO. I wasn`t sure if this is the entry until it was as I call it, public knowledge because everyone was seeing it and my edge was gone. Because I wasn`t sure if my calls are the right ones. Instead of letting the idea go, I tried to trade the idea anyway which failed because there was no trade anymore.

Then I did some psychological work one night in bed and came to the conclusion: if I reference the last week that my calls are good I shall trust myself for now and trade my calls if I`m wrong the outcome is the same as now when I trade without edge.

Therefore I will train to execute trade setups after I called them when I have edge to build self-trust on sim or with micros and I go trough ladder drills because what I also experienced when trading normal S&P`s I need to be much more precise with my entries to have a good gut feeling.

I hope this first episode was a valuable reading and you continue to read.

Have a good one.