 Good morning traders. Welcome to the Traders Lab. Can I get a check in YouTube and the Bookmap Discord Trader Lab chat? Great. Thank you. Thanks for being here everybody. Thanks for visiting the Trader Lab. We have a lot to talk about today. For those of you who are in the Trader Lab in the Bookmap Discord chat, we had a lot of structured trades which were in alignment with the trend and so far only long side and I'm going to review those structured trades, which is what I do here in the stream. If you are visiting for the first time, there is a library of PDFs of these structured trades. You can download and study also a library of webinars that'll give you some idea of how these pieces might at times fit together. The goal of the Trader Labs is to help traders build out the business side of trading and to understand what I think is the reality of trading and while everybody does their own thing and your mileage may vary and as you will note, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. It's really up to you to do the work. Ultimately, the business of trading is extracting an edge or a statistical probability of one outcome over the other. That's the real world of trading, not a video game, not an indicator-based process, though indicators might fit into it. The primary purposes of the market is an auction process and this stream is about integrating bookmap order flow tools with auction market theory. In other words, how the market works. I think many traders think the business of trading is indicators and trying to put an indicator on a rotation and now next time you'll do whatever that indicator, red-right, green-light or combination of indicators suggests. However, without knowing if that process actually has a possible edge or positive statistical probability, you may actually be operating in a negative probability or over time a guaranteed loss. That's why metrics and vetting is a key part of the business side of trading and to see this participant interaction and behavior, I use a tool called the volume profile and this is done in the intraday developing timeframe or fractals. Think of the market very much like higher timeframe going down into shorter timeframes or rotations and it's really simply a Russian doll hop down and then bottom up and that is what the objective of the trader lab is, is to help you have a basis or understanding. General disclosure of bookmaps, limited materials, information and presentations are for educational purposes only and should not be considered specific and investment advice or recommendations. Live trading is in simulation, demo paper trading mode and strictly for educational purposes. Live trading executed in simulation cannot accurately where you represent realistic trading performance. By the way, grab a pen and a piece of paper. I'm going to be moving quickly today. You're going to need it if you want to get the most out of this to take some notes because I will be giving you some statistics that may or may not apply but you will find that the more data you can collect can help you psychologically position and everything is always random. Risk disclosure trading futures equities and digital currencies involve substantial risk of loss and it's not suitable for all investors and investor can 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 and 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. This is a stream that reflects structured trades that are available to everyone in the bookmap discord trader lab chat. You don't have to be a bookmap subscriber. You won't be solicited. So what I do is I start at the beginning and I do highlight structured trades that are available to everyone market mechanics context and I do a narrative. However, if you're in the trader lab you would already have these structured trades available so you would either be able to follow along or anticipate them where they might show up and this is part of trading is having a plan and it's not making it up as you go. It's anticipating your vetted setup and the business of trading is not getting involved in the middle of nowhere. It's only getting involved where you know because you've done the work that you have a statistical edge. Now it's work to extract it but if you want to have a business it takes work and you're also competing against other retail traders and I would suggest most of them have not done the work don't understand the business of trading. They are caught in the fantasy of trading and there's a big difference between what we think trading is when we start and want to become traders and what it really is and I suggest to you and this is just one way to experience and interpret the market that maybe you've reframed what you what this really is so let's take a look first thing grab your pen and piece of paper here's some statistics I'm only going to spend a couple of minutes now let's go higher time frame 4117 and I post have we've discussed this a number of times here in the stream is an upside target and the reason for that is if you look at the higher time frame that is the consolidation we broke out of I think I don't remember which day why we did at that time but we broke out consolidated lower then broke back up and we've been in a big range that outside if you look at your RTH candles you'll see 4117 is an outside edge what is out at an outside edge of any structure or consolidation quick answer YouTube there's a 10 second delay what is at the top of any consolidation in any fractal or time frame trader lab in the discord that is correct how about YouTube remember this stream is to get you to think and anticipate in the business of trading we are always anticipating possibilities and you want to know what's on the other side that's correct stops and what are stops I know we know what stops are but what are they for the traders for the traders on the other side stops are fuel what happens what do buy stops do they become market orders that can that will potentially accelerate the move because higher time frame participants have their stops on the other side so as you go up in time frame at more significant edges the potential moves get more extreme it's that makes sense now of course the market never has to do anything by the way in the other part of that is we will have counter rotations on our way so that's part of the fractal nature so the market can come down before it goes up and that's this process of stops or fuel on both sides of the market exists all the time so if we get overextended in any fractal we can counter rotate take stops and come down how far that's you know the mystery however if now let's think about this if you were short I'm just throwing a scenario and then I'm going to move on if you were short in the market counter rotated and you see you're in trouble think of this and we know the fuel is above 41 17 would you be now short term traders if your counter trend trader might be selling into the counter rotation that's a different a different topic what would you do if you were short though would you be buying the counter rotations to cover your short if you perceived you were on the hook think about it that's what creates the buying buyers getting long shorts covering squeeze is that make sense write that down here's the stats and I'm going to move on you notice I'm trying to rush here a little bit we got a lot to talk about write this down now this is based on opening higher out of range and remember these statistics are not context sensitive they're only sensitive in relation to yesterday's rth okay so there's more that goes into this like context what did we do yesterday we filled the gap we couldn't get into the range we tested yesterday's high we took out the week long's remember write this down market goes up to go down goes down to go up goes down to go up responsive selling is the stream frozen guys in discord yes no I need an answer pb1 is frozen which one yes yes yes is a one or two is two working okay all right so it's one let me kick kick start this thing hold on a second in youtube I've got to do some abuse here see if I can't oh wait a minute now it's not frozen I haven't moved to yet you guys are making trouble I'm telling you guys you guys are very difficult this is what you call your preamble okay write this down they're in this context which is now and you're gonna like this maybe