 Let's see if that straightens it out. Yeah, that looks like it's a step in the right direction. Sorry for the delay everybody Thanks for visiting the trader lab today. My name is Tom B I stream live Monday through Friday 11 30 to 1 p. Eastern Standard Time This stream is about integrating book map order flow tools with auction market theory and using a tool called the volume profile in the intraday developing time frame This stream is for educational purposes and the way this works And what we have found and I have found over many years of trading is to use a consistent process using a top-down bottom-up approach What that means basically is starting with a higher time frame and then going down in Multiple fractals or time frames and then using Microtime frames for actual interaction with the market, which is where book map and order flow tools come in microstructure meaning triggering structures This is a consistent process And what I have found at least in my own experience over 40 years of trading not only a retail, but as a professional trader of Managing dollars for firms and also having my own firm, which many of you may or may not be aware of That it's a consistency of an application of a process no matter what it is that gives you an opportunity To vet the process or measure it. It is the measurement of the process that can help develop the confidence actually execute There is a random outcome When you engage with the market that is Absolute because we have no control over other Participant behaviors that creates the random outcome of any interaction with the market however over a large sample size of these interactions if you do the work You may find that some of these behaviors or triggering structures or whatever you Determined it is that you can define actually have a statistical edge And it's no different and I always kind of come back to this because we need to relate to this It's no different than how a casino works There's the house who has the edge and then there's the gamblers who sit at the table at times the gamblers walk away with the dollars But most of the time over that large sample size of gambler interactions or risk The house has the edge and the house ends up at the end of the year With a positive net return and that is essentially what we do as traders We are establishing an edge and then we are working with the gamblers And it isn't that the gamblers don't walk away with dollars the reason they come to the table is because they do however Over the larger sample size the house is the one who makes the profits and if any of you have ever been to a casino There's a reason why they give you the cocktails and that they have all the glitz and the glamour and the coupons and the and you know to the buffet and Picking you up at the airport subject and the hotel comps all of this That's all their overhead and even the gamblers who walk out with a suitcase of cash in spite of all that and Let's call them losses in our book is how we interpret them But in reality, they're really cost of production or overhead. Can you reframe that? That is the business of trading and in the trader lab It's about attempting to share a different viewpoint of what trading is trading is not a video game And it isn't just impulsive it is planning Waiting being patient and having a statistical edge and when it shows up Having the confidence and developing the confidence and discipline to wait for that edge to show up and to Execute when that edge shows up. So the purpose of the trader lab is to help you put Define these things and in the trader lab We actually narrate this as close as possible in real time My time slot and kind of think of this like a fixed time slot The market's been open for two hours. So that's why I start at the top go back over what has developed How it might be interpreted which setups that are part of trader lab methodology That might apply For good or bad outcomes because of the randomness and then I go into real time. That is the purpose of the stream That's how this is done and it's done the same way every day And if you find value with it, I invite you then to potentially join the trader lab and become a participant and develop the career in trading versus Let's just say being a visitor up to you, of course And everybody's mileage will vary and even the approach and the time frame and how you want to operate is Really a personal choice But if you don't vet it no matter what it is and if you can't replicate it and do it on your own Then you are not you have not accomplished in my opinion what the objective should be and that is to become independent and Establish the business of trading and create a potential career now. Everybody's mileage will vary everybody's different We all have psychological issues that we have to deal with because that's the reality but Having a vetted process can help you manage That emotional state the fear the hesitancy because the thing about trading is there is no sure thing in trading there's only a random outcome and We're not wired for uncertainty. We were always seeking certainty I believe the certainty is developed in the trade metrics and the certainty isn't one trade It's the sample size of a large distribution of trades. So your certainty doesn't come from one trade The certainty assuming you can execute the edge you vet comes from the work you do to establish the metrics I hope you find that useful and that is the purpose of the trader lab And if you find that approach and if that's logical to you if you find that Something that might make sense and if you're waking up in the same place with the same results by doing the same process in a derivative fashion other words different indicators different timeframes different Rooms, you know different chats different indicators that you're really in trader groundhog day I've been there. I've done that and you're probably have been there or are there and if that's not satisfying for you And you're not getting the results or progress that you want Then I invite you to visit the trader lab and see if there's some pieces in there that might help you further your potential career along It's not about the trader lab. It's really about education and seeing what you can relate to and what might make sense and again thanks for visiting the trader lab and later on I'm going to offer you all an invitation to visit and participate in a serious group of Traders with varying years of experience from newer traders on up to I think our senior trader admits the 54 years of experience And that might say something about the trader lab Not to mention my own which is going on 43 years General disclosure all book map limited materials information and presentations are for educational purposes only it should not be considered specific investment advice of Recommendations live trading isn't simulation demo paper trading mode. It's strictly for educational purposes live trading executed in simulation cannot accurately represent Realistic trading performance risk disclosure trading futures equities and digital currencies involves substantial risk of loss And it's not suitable for all investors and investor could potentially lose all or more than the initial investment risk capital Is money that can be lost without jeopardizing one's financial security or lifestyle Only risk capital should be used for trading But only those with sufficient risk capital should consider trading past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results And please remember this is not a trade calling room. We start top-down and then we go bottom up We go back to the Yesterday's close and behavior then we start we will take a little bit of a look at our ETH today because there were a few trades after the PPI report Which is a significant event and then we'll go into our th real-time from the open moving forward So I hope you'll get something out of that today We have a number of trader lab setups Which of course if you find them interesting that you need to vet each one individually for yourself They are specifically aligned with the developing context Context being the condition of the market and it changes and evolves During the day so you need to be able to learn that and all of this takes time and in the trader lab We have a process for building these mechanisms out and building a trade plan trade plan is really a map and The thing about trading is it's not about being impulsive It is about waiting for your bus or your trade to show up You need to be able to know before The location of the trade where that is and that's what is about vetting a trade plan. So that is context Understanding how the behavior of the market works, which is the context and then specific locations and in this case auction market behavior and Using a volume profile as a tool to see this participant behavior and then potentially get aligned and like every Everything past performance is not indicative of future results because when you put a trade on the best you have is maybe So let's go and get started and thanks again for visiting the trader lab Let me try to get this thing going and I want to remind everyone I am streaming from Costa Rica and the best thing In Costa Rica is occasionally the power does just drop out where I am I'm in a small beach town on the Pacific Coast and also the Internet and that Internet occasion just takes a brief vacation So if I drop out Hopefully I'll come back in a minute or two if things reset Also, if you're a part of the trader lab this stream will be available for you to review over the weekend and I think it's a good one that you should tear apart do screenshots and look at the microstructures and That's how you learn. It's repetition planning screenshots rinse repeat rinse repeat Now let's try to do this without causing trouble of course. There's trouble Okay, this is the higher time frame and this is as of the close yesterday Now what this is is a consolidation and you guys know what a consolidation is what's too low? What's too high and rotational trade and this is your rotation, right? So Yesterday and let me point out a price point. It's this is very important This is the volume profile and what we're doing is we're overlaying days that overlap and Consolidations are trading inside of each other. So you guys all know that and if you don't this is kind of charting one-on-one And and all it is is the market's looking for what's too low? What's too high? What's too low? What's too high? What's too low? That's consolidation, right? What's too high now? This is when Powell You know announced that and maybe we won't increase it so fast and the market took off took out these Highs because there's buy stops above here and we had to squeeze Okay, the following day we went into balance and you could see the wicks on both sides of this candle That's basically two sides of trade. So it's like a fight. No, we think we're going up now I don't think I think this is too high now and what balance is in one day is Consolidation the same and this is a fractal now the same as this whole thing So when I discussed the auction I tried to go in multiple time frames and think of it like those nesting dolls or rust Russian dolls as we call them They're inside of each other so the day can be inside of a bigger time frame and Then inside of the day are the similar time frames and more micro structure So that's kind of how you drill down top down and then working inside out. So this was a I don't know kind of day maybe day, but no continuation and then We open buyers try to take it back and they failed To get above this high volume now I want you to think about high volume like retail price In other words in this whole consolidation this whole thing This price down here the orange line is for the whole Consolidation retail and it comes in around Around 60 roughly 59 60, you know and in trading its horseshoes and hand grenades, you know There's no precision if you're looking for precision. That's not how the market works There's a lot of slop and a lot of that slop is created because of stops and other Elements that are in the market that create momentum so levels are not walls They're areas keep that in