My Bad Start to Day Trading in 2023 | Full Plan

So my trading in 2023 has not been going the way I expected. I started a new account with a hundred thousand dollars, and that account is currently at about $87,000. I am down about $12,000 to start off the year. And every single trade that I have taken is absolutely terrible, right? I'm red on every day, three days so far. So far that I've traded every single trade, and I ultimately can't seem to catch a break. Now the purpose of this video is I want to walk you guys through the problems that I have currently that I'm dealing with, my plan moving forward, and just kind of reminders, right? And videos like this or topics like this are my favorite because I understand majority of traders are stuck in between a certain phase and they're. They're unable to get out of it. So I want to share the insights that I have because this is not the first time that I'm going through a bad trading period, and this won't be the last, right? And what I've learned over the past few years is basically when you go through these, I guess, tough periods, you have to be able to slow things down and be able to identify what is going wrong, how to fix it, just so you can get back on the right path. Now, most traders, when they get on the path like I am currently right now is they, they're. They kind of get to a place where they're unaware of what the problems are. And as they're unaware of what the problems are, they keep making the same mistakes and then they go through a cycle and, and that cycle ultimately causes them to have a massive drawdown, right? So with that being said, I want to talk about, you know, what mistakes I've made. I want to talk about some of my trades. I want to go through them. I want to show you guys my entries, my exits, and just show you what notes I've came up with right now. If you are someone that is struggling, if you are someone that started the new year off or new month or new week or whatever the case is, one thing I highly recommend is to go back and just understand what mistakes you are making, understand what are the problems you have, understand what you need to do to fix that, and then have a good plan moving forward, right? So let's go through my trades. First and foremost, these are the trades you guys can see. I have three trading days. I took the first month off this year, didn't really take any trades. Took my first trade on January 27, was looking to start on February 1. But first trade of the year, down 6000, came back Wednesday, down about 1600, then traded on Friday down about 4900. Right. So a lot of different problems, you know, to kind of unfold here. Let's just go through the list and then I'll show you guys each trade. I'll walk you through, like the mental aspect of where I got in, what my game plan was, what I did, right. And just kind of go through, you know, the whole whole idea. So one problem that I've been making going into this year is if you guys have been watching the market for the past month, the market has been changing directions, right? We have been on an extreme downtrend, ending the year off in 2022 and 2023. We've been seeing a reverse in momentum, a reverse in sentiment. And what I have noticed in all of my daily notes for each one of these days is I'm biased on the downside. Every single day approaching the market, I'm extremely biased. And I'll show you guys some examples. And it's, you know, the problem with being biased is long term wise, when you look at the market from one angle for too long, you start missing the upside trades, you start missing the other opportunities and you just want to take the directional trade that you have in your mind. So that's one mistake I've made and, and that has a forced me to take bad trades or forced me to enter too early, which goes on to my second problem. I'm entering my trades very early and I'm not waiting for confirmation. So because I have a bias on the market, I have the bias on what I think will happen. I have a very strong opinion. I go on the first sign of seeing the market go in my direction or go to, I guess my theory, I immediately take on the position, right? And I'll show you guys some examples in a bit. Third thing I'm doing is I'm scaling in on losing positions. So if you guys have been following me for a while or watching my videos or whatever the case is, I don't like to add to losing positions. And one thing that I have done this year is I have added to my losing positions. If you guys take a look, you know, first AD here, second ad, third ad, I started adding to my losing positions over and over again. Another thing I've been doing wrong is I'm adjusting my mental stop losses. So my, some of my trades, the losses that I'm anticipating are a lot more than I originally would have hoped for, right? And then third, my risk is way too much and it's extremely inconsistent. My risk is extremely inconsistent. And with the way I'm trading, without finding an edge, without finding momentum, without finding a read in the market, I cannot put out a 5,6k or 5,6% risk on my account. Day in and day out, over and over again, right? So my plan moving forward, we'll go into that in a bit, but let's go through some of my trades. So we're going to go to Friday and go through what happened on Friday. So this is a trade that I took recently on Friday, which was a few days ago today, Sunday. And I want to walk you guys through this trade where I got in, where I