overnight high which is up above us is 76 probability will take that out okay the first hour high which is called the initial balance and you'll see i b h don't worry about the terminology there's a 68 probability will take it out all right the previous high there's a 63 probability will check it out okay and then they start going down overnight mid 62 percent previous close 48 percent etc it goes down now what did we do we open higher out of range what's the context up everybody tracking okay so let's focus so here's the open this is going to be interesting here is yesterday's high here's the overnight mid here's the overnight v pock did you write those statistics down if you didn't tune in focus here we go rth open 830 central time i'm going to go into minutia i always do this the same way why this is what i do because i need an edge now we have structured trades right and remember when you open higher out of range we anticipate behavior and what is the first thing we anticipate opening higher out of range responsive selling exactly in other words if you are long theoretically and the market opens higher there's a couple things we might see first of all something called responsive selling write this down responsive selling in an uptrend are responders i know you like the definition to the higher open they are responding and taking some profits are you guys with me now the nature of responsive selling it's a weak side but we don't know right so we open in a gap gap what happens with gaps is in the potential to fill the gap now you don't know so where's our landmarks let's go back overnight mid 62 percent previous high 63 are you guys tracking are you guys tracking so we're looking watch here's the open let me show you and share something that you might now look where we are a half second into the open now i always discuss when i discuss the open it's about a separate trade plan that you anticipate remember trading is not making it up it's saying if this then that if not then what so we know the potential for responsive selling profit taking so now we're going to watch the following this is the session volume profile all it is don't worry about it it's a representation of volume and price that's all it is it's very simple i mean it looks weird but it's simple this is the chart volume profile both of these reset our rth open which is right here so it's measuring the volume starting at rth open you guys with me now this yellow line is where the volume is now what this means and the way it's created and i'm going to open this up this is how book map now this is only two ticks all right so don't you know don't jump out a window but with book map we can see inside all right and this is why i started using book map in 2015 and it was rather raw product back then you know but book map is incredibly innovative and you will see if you follow the development of book map that they're continually adding tools to give us more insight remember we're competing against other traders part primarily retail traders we can't compete against hedge funds high frequency traders algos you know the banks the trade desks the prop firms not not our game our game is other retail traders so let's see what we can see that maybe they don't see we have statistics so we are looking at the open let me come back to this and follow by the way if you're in the book map discord trader lab chat you'll be able to review this stream exclusively if you're in that trader lab uh over this weekend so you can do replay screenshots and and the rest of it so you can maximize your benefit from your investment in time so let's watch this is retail now this is one second but i'm going to show you micro structure i'm not saying you can act upon it i'm showing you micro structure this is retail now in the micro this is very sensitive because it only started here this moves down suggesting there's more volume here than up here watch what this says and this is micro structure and it's not a recommendation it's about interpretation so this right here shifts down saying in a micro structure and these are not actionable they're informational remember the context is up and we have no idea it could just open here and run like a bullet train right too high watch seller that's your responder pull back to here this is a trader lab short except underline except this is a structure trade in the trader lab now when i say it's a short think about this if the context is up is it a short or is it a short trigger for the responsive seller are you guys tracking and now you need to be looking at the statistics i'm in a bullish scenario we had we filled the gap yesterday couldn't get into yesterday's range and the buyers bought it up what happens today we opened higher and what do we do we fill the gap watch and i have a selling trigger watch just watch watch what happens here now we get it by trigger coming up watch now this is not necessarily actionable for you guys i just want to show it to you too low break high now we know there's stops here right so you have to be very careful pull back and check is this too low this is a story and this becomes a potential long it's extremely aggressive and again i always suggest this is a separate trade plant very aggressive you could easily get as we say thrown under the bus here so this is along in the trader lab this is along in the trader lab this is along in the trader lab you have to get risk neutral and i'm not these are not recommendations we have statistics let's go back and look at the statistic where to go gotta pull this up for you i just want to show you something not saying it's good i have no opinion overnight mid you guys tracking what was the stat overnight mid and i don't know where it's going to go remember 62 but here's what i know if i see the responsive seller there they are and i have a statistic and it's this you know overnight mid overnight you know yesterday's high right i check one of my stats and i see the buyer okay right here i don't know this has moved down this is suggesting the possibility to come here and come down what and it's a narrative i know i'm in minutiae but this is at least a way to think about interpreting participant behavior sellers you see them right 20 sell stops come out thanks for playing and you know potential to fill the gap again don't know okay and remember statistics and areas and levels are i always say horseshoe write this down horseshoes and hand grenades because it's not precision it's areas of potential behavior that we saw behavior previously that was material market cannot do anything so right here we hit a stat no clue i'm going uh this is how i'm going i'm going is that it because i don't know now i have to wait for a structured trade if that's your plan here too high too high so this is too high when we change behavior and this now becomes and it shifts up too low now i mark these i call it a variable high volume node and again i only want to be long unless we fall into the range and then i'm gonna you know turn the bus around but until that happens i'm thinking who remember higher time frame 41 17 that wasn't so good let's try this again does that make sense why would i get short and we had major report right and look at the reaction to the market are you guys tracking tell me you're tracking and now i'm going to be moving along quick but i don't want to move on until you see how you might interpret behavior in real time you have five overnight v pock was a possibility but we have a gap and yesterday's high is a higher is a high probability target it is not a short because of the context does that make sense yes you see it's a narration we know we can do anything it's it goes like this well if this and you see the selling remember too high shift down suggest selling if this then that okay if if it doesn't do it and we just blow off to the top and i see the v pock migration that's a structured long and of course it doesn't mean anything in the sense of you know you put your trade on you put your helmet on you either make a donation to the retired floor traders fund or your trade works and it's just a statistical you know probability of an outcome but since the market we want to be long and we have all the evidence that 41 17 might be on the hook for a potential acceleration outside of the consolidation sometime today it makes sense to me to want to