mind and by the way grab a pen and piece of paper take a couple of notes and You know Try to get the most out of this while you can and also if you're in if you're following the stream This is available again if you come to the trader lab in the bookmap discord chat and you're all welcome You won't be solicited you don't have to be a bookmap subscriber and there's a lot of additional education now What this green line represents is high volume? It is the same as this orange line except these are in more fractal or Microstructures and when you see the volume like this this rotation or this little Call it a little belly sticking out. It's really Too high too low Too high too low Retail now the thing about a retail price. I kind of think of these kind of like stores You know shoppers right buyers and sellers participants aren't we yes shoppers? So if we're a shopper in this time frame, this was where it was too low And that's where the red line is that's called a low volume node and don't worry about don't get hung up on The minutia here. It's really just logical. Oh, it's on sale If you think this is a fair price, you're gonna go. Oh, it's a bargain. I'm gonna buy this Retail and it gets up here. You know, this is kind of expensive when I'm buying my tuna fish I don't want to pay over a dollar. Here's a dollar tuna can and now they put it up to about a dollar fifty You know, I'm going elsewhere to shop and they leave this behind So they leave Okay, now we come down we auction in here. That's too high. We're out of here How about here? No, we're out of here. We're out of here. And now the volume You see in this whole collective time frame is right here. Now. You're wondering why I want to give you the top-down look now Let's go Into the day And hopefully I can switch over here to book map without Creating a nightmare now remember this number write this down 3960 and I always say ish because it could be 59, you know, it could be 63 none of that is relative. It's an area, right? And I always say horseshoes and hand grenades. Okay, now I'm gonna go To the this is the report the PPI report and you could see that was like, oh my goodness I don't trade these things Why because in my trade plan I have Risk parameters that have to fit my trade and I don't need to trade the report Unless I had a much larger account size and I prefer to do is trade with less risk in my view Of course for my plan but more contracts. Huh, you know, so think of it that way You know, you want to trade one and as dirty Harry said do you feel lucky? I mean, how do you trade something like this when there's you know, there's nothing there? If you had to stop here, they'd send you a note a telegram. Yeah, you got filled down here We'll get back to you next week By the way back in the days when we traded on the floor You know with floor traders and with paper literally where you would write it your order on a pad Time stamp it pick up the phone call your guy who would flash it into the pit That's how I started trading So kind of archaic I guess but that's what it was and if you had it what they had they would call fast market conditions They didn't even have to give you the fillback. I say yeah, we'll catch you later. Yeah, not held Past market was not held. In other words, all your stop was where yeah, you know Not held anything that worked out pretty good for the guys at the exchange. So let's take a look. We have the report and here is that 60 59 50 to 60 remember I just showed you in the higher time frame retail the market breaks off the report And let's look where do we come? 60 so this is the first short now so you guys understand I don't call trades and the reason is it's a waste of your time anybody that's giving it to you is not helping you They're actually creating dependency because all of a sudden if that whoever that is chat room or whatever is calling trades I don't and everyone thinks they're learning Well, the way you know you're learning is if that chat room disappeared tomorrow and could you replicate it? Would you have a process if the answers? No, then I don't think it's really you're not accomplishing your goal Unless your goal is just to be here as long as that chat room is available and that's fine, too You know because it's not for me to decide it's for you But if you can't walk away from any education with something you can use Independently then I don't know unless it you have a different objective Then I don't think you're creating a career. You've created a dependency But again, you know other others give their dollars to trading advisors or to you know any kind of advisors, right? You know name your your big brokerage house. They have advisors. That's all the same If you like having an advisor and just pulling the trigger because it's kind of fun, you know what I'm saying So I'm just and I'm not knocking that I'm just saying is be sure you understand That is what if that's your intent then that is exactly what you should do If you want to be able to do this on your own after the trader lab is gone Which it will be gone at some point obviously Then I think this kind of education might be more helpful to you and again It's subject to your objectives. This is that retail price in the higher time frame So we have the report everybody jumps out the window and what do we do? We retrace back to here Fixed right on the button. This is a short and the objective would be back here to the overnight volume point of control And why retail? So this is right here overnight volume point of control retail So this is a short and I'm just showing it to you because it's structural. I'm showing you the auction you see Because if this is retail. Oh, I'm not gonna pay that and Then this is retail in the ETH so higher time frame retail and Again, you don't know but this is a triggering structure And we'll go into more of those when I get an RTH because it's just more of them And then this would be the target and then hold or whatever. So let's look at this Look where it goes. Is that a coincidence? Well, personally, I don't think so, you know, but that's just me, right? So short to here and then the possibility is Bounce because this is retail. So retail in a higher time frame Retail in here and these are Posted in the trader lab as close to real-time as they can have this Being shifts up at the time that is potentially suggesting Potentially this might be too low. So anyway, let's let's now move past this one and get into our th which is Here now We are below here on the open we open here at the moment. This is too high and This was too low. So what might be the opportunity? So let's go take a look Let me get to the open here. Let me see if I can do this better You know moving this around is is kind of a Difficult here we go. So now I posted this as it happened in the trader lab and Remember, I don't call trades but and typing is a little difficult But since I'm not my time slot is from 1030 and you know, the open is pretty important Now in the trader lab when I talk about the open I talk about it as an isolated trade plan and part of that has to do Has to do with the speed So That's why I don't encourage traders to try to trade the open because it takes like you have to be in at a level of Expertise or call it. It's not expertise but experience really of right there unconscious competence and when you're learning the trade no matter what your development process is the more you get into More difficult or Speedy or fast Areas of trade it requires just more Recognition and unconscious competence to have a timely response and also to fit your risk parameters So for most traders who are developing it's not a good place to play It's a good place to observe and isolate and develop a separate plan for it But we do talk about the open and it's very important and offers a lot of opportunity in a course risk So the first trade on the open is to see the the behavior against this location. Remember it was too high Right over here in the ETH after the report So let's walk Market opens Let me make sure I'm in the right place a little hard here for me to make sure I'm in the wrong Okay, our th open right here volume point of control starts now So you guys know what this is. I always go into this This is where the high volume is and all of this resets at the our th open So this is the volume developing. Okay, so let's watch the behavior now Remember retail price in the higher time frame retail price in the ETH So retail retail fractal watch This is a short. Let me show you and here's why we tested this in the ETH and we opened below it This is resistance This is support and we don't know what it's going to do, right? I mean if I knew what it was going to do, I would skip the trades. It don't work. I mean, wouldn't you? So here's here's the sign right here watch So the market opens Here's your volume. Here's your volume. We roll higher We are under this area. This is like an over under and I narrated this in a trailer Now, I don't recommend any of this because I just want to show you the auction behavior This is not about you guys taking these trades at all It's about you because if you can read it at some point you'll be able to read this if you practice it But initially it's so fast. I mean, we're in 30 seconds here and here's a setup, you know That takes a lot a very quick reaction time So it's not anything that I would recommend but what it is is how do you read this? Let me show you how do you read it and this is again really more advanced? But it's kind of what we do in the trader lab. Okay, so let's take a look chop chop chop right here Watch so the market opens it moves higher We're under that 60 Here's the order book Chop chop 47 stops go off 15 stops go off. So right in here this chop This here is an auction. This is like going to the convenience store. Okay, I don't know Are you guys hearing screaming in the background? Just curious Okay, no screaming. Okay. Well, it's not me screaming, you know, sometimes I put a trade on you'll hear you helping No, it's not the monkeys in the trees what it is is right next to there's a pool and there's a little one in the pool That's having a great time You know and if you remember when you're a little one, you had a high-pitched voice So I just you know trying to make sure you're not hearing that So this right here is a potential triggering structure. So let's see what it does Watch the see the order flow watch the book Now so that's a short and you guys are going to say, oh, this is in hindsight I hear that so much and I have to tell you it's not in hindsight in the trader lab And You know, this is just one way I'm trying to move this up here. Let's let's get over here now Remember, this is the first obstacle and we don't know what it's going to do if I knew I you know I'd like that a lot. So this is a trade to here now and remember It's the same trade we had in the eth. Isn't that interesting just from a little lower level now here So this is your scale If you're going from multiples or it has a nice range you're out of the trade Up to you. What's your trade plan now? We come back So I look at that and let me give you the explanation I look at here's how I put this together and I'm taking the time because I the reason I do to stream this way And it's real it might be pains that painful is if you don't understand why what's the point Here's why this is important in the eth. This is the retail price Remember in the high time frame. This is the retail price multiple dimensions multiple time frames. So retail too high Eth retail too low So if we check a price think of it like going to the store now I'm not saying we wouldn't shop if it's too low, but what it might mean is this retail price is too low relative to the developing Value so if the participants refute a price that was accepted previously It might be saying that price is too low. Let's auction in a different location. That's what I draw from that So too high in a higher time frame Too low in the most recent auction eth and that's called the overnight volume point of control This in today's our th is a developing volume point of control. So it's kind of like retail retail retail retail higher time frame