got out, and just kind of give you the whole idea, right? So I was trading es, right? I've been trying to trade futures this year, haven't. It hasn't been going too well. And I want to walk you through what my game plan was, what I was looking at, what my idea was and everything, right? So going into Friday first, before we go into Friday, let's look at the day before his action. So this was Thursday right here. As you guys can see, I have SPY open es by similar price action, same exact thing, essentially. And then we have SPY here on Friday. So what happened was on spy, I found a huge, huge, huge demand zone, supply zone around this 413zone, multiple areas around that that we got a hold on Thursday that was established for me. So then seeing us reject at the high of 418 and come back to 414, I started seeing a huge imbalance, a huge rejection at the highs over here. So I was like, okay, we found an area where the market is very, very comfortable at. So that was kind of the first thing, you know, identifying that area, identifying that zone, identifying where we have that imbalance, where we have an area of, you know, buyers and sellers not agreeing to a certain price. So the moment we go into Friday, we gapped down, right? This is spy. You guys can see we gap down. We go right here. We were gapping down from the, you know, yesterday's session. As we gap down, I'm immediately making an assumption. And once again, this is where the trade becomes too early. It's a premature early trade, that wasn't it? Sorry, Premature early trade on my end where I'm not really looking for any sort of confirmation, right? So we gapped down. The moment we start making a move up, right is the moment I start saying, okay, well, looks like we are going to Reverse. I had no confirmation. Nothing at all. So around 9:37, I go in. I short one contract. So you go to 9:37 on that day, right here. I short one contract with the idea that we are going to reverse. As we go right here, we start rejecting. We start seeing some rejection happening, no follow through. I'm like, okay, looks like my trade or game plan might be happening. So the moment we pass 10am and as you guys can follow me, I pay attention to 10am a lot just to see what the sentiment is. And, you know, we weren't able to break. We come to 10am, I go again, and I add another contract to my position. And I short at 4152 again. The moment we start picking back up, I take on another short position at the high of 4164 with the assumption that, hey, this, this is another retest. And once again, no confirmation here. This is all coming from me being biased, right? So when you guys see some of my trades, you'll see some of my trades come off extremely good. And then I have trades that even when I look at it, I'm like, wow, this trade is purely an idiotic trade, right? So I go and I add a third position. Now, a few mistakes I made already, I'm adding to my losing positions right here. I shouldn't have added my ad if I wanted to add. Should have been on the break of 4150. Should have been on the break of 4140. That's where my ad should have happened. So another bad ad. And then. And even if you look at the ads, you can see my running piano. You know, at one point I was break even. I'm close to being down 400, 500 bucks. And the moment I add and I add again, my piano just starts taking a massive, massive nosedive, right? And then obviously, where do I cover? I start covering right at the top around 4,190. I'm way past my stop area, right? So my stop on this was about 4,174, right? That's essentially what my stop was. That's where I should have taken a stop. So even in terms of our multiple, I lost way more than I anticipated. I anticipated to lose. That's a 2700 bucks. But obviously in this trade, lost way more. And then I exit right at the top just with the idea of, hey, let me get out this trade. Trade's not going well. And then if you guys take a look at the trade, 1038, 1037, is essentially where I exit, right 1037, 1038, right. Right here. I exited right at essentially almost the high of the day. And now what that did for me on Friday is I wasn't able to take on a second position. I wasn't able to take on a second trade like I wanted to. And I just had a real hard time putting on a trade. Now, the real trade here, right, My. My idea of taking a short position was there. That was number one. Number two, for me to wait for that, I needed to be more patient. And number three, because I was so biased, I allowed myself to miss the upside move or upside scalp or upside trade that was potentially there on Friday. Now, once again, when we look at the whole day and we look at the aftermath, we did fade. There was a good shorting opportunity here, but because I took a stupid trade and my confidence isn't where it should have been or where it usually is, I wasn't able to maximize on this trade. So huge downside there. Now I'm going to show you guys something interesting. That's one trade right now. If we go to another trade, we go to another trade. Let's say here, I'm just going to put no confirmation early entry, you know, added. You know, let's say added to losing position right now. If we go to another trade, let's say we go to. Not this one. That's the same trade. Let's say we go to my first trade of the year. This was my first not. Yeah, first trade of the year. If you go to my first trade of the year, guys, you guys are going to see. See, I did the same exact thing I had.

