January 15, 2026 (2 Trades) (-$21.25)
Overall Grade: C+
Day Summary: Today I entered back into my first day of Trader Rehab. It's been a while but, yet again, find myself back to using just 1 contract. A bit frustrating, but I also know that I've done this before and have came back from worse. That is one of the good things about experience, I have already been through a lot of trials and tribulations and I know that I can do it now. Today's trades were not the best, but they at least both had a plan and my risk was managed, especially so considering I was only using one contract.
DAILY - ES
5 MIN - ES
TRADES
Trade 1 - Short 1 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Key Level
Grade: B-
- playbook set up - yes
- best entry for the set up would have been right at the key level, but I am very glad I didn't FOMO into this one on the first green candle, otherwise this trade would have been much more uncomfortable, and it already wasn't a trade I was very comfortable in due to how long price was hanging around my entry
- Trading with the current price action, but against the overall overnight uptrend which is not ideal
- good attempt at holding this trade, I give myself that
- Target was VWAP - 6990.75
Trade 2 - Short 1 MES @ Range Fakeout + Know The Day + Bias
Grade: C
- I caught the long from the bottom of the range in the funded, and at that point I was very confident that I Knew The Day (range day) and that I could play a short back down
- Not a bad idea overall considering the morning price action but I did state before this trade that it would be easier to buy the bottoms of the range instead of shorting the tops due to the overnight uptrend
- entry was not very good but I was looking for the price action of the candles prior to my entry to align with a quick break through the 21 (a spot where I usually would be buying - but I was so convinced that we would range back down that I decided to take it short)
- not a bad start to the trade and I did give it chances to break down, but ultimately, once we started making HLs, I knew I was cooked
- definitely not my best trade but I did have a plan and I mostly followed it
- 1 contract helped me hold onto this trade as I only lost ~$20
- overall, valid thought for a day with the choppy morning price action, but I was also fighting a strong overnight uptrend on this