retail eth time frame Retail developing time frame. Does that make sense? Are you are hearing some screams? Okay. Well, somebody's having a good time All right, so let's go take a look here. So now if this is too low And so then what we're looking for if this is too low, where is too high? We know this was too high At the time from the eth We know this is too low. Let's put pieces together and take notes think about it. So if that's too low This is too high This is now retail the potential exists if this is now a fair price to go back and check this So Potential since we rejected this and here's the other thing to look at book map helps you see this see the green bubble Bubble bubble bubble by by by by by by by that's aggressive, isn't it? Isn't this a change in behavior? So now we come to retail. This is my resistance potential long This is a setup in the trader lab and You're going to scale ahead of 60 The book comes down. This is potentially a problem. Let's watch 60 So and do you see the symmetry in all this? This is the point I want to make about the auction You can see these levels then it's a matter of how do you interact with the levels? Remember the key component would happen down here too low Retail now we're going to look for too high and What the market had the tendency to do is come back and check these levels We're right back here again, and what's sitting up here 60 look at what's happening here The book is starting to come down. Where do we go here is this logical? Is that a yes or a no? We come back and check retail Another trader lab Location this is a triggering structure. I'll go into them in another time But you guys have been following the stream boom back to 60 so long 60 long 60 here's how you can play this long scale 60 Pullback it doesn't take this out your stop is under here triggering structure long stop under here Scale 60 you could be building a position or just taking you know Whatever and since we are not failing back under here at the time potential continuation and again who knows, right? Now this Yesterday's closed and this is called the naked volume point of control and I this is based I think I have the right level somebody confirm that you know Let me just see Trader lab confirm that this is naked volume point of control 66 ish Can you guys help me with that? Yes, okay. This is the retail price from the previous day, and I think it was yesterday I don't want to go and look at the higher time frame. Is that correct? Well, wait. Okay. Thank you Yes yesterday. Okay, so this was retail yesterday. So look at the fractal higher time frame 60 Overnight eth 45 45 is the low 60 is the obstacle, right? Breakthrough 60 now becomes potential support or not This is yesterday's retail price next target and settlement Can you see a method here? All right, Jim 65 half shoot me. What do I have here? All right, 65 75 Jim We're gonna have to kind of go out behind a garage and argue about this So this is the next target retail So the way you would work this is remember long 60 scale Pull back doesn't break it long 60 scale break through next retail price here scale or done See this is what we do in the trader lab. It's chunks. I call it meat on the bone. What is my range? From here to here That's a 10-point trade. Okay to 60 from where 56 to 60 scale risk neutral You see this is what we do in the trader lab 60 Lulu you're saying you don't see 60 Lulu 60 is in the higher time frame, but let's watch now VWOP Let me just make sure okay 40. I'm just making sure where I am because we had a lot of trades today Okay, pull back to the VWOP. I Thought we had one to the mid, but I can't remember maybe that's later pull back to VWOP Potential long or not I Say or not because the volume point of control is below us the volume point of control shifts up This is saying too low potentially. I marked that I call it a variable high volume note Here's something else. I want to show you that's kind of important and this is from the profile world, you know This is remember I showed you that you know those round Distributions at the beginning of the stream what they are that's an auction or consolidation Auction or consolidation when we test it down here for the short the first trade in the morning We didn't stay down here. So we we ran quickly see how How much time and how little volume took off here that is just saying too low Potentially and again, we don't know so most of the volume is taking place up in here So this it becomes an outside edge So if we go get rotational potentially we can We can rotate around this thing now. We don't know. I don't think anybody knows I'm just saying as we don't know now. Here's another interesting little piece This was retail yesterday pullback Now this is our V pock again. Now. Let's go back here. Remember pullback longs Now you didn't take this what did we do pullback? Long another long. This is it all trader lab guys now this This is interesting. I want to show you something Right here This was too low remember and I marked it. I called it a Variable high volume. I didn't know what else to call it. I had to make up something, you know So when I was started doing this and I started doing this a long time ago Trying to remember Peter Staudelmeyer actually taught me market profile He did in 1985 maybe I don't know but 1985 So I started looking at this stuff a while ago And I want to tell you when I first started it didn't work for me And it was because of me not because of the market profile. It's because I had was a Develop trading systems because I was a swing trader, you know, and when I was managing dollars as an advisor It was swing trading trend following, you know, we didn't nobody day traded, you know if you're on the floor, that's you know what you did but I Was kind of behind under a rock sitting at a Early version of CQG In fact before there was CQG. There was something called the ADP comp trend before and so I had the first version of CQG That came out was called a TQ 2020 Anyway, neither here nor there, but let's look at this variable high volume node This right here is a potential long right there and the obstacle but the idea of this one is if this is too low Right here, then we have the potential to come back and check this So here's what happens. You put it on and this one doesn't work Or does it comes back again and checks it? You put it back on This is your potential target up here. Now you have UOM. So with this one If you took it you take again in front of a report now I get when I see a setup and I have a target This is again subject to your trade plan. I personally don't have a problem with it But I also know that if I'm sitting here and nothing is happening I'm willing to jettison the trade or I don't take the trade now. What I do is not so material I'm showing you structure here, you know, your trade plan has to say well, you know what it's five minutes in front of a report Maybe not so much and you just wait now. We have to get the UOM. This is also another big report. Okay? These are major reports UOM pre PPI. These are the big big big reports. So now what do we do? We take everybody out And write this down. Here's a clue VWAP mid and V pock are in alignment what this is suggesting is something called balance now This is a different configuration Let's watch now balance is it's a different context. Let me explain now when you're moving Directionally, you know fine fine fine. Oh now look what we've done. We've we are now trading two sides now This is a report And let me show you something Let me get this lined up here Where's the low of the report does anybody know exactly I think that's right here, isn't it? Where are we above overnight volume point of control? This was our retail price. That was too low We slam all the longs out. Thanks for playing and what do we do we come back? So this is saying now the mode or the of the market or potentially The Context is now two-sided. So where did we come out out to this outside edge? Now at the time it happens we could do anything, you know, we could keep going anything can happen What do we do we come back? That suggests this was a reaction off the report and a flush of the financial commode Outside edge remember too high too low. Oh, it's on sale and we don't know just remember and now we come back to retail So this suggests two-sided trade potentially and now we're in a different context, but because we are still above this It still suggests preferences the long side now. I understand you may find this, you know, really Well, it's not that you know, it's it's And what we do in the trader lab We have a thing that I always recommend is that you narrate so you need to be conscious that we tested this on the open And you need to remember that we tested it and that we didn't take it out. Well, we checked it right back So now we get the report and everybody gets kind of flushed out But all we did was come outside and remember the condition of the market. These are overlapping mid V-Pok VWAP that suggests two-sided trader balance So it becomes what's called mean reversion write that down now when this happens You don't know it. It's when this happens that you know or suspect because we don't know anything So let's watch This is the volume point of control. It shifts higher Suggesting this might be too low. We have a setup in the trader lab called the VWAP the V-Pok and Let's put the pieces back together too low Balance which means rotation outside in This shifts up suggesting outside in so let's look what it does Outside in this is a trader lab setup and again, you know Your mileage may vary and if this doesn't fit your trade plan you have nothing to do except this is what we do in the trader lab Is this useful? I don't know, you know, so outside This is the mid pull back triggering structure Target there's two setups combined here actually VWAP the V-Pok and Because the mid is close stop pick. Thanks for playing everybody retail trader behavior Put your stop at the mid. We'll send you the parting gift. This is a triggering structure chop Break high pull back to micro volume which is in there I show these all the time and they're documented in the trader lab And you're all welcome to visit to trade a lab and this is a long to here then hold And whatever happens happens Now be caught and now let's go back to why because of this and because of this because of this Remember retail trader behavior too low Fair price Come outside Back here now if it's too expensive it can be rejected That's why you scale Let's watch Now we are anticipating two-sided trade, right? Why balance remember? So it's balance, but we're leaning to the north side and I posted this in the trader lab chat It's because I say well what you know what side what side well, it's mean reversion, but what we're seeing is We're trading above this remember retail in the higher time frame and by the way, it's not a wall. It's an area We're trading above this Which was our retail price from back? Here right Longs remember and it's two-sided trade now We don't know if it's gonna come you don't know what it's gonna do, right if I knew that, you know We come back outside remember where do we come here? So it's along well What do we do we pull back? Does this look familiar? Have you seen this before? Price check. Where's the check? 