Thing #1: Don’t Daytrade all session long
At the time, I thought more hours trading was a good idea.
More hours, more opportunities, right? Not quite.
It led to a loop of overtrading, exhaustion, and poor trade selection.
Instead, I limit my daytrading to two to three windows per day.
Thing #2: Slow the intraday timeframe to 5-minute charts.
I really thought a tick or 1-minute chart was going to give me advantageous entries.
It didn’t.
Instead I would get stopped out on wicks or whipsawed. Because I learned much later that slower was better. The 5-minute chart allowed me to:
- Eliminate stop and reverse entries
- See a clearer intraday directional bias
- Allow me to trade less and for more points per trade
Thing #3: Focus on the path of least resistance before placing a trade.
One of my biggest mistakes was not delaying my first entry until I could see 1) price-based volume levels and 2) historical volatility zones.
I shouldn’t have been so impatient.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d wait to see where the volume is first. Because volume is what unlocks:
- Support and Resistance levels that reflect size (yeah it does matter)
- Reflect market opinion better than price alone
- Forces me to wait until these levels appear
Thing #4: Don’t optimize for speed.
At the time, everyone told me to set up quick keys, use market orders, and caffeinate.
Wow, was that wrong. Well, except for espresso. I love it.
Not only was optimizing for speed a huge waste of time, but it ended up causing me to overtrade.
I probably would have achieved probability quicker if I had just optimized to trade less to begin with.
Thing #5: Always remember flat is a position
It’s taken me many years to realize controlling risk is what matters.
Don’t pay attention to other traders’ successes or failures.
Don’t feel the need to listen to the news.
Just focus on risk and the rest takes care of itself.