Here are the key takeaways from your trading notes:

1. Adapting Strategy:

   • You've moved away from relying heavily on VWAP bands, which were previously your "easy money" setups, and are now focusing more on fine-tuning support and resistance levels on lower timeframes and unswept liquidity areas for precise entries.
   • You've been forward-testing an "Orderblock VWAP" strategy, focusing on swing highs or lows and the interaction between contradicting trends across timeframes.

2. Improvement and Wins:

   • Although your win rate is below average, you’ve achieved back-to-back winning days, signaling progress and positive momentum.
   • You've reached 4 out of 5 necessary $200 winning days needed for your first payout, showing discipline and focus on a key milestone.

3. Market Conditions:

   • The October market has been challenging, but you're staying optimistic and focused on making your first payout by being more selective with trades.
   • You are now aiming to lower your trade volume by only taking A+ setups, refining your entries to ensure higher-quality trades.

4. Risk Management:

   • You are adapting your risk management approach by halving your profit target and taking mean reversion trades instead of targeting lower VWAP bands, which haven’t been playing out in the current market conditions.
   • You're aware of how wide stop losses can get, particularly noting that if they exceed 10% of the average true range (ATR) of the asset, you should avoid the trade for tighter risk management.

5. Lessons Learned from Papercuts:

   • After experiencing several small losses ("papercuts") on the 2-minute chart, you’ve learned that following the "next highest timeframe rule" (e.g., re-entering based on the 5-minute chart) might help mitigate overtrading.
   • You also observed that higher timeframes like the 5-minute chart, in alignment with 30-minute and 1-hour order blocks, offered cleaner entries with no drawdown in this case.

6. Focus on Price Action:

   • You've shifted from indicators to analyzing price action with a "fine-tooth comb" to identify extremities and order block areas.
   • You're emphasizing the importance of unswept liquidity and are becoming more comfortable with price action as a primary tool for identifying entry points.

In summary, you are gradually refining your approach by becoming more selective, reducing reliance on VWAP, using multi-timeframe analysis for cleaner entries, and improving risk management. Your forward-testing of the Orderblock VWAP strategy and awareness of stop-loss width are helping mitigate overtrading, positioning you closer to consistent success.

I took multiple papercuts before eventually hitting the short side trade that worked.

I decided to trade on the 2 minute chart today, and kept a consistent focus on really fine tuning the true support and resistance areas on the lower timeframes for more precise entries.

So far, although my win rate is still below average, I have been to stack up my first back to back winning days. So its a step back in the right direction. 

Since I havent been able to rely on the VWAP bands as I have in the past, with my easy money setups. I have had to really dig through the price action with a fine tooth comb and decipher the extremities to trade off of. 

Overall, this market in October has been extrememly difficult, but Im staying optimistic that I can turn it around and get my first ever payout.

I have now completed 4/5 $200 dollar winning days needed in order to get my first payout. So for now, I am going to continue staying extrememly selective with my trades so that I can lower my trading volume and only take what I see as A+ trading setups.

I also cut todays profit target in half, and took the cover at the mean reversion area, rather than targeting the lowerband, since those trades havent been playing out.

So now instead of relying on the VWAP and bands as I have the prior month, Im mostly solely relying on support and resistance thats identified through price action, and unswept liquidity areas from orderblocks.

Again, I am still continuing to forward test this Orderblock VWAP, where I fine tune the extremities in price, trying to locate the best possible price I can find where I can mitigate risk near swing highs or lows that are holding contradicting trends throughout different timeframes throughout the daily charts. 

And I am also noticing, that upon taking multiple papercuts on the 2 minute chart today, I was going to trade the next highest timeframe rule, and only re enter if I see a trade on the 5 minute, and Im now noticing in hindsight, that the bullish to bearish variation that was presented on the 5 minute chart, off of the 30 minute and 1 hour bearish orderblocks, protecting the 10 day and 20 day swing high, was a no drawdown entry from the 5 minute chart. It seems that the next highest timeframe rule is one of the only things I can potentially follow to mitigate overtrading and taking more papercuts than I should be. The only thing is I have to be very aware of how wide the stoplosses are, because if they are more than 10% of the average true range for the asset that im trading, than I should disregard the trade and wait for a way to enter with tighter risk management.