60 watch Anything can happen price check Longs This is what we're doing all day in a trader lab and by the way some days are better than others Okay Watch so this now so this is along does this work for you guys or is this too slow or not enough action? Because I know there's traders who are action-oriented. They like to push the button. I Kind of look at it like I want to just take my little risk and go for this you see Now any questions before I go on to the next trade which is a mean reversion trade Any questions how we do it in the trader lab? By the way, I invite all of you to come to trader lab if you haven't been there I do as much as I can typing is as rough and I cannot I don't narrate in the sense of calling trades But I do Question the members of the trader lab. What is the context? Where might the next trade be? Where would you how would you manage the trade? This is what goes that's the dialogue I do because I don't give trades what I do is I've given all the setups already in the trader lab They're posted there. I've given many examples of these in print You know and these streams are available to trader lab participants for review. You see so It's about you guys doing the homework vetting the trades Screenshots replays because it's you being able to do it. I'm already, you know Well, what does it do if I say do it here do it there? It doesn't what it works is where's your next trade? The thing that in trading for me is when the market's sitting here I have no idea if it's gonna take out this swing or come right I don't know that none of us do but I do know if it comes back here What my next trade will be and then I'm looking for a triggering structure or I'm looking to the left to see what you know What's over here? What might happen? These are vetted setups for me. So when I and I don't know What I know is I see the rotation. I see it fail to take this out right there I'm going okay. What's kind of potentially happened all these longs in here potentially gonna get taken out Okay, where's their stops VWOP mid, you know V in there and I don't know where it's gonna come It could just keep going then I'm waiting. I'm anticipating, but I'm remembering What is happening in the context? We are leaving these previous areas behind if it comes down. Where might we check out in here Where did we go out in here? We all we did was get below this swing and take out these guys Is it reasonable to anticipate that can happen? How about yes? And where are we? 60 where are the stops under the mid? This is all what we do in the trader lab and then it's you put your helmet on and if you get a trigger You take the trade you take your stop or you take the trade you get your scale and you have your helmet on and then You see what I'm saying now we have another trade And by the way the target on this which I've neglected to say was this Because at 9 30 remember and you guys have followed the stream We have something called the iB stat and the iB stat is that the first hour high or low I remember nobody knows except right now We think the context might be up But we're leaning towards the north side that the first hour high will get taken out and it's over a 90% probability Write that down past performance not indicative of future results You bet everything no matter who you hear it from me or anybody because you got to develop the confidence But I it's a pretty Well known statistic come to the trader lab. There's a lot more statistics that we lean on and all you know remember the house Uh, the casino is basically playing statistics. And so do we in the trader lab? It's all maybe it's all random and who knows So, you know, but you got to have something named for right? So if the context is going higher if we're coming down and checking 60, you see how these pieces fit This is what I why I say it's fractal. You see why this was too low over here You see why we might come down and check where's too low Remember the outside edge of this distribution is down here So out in here is where the outside edge might be Stops are under here. Thanks for playing there. They are now you see down to the mid bomb long Back to here target here helmet hold Yesterday's high a reasonable target, right stops above yesterday's high not unreasonable Boom done with the trade and you could be done at any place you want if you're running a two lot You might be done here if you're running a three you might be done here or not And now I'm just showing you some trades, right? Now let's look now. We have another trade It's called are you guys with me before I go to the next trade? captain it's choppy, but um the The thing about the chop is inside the the chop is the auction so I always was very annoyed about chop because I would get quote chopped up I still can have the privilege of chopped up, but I try to do it at specific locations That I vetted Early on in my trading. I really didn't You know didn't appreciate what this is and now appreciate it and still get annoyed But the thing about it is there's a message in this. This is an auction right here Think of this as a I always think of it as a convenience store You know kind of like going down the street And I don't know remember. I don't know anything. I only know maybe Where's the high? I don't know but I do know yesterday's high Right, so that's a reference point and I know this has over 90 probability coming up So that's what I know the rest is all maybe so write that down the best you have in trading is maybe So that's why the the job number one is risk management getting risk neutral We talk about that in the trader lab and that requires a minimum of a two lock configuration And if you're not familiar with that approach, uh, I recommend you come to trader lab So you can kind of get a sense of why Because the thing about it is if you're in all-in all-out trader, uh, I don't know about you But I had to have one of those air sickness bags, you know because right here you're going Oh, this is great. You see this you might bail out or you might put your you know trail your stop somewhere You know like here and get taken out right there and then the market continues If you have a two lock configuration, basically you're buying the stop on your runner So that you don't have to move it and psychologically you're not going to be twitching because uh What happens is your brain is in a fight-and-flight mode Uh and a FOMO mode And you know you see open trade profit, you know here. Let's just say you're up 200 dollars Now you lose half of it theoretically you're going to push the button and you won't even be conscious of it If you have uh the risk locked in and covered on the next contract The worst that can happen is you scratch what that does is give you better control Over your emotional state and it's not a choice by how you feel Uh early on I used to think I was willpower. It's not willpower because the chemicals are released in your brain Your brain doesn't uh differentiate between the saber tooth tiger and uh The pain of a loss or the pain of giving back uh, you know open trade profits stuff like that It's all paint and we're wired to avoid those things So you can't beat the wiring you have to manage the wiring and one of the ways to manage it is Risk management and getting risk neutral and if that's something you're not familiar with come to trader lab You'll get a better understanding and also how it changes uh the outcome for traders Now this is our iceberg detector and our uh stop detector. I use these uh to help me uh And they're very important. By the way, look at that a thousand stops going off. Thanks for playing We're going to send you the parting gift Thousand iceberg going up now I look at icebergs a bit differently because I don't know what they're doing I mean the fact that a thousand icebergs are getting executed in here Is that any reason why you should be short? How about this guy might be long and he's covering and you tell the difference I haven't figured it out. So when you guys know you let me know But but what I do know is this is what I know Yesterday's high that I know and I know what's it yesterday's high by stops So I'm going to exit either in front of yesterday's high or when it pops through You know and then be ready to bail out because I know there's fuel up there So let's look at yesterday's high as an example now I'm going to show you the next trade and I don't see a lot of questions. Okay I'm getting a question um on how to get into uh trader lab in the book map discord price uh chat Go to book map dot com You'll see a link that says join the discord Uh chat Go to dis join You don't have to be a book map subscriber You won't be solicited and then find your way to trader lab In the trader lab, there's a pin on the right top top side of the trader lab chat Uh, there's 60 pdf's of these behaviors you can download you can study them take a look they're very detailed There's also a primer webinar I did for book map about a year actually about a year ago uh before I started streaming before they asked me to stream and um It goes over this process plus auction so auction market theory what the volume profile represents how you might use a triggering structures context uh the psychology of uh Retail trader behavior think like a retail trader don't act like one How to narrate the market, you know, stay in alignment with it so you can try to detect changes and triggering structures It's got all of it in there plus how to generate metrics, which is really the key to creating a career in trading So you go to book map dot com Go and visit, you know, it's it's a way to approach the market, you know, everybody's different and for me It's not like right or wrong. You know, it's not like do this or else. No, it's look at it But I found that I had to strip everything out in order to create a consistent process I used to be, you know as a system designer It was all backwards looking indicators to try to look at what's going to happen in the future And what happens with that is it's a curve fit process and ultimately you're always trying to drive Formula one by looking in the rearview mirror. I don't do that Because it doesn't work for me over a large sample size in other words It can work in a short term and a lot of us see a big move and we Grab an indicator slam it on there and think next time it happens. It's going to be the same thing You may have a processor using that's a guaranteed loser and you might not even know it You just see the randomness of it and the outsized rotations in a random process is still potentially a losing process if you can't vet the metrics involved in any Interaction with the market. You're you're the gambler the house knows the metric So I recommend that if you're gonna Be in an environment of risk that you sit on the house side of the table not the gambler side You know and that's why the gamblers come to the table because some of them walk out with that suitcase You know with the cash But the house is the one that keeps the cash over the large sample side So you just have to think a bit differently. I think if that makes sense for you So now we're going to look at the ibf is called now. This is where the market now. Let's put the pieces We're above here, right We got the ib stat over 90 probability You know based on some statistics that you need to vet We took out the stops at yesterday's high right all good and now we fall back inside Now this sets up a potential short now. We have a setup in the trader lab Called the ib failure and I made the name up because I didn't know what to call it You know, I and you may not I don't know what other people might call it I don't know anything what I know is just what I do and I just try to put labels on some of these things So the ib failure is a mean reversion trait and what it is is the potential to return To the mean so you know what the mean is mean We call it mean we joke about it is this is the retail price. Remember in the higher time frame This is the retail price 60. Remember Going back So if we come back inside, what is the condition of the market? It's all long, right? Where do retail traders put their stops under here? So if I see the potential for a short and remember I got Some of my primary targets here, which doesn't mean it won't go higher. I have no clue what it's going to do So but I have a setup called the ibf and the ibf is a short To here that's the actually it's a short to VWAP mid V pox so mean reversion Okay, that's and developing value area low. That's the sequence for that trait. So let's look at it Now this up here is a triggering structure if it's not part of your trade plan This is a short trigger You would if you're aggressive you'd be short here would a stop over the high if you're not aggressive That's okay. You would be weighted Watch Right here Right here is high volume. So you have high volume here. I'm going to show you the trigger. Am I I think I should I want to show you the trigger now. This is microstructure now if we're looking at this In fractals in other words high time frame retail Yesterday's