 S&P by ICE 501 ES pending B-Punk Alert, ES pending B-Punk Alert, Mark Liquidity, Mark Liquidity, ES pending B-Punk Alert. Good morning traders. Welcome to the Traders Lab. I am your host Tom B. Thanks for being here today. We are streaming live Monday through Friday, 11.30 to 1.00 p. Eastern Standard Time. This stream is about understanding participant behavior, what makes the market do what it tends to do, and how might we better participate in opportunities and of course risk that are presented by the market. The tools we use are bookmap order flow tools and the process is auction market theory, which is the interaction between buyers and sellers and the representation of this behavior by using tool called the volume profile, which is the actual representation of price and volume. Price does not exist in a vacuum and by understanding how the market works and the representation of participant behavior might give us potentially better insight where we might either develop a trade plan or potentially adjust a trade plan to at times be in better alignment with the market. And this is all done in the intraday developing timeframe with the objective of taking advantage of higher timeframe opportunities and this is done in the developing timeframe. And today we have a configuration that is quite interesting and is provided trader lab participants and those who have structured trade plans an opportunity to potentially participate in outsized rotations. And in my opinion, it is the outsized rotations that make the risk-reward relationship most opportune and of course risk is never far away but it is with the higher timeframe outsized rotations where we have the potential to get paid. General disclosure all bookmap limited materials information and presentations are for educational purposes only and should not be considered specific investment advice or recommendations. Live trading is in simulation demo paper trading moded strictly for educational purposes. Live trading executed in simulation cannot accurately represent realistic trading performance. Risk disclosure trading futures equities and digital currencies involve substantial risk of losses is 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 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 for educational purposes only. It is up to each of you to develop and design a trade plan which may help you stay in alignment with the developing context and participant behavior. Trade plans are statistically valid and vetted distributions of particular or specific setups or market behavior where you attempt to get in alignment. It's only over a large sample size that you can detect whether or not you have an edge based on specific market behaviors and as we define them as setups. That is why it takes time, diligence and commitment to actually establish a trade plan. Many traders are in too much of a hurry to participate in the market without a plan and in my opinion that without a vetted trade plan and a statistical edge you never know what you have and you never know if a plan either works or doesn't for specific market conditions and setups that attempt to get in alignment. If you don't have that you are sitting in my opinion on the wrong side of the table. There is the house and then there is the gambler. Do you want to be the house that has a statistical edge or do you want to be the gambler who just is in a random environment? That is what trade plans are about and if you ever speak to career traders you will find that they have a trade plan and they manage their emotional states. We are all subject to emotional states but how you manage them and how you integrate that into your trade plan can be the determining factor. If you cannot follow a vetted trade plan and manage your emotions then you are going to have randomness and if you have randomness you can't quantify it. The other side of randomness is if you are using backwards looking indicators and you cannot minimize the inputs in trading then you also have a random input. Now there is nothing wrong with a backwards looking indicator if you have a consistent approach. If you are using variables to make decisions that again is something that is not necessarily quantifiable. The thing to understand in trading is that the actual behavior or specific rotations in the market are random. It is about getting in alignment with that randomness. So if your statistics are based on random inputs and you are exercising those inputs in a random environment in my very humble opinion but also my experience you create a randomness. Let's move on. In fact I am going to go right into today because there was a lot going on today and a lot of opportunity and of course risk. In the trader lab and you are all invited to the trader lab we discussed these and you might refer to them as observations or some might refer to them as setups but it is market generated behavior and it is those behaviors that tend to show up in the market and again if you have a trade plan you are looking for specific behaviors and then your job based on understanding the probability of one outcome over another is to potentially participate and then of course the outcome of any trade is random. If you understand your edge then you can live with the randomness because you know based on a statistical edge that over time even though there are losses and wins does that edge when it shows up over a large sample size give you a net return. That is what trading is about. Then your job is to wait, follow your plan and then do the job of a trader which is live in uncertainty, deal with your emotions which we all have fear it's just part of our wiring but understanding in the trading environment you need to manage that fear and still do the job. If you want certainty this is not the business of certainty this is the business of randomness and potentially a vetted statistical edge. Without a vetted edge you'll never know whether or not you have something that works or something that is a loser. I think if you know it has statistical positive statistical expectancy you'll have more courage to take the trade because you know there's a random distribution of outcomes. So enough on that and this is what we do in the trader lab. If that's something you're interested in I invite you all to go to bookmap.com Join the Discord chat and find your way to the trader lab. There are 60 PDFs that you can download that show examples with minutia, notes, arrows, circles and the rest