No trade today!
It’s almost 1 PM, and the broker only enabled trading about an hour ago—36 hours of maintenance—Incredible!
Nothing quality I like at the moment. All quality setups have already been tested. All setups marked in purple are ones I would have attempted to trade.
New color codes going forward.
Who is your broker? I suggest you ditch them and get a broker that doesn’t do stupid things like run maintenance during trading hours, or being cynical restrict trading because it’s too easy to make money when the markets shoot in one direction.
They won’t say it, but the crazy volatility from Wednesday might have broken something from their end. Either way, I will certiainly look to switch to a better broker soon.
Friday, April 11 – Day #22
Results: +3.8R (1 winner, 0 losers)
Daily P&L: +$776.02
Discipline and Execution
The market was pretty choppy this morning with no clear direction or follow-through—looks like it’s waiting to decide on its next move. There was nothing I liked in terms of price action. No quality setups were created, and I felt it was too risky to force any new trades. I only took one trade today, and it was a solid 3.8R winner. Good way to finish the week in green.
T39 (+3.8R): I took the retest of a short setup that formed before the NY open, which led to a nice move back down to the NY open price. I placed my TP a few points above the 9:30 open level. This trade was executed exactly as planned.
Drawdowns are no joke. I’ve looked at backcharts where a trade would pullback all the way to the original entry, and then it would start trending.
But then it starts pulling back, then I get anxious and close.
To counter that, I started preparing practice charts to help me learn to hold, rather than close.
Why was this a bad decision? You followed your rules, which is the stated goal of this exercise. Perhaps you can add/test another rule though?
Trump put a hex on your trades brudda. Orange man break technical analysis. No good for trade. No good for traders. Price discovery? Pssshhh! Try Mar-a-lago markets!
lulz
Do you have a stated benchmark/target R:R/PF?
Unlucky!
Quite suspicious innit?
Monday, April 14 – Day #23
Results: +0.0R (0 winner, 0 losers)
Daily P&L: $0.00
Discipline and Execution
Nice move down from 11:00 AM to noon this morning, but I stayed on the sidelines—there was nothing high-quality that I liked enough to justify the risk during the first few hours of the session. It’s 1:30 PM as I write this, and I need to end my trading session here because I have an appointment in 45 minutes.
That said, I do have a short setup I’m willing to take at 18,881, so I’ll leave my limit short order open while I’m away. If it gets triggered, I’ll likely update this journal later today or tomorrow morning.
Monday, April 14 – Day #23 — UPDATE
Results: -1.0R (0 winners, 1 loser)
Daily P&L: -$229.43
Discipline and Execution
Coming back from my appointment, I saw that T40 ended up being a losing trade—that’s alright! Hopefully, Nasdaq offers better-quality setups tomorrow.
This T40 trade marks the end of my second batch of 20 trades for this journal experiment. Here’s a quick recap:
Number of trading days: 12
Winners: 7 trades
Losers: 12 trades
Break-even: 1 trade
Win rate: 37%
Total cumulative “R”: +6.0R
Comments:
During my first batch of 20 trades, I missed 8 trade opportunities due to hesitation—setups I should have taken. My goal for this second batch was to correct that and take all quality setups, no matter what. I didn’t fully succeed, but it was a clear improvement: I only missed 2 quality setups this time due to hesitation.
My discipline was solid throughout this batch. I avoided big losses and didn’t revenge trade.
A 37% win rate is on the low side. I’d say I was in a bit of a losing streak. That said, many of the losses were good losses. With the tariff situation, it’s possible my setup just wasn’t performing well in current conditions. Price action was also pretty crap on several days.
On April 7, during that historically high-volatility day, my platform froze and I couldn’t exit a losing trade. That caused me to exceed the max daily loss on the $25K test account I was using for this journal. The prop firm claimed the issue was on my end (internet-related) and refused to void the loss. I ended up losing the account. As a result, I’ve decided to continue this journal using a larger challenge account I started about a month ago—that’s why the win/loss dollar amounts have been bigger recently.
Goal for the next batch of 20 trades:
I want to continue maintaining good discipline and focus on taking all quality setups, no matter what.
Tuesday, April 15 – Day #24
Results: 0.0R (0 winners, 0 loser)
Daily P&L: $0.00
Discipline and Execution
NO TRADE DAY!