retail which was a target Okay So too low Yesterday too low. What is our potential? Our and this is retail at the moment of this structure If we come back inside After hitting our target remember what has to happen And we don't get buying above there after we take the stops Then the potential is to counter rotate and the reason for that is there's all these sell stops trailing this move up Right retail trader behavior. So we're going to use retail trader behavior as an asset Remember think like a retail trader don't act like one. So here's the structure. Let me try to isolate this And I had a question about when do we roll over? Uh, it's effective, uh, eth sunday night So i'm going to be on the march 2023 Our open sunday eth open and then monday will be on march. I've already got it filling in in here See this right here. So remember we're looking For yesterday's high as a target and we don't know, you know, what if or any except we know it stops So that's why you don't step in front of it. You want it to get taken out There it is now right here We're looking now For a short Let's look right here get open it up for you i'm going to show it to you so right here We're over yesterday's high right okay. Here's our stops Right here This is volume Again, I'm going to try to open this up even more Because I want you to see now this is called microstructure right and these are triggers And they don't you're going to see them all over the place The point I want to make is they have to be at a location that you know, otherwise, they're just rotational They're micro consolidations, but but tops or extremes or triggers are really Consolidations and remember how I talk about the volume point of control You know the retail price in all time frames or fractals. This is the same thing except it's going to be in here so right here This volume is starting to go off here and you'll see this little node going off here That is the same as That and that higher time frame micro composite volume kind of control. It's the same behavior, but it's in a fractal Remember russian dolls right so it's right here And when the market came up here, I post in the trader lab What's the next trade the next trade is the ib failure Which is coming back here back to the volume point of control where it was at the time and then maybe lower So right here You see the volume You see the volume This is a triggering structure Pull back to the volume Volume is there now. This is minutia. I'm not saying you should be doing this or even thinking about it I'm just showing it to you right here Chop chop chop volume Triggering structure So Here is a short and we had rod in the trader lab gets short here rod nice work Because it's a setup This is volume. So too high Break away from it pull back here Chop chop chop now a couple of things could happen. It could have also done this So you don't know chop chop chop break low Pull back to the volume. That's why it says hvn break So this is the ib failure Now we had another trader in the trader lab On this pull back I think it was around here. He got short around 69 right And he got scaled And then it came back in his face now. Let me explain something right here The volume point of control shifts up that is suggesting what's below us is too low And I call that warning will robinson this here. See this This is saying too low now. You notice Previously if we had the shift, it would be a potential one, right? But we're in the ib failure Which still has the potential to come down to the mid down here and down here But this puts the whole thing in question. There's your retail price in the higher time frame But let's just watch the behavior See so Too low label it This comes up to short it is in jeopardy watch Sets up a long pull back here long And pull back here. What is it anybody? What is it pull back here? anybody price check price check well The big aisle. This is the price check in the big aisle but And too low V poc migration and we have a trader that's been focused on the ib failure, which is the short Off of this yellow, which is the ib And he's doing a great job And Rob Davis and he decided and this is what I recommend in a trader that you pick one one Setup and you become expert at it the true test of expertise is being able to teach it to someone else And that means and there's more to this in other words. You have to know the context Certain setups, of course don't apply in different context In what I recommend is and this is just how I did it for me Which is not saying it's right for you is I have a different trade plan for different behaviors And it changes in her day it gets directional and then it gets rotational If it's directional, I'm trading it one way if it gets two-sided or rotational I'm trading it a different way if it becomes mean reversion, which is the outside end trade. It's a different It's a different setup Because it's aligned with a certain context So if I have an upward bias because of the condition and all the things we've previous stated I'm going to be looking for longs Except I understand that the longs are going to also get flushed out So then I'm going to look for vetted shorts to take them out and then get realigned with the long How about this suppose you don't take the shorts you just take the longs You can do that also and when you're building a trade plan I look at it like a sequential process If you can't explain the context and the specific setups sequentially then you're not ready to move on You see it's a building process And if in if you're building a career just think of being a doctor or being a high performing athlete Because that's what you're going to end up being if you're going to be in this business a high performer You've really got to step back from it and think what do I do? Maybe get a good coach whoever that is Maybe find a good support group. I mean we have that in the trader lab Maybe find a process and then accept that it's an educational process And you don't get to a high level of performance without doing the work, you know Screenshots replays Drilling down correcting errors getting Developing competence consider you start out incompetent Um, and that's not to say anything negative about anyone But you may be incompetent and think you're competent But you might if you don't have the metrics vetted you can't even know If you do the work you may find that you're not competent and that's okay You know we start out and the problem I had when I came to trading is I tried to wrap my beliefs Around trading when the real reality was I had to change what I believed Uh to get a line with what the reality of trading is because you have no idea What do you do read a book go to a chat room? You think that's really trading? Well, maybe maybe some are Maybe some pieces are you see but the reality of trading is it's it's a statistical It's a math-based business in the end. It's you know, all of this is random You know Does this trade from here go to here or does it just keep going down to here? It could do that You take a stop that's overhead cost of production and you have to know that But it's over the large sample size. What happens? So this you know, this is the long I think that covers everything Any questions And I remember guys, I'm not a vendor. I don't have anything to sell and I you know, I'm glad to help out Uh, I'm just sharing what I do, you know, it's I don't think it's terribly complex But then again, I don't I'm not objective anymore, you know But I've probably done almost everything you guys have done Um In the sense of going down different rabbit holes And that's just the nature of searching, you know, trying to find ideas And the other thing that was very perplexing for me is I really thought things that I was doing worked And when they really didn't I just didn't understand that Uh, there's such a randomness Um, uh, Ron, um, I stream every every day Monday through Friday 10 30 um to One piece through standard time and sometimes I go a little longer lately. I've been doing about two hours Uh, and I need to be respectful of other book map streamers, you know, we have a number of different streams and Traders that that you know show their stuff I'm just one way to kind of approach it. We have uh, You know, if you're into stocks Options, you know Day trading stock, you know tesla micros, you know, whatever the big the big ones the high volume stocks market maker behavior Options behavior, you know things of this There's a lot of other education available and of course order flow You know using a high level tool like book map to kind of integrate into whatever your process is Um, I found uh, I started using book map. I think and either I don't remember maybe 2014 2015 And it was rather basic I mean, it was light years ahead of anything else, but compared to what it is today Um, it's not the same platform. It just keeps getting better. And since I've been able to, uh Really work with book map, uh with, you know, bringing ideas to them and being Uh beta tester and helping them with the development of their tools Um The innovation is just remarkable and there's much more coming, you know, it's it's just it's kind of exciting actually Um, because they listen and their developers are just top notch I mean the stuff they come up with just is kind of mind boggling and i'm very glad that uh, You know book map recognize that I have something to contribute and i'm glad I can contribute to them And they're helping me they're helping me with the tools they develop to, uh Get more, uh get able to get into more micro structure and timeframes before I'm doing the same process pretty much since, um, I don't know 2009 or 10 or something like that Maybe even earlier, but It was all based on a higher time frame charts by higher time frame Short time frame relative, but this allows me to get more granular because I can read The behavior in a more micro structure. So what it did for me besides the order flow and the other tools Um is I can get my risk lower and get risk neutral quicker What what's the value of that if you can shave picks off? Assuming you all you already have a process, you know, that works that's vetted What is that worth over thousands of traits and in a career? I'm gonna tell you Thousands and thousands of traits. That's why instead of reacting the fomo and you know Being impulsive if you step back and look at this as a business Your job is really to wait for your vetted trade Not to be concerned about the 20 point or a 30 pointer that you know that goes without you if it's not your trade Going impulsing fomo for that one trade type Will put you out of the business. You see You are accountable to your trade plan not to the randomness of the market Your job is to wait for your trade and that's your job, you know, your job is not Throw an indicator on a 20 point move and think now that's the next, you know, and that shows up That's your job. It's not your job unless it has a positive expectancy If you're not looking at the market that way, then you're kind of missing the point of what it is to be in the business of trading and in the trader lab, it's about Helping traders At least navigate the the potential of becoming career traders and and it's not for everybody. It doesn't matter What kind of education you get? I mean, there are people who obviously want to be doctors and they don't they don't become doctors for whatever reason It's not the point. The point is the education is available. It's it can align with you psychologically I mean, there has to be it's like a rhythm. I kind of relate to this in a couple different ways um, it's rhythmic It's um, it's behavioral the auction is the purest in my opinion again the purest form Of why the market exists. It's to try to figure out. What is the smp or whatever market worth the participants auction To kind of come up with a fair price and they do it at all time frames and fractals That's why I relate to it and then it's a matter of the dance or reading sheet music Or speaking a language, you know, think about what it takes. It's the same kind of skill You know, except it's represented by participant behavior So that auction or participation Of these uh individuals