Brian Trades

The market always tells you what it's going to give you.You never tell the market what you're gonna take. - Brian Webber, October. 21st 2024

COMBINE: S1OCT47176519 October 4, 2024
CASE STUDY – LIVE TRADING MES – WAVE TRADER 2.0 STRATEGY as of 10/4/24
INTRODUCTION: I am a 9-year, 25,000 HR live Futures trader who has been using TST to test my algorithm layover apps, rather unsuccessfully, I may add. I have been with TST for approx. 5 years.
I trade a live brokerage account which is my main source of income.
CASE STUDY STATED GOAL/STRATEGY: Today I decided to setup a trading experiment. Trade 10 micros on the MES to $ 1505.00 USD, the 50% goal of a $ 50K combine. I would use my ‘Wave Rider 2.0’ trading strategy on the 1-minute chart, buy red bottom/sell blue top at previous visual resistance areas; I would DCA (dollar cost average) my entrances and exits starting with 1 micro and adding as the market told me to ie. Break to high, break to low, buy red bottom and add near/at profit BE (break even). DCA risk mitigation – sell 50% of holdings every $ 100.00 value, or thereabouts. Sell remainder at wave break and sell against trend only to max of 2 contracts.
MARKET ENVIRONMENT: VIX 19.3%; US employment data released at 8:30 am EST; positive day for MES at time of writing. Port workers strike delayed to Jan. 2025. Check financial juice and/or TSTX for additional market conditions at time of writing.
PHYSICAL/RISK ENVIRONMENT: current model Samsung cell phone; data – LTE/5G; TSTX phone app; RISK - auto liquidation @ $ 1505.00; no PDLL set; position risk - $ 13.00 risk/$20.00 profit; used combination of Buy/Sell button and DOM – rational and risk = time available to place trades/speed of market/DCA.
EX*****ON: ** all prices are approx. **; 80% risk capital allocated to the upside trend – bias, impetus, proclivity observed to upside; market had come off its lows at 5752; was in the 60 range when entered = DCA 5 micros, continued buy/sell Wave Rider strategy to approximately 13:10 HRS; distracted and did not exit – held 10 micros from 81 to 66 **NOT PART OF MY STRATEGY** – NOTE TO SELF – DO NOT GET DISTRACTED/SET STOP/SELL to mitigate risk upon unavoidable distraction.
***DO NOT STOP DOING MENTAL MATH CALCS TO MITIGATE RISK/KEEP MIND IN GAME***
Market recovered to 81.75 at approximately 13:45, held position, account @ $1120.50 ; UP&L approx. $ 0. Resting order placed - sell 5 contracts at 84, missed first opportunity at 84 to sell – distracted writing this case study 😊, held 10 contracts thru 4 legs of 2 waves. Rational – I will typically only risk 50% of my banked profit (RP&L) before exiting my position when trading ‘live’, 3rd leg down from 14:00 – 14:15 = -$500+; correction down to @ 67 $ -617, held because wave ‘appeared’ to break 2 ticks (higher low) HOWEVER my rule is 3 ticks+ is ‘bias indicator’ for possible new wave/direction change when HL/HH or LL/LH presents. Market moved to upside breaching 72 in 3 minutes – 20 ticks/3 minutes = RR (rise/run) ‘excellent’ @ 9s/T (9 seconds a tick); NTS (note to self) – watch for next wave to be HL (higher low); was a HL 74 to 76, continued to hold 10 contract position; RR continued at 9s/T; consolidation/resistance @ 77 @ 14:30 HR risk? = expected result; broke to upside @ 14:35 and continued expected RR; 52 ticks/1800s = 35s/T (mental math), good RR; still holding, written at 14:47 HR - expecting close to/at 5800 @ close (horseshoes and hand grenades!); resting orders at 82 thru 82.5 filled – holding 9 contracts @ 14:55; Sold 5 @ 14:52HR @ 84, RP&L $ 1124.00 = avg. FI/FO (first in, first out) NTS – wasted 1 HR of profitability!!; Sold 4 15:09 UP&L $ 1236.94, @ 85.5; was tempted to add in 5 more contracts but my rule for live trading is to be out of the market @ 15:30 HRS at the latest; HOD 5802.50 BTW; held 5 to goal = $ 1502.59 @ 15:32HRS.
RESULTS: 4.5 HRS, $ 1500.00 USD. Min. risk except the lost hour due to a distraction that was not handled properly.
Extrapolated income - **not advised**, for comment only. $ 180K a year+ USD based on withdrawing ½ of your TST earnings. Is every day going to be a $ 1500.00-day, no. Are some going to be larger, some smaller, yes. What is the average? You need to answer that one.
Does every trading day allow for a 50-point range, no, that is why you would employ the wave rider trading method. Can you add additional contracts, yes, based on your risk tolerance and trading acumen ie larger combines/XFAs.
Your profit is what the market is telling you, you can have. No more, no less.
You can email me if you have any questions.
TraderBrian.
GRAPHICS:

