January 27, 2026 (2 Trades) (-$32.50)
Overall Grade: B-
Day Summary: I woke up with a good mindset for trading this morning, and although I took a poor first trade, I knew I was in the right mindset to recompose myself and take a second trade today. The second trade was much better, with a sniper entry and a much better attempt at the same set up as Trade 1 (Range Fakeout). However, I was not lucky today and my preset TP missed by 1 tick, just to watch it reverse and stop me out breakeven just a few minutes later. As one could imagine, that is extremely frustrating and it ruined my mindset for the rest of the day. Thankfully, I did the responsible thing and shut it down for the day because I knew I wasn't in the proper mindset for trading anymore (Note: I did put out one forced sell order but quickly cancelled it when I realized I was purely acting out of emotion). It took 90 minutes, but I was able to reflect on the trade and, honestly, it is not a bad habit to hold to preset TP. In reality, that is a good habit, and although it didn't work out today, I know that it was the right thing to do, so that is a good takeaway.
DAILY - ES
5 MIN - ES
TRADES
Trade 1 - Short 2 MES @ Range Fakeout (PM) + Subpar Setup + Fighting Price Action
Grade: C-
- playbook set up - technically but very subpar - range fakeout from PM but was waiting for Nas to break its range high before I attempted it on the S&P
- fighting price action - bad
- overall, this was a forced trade and I pretty much knew instantly that the Range Fakeout wasn't ready to go yet
- Had a chance to get out a little lower but I'm glad I got out where I did because I was pretty sure I was going to get stopped out on this trade and I limited the damage on a subpar set up which is a good habit
- stepping in front of such a strong bullish move was dangerous, but range fakeouts do come off of strong moves
Trade 2 - Short 2 MES @ Range Fakeout + Held Winner + Unlucky
Grade: A
- As you can see in the screen shot of Trade 2, Trade 1 technically was the right idea but my entry on Trade 2 was the good entry for the Range Fakeout (much more ready to go)
- I really thought we would test VWAP/Range low on this trade, and this MF reversed literally one tick from my TP
- I could have closed too but I wanted to do what I knew was the good habit and that burned me today, but I know over the longterm that is the right thing to do, as there was definitely the possibility of us testing the PM range low
- considering the way the big red candle closed though, this was a good trade to hold - simply unlucky
- 1 MF TICK THOOOOO
- playbook set up - yes
- banger entry
- watching this reverse 8 points on me just to get 1 more tick def ruined my mood for the day though so it is a good thing I stopped here