Just, just take a look at this. Right? Same exact thing. My realized R multiple was way more than I anticipated. So I didn't follow my stop. Big red flag. That was number one. Number two, I had an early entry. We gapped down. The moment the market gapped down, I went with the idea, hey, we gapped down. We're going to start seeing a rejection and we're going to fade off that rejection once again being too biased going into the day, making the assumption that we will sell off, we will have a weak day or we will reject off this key level. And thinking that caused me to take on a short position, I added to my losing position, added to my losing position again. And then right when we went up right. Added more. So I kept adding to this losing position over and over and over and over again. And obviously I got crushed on this trade. Right? So same exact. Same exact Pattern, right? And I talk about these patterns because if you guys go through your trades on a week to week basis, you'll notice sometimes you make a lot of mental errors that come from something small. And what mine comes from is I remember my pre market notes for the day was I was like, hey, we're gapping down on the market. We're gapping down. The spy on the open from yesterday's session with the gap down, I'm looking for a rejection on this zone and I'm looking for a rejection around 4080. So at 4080 I had no confirmation, you know, in the moment, obviously we look at it and we're like, oh, we have a confirmation. When I go back to it, I had no confirmation, I had no setup. I was just going in with the idea that the market's going to sell off and I'm going to catch a big sell off move, right? And the patterns essentially are the same exact thing that I'm doing, right? Adding to my losing positions, not following my stop losses, exposing myself to more risk, not having confirmation, entering way, way too early and also being too biased. Same exact thing, right? I go to, let's say this trade. No, I was in this trade. If I go to my third trade now, my third trade was during FOMC day. I, I, you know, I, I would have had the same day on the open this day, but it was on FOMC day also kind of a, I guess I'd like to say a stupid trade, right? Not, not the best trade, you know, just, I was just putting on a position, just to put on a position, right? Market pushed down, right? When it pushed down, we got good news. Biasness, causing the short and right when I shorted, what I did bad was once again I was too biased enter to enter, you know, added to my position. And then obviously immediately I was like, you know what, let me exit, let me stop trading. I'm going on a tilt. I'm trying to find momentum. I mean I'm unable to find it and I'm putting on trades just to put on trades. Let me take a step back. Hence why I didn't trade Thursday just to, I just kind of observed the market and then Friday I came back aggressive again, right? So those are the problems that I've had in my few set of trades, right? And that's why it's extremely important for you guys to go through, you know, your trades, go through what you have and now understanding what is the plan moving forward. So this is an important part, like what is the plan moving forward? So my plan moving forward, right, is essentially to do the following size down this week because I need to understand, I want to be in this game for the long run. So I can't take big size and play around until I find my momentum and burn through more capital and have a bigger drawdown. Number two, create a proper pre market game plan. Don't let it be too biased. I'm not going to go into Monday saying market's going to go down, market's going to go up. I'm looking for a short, I'm looking for a long. No, create my levels, create my understanding, look at the confirmation and take the trade from there. Next, wait five minutes before opening a trade. I'm not allowing myself to trade on the open, right? Giving myself five minutes to take on a trade. I'm not allowed to add to any losing position. So if I take on a position and it goes against me, I am not allowed to add to that position. Third goal is not to make money, but to build comfortability and flow. So all I'm trying to do, the main objective that I have is I need to build my confidence, right? Yes, I can take on a big trade and make money, but I'm not in a position to take on a big trade. And this is something that I want all of you guys to understand. If you are in a point where you have a big drawdown or Your account's down 10%, 20% for the month, for the week, whatever, do not go back looking to make that money back. Do not go into this week or into tomorrow, into whatever saying I need to make this money back. Go into the next trading day with the idea that I'm going to trade well. I'm going to slowly build my confidence back up. I'm going to look for the setups that I'm looking for and take my trades from there. Once that happens, you guys will see momentum come back in. And that's also why I want to post this video and I want to