• Today, I traded differently - focusing more on intuition and working more with what the market is currently telling me, instead of waiting for structure that might not even show up.
• I managed risk well with this type of trading - I was leveraging in heavier - but I was waiting for new 5m, 15m candles to come in to size in during the manipulation of those LTF candles.
• Zero blind trades - every trade had a plan - what I noticed is, when my trade has a plan and an idea behind it that is supported by confluences currently present on the chart, I do so much better with my psychology.
• I took some shorts as my first trades of the day - I anticipated continuation at around 8:15-8:30, as we were sweeping Asia Low - I anticipated for price to push possibly lower, especially with a new 15m candle opening. Got stopped out 3 times on very tight risk management - had absolutely zero emotion there. It should’ve been just one loss, not 3.
• Then, going into 9:30 - I found this setup below - Price sweeping Asia/London High - we got strong momentum into that area - and my original bias for the day was to push higher towards PWH - We did not do that, and this is how I noticed that we might short in this area.
  • Price pushes us above this BL - and we struggle to have another push higher after tapping into this 1m FVG - this forms a proper OB - then we displace lower and inverse that same 1m FVG we just tapped into. - This price action here was making me confident in a short - So I waited for new 15m candle to open - and stayed patient - I wanted to see what we’re gonna do first in the first 5m of the new 15m candle - and look - we pushed into this OB which now turned into a BB - Right there I was watching 15s chart - and at first I forced 2 trades after we showed some wicks, but again I kept risk management very tight. - Then when I saw this 1m candle form and close like this inside of this BB - I confidently entered and still kept tight risk management - but still, zero emotion - I was target nearest SL level, as we were waiting for news at 10:00 - news can be unpredictable but since we were in the last 10 minutes of an hourly candle here, I wanted to see if we can get a quick flush - and we delivered.
  • I took profit on the first trade, and I called it here for now - I wanted to see how 10am is gonna deliver - so I let it play out.
  • Price starting pushing us lower taking out all this LRLR - and when we got super close to draw - which was pre-market low - I was carefully watching how the new 1m candle is gonna open on 15 second - and the first thing it did as it opened was it wicked into 15s FVG above - that was my tight entry, heavy leverage - and instantly price pushed us to draw.

What have I learned today?

• I need to take a step back from my time-based mechanical model - and focus more on current market condition and where price is - use my personal experience - understand where the draw is - what is being respected/disrespected - and go with the flow.
• I’ve noticed that 10am and 2pm have been lacking and not delivering very proper trade setups on 1m chart. We very often now form zero PDAs on 15m to work with going into new 4h candles - why? - because manipulation takes time prior to 10am - and new 4h candle just ends up being it’s own distribution candle, where we do not manipulate anywhere.
• I need to pay much more attention to higher time frame and key levels in price - Only look for setups in those areas.
• I used to trade like this in the past - but the one thing I struggled with in the past was identifying draw, current market conditions, and understanding what price is doing - and as I’m getting better and better at understanding these things now - it’s becoming much easier for me to take trades that make sense even on 15s chart.
• EVERY trade needs confluences that align with it - inversions, LTF BB, OB, LTF PO3 - we need to have momentum and clear direction every time + CLEAR DRAW.
• Time is not linear in the market - opportunities are not always gonna present themselves at the same time, and they won’t always look the same. I need to remember this.