January 21, 2026 (4 Trades) (+$45.00) | Don't Try Too Hard
Overall Grade: B
Day Summary: Today, undoubtedly, was not my best performance, but I managed to calm down, think logically and escape with a green day. My first trade was definitely the worst, and was taken out of emotion even though I knew it was a subpar set up, but the rest of the trades I took were pretty good. That being said, the trade management on Trade 3 was strictly out of emotion and that cost me. I know emotions are a killer in this game, and will never fully go away, but I did a good job on Trade 4 of not making the same mistake I made on Trade 3. So that is an intraday improvement, and it all stemmed from just accepting the risk and letting it ride (which was made easier due to the fact that I have scaled back down to 1 contract - Trade 2 I added to a winner, but otherwise 1 contract lol)
DAILY - ES
5 MIN - ES
TRADES
Trade 1 - Long 1 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Subpar Set Up + Emotions
Grade: D+
- Trading in the direction of the trend - good
- playbook set up - technically yes, but subpar and I knew that
- Intuition was telling me this was not a good spot to stab long
- Thankful for preset stop
- this was an emotional trade and I knew it as soon as I got in - had the opportunity to get out and didn't so I deserved this L
- remember to use intuition to qualify playbook set ups
Trade 2 - Short 2 MES @ 21 EMA Trap + Key Level(s) + Intuition + Closed Early
Grade: B+
- playbook set up - yes
- entry - banger
- added to winning trade - good
- intuition was strong that this was baiting in some longs before news at 10am
- closed a bit early as target was a retest of the low but I was trading from the red so we know how that goes
Trade 3 - Long 1 MES @ Momentum + Breakeven Too Early + Bitched Out
Grade: B-
- Not a playbook set up but after the dip recovery (which I did hold through on my funded - YIKES) I was pretty sure the momentum was there to take this trade, especially with just 1 contract
- Trading in the direction of the recent price action - good
- Not sure why but I did feel very uncomfortable in this trade and I went BE too early which of course hit to a tick and then moved up
- no intended target on this trade which is not ideal - but that is just kind of the nature of momentum trades - the entry can sometimes sneak up on you which is not something I generally like to practice
- actually, where I got stopped out was technically my 21 EMA Trap set up, so there was no reason to stop out BE on this trade other than pure emotions - bitch
Trade 4 - Long 1 MES (added 1 MES right at the end to go for the breakout but it was a breakout or bailout add) @ Bear Trap + Key Level + Price Action
Grade: B+
- I did break my 3 Trades A Day Max rule on this trade - not a good habit
- however - trading in the direction of PA - good
- no real playbook set up - not good
- felt like there was short bail, but that is just intuition and I should not base trades on intuition alone
- good job holding the winner on this trade and good job adding for more
- However, there were better dips to add on but on Trade 4 for the day and finally being green, I didn't want to risk averaging up and turning this trade into a loser - that's why when I finally did add it became a Breakout or Bailout trade