be long and that's all posted in the trader lab this morning right and again it's only maybe every trade is random as far as the outcome so anyway this is the key watch and so there's your seller this is the buyer and let me show you minutia again sellers sell stops minutia just showing you how book map might be helpful here seller seller where's the seller buyers seller seller seller where's the seller buyers and here's the other way i look at this this is delta so red uh red bubble sell that means market orders they're crossing over by delta the sellers are stronger here by a little bit and what's not happening if you if you see a seller and they're not making progress that potentially means that don't forget when you see a seller or delta what it means is that's the aggressor but they're in futures trading there's always two participants it's not one side it's not like shorting a stock you know what it is in futures there's always a buyer in the seller okay so i see sellers and i'm look this is not a long here for me this is a suspect because i don't know it could just be a counter rotation i clueless no seller buyer seller seller seller no progress no seller buyer buyer sellers no progress minutia all right not anything to do anything with buyer buyer buyer no sellers you see seller nothing so that is watch more buyers just showing you how to read order not even order flow i'm showing you how to read volume okay i'm just sharing this with you and just a thought now up here this was too high this is retail think about how the market works it's based on the auction which is participant behavior and if you're new to this i'll give me the 32nd short version of what is an auction shopping you go to the store if you perceive and this is where the high volume is you see that there high volume is the same thing that happens in your shopping experience there's a retail price fair use the seller sells it to you there you buy it your can of tuna i don't know why tuna is a dollar a can if the tuna goes on 75 cents a can and you think it's worth a dollar because you want to buy it on sale it comes back to retail okay now here's the other part of it if the product goes on sale is the seller going to keep the price here as long as the buyers are absorbing it if you see the product on sale 75 cent tuna what is the seller going to do they're going to raise the price and if you want tuna you got to pay up now if you don't want tuna you're not going to pay and the seller has to lower the price that's why you see rotations it's constantly checking what's fair what's unfair and it does it all time frames now let's look at the first long and again you have to vet all these ideas and they are all available to all of you in the bookmap discord trader lab chat so here this was too high remember retail drops down too high i'm still the volume is filling in down here which is why there's more volume here but remember where are we not even one second so you this is why i say the open is maddening and you have to have unconscious competence you can build out a plan for this but you've got to be experienced it's fast watch so too low back to retail which says too low watch pull back to too low v-wap i mean i know it's fast actually that's five seconds this is 10 seconds in this is the first structured trader lab long here here stop goes under here or under here you know subject to your plan and then a helmet your job then is to get risk neutral so whatever the distance is from your entry who failure of the structure is where your stop goes and we're assuming a two-lot configuration and i'll be moving along in a moment i just want to show you then you need to get scaled to pay for the stop on your runner now next what is our our stat we have a 76 probability of getting to the overnight high okay and a 68 probability of taking out the first hour's high so let's look so let's look at the long so this is a long where are we going here and there's a number of long opportunities in here i'll show them to you v park migration too low the volume is now up here look i'm going to show you something in profilage so you understand what this means going fast too low i mark it remember variable high volume node i am tracking the auction because the participants you the shopper for s and p's are demonstrating where you're willing to buy and uh if this becomes too low the sellers are going to move the price up you want s and p's this is now the retail price too low now the thing to understand is we can always come back to the store store and check the price you like shopping down here you might if you might come down and say can i buy my tuna here well no it's up here no we're not selling it to you here okay i got to go back here this is the potential now over here you see this this is called in a distribution but in our language as traders it's a consolidation because what is a consolidation it's a rotation right inside the consolidation where it's crisscrossing there is volume that is kind of the sweet spot and i think of it kind of and i use the term kind of like support and resistance in the sense of what did the participants say about the price and the participants are buyers and sellers so they said that's too low we're out of here oh that's too low we're out of here now this is retail watch so now we're moving along okay let me try to move the the bus here for you guys this shifts up this now is your variable high volume note follow the story very fast and again if this is not your thing in the sense that you haven't developed ability to read on the fly this is where intentional practice comes in so let's watch watch let me get this is the next area remember too low too low auction shifts up too high right here too high what do we anticipate where the stops vwap mid and this is too low let's watch this is a potential long now if it doesn't fit your plan and i'm going to show you the trigger let me show you the trigger you'll find this issue now this is not for everybody guys i'm going to say if it if when you're starting out with this i suggest you are very structured and it's you don't let FOMO trigger you like oh gee i wish i took it right don't we all feel that those emotions are part of trading but they're not part of the business they're the obstacle actually but let's look at this too low volume now moves up here chop chop chop that's your consolidation right here is the volume this is the developing daily volume so all the volume and that's reflected over by all the volume for the day in these fractals which is the same process that's volume let me show you and i'll show you a microstructure hope you're getting something out of this you have questions post above do my best okay i just i'm trying to race along so too low which we don't know at the time but right here you see this right here is your chop so consolidation you see what the market does it runs and that's what creates low volume outside edge outside edge it didn't consolidate it just ran the nature of the market in all consolidations and all timeframes is to come back and check is you know and rotate this is what we get in trading so in a daily developing fractal we're going north of the border in the developing more microstructure it rotates fractals so we are actually trading rotations and if we think the trend is up maybe then we want to try to get outside or at least observe the potential to check a poorly auctioned location so this is why if this is too low this is support now we come up to this volume potential to rotate right here you blast let me show you see the micro high volume structure the patent and there is your blast potential because here's your volume to do this our variable high volume node is here so we know is this is retail and this in the micro developing structure is the same thing except it's in this little fractal so this is what trading and fractals is now if it makes your head spin don't worry about it makes all of our head spin now so this is too low in here this is now migrating up in the higher developing daily time frame I'm using a similar process you see now here too low bang so in here is a potential long or not watch this right here says too high and I'm going uh-uh where's my next trade anybody vwap mid and back here okay too low right remember too low too low uh-oh too high see counter rotation when I see that