talk about this because I want you guys to come back to this video in a few months or in a few weeks and see when I do get out of my rut. Because eventually I will. I don't know when, maybe this week, maybe next month, I don't know when that will be, but when I do, you guys will understand that, hey, going through this is normal. It's okay that traders go through, you know, bad periods, but the idea is how to get yourself out of it, right? And the idea is to understand that, hey, I need to build comfortability. I need to get a flow of the market. I need to get a flow of the adjustment of what's happening in the market. And sometimes the market changes directions or changes sentiment or and what was working then doesn't work now. For people that have been following me, I post on Twitter, Instagram and so on. I've been talking about a morning top rejection in the past week or two that play or setup hasn't been the best. And that's what I try to catch twice. And the market hasn't been able to read that well enough because of the change of sentiment. That's why it's very important to take a step back during times like this. Now, last thing I want to cover is reminders. I like to set up reminders just to give myself when things like this happen, right? And these reminders are reminders I want to share with you guys as well. Trading is a long term game. Don't worry about the short term losses. Not to say don't worry about money, but I'm saying we're going to have losses, we're going to have, you know, small issues in our trading journey. The idea is to not get so consumed by it and think about your next 1,000 to 100 trades. If I get caught up in my past five trades and I don't think about my next thousand trades and I get so consumed on, oh my God, I traded so bad I will have a hard time getting out of it. Next goal is to stay alive for as long as possible. So make sure you protect your capital. Remember, with no trading capital, with no money, you can't show up tomorrow. You can trade tomorrow. So one thing we need to make sure we protect always is our losses, our downside losses and down periods will just make you a better trader if you learn and build from it. I have had many losses. Like if you guys remember in 2020, my spy trade, 500k negative, terrible trade. But the year after I came out having a big, big year for the people that follow me know about that, came out with a big, extremely big year. And you know, sometimes in losses there's a lot we can learn from and we need to take that and say, how can I be better with this and how can I compose myself and get myself together to get to the next level? Right next. Be patient and let the market come to you. You don't have to make money every day. This is something I remind myself, this is something I believe in. But sometimes, you know, especially When I'm starting the new year, I'm trying to build a cushion. I need to remind myself, hey, I can have a slow start because last year I had a strong start. The year prior to that I had a strong start. And the year prior to that I had, I had a strong start. So it's the first year where I'm having kind of a weak start. And I know mentally that weighs on you. Mentally, it's like, oh my God, I'm already red. I look at my year to date, P and L, it's red. But this is where you need to really compose yourself and get yourself together, right? That being said, I hope this video was helpful. I hope anyone out there that is struggling, I hope you guys were able to take something away from this. And like I said, trading is not an easy career. Guys, I understand it's extremely hard and we are all trying to make it day in and out. Even me, myself and I. Every day I wake up to try to make it into the trading world and become great. Not that I'm not great and blah, blah, blah. But you have to understand, just because I did great last year does not mean I will do great this year. Just because I did great yesterday does not mean I will do great tomorrow. So at the end of the day, the mentality I have is I want to show up every single day to, you know, trading and put it in my head that I'm not a professional, I can't come in tomorrow, I'm the best and get comfortable. No, I need to show up every day, every week to be at the top of my game. And that's what I want you guys start implementing into your trading and understand there's never an end destination in trading, right? So with that being said, let me know what you guys are struggling with. If you guys are struggling with some things. I want to take YouTube a lot more seriously this year. I want to really, really grow on here. So if you guys have any things you would like for me to talk about, please comment down below. Let me know, let me know what you're struggling with. And I want to try to make content more around things like this, things that you guys are struggling with and really offer a lot of invaluable trading information. So with that being said, thank you so much, guys. Thank you for watching and I will see you on the next video.