Are you outcome oriented? or process orientated? You would be best to change to process oriented. Extrapolating trading receipts over a day, a week, month or year, is the death knell for profitable trading. It is not the outcome that matters, it is the process.

Control your mind, control your future - Preparing the brain to trade : imagine placing a trade with way more contracts than you would normally. See the market going in your way, you add to your trade, you experience happiness and bliss, you want to closeout the trade or take profits, you don't. Then news hits and the market turns against you. It goes negative and it is a blood bath. Your fear shoots thru the roof. You close the positions and the market goes in the opposite direction. You smile as you recognize a learning moment, and you remember to not trade against the trend, and you remind yourself to feel the proclivity, the bias of the market.

The experienced trader (10,000 plus live hours) can reverse a trade to immediately regain the points lost and then add to a new trend and profit. How, because their mind is in the moment, it has all of the information necessary in that moment to understand the blue top, the red bottom, the break of a channel to the top, middle or bottom, picking up enough ticks/points to breakeven almost immediately and then, as mentioned above, go on to add to a winning trade.

Experience the loss, you let go of what the markets did to you yesterday, good or bad. Clear your mind and then again, relive your trades from yesterday, if you cannot do it mentally then plot them on a chart so you can see your profits, and losses. Put yourself thru stressful situations to make sure you clear your mind and do what the market is telling you to do, not what the state of your account is telling you to do, what your emotions are telling you to do. Take responsibility for everything you do. Stress your brain beyond what you will experience today.

Buy blue top, sell red bottom, add to your winning trades, exit your losers when the market tells you it has changed it's mind. If it is range bound then reduce your targets, and stops. Remember always : 43% and 74% are the two most common retracements, not points, percentages.

Be the master of your kingdom, don't be a drifter. Take possession of your life. And know where your mind lets you down. Constantly reaffirm your purpose. Would you go into the ring not mentally prepared? Are you mentally prepared to go into the markets and kick ass?

Call now to connect with business.

Your mind will drift, the solution is not illusive, there must be a period in your day to remember where you want to go and what you want to do. It does not matter how you do it, meditating, journaling, however you want to do it. But do it!

https://youtu.be/eJPFS5lSkXQ
TopStep was gracious enough to provide me with a Beta version and a $50K Combine to test out and provide feedback on their TopStepX web based trading platform.

Here is a link to the website which is in Beta, www.topstepx.com . I was very happy with the initial functionality, 'out of the box' to first trade was under 30 seconds with the appropriate analysis.

Profitable trading for all.

Brian Trades

CORRECTIONS - I incorrectly referred to the RP&L indicator on the top bar (in red), it is the Realized Profit from closed trades for the session.

TopStepX Web Based Trading Platform in Beta 2023 11 07 11 05 05 TopStep was gracious enough to provide me with a Beta version and a $50K Combine to test out and provide feedback on their TopStepX web based trading platfor...

Trading journeys can be very expensive and time consuming or they can be an investment that returns profits in a reasonable amount of time. I prefer the latter, how about you? I believe in the saying 'the proof is in the pudding'. This idiom sums up what traders, in my humble thoughts, should be asking for ... 'Walk me thru it, for free, show me you know what you are talking about.' Traders do not need glitz, glam or hype, they need $.

Trade For Profit : Let's go.

Trading journeys can be very expensive and time consuming or they can be an investment that returns profits in a reasonable amount of time. I prefer the latter, how about you? I believe in the saying 'the proof is in the pudding'. This idiom sums up what traders, in my humble thoughts, should be asking for ... 'Walk me thru it, for free, show me you know what you are talking about.' Traders do not need glitz, glam or hype, they need $.

Trade For Profit : Let's go.

Brian Trades - YouTube Trading journeys can be very expensive and time consuming or they can be an investment that returns profits in a reasonable amount of time. I prefer the latt...