in the market are trying to figure out what is this thing worth And they do it in all time frames or I think of them as fractals because the market's really not regulated by time The market is really regulated by the participants What do they think this is worth, you know Is this too high chop chop chop Break pull back past the volume Too high short right there Fractal watch I'm just showing you a structure here Right here it was too high Come back check Break pull back to this volume Check break If you have a higher level of skill and I don't recommend this for anybody See the see the symmetry chop chop break short pull back Test Your could you be doing this if you have a high level of skill and you can read it in real time it takes a lot of practice Here Are you seeing this now? I'm not calling trades here. I'm just showing you structure. It's not my job Call a trade not a trade calling room. This is for education chop chop too high Break volume break pull back wear Volume break chop chop break pull back to the volume break short Chop chop break high pull back to the volume long Up to where The volume short break Pull back to the volume short. I'm only showing it reading structure. I'm not showing you anything else I'm not saying or even trades. I'm showing you narration and how you might stay aligned Adam it's not about the moves happening fast Adam saying they happen fast Adam it's not right for you then this isn't for you it is fast if you've been listening to the stream I've been talking about What it takes to develop unconscious competence. These are not trades. I'm talking microstructure Maybe you came in late Adam so that's okay Jay the pink numbers. This is the absorption indicator. I don't usually have it on. I thought I'd put it on for you But this is the auction so But they're not trades what this is is how you navigate One of the ways to use this behavior is trade management, but you have to vet it In other words when you see this it's not a short it could be if it's part of your trade plan What are we doing mean reversion back to yesterday's high? exhaustion Mean reversion. That's what this is. This is the same trade that we had earlier remember Right the ib failure same trade Prince repeat. It's not your setup. It's not your trade, but this is how you could read it, right? Um So Adam maybe not for you. That's okay But the thing Adam is and i'm speaking to Adam because if you just show up You're this is a this is advanced Adam But I do this the same way every day and it's not these are not setups And if you follow the stream, you'll know exactly what this is about So if you just dropped in spend a little more time or if it's not for you, then that's okay, you know I'm all right with that But the trader lab is um Actually doing a lot I think to help traders and the best thing to do is go to book map dot com Join the discord chat if you're not there You don't have to be a book map subscriber visit the trader lab. Ask them how they're doing, you know And it's not for everybody But um, you know, I've been doing this 43 years. So I think I have something to contribute Well, Adam Don't take it out on me. I'm a nice guy That's okay. Adam. Thank you Jay did I answer your question about the pink numbers and I think my I'm not scrolling here in the Discord. Sorry guys. This thing was not moving. Well Adam getting squeezed. I have tired tracks that are indelibly printed on my back Part of the thrill of getting of learning and paying I kind of think of it like a lot of the things we go through in trading is like paying tuition You know through education the thing that's most important I think in the in the trading business is trying not to repeat the class And I can't tell you how many times I I did derider derivatives of the same class And still got this got new higher treads on my back Thinking that I was actually doing something different, but it was really derivative, you know different time frames different multiple indicators different this different that I mean, I started with oscillators when they first became available And I know since you might be new here. I shared an office with george lane. He created stochastics So I thought the holy grail showed up You know So and when I started trading it was classical bar charting There was very little technical analysis at the time, you know, you get your pencil and ruler out did charts by hand So and I'm that that's only to tell you that I've been down the path so many paths that many of you are either still on or have been down and And even went into system development and used early iteration of what ultimately became trade station And was I was involved with brow from bill cruise Down in miami and that eventually became omega research So I can I have a story I can tell but it's not really worth it other than to tell you that I've probably done it And or some forms of the things that we've all done And I don't do it anymore And it doesn't mean that it can't be done that way. I just The traders I know who are career traders Many many many of them if they're not using automated High frequency approaches, you know, which I know guys are you know algorithmic Traders, I know a lot of these guys are a number of them. I should say I'm not tons Uh, because they're kind of in their own planet, you know quants Guys with phd's and math and physicists who are our competitors in the retail side I also know traders that trade like we do Who Many many many of them are using processes built on the volume profile In auction So I think there's a reason for that and I'm not just speaking to you at I'm just sharing a little bit of my experience and the reason book map asked me to stream list because My experience and uh, also not only as a retail trader, but as a professional trader and money manager So I mean, I that's my background. I used to trade for firms. Uh, I had my own firm Uh and managed dollars. So there's a lot more about me, but it's not important You know, I still have the same things you all do I still have to deal with my emotions because I'm discretionary. I'm not not a system trader The reason I went into systems. I didn't I was trying to manage my emotions I wanted it to go on autopilot and uh, not so much so, um Anyway, just a little bit Um Jay is asking me to share my sensitivity. I adjusted j um In irt for those higher time frame composites, I adjust it so I just see What I need to see I want to see the uh balance areas So that's just how I adjust it if it's too sensitive It's gonna throw too many lines up there and I just want to see the major start So that's all I do, you know I don't know if I can put this up here without making a big mess So this So this was yesterday. Let's look at today How it's fitting in here. So this is today. So this is that micro composite that's 60 that I was talking about, right? That's where the shorts came off of this morning in the eth and then early And now we're over it and we're consolidating. What do I have everything here? Hold on a second And we just touched yesterday's high, you see and we're inside So we might just pick these guys off and then just stay here or continue higher I don't know and you're asking me about the sensitivity. This is what I want to see These are the consolidations. This is the same as the chop chop in the microstructure. There's your high volume, you see There's the low volume outside edge high volume. This is the highest volume for this whole consolidation. That's why it's important And then it goes into fractals down to the little microstructure. It's all about the volume And then that volume point of control migrates around during the day. It's the same thing This is retail for all of this. So we're in balance here. That means we like this price at the moment Yeah, let's get those stops out. No, we're not going in here. So You know and this if you look about think about it. What is this? It's down chop chop chop. This might just be a flag development Which would take us down lower maybe the here or down, you know So I'm still leaning, you know, I don't know what it's going to do by the way I never know what's going to happen. I just have levels of potential behavior and I keep my mind open I mean back when I started I used to think I knew where the higher the low the day was going to be I mean how ridiculous is that? But you don't know because nobody tells you at least nobody told me, you know, I was in uh fantasy land And I didn't have the advantage of education when I started Basically with buy a book And I could tell you how good those were not so much I did find that when I went to CME and uh took classical bar charting at CME that was very useful But then that was also somewhat g ahead in the shoulders, you know, all that but it was, you know, very useful But I don't really look at the market that way anymore. I don't draw a trend line. I don't need a trend line Because just any of you ever draw a trend line and then move it That's just another term I've called curve fitting. So here we are That inside out. So that's why this is a short back to the mean wherever the mean is that's this So it's two sided trade, right? So you could see remember short Short short short short now it has to be part of your plan. Remember what the key piece was yesterday's high and exhaustion That's context and if and again, I got to point out if it's not part of your plan It's not your trade And it's more advanced because you're fading So how do you stay in alignment if this then that if not then what here's another piece this 80 This is how book map helps also. Let me show you a little bit of that Now None of this is stands alone in a vacuum, you know book map to me is a piece So I want to see now we're having rollover and it gets really it looks like a checkerboard It always annoys me like this See this bing bing bing bing bing. This is all automated And you only see it during rollover. I don't know about that but um Here you see the order book come in You see it trailing it down and they're pulling think of this like pressure or the tide And the tide's going out They pull They push It just gives you some sense of what's going on. Notice how this comes into the book. You see the reaction That's order flow Now bruce does order flow webinars monday tuesday and friday. I think it's 10a Or 9a i'm forgetting eastern standard time. No, sorry, uh, 10a eastern standard time I'm losing my mind. I don't even know what time it is And uh, he'll he'll give you the insight on the behavior of the order book Um, and it's very useful now. This is funky because of rollover But basically you'll be able to see the book flip. You'll see algorithmic behavior Algos are not our friend But you can't trade with algos because they're computer generated, you know So you're not trying to do anything and they're also designed to fool us So algorithmic behavior will mess you up So you have to look at more meaningful behavior One of the things I've found when I have triggering structures My triggers often not always often lead the algos They might be also triggering off of the structures I use they might be using similar behaviors It's just something I've observed. I I have no real opinion. It's just maybe coincidental, but notice what happens This is the trigger here And now the book starts coming down. You see right here I don't know And under here they pull Here it's coming down. So I don't know, you know over here. We come up. We have a trigger They start coming down, but it's always behind it seems So what I'm looking for is if this is a triggering structure break pullback I'm looking for the test. It can come back and test at a different place You know and remember horseshoes and hand grenade And where's the stops, right? This is another ibf by the way. I'm here chattering away and I'm not Keeping everybody in so you have shorts coming out of here. You have your this is our remember our ibf Break Break pullback to the ib rob. Are you on this trade? Where is it? I can't tell if you took it here. Let me see it. Do we have a short here or not? You might be short here. You would have a scale And you get taken out When it breaks under the ib that's a short Here Break pullback