Crappy PA today! Price is just consolidating on the M30 chart. We need a decision—either a break higher or lower. No follow-through and not much quality to trade at the moment—no solid setups formed or tested.
I tried to get into a trade twice this morning, but price missed my limit orders by a few ticks on both setups—sucks!
I had a long limit order at 18,788 and a short limit order at 18,943. Since we’re in choppy / ranging PA on the higher timeframe, I only wanted to take the first retest for both setups. I didn’t expect either to hold for a second or third retest—but they both did. Still, I’m not counting these as missed opportunities because my plan was to enter only on the first retest.
Either way, I’ve seen enough. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 16 – Day #25
Results: 0.0R (0 winners, 0 loser)
Daily P&L: $0.00
Discipline and Execution
The crappy PA continues! Gap down at the 6PM Globex open, then a news at 4:30 AM pushed price up. But there is just no follow-through in either direction — price just keeps chopping sideways with terrible price action! I asked ChatGPT to describe the Nasdaq’s behavior today, and what it gave me was hilarious, lol.
I had a short limit order around 18,550ish, but just like yesterday, price turned before reaching my level.
Staying disciplined and patient is key for me during times like this. No need to force anything — that’s burned me more than a few times before. So, no trades this morning. I’ll do an hour or two of backtesting and call it a day.
Thursday, April 17 – Day #26
Results: 0.0R (0 winners, 0 loser)
Daily P&L: $0.00
Discipline and Execution
Seems to be the theme of the week—NQ turns just before grabbing my order! I had 2 limit long orders at 18,397 and 18,195. Both missed by just a few ticks!
Crappy PA continues yet again. What a terrible week of price action Nasdaq gave us—just absolute garbage.
Monday, I took a loss on a limit short order I had left open while I was at a dentist appointment. Tuesday, Wednesday, and today I took zero trades—not because I didn’t want to, but because either price turned a few points before hitting my limit order, or there simply wasn’t a single quality setup worth trading.
This week was just crap PA: no follow-through, no conviction from buyers or sellers, choppy consolidation, and—most importantly for my setup—no clean break and retest.
Tuesday, April 22 – Day #27
Results: -2.0R (0 winners, 2 losers)
Daily P&L: -$497.82
Discipline and Execution
Red day today! Was I really trying to catch the top, or was I trading my setup? Probably yes to both. One thing’s for sure—I was clearly fighting the massive rally today. After two strikes, I’m out! Better to come back tomorrow with a fresh mind.
T41 (-1R): This setup was responsible for breaking Thursday’s low and was the initial point of the move down since the Sunday night open. It was a valid setup and a good loss.
T42 (-1R): This was at Thursday’s close and at the Sunday open gap. Not the picture-perfect setup I like to see, but in the spirit of taking all setups no matter what, I had to take it.
Wednesday, April 23 – Day #28
Results: +3.0R (1 winner, 0 losers)
Daily P&L: +$764.82
Discipline and Execution
My discipline wasn’t great today—I wasn’t patient.
Nasdaq price action has been terrible lately. Not sure if it’s because of the “orange man,” but NQ just isn’t creating quality setups I can trade. Most breakouts don’t get a proper retest, and when they do, the setup fails.
This morning, I dropped down to the 15-second chart and took 3 trades—which I never do. These trades were technically within my rules, but they were lower probability. I took two losses (-$224.62 and -$218.22), followed by a $492.20 win that brought me just above breakeven on the day. Since I didn’t follow my rules, and because I only want to track my metrics for setups taken off the 2-minute chart, I’m not going to count those 3 trades.
T43 (+3.1R): After that little detour on the 15-second chart, I returned to my 2-minute chart and took a clean long for +$764.82. I placed my TP just before the first opposing lower-quality setup and locked in a solid 3.1R.
Thursday, April 24 – Day #29
Results: +1.0R (1 winner, 0 losers)
Daily P&L: +$279.72
Discipline and Execution
I only took 1 trade this morning — T44 (+1.2R). It was a small win, but that was my objective when I entered this trade. I set my TP at 1R because I expected the retest of the 1-minute rejection candle to push price down to 18,605, where I had a limit buy order for a bigger move. Once the trade played out, I felt good about it—especially when I saw price returning to my entry. But then it just consolidated until the NY open… and shot up with no pullback!
My patience was good this morning, even though I missed the move. I was waiting for a new setup to form and a pullback to participate in the rally—but neither showed up today.