I'm anticipating this this is the next area to observe out to here potentially we don't know for a long watch and the trend is up everybody knows that right so this micro high volume structure and this is fractal and don't if you don't get this and you go I don't know don't worry about it there's plenty of buses now what I do and this is I'm not suggesting anybody do what I do because I have some experience with this I know what this is I see the buyer okay I see this move up I know this is too low right I think it might be too low and remember the market could do anything it could come down here it could fail it could do anything a fed speaker opens their mouth ecb legard by the way we're only into the market here two minutes the watch so comes down comes down check now this is a triggering structure watch volume too low chop too high check that micro structure and this you have the what mid I mean you could just as well take a stop here like the rest of us don't think you're special we all get whacked um break high pull back this is a trader lab structured trade right here so if you're not messing or this would have been a truck uh structured trade here also so along here if you're very disciplined I consider this remember horseshoes hand grenades I don't have a problem with this but if it's not if you're very disciplined you know then you wait where's the next trader lab structured trade it's right here too low if this then that write that down if not then what if this is too low now this is too high the trend is up we're out of range we notice let's put it back together the shorts are on the hook then what well if I can't get somewhere then what then and I see buyers then what I want to get long now again I can get no there stops under the mid there stops under the VWAP if this then that if not and what's the knot we didn't get back here we didn't get here even the VWAP that's pretty darn bullish if you can't get back here break high pull back from the other side see pull back from this side down rotation break not didn't get here that's a structured trade in the trader lab break high too high trend up pull back you can't fall under long stop under here are you guys tracking I know I spent time I want you to see how to read this is our target remember overnight high 76 percent is everybody with me Clarence it's a regular RTH VWAP the one below the pink this one above is the full session VWAP at 4099 and then you have the overnight high stat are you guys tracking how we doing YouTube throw a glass of cold water on your face I know this is probably making your head spin I understand is it making sense this is what auction market theory is it is a narrative of participant behavior understanding we're in a random environment and I always say I'm clueless now clueless doesn't mean ignorant it means I'm open to anything that I can detect that's in alignment with my trade plan and as long as my structured trades show up no matter where what when how my job is to follow my plan and accept the randomness of the rotations but if I can read the behavior which is what auction market theory is about watch new retail price new retail price too low potential long not saying because here's a target see stat how would this trade be okay would this trade be okay for you guys just asking now 4100 is important because of this common strike price the other thing we know now here's kind of ways to think about this what is your trade plan for me and at least for the trader lab now I do other stuff and I'm not saying it's good better and different but don't forget I've been doing this almost 43 years so I have more screen time right sometimes I'm wondering gee maybe I should be better because I'm always thinking I can improve right can't we all I'm not a Michael Jordan but I want to use a comparison high level athletes continually practice do replays watch tapes get out on the court spend hours doing the same thing how many practice three pointers do you think Michael Jordan did to be at the level of performance we're not any different part of this is like I say it's like reading music or a font translating a language how do you get good at unconscious competence so you know so in other words when I see this I know what it means that's all when I see the structures like this consolidation and I tested I know what it means this is micro high volume it's too low I can use this to trail a stop if that's part of my plan I get this it breaks down this is a micro selling structure but it doesn't take this one out all it is this counter rotation I take it out come in the other way that tells me higher this shifts up too low tells me higher but I have a target so for me on this trade I could be done if I'm running a two lot or I'm using other processes to manage watch if you're trailing here you'd either target the liquidity or you'd get taken out it doesn't matter but what is this guys in the trader lab what is this in the trader lab help me what is this price check I call this a price check on aisle three now when I was a kid I worked in the supermarket for a while and they'd send you I don't know if they do this anymore but go down and check that price you run down and what this is this here is your consolidation break low break high this is a reversal now in a bull trend if you think maybe the trend is up and let's just pretend it might be might because that's all you got where's the and this is micro then where might we come back and check you're a shopper is this real is this fair or is this the unfair price in the micro this is actually a short but not a short what it is telling me is counter rotation the way I tend to think of this is I can read this and so can you if you think about what it says and if you and this is there's your chop chop chop chop chop let me isolate I just want to show you what we I think of as a fractal watch can open it up now these are not shorts they are suggesting underline here's your micro high volume you see it does this look familiar it's the same as what's over here for the developing timeframe there I want to use the higher timeframe lean on but I use these little fractals to read it and it's not a short for me what it is is potentially it tells me there's a reversal and then I have choices I can do nothing with it because I am I'm in a higher timeframe and my stop is outside because I'm going for 41 17 or subject to the timeframe I get aligned with that I know my groove you guys have heard the term groove I may get out looking to put it back on but the problem you might have is you might only get a little bobble pick some stops and then make and then you're out of the trade this is where vetting a trade plan comes in and it needs to be aligned with the context so when I see this I anticipate counter rotation so look and I don't know remember there's my counter rotation now let's go back what's my next trader lab potential a couple things we have a couple structure trades in the trader lab this was right here too low right retail moved up this is minutia too low we have a a structured trade in the trader lab called vwap the vpok in this context that is a viable trade now the issue is wherever you enter this thing and remember there stops right here right wherever you enter this thing you this is an obstacle however underline the trend is up so subject to your trade plan we test we again don't get back here if this then that if not then what so you know watch where do we test the variable high volume node I got a market remember the auction is a story these are trader lab structured trades now the thing about this is you got to take all of this and vetted you may not have an edge statistically to participate in this right here because this is also a structured trade so do you skip this because you know there's stops here and under the mid you see you need to look over the large sample size of what extracts that edge for you so this so you have two things vhvn and these are in the pdfs I call a variable high volume node this is called vpok migration it's all in the streams it's in the primer webinar you guys can download 60 pdfs enjoy yourselves with those you'll see a lot of structured t-lab trades and the primer webinar explains the concepts behind all of it so you understand why and it's always maybe then it's about the business of trading your job is to wait it's