stop pick high volume right here potential short And then you're going for this and then V-wap and mid because that's where the stops are Yeah, that's your ibf It's everybody tracking. Sorry. I missed that one because I was busy, you know, kind of talking a little bit Uh, how is your asking me about why cough? I really don't have any opinion about him. He's volume oriented. I think, um You know But I don't think about why cough anymore, but he was way ahead of his time He was I think he really hit the nail on the head And if you want to think about go back even further jesse livermore Um, he oh also, uh, we'll give you some insight. He it's I think the dollars are not in the short-term trades Uh, because it's a risk reward process. I think the opportunity lies in the swings But it's a personal preference, you know, or if I'm putting risk on, you know here You know, it's get remember two lot minimum configuration get risk neutral put your helmet on So this is a short, you know, this was a short over here too You get scaled you get taken out but the trade right back on again foam scaled Risk neutral stop stays up here target And then target and then developing value area low and back to 60, you know So this is the extended target on the short. It doesn't have to ever get there But these are primary why stops Stops and then you could be done with the trade. It doesn't matter But that's a decent trade 62 at around 60, you know, I'm sorry, uh, 72 ish 70 to 60 10 points I'll do those all day Okay, rob will we want to hold it against you rob says he's not on this one any questions Guys all this is this process rinse repeat narration understanding potential context waiting for your bus to show up putting your helmet on And having vetted metrics so you have the confidence to execute and taking the randomness of the market rotations as Just what it is random Thinking like a casino because you have a vetted trade plan If you don't have metrics if you can't open to a setup and say I've got x percent probability of getting risk neutral And then I have x percent probability of getting to the first target Not the third target the first target and that's your trade and your job is when that trade shows up is to execute it The hardest thing you're going to find other than putting in the time And not being in a hurry and being disciplined. It's actually trading Actually doing the trade when it shows up because that's going to be the thing Where you're not going to continue trading when your trade shows up you'll get passive And what it is is subliminally you don't want to give back your your profit That's an obstacle also and you may not never think of it because you'll rationalize it That's the thing about trading the casino doesn't close down the table Because they've had some winners that day and they're ahead Their job is to keep the table open keep the gamblers gambling and keep putting the work in the odds and increasing the metrics We all have things that are going to be obstacles for us in the business of trading The business of trading is really stepping in and understanding your weaknesses having the discipline to keep trading Uh, one of my things is I have to get my brain screwed on straight when i'm going to trade Because I'll if the first half hour of trade I can be up Let's just say substantially Or the first hour and then i'm going well, it's been great, you know, and then for whatever reason I start getting a little passive and then I there's one trade I don't take and it's a big winner You know what it does to me it scrambles me then I go Gee, I should have had that winner So if the next one's a loser now i'm only you know what I mean And all of a sudden my mind goes into this like somebody put the The brain on the spin cycle and it takes me out of the game Because now my mind has hooked into you shoulda and now you can't take the next one because if the next one's a loser You won't have that last winner To buttress. Do you know what i'm saying? I found that in my own behavior and I didn't realize it at first at first I was logical look you did so well But you know what the reality was my job is to trade because that's my business of trading my job is to play those metrics That I've vetted not to have some subliminal fear of loss pop up and rationalize not continuing the trade when i'm in alignment I mean there's days I trade and i'm not in alignment and it's not me It's just my plan and the condition of the market don't align Those are the days where I have cost of production or overhead The only way i'm going to get my statistics to play is by keeping trading when my job is to trade And I have risk management in place I take a certain amount of stops if I take them that's cost of production and overhead I have a loss limit if things go totally off the rails and i'm not in alignment I saw i'm done trading for the day it happens I don't like it, but then I have to look at my trade plan and go yeah, that's part of it Okay tomorrow You know That's reality So I had to guard I have to guard against these things. I'm not conscious of and that's part of the wiring You know the mental state so when I sit down to trade for the day I open up my trade plan and part of it is get your brain screwed on straight You know, here's the things that derail you You know Here's the things and I in order to quantify it by the way I create something called an error cost calculator So when I don't take the trade I write down, you know what? You know the outcome of that was if I don't take a trade that loses I put that against myself not as a negative. I actually put it in as a cost Because i'm supposed to take that trade and I add all those up at the end of the week or the end of the month You do that for a few months You're going to find you might be a profitable trader and it's all sitting on the table that you've left there You see because you close down the table and your job is to be at the table Being the house being the dealer working on the metrics. You see the edge And so what I found and here's the other side of what I found if I was losing and out of alignment instead of Waiting patiently I started getting FOMO and what it was about and I started making more errors Because now I was at the opposite end. I was trying to make it back And I didn't understand this until I kept metrics and then I saw this repetitive behavior And it was really a shock to me because I wasn't conscious of it You know So that's why I created the error cost calculator And if you haven't done that like I say you're going to find out write yourself out a check So let's say your error is at the end of the week or the end of the month or $5,000 write that check out And stick it on your monitor. That'll give you some motivation. You've got to quantify these things. Anyway, I hope you find that useful Uh jay is asking me if bruce's videos are on uh, youtube. Yeah, they are they're all up there And I I recommend you watch them if you're interested in order flow He covers order flow and also order flow setups and things like that you might find useful Mine or not, uh, I have selective ones I put up there The last one I think I put up was just from a few days ago. Maybe or maybe last friday. I can't remember and that was trend Trading a day trading a trend in fractals, which you're seeing me do here is trade fractal So that's and all the term fractal means is instead of multiple time frames. I'm really trading structure Not time and there's a difference between no, I mean I used to trade time Like you guys 15 minute five minute, you know, whatever and pick whatever it is Renko range thick doesn't matter. It's all the same price um, you know But that was time because I broke it up by time because that's we all learned the same thing Then I figured out at some point the clock really is irrelevant It's the participant behavior that really is what we're looking at and when you put the clock It's superimposed the clock the clock we created the clock The market is not based on the clock other than open close, you know eth that kind of stuff EU close, you know, which have some impacts on volume and things and of course open close But other than that, there's no the clock is in material lunch time. We often see counter rotations You know that's material In fact, when I first was looking at the ibf I had a different name for it I called it the k trade because I was trading market profile and that was k period. It was lunch time in chicago I think 1230 if I remember right Central standard time. So I called the k trade It because at lunch it would thin out and you'd get counter rotations So initially it was really more of a lunch time trade and you could kind of see right here. We get into lunch time And what do you have the ib? See so that's when I first came up with this I was really kind of I just kept noticing behavior and when the market thins out It's easier for the market to counter rotate and the stops are the fuel for this trade And there's two ways we use the ibf by the way first of all It's for this and the other part is to get back in alignment with the higher time frame, which is long Now, I don't know if this thing is done. I have no clue But what it is now remember the target was a developing value very low anybody remember that right And remember horseshoes and hand grenades So it's a potential long to hear and back to here or not But these are all part of what we do in the trader lab And if it doesn't coming to where you want it to come, you don't have a trade But just remember what I was saying. What's the target? right So i'm just showing you what I do and there's no precision. Here's the other part of trading No precision. It's maybe so they're areas You know, this is an area look what happened right here Is does that give you some insight? Look what's you see what i'm saying? So if you're looking for the long and i'm not saying it is long I'm saying it's an area They can get there Where what else is an area 60? If it's not your trade, there's nothing to do and you don't pull out a gun and hurt yourself It says your trade plan says it's got to come here And you got or hear whatever it is you don't have a trade No problem if you're if you're more Let's just say Limber you would see this as a potential trigger And this is an obstacle right here The shorts where do the shorts have their stops the mid and the v-wap. So what might happen rotate here see sellers We get through here Back here and maybe back here don't know that's what trading is right? That's all it is And it's maybe so So again, if this isn't your trade, it's not your trade. No fault. No problem If you can read this and you're in you know where the confluences might be And you have the book then it might be a long Your job is to get risk neutral ahead of the first obstacle This dropping down presents a problem So you might just go ah if you were in this you'd look at this drop down You'd get risk neutral and then maybe you'll scratch the trade Or you just leave it. What's the difference? Stops are here And this is a potential target price check and aisle three remember price check and aisle three I got to put up a variable high volume note there So I put these up because they're showing me where the highest volume was and I also have this mark This is automatic. So this shows me where the high volume is In the this whole thing This shows me the high volume in the microstructure because what this is this is the chart base volume profile It's only showing me the volume. That's on the screen So I can see the fractals. You see this is what I really like about it This is showing me all the volume for the day. So you can see it there is This but I can also see it here more cleanly So just a way to look at it So where's the stops here? So this can fail from here. No problem The thing in the trade will I remember and let me show you the triggering structure And this is not a recommendation I'm just showing you structure because if it's not your trade your job is not to do it Remember it's not the impulse because which one is the right one. Was it this one? See was it this one? Is it this one? Which one is it? So no trade, but I want to show