I received an email today from a member of the Brigade asking if I teach trade setups in our eCourse. This is a really common question so I am including my response here in hopes it might help some of you understand my perspective on trading education.
Hey G, Ok a lot to unpack here but I will do my best. Does your eCourse explain how to take entries? Not really, there are a few set-ups mentioned, but I do not have an exact system for making entries therefor I cannot teach one. My system (how I enter/exit) changes every day, based on what is happening that day. Is it trending or rotational, high volatility or low volatility, easy to read or hard to read, am I focused or distracted, am I well rested or tired, do I feel confident or uncertain? What trades I am willing to take and what position size I use is based on all these factors. This cannot be taught, only learned through experience. What the course does teach is how you can create your own system based on you. Your psychology is different than mine. Your account size is different than mine. Your risk aversion is different than mine. So, you can't trade the same as I do, you have to trade the way that is best for you. More on that in a bit… I've been following along with you every day for some time, but have never really quite grasped your entries. I understand MP gives context and helps provide s/r zones and probabilities… Context, support/resistance and probabilities are all the information you need to have an edge. Most retail traders are clueless to those things. If you do not find they help with your trading then you are not applying them properly, this can only be learned through experience. Think of learning to play the guitar. I can teach you all the cords in an hour, but knowing what the cords are called and how to place your fingers does not make you a good guitar player, only spending years practicing those cords over and over and over again will make you good at guitar. Day trading has a higher failure rate than becoming a brain surgeon. It is an extremely complex skill. The reason most traders fail is because they think it should be easy, and they waste all their time, energy, and money chasing an easy way to trade. Give up on that. Decide if you are willing to lose for years in order to learn, if not. Day trading is not for you. …but those zones are usually so far away if you're waiting on any kind of confirmation to enter. Or do you enter going into a high volume s/r node/zone and risk more confirmation for a better entry price? Does that make sense? Again, every trade is different, to keep it simple when watching the live stream if there is a green banner and I say “looking for support at X”. Assume I have a limit long order at X. Whether that order will have a tight stop or a loose one will be based on all the factors mentioned above. Sometimes I have a big order waiting with a tight stop sometimes I have a small order with a very loose stop. Sometimes I go all in when I am very confident, sometimes I slowly accumulate a position when I am not. Knowing in the moment what to do cannot be taught only learned from personal experience. Also it’s worth mentioning I only take trades when I have high confidence in them. Most days I only take two or three trades. If you have the patience to wait for it; one single trade for only 5 points of profit can bring you $750 if you take it with 5 contracts. Most days the market has over 70+ points of volatility, finding one single moment where you have high confidence it will go 5 points is very doable. Most trader’s think they need to always be in a trade, my edge comes from staying flat. I use a sniper rifle not a machine gun. It can be very boring sometimes, but that’s why I like hanging with the chat to pass the time waiting for a potential kill to enter my cross hairs. Most folks I read about say that you don't trade off of MP charts, but you mentioned this morning that you do. I only look at the market profile and the market internals, they do not give me trade set ups like… every time X I do Y. But they tell me if should I be trading now, or watching and waiting? Should I be buying or selling? Where should I put my entry, stop, and take profit? What are the odds this trade will work out? For me personally, that combined with strict risk management rules is all the information I need to be consistently profitable. I dunno man, been really struggling to stay profitable and MP doesn't seem to provide a real edge outside of when what should happen doesn't... but it's not that simple. Hoping your eCourse will give answers to that outside of basic profile knowledge. I imagine the last chapter "cold hard truth" states something about this not being an entry chart or something. The most important lessons in the course are lesson 1 and 2. Neither are about the profile. Lesson one is about how to create your own system for trading without having to lose a ton of money in the process (spoiler: paper trade). Lesson two is about understanding the two-way auction. Even if you don’t use the profile at all, understanding who the market participants are and what they are trying to do is a game changer. The cold hard truth is about recognizing if you have the right personality for trading. Most people are not adaptable, they think they are, but they are not. If a trader spends a hundred bucks on my course and it helps them recognize this, it will likely save them thousands in losses in the years to come. I just... keep... losing... money. This is truly the hardest thing I've ever experienced. Losing money is unavoidable, think of it as tuition to the university of markets. However, you should never lose money making the same mistake twice. You can learn to trade with a paper account. Then switch to real money, and yes, you will have to lose some learning to control your emotions but significantly less than trying to learn to trade and control your emotions at the same time…. That shit is crazy expensive. I think my issues are I hold too long (based on my good trend days that pay well because I held), my stops are either too tight or too far and both equally lose too much money in the long run, or I have no real edge even with profile. The market is random. I too hold trades too long sometimes because I am expecting a longer trend. But when I do, I don’t get angry, not at myself or the market. I just go “hmmm interesting guess the market isn’t trending as hard right now, good information to have, next trend trade will take profits faster”. This is the only way to adapt yourself as the market is changing, that is the skill I am talking about in the cold hard truth. Are you a person who is ok with having to CONSTANTLY adapt? Like every week the market changes, are you ok with being wrong all the time, can you learn from it instantly, can you adapt in real time? If not, consider swing trading or long-term investing, they might suit your personality better. Please don’t be discourage by anything I am saying here, if you love trading and think you have what it takes, YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING WITH THIS. You must just understand it will be as hard as making a living as a professional athlete. You will be competing with the smartest people on earth every single day. If you’re up for the challenge I’m here to help. Cheers, Charles