January 20, 2026 (+$33.75) - Double Size Winner

Lesson/Review

January 20, 2026 (2 Trades) (+$33.75)

Overall Grade: B

Day Summary: I had a late start to my mark up this morning and only finished it up at 9:26am, which didn't give me much time at all to catch my head before the open. In the first half hour of the day, I could feel myself tempted to take a trade, but I did a good job of talking myself out of it. We were ranging, and because I did have a long bias - trying to be a contrarion to the current sentiment (US EU tariff war - Greenland) and a premarket uptrend, I was tempted twice to buy into the tops of the range. Good thing I stopped myself, and waited for a better time, although I did end up taking a FOMO entry on Trade 1, Trade 2 made up for it and some, 2x what I lost on Trade 1 which is a winning recipe. Trade 2 was a banger though, and although scary, I grew more and more confident while I was in the trade and ultimately held all the way up to my preset TP. Good shit!


DAILY - ES

5 MIN - ES

TRADES

Trade 1 - Long 1 MES @ Trusting The Chart (Range Day) + FOMO Entry

Grade: D+

  • Right idea, but I had bitched out on the original planned entry (10:03 dip) and then ended up taking a FOMO entry on a range day - BAD
  • no playbook set up - bad
  • Immediately uncomfortable in this trade - had the chance to get out BE and chose not too (but was really kinda just frozen)
  • This right here is a prime example of just how not worth it a FOMO Entry is - completely skews your R and makes it much more likely to take a loss
  • 1 contract - sizing down helped a lot so I could stay int he game and take a good Trade 2 which made up for this one


Trade 2 - Long 1 MES @ Trusting The Chart (Range Day) + Intuiton + Fakeout

Grade: A-

  • this is the trade I was really looking for on Trade 1
  • much better entry (fakeout entry) - still a little bit of FOMO because it swept the wicks and then popped right back up and then i got in just to see it come back down a bit to where i really wanted to get it - thankfully that was the extent of the pullback
  • I could tell the red candle I entered on was short bait
  • playbook set up - trusting the chart - good
  • held winner to preset TP - GOOD!
  • Made back double what I lost on Trade 1 - winning recipe - shows the importnt of holding winners
  • Somewhat easy to hold considering it flew straight to my TP but I'll take it!
  • good to get out before a breakd of the highs because on a range day like this, it could have easily just rolled back over
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