you the behavior So let's see if we get up here. Why stops? And it doesn't have to do anything if we take this out Potentially back here or not. What can we anticipate potentially sellers at the VWAP? Stops at the mid sellers at the VWAP this moved up potentially too low We want to watch the behavior if we pull back and it could still come down here That's the randomness questions guys Well captain price. I know you want to be confident, but I I'm not confident In anyone trade I am confident in the metrics I can't be confident Because I've never been able to have Anything more than maybe And part of what I did early on was put Put more Indicators on And I was trying to squeeze risk out so I could quote be more confident and for me I'm just talking about me less fearful What I've figured out over time is I can't I have no no way of knowing the difference between a trade that works and one that doesn't Other than when the dust settles So instead the way around that for me to develop the confidence was to Accept the randomness and then just put the trade on and manage the trade and get risk neutral Being able to have a high probability of getting risk neutrals would help me develop the confidence The outcome of the trade is random, you know, so and full stops are part of that too, you know But I could never get confident in the random in randomness. I am confident there is randomness So that's kind of where my confidence is kind of shifted and losses or cost of production I'm just responding to your comment by the way because I understand what that's all about The same Are you guys tracking with me? Do you have any questions? I've got about nine minutes before I'm required to go off the air and Go back and do my thing By the way, if you're new here, I want to invite you to the trader lab There's 60 pdfs of these behaviors you can download you're going to see the same process over and over and over I don't reinvent the wheel and I don't make it up as I go But what I do is I always start when I do this stream Especially because I'm starting two hours after the open It doesn't do anybody any good to see what's happening right now until you know what happened Because everything that's happening in the present is based on what happened, you know From the eth where real and actually higher time frame. Yes. So yesterday Let's let let me take that back higher time frame Yesterday are th eth, which is most recent auction with statistics You know overnight high low overnight volume point and control So we have that as reference points the overnight high and low there's over 90 probability One of them gets taken out during our th not a hundred percent And then the i b high and low first hour high low over 90 probability one of those goes Two of them can go to you know, but it's a lower probability, right? um Yesterday's trade was uh, and those of you in the trader lab, you know Uh, these by the way these streams are available to trader lab participants exclusively unless I post Um, you know and leave them up on youtube, which I do from time to time The last one that I left up there that you guys can find was I think last friday and I don't remember I can't remember uh, because I just don't remember Uh, was trend trading uh in fractal. So you can kind of see the same behavior and directional Yesterday was directional that went into rotational kind of what today is similar similar processes So whatever we did yesterday we're doing the day same Once you recognize the context context shifts. So we're trading in a fractal. So direction is up And it's rotational. So it's outside in but also Um, so it's outside in leaning to the north side Which might be done because we already got our targets on top We are trading on top of a higher time frame retail price balance. So that's what we're doing two-sided This thing might be done to the upside Or not So it's two-sided trade. That's called mean reversion. So we're trading inside and up With two-sided trade. So it's rotation if you can kind of see that and that's what's called context And i'm not saying it's the easiest thing to figure out You can segment the market and then attempt to get in alignment You don't have to be trading the short side if you want you could just be trading one side You have to be conscious though that we took out yesterday's high already and we've come off after just stops That's that's the narrative So if this then that if not then what if we take out yesterday's higher We don't take it out go further and we come back in then what then mean reversion the longs get taken out Then what if the buyers perceive it's back on sale, they'll come back in and then we'll rotate back up Where to the ib we come back in the ib what happens the longs get taken out If we come back to the outside edge and we think the market might be biased alongside It's a long then where to back back inside if we can't get going then what then the longs under here get taken out And we continue lower kind of that that's it or You're done You order your pizza and your pint of ice cream and you're ready for tonight one or the other That's the business of trading and if you don't have a trade here, then you have nothing to do. Here's an important piece V pock and mid or overlapping. That's called balance. That means to decide a trade And remember our outside edge is still out here Don't know This is why this is the middle of nowhere, right? I'm not saying you can't do anything with this I'm just saying is it's not a setup we talk about in the trade So let's watch Any questions and by the way if you're interested in trader lab, I invite you to come it's a Let's just say a serious community of like-minded traders Whether new Or you've been in the trenches for a while our senior trader has 54 years experience I sit at his knee and he teaches me Now we all got something to contribute and we all have something to gain seriously So and there's no egos in the trader lab We're all in this together and the goal of the trader lab is to methodically build a trading business a career in trading Not to play a game. It's not a video game It's a business if you have not reached the level of success you're interested in or if you're in trader groundhog day Like I was take doing derivatives of the same process that doesn't work I invite you to visit the trader lab and see if you can you know garner some benefit from it It's not for everybody It takes a commitment and you have to understand the reality of becoming a top performer Our competitor in anything whether you're going to become a doctor You're going to be an athlete, you know, think about what it takes. It's no different in trading You got to put the time in and you got to accept the fact that you're gonna You're going to walk before you run and prefer actually crawl before you run because This is different in the sense of understanding Ultimately the purity of the market in the market itself, which is participant behavior Go to bookmap.com. You'll see a link join the discord chat Um Go to trader lab. There's 60 PDFs. You can download so you can look at these this behavior and see if it makes sense to It none of this comes quickly But it is methodical and if you follow these streams, you're going to see me do the exact same process Because to me the only way to have consistency in anything is to do it the same way, especially if it's a high skill level endeavor This is a high skill level endeavor, but it's a simple process The skill comes from developing the unconscious competence and that's the practice aspect of it, you know And in specializing Actually in setups and then building on top of it building on top notice where we went here Coincidence maybe could be Don't know See This is part of the process of trading and all of its random except Maybe some of it isn't I appreciate you guys visiting um And I invite you to the trader lab. You don't have to be a bookmap subscriber now ever never There's a lot of education stocks options market maker Behavior You know the the trader lab is not a trade calling room though I do narrate As best I can in real time But I also do my own thing when I'm not streaming because this is you know my income It is derived from the business as you know Not from streaming. I'm not a vendor So, uh, but I'm passionate about trading and I've seen so many good people come and go in the trading business And unfortunately You guys now have the internet. I had nothing when I started so I had the opposite problem You have the problem now so much input and probably a lot of garbage that you can't sort it out Maybe coming to the trader lab will help you maybe Sort some of it out Uh, and again what I do or what we do in the trader lab is not for everybody There's not one way to trade okay, but in the end It's the way that you can wrap your head around and create No matter what it is metrics that give you the confidence and see this as a business It is a business if you want a business create a business and trading. It's going to take you time Um, there's no shortcut. There's no cliff notes But I think if you come to an environment with other traders who are like-minded and are leveraging their collective experience And sharing how to create trade plans and sharing their trade plans how they put these pieces together it might Help accelerate your growth and maybe you can realize your potential in the business of trading Anyway, that's all I have to say for you. I want to wish you guys a good weekend Um, this stream is available for review for all trader lab participants And uh, you're interested go to book map dot com join the discord chat Go to trader lab and also take advantage of all the additional free education Any last questions before I fold up the tent and pull the plug and go go to the well, I'm not going to go to the beach Got to do some trading, right? Um, what's that? Do I over the line possible? Overall, yeah every day Casey's asked me if I have plays. Yeah, I have a whole List of setups that are all contextual and when the once I recognize context. I'm on I'm on the trade That's basically my job. You know, yeah, so everything is uh in advance. I don't make it up as I go. It's all done There's 60 kala. So, um, I think uh, you might be in the wrong place So if you if you didn't find them in the trader lab, just ask Okay Hope you got something out of this. Um Go to the trader lab. Just ask where they are Uh, introduce yourself. Let us know where you are There's members in the trader lab from all over the planet and I appreciate you guys coming and visiting say hi Um, I do my best to kind of help in a sense, but I get a lot of the same questions So everybody there's a lot of the same answers the questions you have we all had including me Developing value area low location where to Watch here here potentially back here not a recommendation. Watch how this plays out and also potentially out here Not a recommendation We're all tourists. Thanks for visiting the trader lab So you guys monday and I'm going to put the process up That we do the hierarchy. This is what we do in the trader lab. This is what it's built on auction market theory How the participants interact what's too high? What's too low? What's retail infractals? Volume profile lets us see the volume and that's the key piece in all of this Where's the retail price? If the retail price is too high The shoppers or the participants go elsewhere. What time frame do we operate in? I prefer to get the 10 and 20 point swings But I use the micro time frames for to interact with the participants What's the context is a directional? Or rotational how about it's directional going up in rotational in a shorter time frame that we participated And then book map is the order flow tool I call it the tip of the spear where we can get down to the granular level Thanks for visiting the trader lab. Look forward to seeing you guys next week If you got something out of this hit the thumb up In youtube and I look forward to seeing you guys next week Also, there's uh webinars available up on youtube if you're interested in it In them and this is available for review for this stream today for trader lab participants. Thanks again See you soon