like waiting for your bus your job is not to grab these rotations just randomly because they are random you need to be anchored and be consistent so this is an x-trader lab walk now right here you might be looking for this here you see the buyer they pull back here price check trend up watch it's a long this is your resistance right here you'd have to scale ahead of this because this is where the volume was and we broke away so let's look at it so the way this works is if there were sellers here in this migrates structured trade again understanding you could easily get thrown under the little bus long you notice here let me show you i'm going to show you this micro structure let me open it up for you i want you to see how the think and auction ease language we are speaking a foreign language here is chop chop chop chop right the chop is a consolidation so we have volume here that went off at the liquidity and we have volume developing here so right in here is volume okay if i get along where was the last location in a fractal it was too high it's here if i get long here i need to be scaling ahead of the last location where we counter rotated is that logical watch okay this is the volume the volume is here here so if i know coming down this is too high and you see the break if i get long this is now in the micro fractal too high i got a scale here in case sellers come back is that logical great thanks don okay so you notice let me show you the behavior you get long here look at this this is how you interpret and again it's only maybe how you can dance or interpret the behavior if we know in this structure it was too high which created this and we have a structure trade that says too low we don't know right and and let me give you the end and we came back to a too low area which is this see symmetry so here here there's your long here's your scale ahead of the volume that's it right there see it bang these guys here sold it because it was in the struck in the fractal too high they're in the countertrend or it's just profit-taking i prefer since i want to only be long at the moment i don't know about you but me i'm not smart enough to know the high of the day or the low of anything so too high scale stop goes below watch another long where to same behavior bang you see it can you see how you might read the story read the story scale scale stop under here stop under here are you guys tracking five in i'm showing really navigation narration and behavior so when you see a structure like this on top of your trade if you have a vetted plan in a structure trade which is what this is in the trader lab you need to be looking over here what happened here this is what happened so that sets up my opportunity but it also sets up my obstacle so my plan i have to know when i get in wherever i get in this thing and it you might not have range that i need to get a scale ahead of this and that's why you see it bang and come down you see so now here's the other thing about a trigger let me show you another little piece this is a triggering structure now mere mortals in words i can read this and when i see the buyer but i'm buying very close to the obstacle if it doesn't fit and it's like a point if it doesn't fit your plan nada but watch this is a microstructure in alignment with the whole day so retail in the developing time frame too low in the developing time frame microstructure auction in here only fractal too low break away okay i can't get in what am i gonna do you say watch is it really too low test long scale okay but now you have something to lean on and what do we already know this is too low if this then that if not then what if in the microstructure this is the same thing in fractal as this is for the whole day this is the whole day fair price micro this is too low this was too low same process this is too high scale watch and then either you get stopped out and you have some choice words or you're back in alignment with the trend and let's count now it's only 846 how many opportunities have you had here's the thing it's these are structured trader lab trades and everybody needs to vet the trades because clueless you know i don't know do you watch vpok migration retail too low are you guys with me uh clarence no we have many triggers and structured trades in the trader lab there's not a best or anything um there's just what might happen you know other than that we don't know so the volume point of control and it moves around remember it's monitoring volume for the whole day now as this fills out you see there's more volume here it sets up these are distributions they're based on consolidations right rotation rotation you know what are we doing here when you break away this you break away it leaves low volume now we auctioned here chested too low broke high come back and here's another little tidbit i'm just gonna give you something and i i try to minimize what i say here in the stream because it can create confusion but you will start seeing uh consistent behaviors based on the participants this is what the auction is about the remember the market's not made up of indicators indicators reflect looking backwards participant behavior this process is the participant behavior that everything else that you guys attempt to lay over overlay participant behavior to get a sense of what's going on uh there's no indicators here i don't use them because they create conflict and ambiguity and inconsistency i'm just telling you me i'm not saying it's right but watch what happens this is the selling structure this in higher time frame was our test this is our long against micro structure this was our obstacle right for the scale and watch we break high what happens to the selling structure the volume support support say to watch support support support bpk migration next let's watch now very interesting we break low potential back to v this is a trader lab structured trade we're trying to get back to vwhap remember variable high volume note we are moving higher this market rotates now remember i said i know you're gonna get crazy with me do things overnight high which is the eth high important this is like taking out the high of the day except it's the eth you noticed on the open today we attempted to fill the gap and we got within a couple ticks of the yesterday's high what is so different about this and here's the other piece too low vwhap outside edge right here outside edge don't know watch now this is kind of open field of running you know because we're in a bull configuration the market does not have to do anything which of course we all know and if it's not a setup for you or a structured trade i should say that you have vetted uh come on then there's nothing to do watch this and now you may have a structured trade now i was looking at this and i'm going okay too low where's my vpok here is it right there now too low this is moving up so all good for the long structured trade in the trader lab vwhap to vpok however and again not a recommendation i come to an outside edge now i'm thinking well we can do this you know there's stops under here but here's my outside edge let's look and here's this it's not a structured trade per se it's now i'm showing you fractal again and if it's not your trade you just sit here and you're a tourist watch microstructure here's your high volume but this is so you understand this is reflecting all the volume in this rotation this is retail at the moment now anything can happen if we come outside we can remember we can do anything you got to write that down every trade every rotation everything is random so we don't know so if you require the vwhap to vpok which is a structured trade you don't have a trade if you can read behavior if this then that if not then what then this is a long let me show it to you watch now not a recommendation i'm going to show you wow which this thing would behave better microstructure seller and i i'm going to show you this really up close now you guys if you are interested in any of this you can always in the bookmap discard trader lab chat you can download the 60 pdf so you could actually see these and and this is a structured trigger let me explain it to you markets coming down on sell stops 22 and i'm looking for this don't forget seven less this is the only thing i use from indicator world and i developed trading systems i mean i uh