August 19, 2025 ( 6 Trades) (+$43.75)
Overall Grade: C+
Day Summary: First and foremost, I overtraded today. There is no reason I should be taking 6 trades in a day. However, there were a fair amount of opportunities today and I did put on a couple good trades, but for some reason 2023 Nate decided to show up today and not hold his winners. I do think that stemmed from yesterday's red day for the first trade of the day, and then my 4th trade because at that point I was back trading from the red. I need to remember that the price action does not care about my current p/l, yesterday's p/l, whether I'm on a green/red streak or anything about what I have going on. Don't be a p/l trader, trade the chart and trade your set ups.
DAILY - ES
5 MIN - ES
TRADES
Trade 1 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + 4 Targets + Intuition + Closed Early
Grade: A-
- Target on this trade was Yesterday's LOD (6457.50) - closed because I made back 75% of yesterdays loss 2mins into market open (I was worried it would bounce back up from PM low consolidation)
- Overall good trade, good plan
- small risk, entry was however mostly on intuition because this is considered a subpar 21 EMA Trap
- be careful trading right at market open - not normal for me
Trade 2 - Short 2 MES @ FOMO + Right Idea, Wrong Timing
Grade: B-
- no real set up - FOMO (from trade 1) - bad
- tough stop out by seconds, target was Yesterday's LOD again (6457.50) - hit
- closed because I had given up most of my profits from Trade 1 at the highs, that's it - bad
- don't trade the p/l
- I had the right idea, but this is not a high probability set up and therefore it is better that I just avoid
Trade 3 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + FOMO + Thinking About The Money - Ignoring Price Action (HL)
Grade: D+
- ignoring price action (HL set just before entry) - bad
- FOMO / Revenge Trading - bad
- Held beyond planned stop (close above VWAP) - BAD
- recognized I was on the wrong side in the consilidation and thought about reversing (see trade 4) - good
- Remember - PRICE ACTION IS KEY !!!!
Trade 4 - Long 2 MES @ Price Action + Fakeout + Trusting The Chart + Closed Early
Grade: B+
- recognized I was on the wrong side in Trade 3 and began looking for a spot to get long
- fakeout gave my an entry set up - good
- this was a little sketchy since I was now red on the day and I felt like closing but I did think I was right on this trade - went breakeven stop after seeing some push
- I did close this trade early - target was 6473.75 - hold your winners! Don't be 2023 Nate. Be 2025 Nate!!
- Hold winners!!
Trade 5 - Short 2 MES @ FOMO + Forced Trade + No Set Up
Grade: D-
- no set up - bad
- FOMO - bad
- shorted right into a Shrek candle - ouch
- shorted the bottom - bad
- overtrading - bad
- AVOID
- I did have a quick mental clarity before entering that this was a bad spot to short (shorting the bottom) and I brushed it off out of FOMO - remember to listen to your logical mind in those brief moments of clarity
Trade 6 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Revenge Trading + Intuition
Grade: B
- this should have been my entry for Trade 5 (FOMO - see above bullets for Trade 5)
- over trading at this poing - bad
- but this is a playbooked set up - good
- took off partials, not a bad idea here but I mainly did it out of emotion from Trade 5 which is not good, although I probably would have taken the whole position off where I took the second contract off anyways
- it was a good call to finish on this trade for the day - over trading + being back in the green was enough for me to decide it was time to shut it down