September 9, 2025 (4 Trades) (-$11.25)
Overall Grade: B-
*No Stats Picture - TJ showing life-time stats instead of day stats*
Day Summary: I did a good job of sticking to my strategy today, executing it on 3 of my 4 trades, but my trade management was subpar today. That, followed up by a FOMO last trade, caused me to finish in the red. Although it was a very small red day, today was one of those days where just a few different decisions could have made this a big day. I'm content with all of my trades today, but definitely took my worst trade on the last one, so it was good that I stopped there. It was already the end of the session anyways so that helped me stop, but today really could have been different. Let's take a look.
DAILY - ES
5 MIN - ES
TRADES
Trade 1 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Premarket + Held Past Stop
Grade: B-
- totally fine with this entry, although taking it so close to market open was sketchy for exactly the reason of what happened (9:31 green candle)
- also was sketchy after taking the same trade on the funded account at ~9:18am and already seeing it fail to move lower
- planned stop was a close above first big red candle at ~9:05am - did not stick to that
- I was pretty sure during the consolidation after the open that we were going to move higher but I just didn't have the mental discipline to eat the small loss and get out and it ultimately ended up costing me more for that decision
- I did end up closing this before my normal 6pt stop but by this point the trade was ovbiously moving against me so it was time to get out and I'm happy I got out where I did because at this point my thesis was officially broken
- one good takeaway from this trade is that I continue to execute my system and that is the best thing I can do to take emotions out of the game
Trade 2 - Short 2 MES @ Fakeout + Intuition + Bias
Grade: B+
- made up most of my first loss on half the size (only took off 1 of 2 at lows) - that is a recipe for success
- although this bounced on me, based on pricve action at the lows, there was no real reason not to hold for a break to new lows, however, knowing the recent market sentiment would have helped me because recently there has not been much follow through
- this wasn't my exact set up, but I had strong intuition that my entry candle was a fakeout and I nailed it
- after that fakeout, I don't think it was unreasonable to hold for new lows - really this was just unfortunate and that's trading because we did break lower later in the mornnig, and well, I took that one off early of course lol (see Trade 3)
- going into 3 star news at 10am, I knew I was at risk of getting my remaining contract stopped out and considered getting out just before, but didn't out of FOMO and ended up getting tagged out
- we also kept bouncing off Asia lows, another reason to have taken profit at lows (both on this trade and in the trade I took in premarket on the funded account)
Trade 3 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Reject
Grade: B+
- by far the most painful trade of the day
- for some reason, I always hold for continutation on trades that reverse and cut the ones that end up having follow through (examples today - Trade 2 & 3)
- having PTSD from Trade 2 I decided that the smart thing to do was take partials off at the lows after giving it a chance to break down, but then I ultimately took off the other contract at the same price after the pullback demotivated me to hold for target at 6499.75 - tough
- easy to say after of course but FOMO got me after seeing how quickly this moved down, but realistically I would have been out of both contracts at 6499.75
- entry on this trade was A quality
- did a good job holding this trade with confidence throughout the first few mins even after being red on the day initially and getting myself almost back to BE on Trade 2
- looking at the 5 MIN now and seeing how we tested Asia highs and then rolled offer aggressively, I definitely should have held this trade, but I did a good job of recognizing the momentum shift regardless and going with it
Trade 4 - Short 2 MES @ 21 Ema Trap + FOMO (after missed initial entry) + Bias
Grade: C-
- technically this was my set up, but I missed the initial entry at the 21 EMA Trap and then got FOMO
- decided to try it with 1 contract to minize risk since I was back green on the day finally - good idea
- however, I added to the loser, just trying to get lucky and being biased that I was right and it was going to fakeout and move lower
- had I taken this trade where I should have, it would have been worth the minimal risk as my stop should have been a close over 6499.50
- we had also created a HL at 10:45 - remember that my set up is subpar after PA like that - Pay Attention To Price Action!
- overall this trade was just not worth taking. It put me red on the day after fighting my way back to the green and this was by no means an A quality trade
- this was a good spot to stop for the day and I'm glad I did