actually uh shared an office with george lane who invented stochastic so i thought oscillators were the holy grail you know and it turned out of course uh not so much but that's besides the point but um as we come down seven six iceberg now right here i have no clue i'm seeing the selling and i can't tell listen i i don't know you know uh i just always am narrating if this than that if not then what if something doesn't happen what does that tell you it means the buyers might be in a hurry motivated and what else do we know 41 17 right you didn't forget did you so here's a trigger now it looks like it's going to come down and get to the v-wall that's what i'm thinking okay here we go what do we do check the microstructure blast off okay now if you can't get into this nothing to do but where's would the scale be if you did v pox very hard let's watch so you know if you can't take that trade it's not your trade it's not a big deal now it's only nine a.m let me keep going i want to get i'm in a hurry here i want to go um now so far this is called the i b high initial bounce remember the statistic remember if you didn't get this write it down there's a 68 probability in this context with this opening type and everything else you guys already know if you follow the stream there's a 68 probability we're going to take this out and this is the first hour high okay now will it no clue when no clue remember i am the clueless i have to be clueless because i am clueless what i know is i want to be long potentially for a statistic you see that's all i know so let's see i have structured trades remember too low right v-wap the v pox is a structured trade so you i don't remember what happened here i just know it's very active this morning like a whirling dervish um here this is volume remember this was the potential long and if you don't have a structure for it you don't where do we come this is the volume back here check microstructure again and where outside edge don't know check chop oh here's your divergence 16 stops one no seller what is that micro high volume right there right there i'm using fractals and it may drive you nuts and it's not anything you should be concerned about watch see v-wap this is now a trader lab structured trade this is the one we were talking about you see it trader lab structured trade v-wap here the v pox so the way this one works there's a couple ways to play this you got to be on your toes and the thing about toes is and being on them is you anticipate structure trades are about anticipating behavior and then a trigger that you have defined and you can you know recognize here's the sellers stop see them 150 46 this is the volume here right in here you can see it there okay test below no seller break high this is a long to hear if it's too tight you can't do it pull back it's another long remember what i showed you before triggering structure you can't get it here you look for the retracement do the microstructure which is the volume there are you guys tracking it's this is a fractal of the behavior of coming back to this below or the behavior of coming back to this from below are you guys tracking is it making sense how we do it in youtube are you getting something out of this is it makes sense and by the way if you're in youtube remember these are structured trader lab trades that you can study and vet and create statistics for in my opinion you can use this information that i share in the stream and in the bookmap discord trader lab chat to potentially build out the business of trading the business is not what many of us retail traders think it is i think we have fantasies about it because nobody tells us you know or at least shares ideas and concepts and but so you guys know there is not a right way to trade i will say i can tell you though what the right way is and that is extracting metrics so you know you only get involved in the market where you have a statistical edge vwap to v park is a structured trader lab setup if you want to call it that i don't like the user term that's an alignment with the context which is up are you guys with me so this is your triggering see the buyers now if you can't exercise because this is where you need to scale now we're bullish right 41 17 i don't know where the heck that we are in the market at the moment but that's sort of up there somewhere i haven't looked but that's where i had a runner and there's more possibilities but that's besides the point so i don't know where the market is once i start doing this i can't look at my other my trading computer now here's your volume up here so this is your trigger can't get it you sit there and you're upset and you're frustrated if you feel fomo and you click here you need to take yourself out behind the woodshed and do a little self paddling this is your job you don't get it you don't trade it but you know this is too low in the micro structure do you see the symmetry i spend time because i'm showing you what something called fractals russian dolls same process same process same process fractal micro get the scalpel out but you can read it if you can interpret the language here you can read it if you interpret the language back here the here long back to here and then a helmet you know move this thing gee if you put it on so this when it comes back you take a long here you wouldn't get your scale if you're running a tight stop and i'll tell you it's pretty close which would be under here so let's look 97 you know call it 50 right yeah 50 do you get taken out let's look 50 is where your stop is right did we get 50 no or did we i can't tell we didn't trade 50 did we yeah we did so you would take a stop here what's your risk on this let's go look i want you to see against here you get in it maybe 9875 99 9750 what is that six ticks i can live with it i don't like it break high back to the volume long again you don't want to do that don't do it scale ahead of this back to the vwap you see so here if you kept your here you wouldn't have gotten taken out just back to the volume same process potential long or you got whacked over here you got whacked over here you're long back in here you scale ahead of this you get long back in here it's the same setup vwap to vpok same setup just same now in a trade plan what you need to be doing is deciding and you do this by measuring it you put your stop one tick here and this is what happens you put your stop three ticks four ticks the only way you know the answer is over a large sample size um that's the only way you know the answer it's not oh i got one tick i gotta tell you i can't tell you how many times i get one ticked and then of course i have an emotional response which is not pleasant but then i just put the trade back on again so that's just me another times it comes to my scale and i'm unable it happens to all of us that's why trading is random so anyway another long scale okay vpok migration this is turbulence here now so let's watch where are we coming back to vwap the vpok this is the same trade same trade same trade same trade got it are you guys with me uh claren uh am i afraid of fake outs uh no i can't be fearful that's emotions uh i i can't let emotions because i'm fearful all the time you know um we're fearful because of our wiring um but fear in the business of trading are two separate animals emotions have to be managed in my opinion the way you manage an emotion is by having a statistical a statistical probability that gives you the courage and you accept the randomness of the behavior of the participants i mean why did we come here you know why did we come here why did we come here why did we come here i don't know but i know structure and participant behavior so i'm interpreting it and i know anytime i put a trade on i make a stop like you guys do but i also know what creates the behavior that's the thing about the auction and i know that if this is too high that we can come up and reject it see that so i have if i have my structured trade i got a scale scaling means get risk neutral i'm running a two lot minimum configuration so i can buy my stop on my runner scaling so i can have my stop under here you know or under here wherever you want to put it you got to sort that out and then i'm going with the trend you see and then it's north wherever north is you see and then it's just get long subject to a vetted trade plan