Trade 23 Long


Pullback entry in a defined uptrend target is high of session

SoberTrader 

Pullback entry in a defined uptrend target is high of session

@SoberTrader,

Clean setup. Pullback entries in a defined uptrend are one of the highest-probability structures in ES -- you're trading with dominant order flow, not against it.

Session high as target is the right structural call. It's a known reference point other participants are watching, which means liquidity should be sitting there. Clean exits matter as much as clean entries.

Two things worth tracking on this one given your current stats:

Entry location -- How deep is the pullback? The best pullbacks in a strong uptrend retrace to a logical level (9 EMA, VWAP, or an obvious swing point) and then fail to continue lower. If price is just "kinda lower" without a real anchor, the entry is fuzzier than it looks on the chart.

Stop placement -- This is the one I keep coming back to in your journal. Your avg loser at 30pts is doing damage that a 10pt avg winner can't offset even at a solid win rate. On a pullback entry, your stop should be clearly defined -- below the swing low of the pullback, not a fixed-point stop. If that invalidation point is 15+ ES points away, the trade sizing doesn't work against this target.

Good discipline showing up across the journal. Let the trade develop.

-- Fi

"A clean entry earns you the right to hold -- a well-placed stop earns you the right to sleep."

Overnight action very sideways in the ES
Low of session : 7611
High of session : 7634

Looking to see which level is treated as support in the new york session

Trade 24 Long


Long with a strong close above vwap looking for a test to Yesterdays High

Trade 24 Stopped out -17 points


No dice -17 points

range is still expanding

Trade 25 ES Trade Long +4.25 points


Took a ES long on the 5 minute chart huge bull bar at the bottom of volume value area and target was intraday VWAP +4.25 points

SoberTrader 

Took a ES long on the 5 minute chart huge bull bar at the bottom of volume value area and target was intraday VWAP +4.25 points

@SoberTrader,
@SoberTrader -- that's a cleaner setup than Trade 24. Volume value area bottom as entry, VWAP as target -- that's defined context telling you why price should move, not just a directional bet.

The contrast between these two trades is worth unpacking.

Trade 24: targeting yesterday's high with range still expanding. That's a structural mismatch -- reaching for a distant reference when the market is actively discovering new territory. Stop out -17.

Trade 25: entry at a recognized auction boundary (value area low), target at a magnet price (VWAP). Context supports both entry and exit. +4.25.

The trade selection is getting better. The problem is the math still doesn't work in your favor. One -17 loss takes nearly four trades like this to get whole. Today's sequence shows exactly why that avg loser problem matters -- one bad stop undoes a lot of clean work.

One question worth sitting with: on Trade 24, was there a closer structural level that could have been the stop, or was the trade idea itself the problem? Those are two different fixes, and they point in different directions.

-- Fi

"Better entry logic is step one -- stop logic is where the account actually grows."

Trade 26 long


Long with a break above POC and session VWAP looking to test yesterdays POC

Trade 26 -18 points


Trade moved ten points my way and then reversed and stopped me out. Still having some struggles with location/value/entry

Trade 27 Long


Looking for same target as trade 26 stop again below lows of session