May 22 / 18 years

My plan is very much not to trade today. But, I felt compelled to really reflect on yesterday afternoons trade. It really opened my eyes to how I actually want to trade. I was stupid patient with the 10m chart waiting until a clear setup with real justification for a trade. I already wrote about this yesterday, but my first trade I had the right idea, but not a clear trigger on the 10m chart. Based on my idea I went searching for the trade on the 3m chart. Vs. in the afternoon I waited for the 10m to show a setup. Then waited for price to get to a place where I could see if the setup was valid or not. And, only then did I zoom into the 3m to hone in on the ideal entry and technical stop.

It's boring, but wow was it so much easier and less stressful to return 2% to the port with the proper afternoon trade vs the 2% return on an oversized position in the morning.

I have great plans and get caught up in making money / taking a trade that I don't wait for the plan to play out. Vs. Waiting for the plan, I was slowly and confidently able to take a position with a proper stop level and confidence to hold to my target.

The 10m chart lends itself to meaningfully larger moves, which shifts the risk / reward greatly in my favor. Now it's a matter of remembering how wonderful it felt to wait for the right trade and constantly 'miss' the wrong trades.

Yes, I'm often right with short term direction on the 3m. But the move are typically smaller and require extreme precision and/or huge size to drive returns. Why play on hard mode?!

Be patient enough for it to be easy. Repeating this is the key to building confidence and consistency. Which then allows me to size or switch back to 0dte to drive larger returns.

It will never happen though if I continue getting sucked into making money and justifying trades on smaller time zones. Growth will only happen being extremely patient on the 10m chart.

If there's a take away from my years of trading it's that I"m always early. So, there's no hard in waiting on the 10m. I may consider waiting a whole 10m candle after I'm initially ready to take a trade.

It always becomes clear, but I've typically run through mental and financial capital.

It's hard to wait, but it makes the execution so much easier.

I want so badly to bottle up this mindset and ensure it stays with me each and every day. Patience Pays. I've known this forever. Easier said than done. I've obviously done it plenty, but has yet to stick and become routine. It has to. And, this time does feel different. I am super mindful of how meaningfully easier it was to execute the afternoon patient trade vs the morning forced trade. The afternoon trade is the only one I can scale. So, why am I bothering with the forced 3m trades. Sure I can make enough money, but it won't lead to growth as a trader.

I want to grow. Growth is in waiting for the 10m chart. Not being content scraping by on the 3m chart.

10m chart. 10m chart. 10m chart.

I was aware of where we were on the hourly chart. I was aware of the 10m swing pivots. I was aware that we were too far away for continuation.

I watch and wait on the 10m. I only zoom to the 3m once I have a clear 10m setup. 3m is just for entry, not for setup!