let me try to get moving along here i think you guys get the idea right is everybody with me here let me show you something else now what is this rip what is this low volume area outside edge the last time we had a little structure was here too low here's the other piece and this is how book map can help you would i can't get into too much about it but 550 stops when you start and this is in the trader lab in the pdfs and also on many of the library of webinars and if you're new you guys should watch the primer first it gives you kind of foundation 550 stops why are there so many stops coming out those are by yours by yours this liquidity right here and this is absorption was absorbed by this iceberg up here and these executing here now we don't know why you know if i knew why this guy is selling is it possible that this iceberg that's selling is taking a profit the fact i see an iceberg does not supersede the context of the market which is north and remember 41 17 is where there's fuel that's where the outside edge of a higher time frame consolidation is you got to know this so you know who you're true who's off sides who are the buyers the shorts and new locks but the shorts that's what this is squeeze it here right here the seller iceberg i see a reaction now this i don't talk about too much but i'm going to talk about it too high volume watch now i don't normally go into this but i figure why not right it's friday um feeling groovy high volume outside edge this was the bullet train low volume area see there's low but this creates is this rotation when if this is now retail in the microstructure the high volume which is created by this guy transacting if we rotate below it watch and now the trends up don't forget context is number one write that down this is all in alignment with the condition of the market it's not mechanical it is translation is this too low i don't know the answer it could fall out of here and keep going down to the next level this is part of it so right here this is an obstacle high volume watch pullback you see it outside edge now now high volume break break high this is now support microstructure if it doesn't pull back you don't have an opportunity if it came here it's another long it didn't i want you to see it think like this the volume and the breakaway are sellers and exhaustion we had an obstacle we had an iceberg drop a little bomb on others see this so buy stops these guys trade the other side often break and others retail traders go oh my goodness it's an iceberg i'm gonna get short or oh my goodness it's an iceberg i'm gonna bail out well for me forty one seventeen why would i get out if i know the guys on the other side in the higher time frame are about to potentially get run over i want to be long if this broke low selling trigger but not into an outside edge just watch and breaks high does this look familiar so if it came here and then rotate i did expect more down but when it takes this microstructure out if it broke up and pulled back it's the same as pulling back to that v poc or variable high volume node or micro trigger structure it's all the same fractal so this would have been a long but no pullback why pony express forty one seventeen right watch i had to i left my anyway this is where i flattened out because i'm streaming what do i know see are you guys tracking is it makes sense uh clarence i hope i answered your question about the fear part yeah i'm fearful always but that i that's not part of trading so you know i'm fearful because i my emotions say you want to be right i don't want to be wrong i'm looking for approval i have a psychological need to know what i'm doing you know which in trading has nothing to do with what the outcome of any trade is guys write this down if you because it's so easy to forget this the outcome of any interaction or trade is random that's why you need a statistical edge and here's the simple way to think of it las vegas the casino has a statistical edge they deal and the cards come out of the deck randomly the gamblers are on the other side of the table the gamblers play the game randomly you know do they pull a card do they toss a card what do they do i don't know you know hit me don't hit me bomb you know right call bang all random all random are it's the same exact thing here random random you are not responsible you can't be your responsibility lies in being responsible and accountable to only one thing a trade plan that is vetted and has a statistical edge and it's really simple the business of gambling in las vegas is the house versus the gamblers the house only plays games with a statistical vetted edge the house accepts the randomness of the cards and the behavior of what comes out of the deck and what the gamblers do so they have no control over that they control how they play the game and they only play games with an edge they play the game exactly the same way the dealer doesn't change the game because a gambler wins the the house plays the game the same exact way because they understand that they extract their edge over a large sample size of interaction with gamblers they don't change the game they look at the losses as overhead and cost of production write that down as long as you have a statistical edge that's the whole basis of this business remember the business of trading is about statistics and extracting the edge that's the work and you can do it one setup or structured trade at a time one creates a template for you to build the trading business once the light bulb goes off and you can just discipline yourself to wait for structured trades you might like others and it's not for everyone you might find that your outcome changes that you can manage your emotions because you'll open your trade binder to the setup you anticipate you'll have the discipline and enthusiasm to wait for it you will put the trade on based on the work you have done to extract the metrics that tells you you have a probability of one thing happening over the other and if it's positive your job because you've done the work and you've waited for the trade is to put the trade on and let the random distribution of outcomes play out that's your job the rest is not up to you you have no control over any of this except your own behavior if they remember losses or cost of production do you want to be in the business of trading or do you want to be a gambler that's up to you now i know we all have emotional and psychological needs i get it by the way where did we come outside edge where's the volume here here here where's the obstacle here here bing bing bing so i'm not saying this is anything you guys should do but i want you to understand something it's something you can do at some point but if you run ahead it's fomo if you don't put in the basic of work to understand market mechanics and develop the discipline to actually execute a plan i'm going to suggest you don't have longevity potentially in this as a business um the we're all in a hurry that's fomo if you're in a hurry and you're making it up as you go or you don't have a trade plan it's fomo because you now if you visited this stream you might have an understanding of what may be the reality of this business is if you can't control or contain yourself to do the work and lay a foundation you're the gambler and i can suggest to you that based on the statistics that we all know for retail trader survivor rate it's not high and the reason is they're gamblers and uh for me i want to sit on the other side of the table i want to be with the house in las vegas i want to have a vetted plan and the discipline to execute it and i want to extract the dollars from the gamblers over time accepting that the outcome of any interaction with the gamblers is random we don't control right so that's what the trader lab is about uh you're all invited to visit the trader lab i just want to remind you if you're visiting the stream for the first time this is about the business of trading and understanding market mechanics and behaviors um you can go to bookmap.com you'll see a link join the discord chat come over to trader lab download the 60 pdfs of structure trade study them watch the primer webinar and there's a library of webinars narrated in real time up to four hours long if you want to abuse yourself this is the business of trading uh you don't have to be a bookmap subscriber