February 12, 2026 (+$17.50) | Take The Trade

February 12, 2026 (2 Trades) (+$17.50)

Overall Grade: C+

Day Summary: I knew it premarket today that I wasn't in the best mindset for trading. I woke up groggy, with a slight headache and just in general felt mentally cloudy. Days like that, it is probably best just to not trade at all. At this point in my trading career I know the difference between when I feel locked in and when I'm just not on my game. I need to be okay skipping days where I just don't feel my best. During the first part of market open today, I was selling some of those dividend funds I've had for a couple years now and was barely paying attention to price action. As I finished doing that, I saw an A quality set up and just hesitated on it. I let it pass and sure enough it went and smacked TP (you can see this trade marked as the grey ovals in the trade photos below). This gave me some FOMO and I forced a no set up short just a few mins later. Not good as I allowed my emotions to take over in that moment because I did know I was frustrated from missing that set up, but that doesn't justify trying to force a set up out of the market. Actually, had I got in where I stopped out, it could have been a great trade. Imagine that... The good thing is that I quickly realized it was a focred trade and got out quickly, just to get a much better set up just a few minutes later which I did execute on and made up about 1.75x of the loosing trade which is a good takeaway.

DAILY - ES

5 MIN - ES

TRADES

Trade 1 - Short 2 MES @ FOMO + Missed Set Up + "Revenge Trading"

Grade: C-

1. forced trade
2. frustrated from missing that A quality set up
3. allowed my emotions to get to me here
4. trading in the direction of the trend which is good at least
5. cut the loss quick on this trade because I knew it was forced
6. had I waited for the 21 EMA this could have been a good trade as you'll see in Trade 2

Trade 2 - Short 1 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Fakeout + Trend Continuation

Grade: B+

1. playbook set up - yes
2. fakeout entry - good
3. trading with the trend - yes
4. held winner pretty well and gave it a chance to hit target of 6959.50 but when it started to bounce I closed which was not a bad idea after Trade 1

*Tough day because had I taken the first trade set up that I missed, it likely would have been a one and done day for me with an A quality DRC, but I need to remember that I will miss good trades sometimes. That's just trading. There are always more opportunities to come. Be the profitable trader that waits for those opportunities and doesn't go trying to force opportunities out of the market*