you won't be solicited let's continue if you have questions post them let me show you a microstructure now we got our stops remember this was the target now we know there's the potential for buy stops everybody remember this is what i we started at the top of the stream if you're in the bookmap discord trader lab chat before they open we talked about it 41 17 now for me i just leave it there you know so i'm not saying it's a recommendation now here's the other thing i know i know if this is the outside edge of a higher time frame consolidation what's what's above it buy stops what do we got sitting here at strike price now you have a couple choices you fold up your tent you go you know get yourself coffee and have your breakfast delivered or you're managing and trailing different part of the process this right here watch i'm just going to take you right into the minutiae watch break break high chop microstructure break high buying structure micro here's the volume watch you could do this anywhere you want test too low blast off here too high there was this seller test you see it fractals you could be doing this all day i mean i'm not saying you can be doing it because there's no range but how about you can read this and start learning the language of the market you see too low break high ah i'm not shopping here this is like your convenience store down the street i'm not paying seven dollars for a pint of ice cream saturday night ten o'clock so there's not you know if this is too high i'm not paying that break in the microstructure break break so far selling where was the buying here if we take this out where do we go next place if not then what if this then that if not then what then that then what high volume obstacle see it bing bing bing break high where does it pull volume got it where's the next place liquidity got it watch high volume high volume break high where's the pull see too low break high are we having fun i don't know boy look at those buyers don't know this is your structure break high break low uh oh break high this is your structure too low boom see you later alligator i hope you're getting something out of this and i'm not saying this is a recommendation i'm saying the point of this the point of this screen is to help you read the basis the basic function of the market what is the market all about it's not an indicator driven market it is a participant based market and here's the thing about the market it does the same process in all fractals and timeframes you can get as close to the market behavior as you choose it doesn't mean you trade this but you can narrate it okay if this and i break low then that then this is the last time it was too low too low retail break high oh too low maybe here's your test look at the mic microstructure see it break high test too low run microstructure break low uh oh where to well i know this was too low break low all right break high too low oh if you got out here would you shoot yourself now it could do anything it could come it could just do this and go up make a new high i don't know but i can tell you at this point i don't have an issue putting the uh Lamborghini in the garage for now until i get back off the stream and then it's back to business watch this volume extreme break low see this pull back here pull back to the volume rip you're out of here catch you later thanks for playing see and this is not a short for me i don't do this i don't counter trend trade why why do you think now i do use these structures potentially for i mean in other words what in a different context i'd be getting short okay in this context which is north of the border i am using the selling structures for trade management i hope that makes sense and i hope you're getting something out of this are you finding are you getting something out of this guys if so uh give a thumb up in youtube uh it helps subscribe to the channel there's a lot of additional education stocks options market maker behavior swing trading algorithmic behavior with a court's book map order flow understanding how to read this there's much more that you can do to get in alignment once you learn what my focus is is to help you understand market mechanics and then you you can use a tool like book map to get under the hood i call it the tip of the spear because this is where i interact and the more i can open this up which you can't do with your regular you know i mean i look i've used all the charts you guys use range range charts tick charts point and figure i could go on and on i've built trading systems i've been you know i started in 1980 with an abacus and a slide ruler i still have my original ruler by the way where i drew trend lines as a as a souvenir before we had computers before there was an internet it was not easy and when i started uh trading there were no off-floor traders all my friends were floor traders they didn't get what i did i certainly and i knew what they did but you know couldn't do it we placed our trades on a piece of paper and pick up a phone and call your guy who would signal your trades into the pit that's where i started and i can certainly spend a lot of time talking about it all i can tell you is if you thought about it i've probably done it you know and it probably i'm going to say is my tuition was high because there was no information you guys have the opposite problem the reality of trading though is a business and i don't know how many people uh share the reality there's no magic indicator there's nothing that's going to solve the problem of understanding how the market works indicators are proxy right to overlay over partisan behavior i think you might find that if even if you want to work with indicators if you can understand how the market works then you might be able to deploy them better because one size doesn't fit all and most of us think it's just one thing the market doesn't operate that way in my opinion if you find this interesting useful or if you're curious uh go to bookmap.com uh join the discord trader lab uh visit download the 60 pdf sub structure trade study them uh watch the library of webinars if you're interested there's a community uh like-minded traders who are building out the business side of trading who uh have gone down the same path we all have and maybe don't want to wake up with trader groundhog day where you're doing derivatives of a process that may have a negative expectancy that means a guaranteed loss over a large sample size if you can't limit it uh measure it you are the gambler ask yourself if it's not working maybe instead of waking up doing the same derivative try look at something i'll see if you can't improve it if that's your objective you go to bookmap.com you won't you don't have to be a bookmap subscriber you won't be solicited um it's a great community of like-minded traders looking to leverage their collective experience bring your experience we can all get better i'm still looking to get better and i always will because there's always room for improvement or there's a link at the bottom of youtube that'll take you to the discord chat and come on in visit say hi and if you're in bookmap discord trader lab uh these streams are available exclusively to you uh this one will be available through the weekend after that they are gone so appreciate you guys visiting i want to wish you a great weekend trade safe if you don't have a plan it might make sense to think about the business of trading and if you're not getting the results you want and you're looking to be a career minded trader uh you might want to just take a different viewpoint if what you do now is not getting you the results you're looking for and while this is not for everybody and past performance is not indicative future results um you might at least find it interesting at the least please give a thumb up appreciate you visiting the lab and i look forward to seeing you guys on monday great well and thanks for visiting the trader lab don't forget thumb up guys means a lot to me to know that you uh got something out of this thanks again this is the trading process hierarchy uh if you haven't seen this and it's part of the primer webinar you can watch this uh in the bookmap discord trader lab chat watch this one first so you understand the building blocks and you understand this process thanks again guys look forward to seeing you soon