of it to help you see what these behaviors are and then it's up to you to determine if it's something that you might want to research. There's also an introductory webinar that I did which goes into the principles of auction market theory and how the volume profile might be used in alignment. So let's move on. This is the RTH Open. And by the way there's about a 15 second delay in YouTube and if you have questions please post them and I will do my best to get back and answer them for you. And again thanks for being here and thanks for visiting the trader lab. Let me get caught up, okay? So here's our first indication. The market opens, fine. Now we don't know what's going to go on. Yesterday, let's talk about it. We had a trend day configuration on Friday which you remember that was a surprise. We had an inside day yesterday, I believe, right? And let me just look. An inside day which is an indecisive day and I was on the short side all day yesterday and the range was somewhat limited. It was noisy and we had a target on the downside if we went neutral, neutral meaning we take out the first hour high and the first hour low and we never did take out the first hour low. So that was just the way it is. So then with an indecision or balanced day, balanced meaning two-sided, it's like a spring getting wound up. Now I certainly don't know what the market's going to do today but I did know as we had major reports coming out at 9 a.m. this morning which is the ISMPMI. That's a big one, that's your inflation and then we had the jolts jobs. So all this is big. And then we had at 8.45, this is central time, the manufacturing PMI. So all those are big reports and of course FOMC tomorrow. So if the market's long and the long yesterday and the market again is long, then there's potential because there's sell stops now under yesterday's low and of course the potential to get back inside and further down in Friday's range and again we don't know. So that's where we start. But here's, now let's look at the open. I'm just trying to lay out the lay of the land and remember in trading we don't know. So nobody knows anything and I always start out with an open mind which means I can have an opinion of what might happen and that's as far as I go because it's not up to me and the trader lab is about understanding potential. That's all you have in trading and how quick can you recognize potential. So here we go. The market opens. Okay, wonderful thing. Now this, and we always go over this, this is where the RTH open is and this is called the volume point of control. The volume point of control measures the volume because remember volume profile, right? Now this is like a retail price and inside consolidations, and I want to explain how I think of a consolidation. Remember this is auction market theory. What is a consolidation? It is the interaction of buyers and sellers, right? Consolidation 101. And what you have in consolidations is too low, too high, too low. And here's where the volume, so the volume initially, and this is very sensitive at the open. I mean it takes nothing to move this. So we know it's very sensitive. So here's what happens. So we open, here's the price. So the most of the volume at the moment is here. We then leave it behind. So now let's watch. Now the volume is moving higher and here's a chop, chop, chop. This is what I call microstructure. So the volume point of control, so this was too low when it moves up and now this is the retail. So this is fair. So think of it like an auction in the sense of too high, too low, where's retail in here? We go up. So now too low, potentially, and here's retail, and I'm going okay, this is too low. This is now the fair price. Watch what happens here. Now I'm going to take you into minutia because I want you to see how you might use book map to see inside. And also this is buy stops going up. So as the market is moving higher, five stops, four stops. And let's think about this for a moment. If the market is going to go higher, it's possible and we want to see who's going to take control. So this is the first thing. Who takes control on the open? Right up here I'm seeing potential exhaustion. Now, if there's shorts in the market, we're thinking, well, it can get squeezed. But there's no buyers up here. Why might that be? And I still have no idea because this is now retail. So this is telling me potentially too low retail price. So I'm thinking, okay, except I'm seeing exhaustion. Micro structure. I'm going to open it up some more so we can look. And again, I have no clue. So I don't think I know. I don't know. So now we come down and this is going to be my first price check. And here's how I think of it. Again, micro. I want you to see how you can use this tool and at least how I think. It's not saying it's how you should think. But what does it say? If you can read the market or the auction and the participant behavior, does that give you a potential edge to potentially get involved early? And again, like everything, it's maybe, right? So I'm always in the, I don't know, maybe. So this was the first price. You remember in the supermarket, they have a thing called price check. I always thought of it as price. It's because when I was a kid, I worked in a supermarket and they'd send you down to the aisle to make sure it was the right price. So is this the right price? Because that's retail. Or was it this price? So potentially if this is too high, again, I'm in minutia, so please be patient. Then is this too low? Because here's the potential. Too high, come back here, too low and bounce. So let's see what happens. And I don't remember. So let's see. Yeah, anomalous event. So here, the volume point of control shifts down. Potentially saying too high, still saying maybe too low. So my first opportunity, if I'm aggressive, I'm saying if underlined is... Here, let me show you, I'm going to take it back. Right here, watch. So right here, I don't know. This shifts down. Here's high volume. This is now reflecting the volume in here. This consolidation might underline be too high. When this shifts down, it is now measuring the volume in here and you can see it right there. And this is called the chart volume profile. It's basically looking at all the volume on this chart. But this is what's out here. That's why the VPOC is here. And now the volume point of control is representing this and it's saying this is potentially too high. So we have too low, too high, new retail price. And then what's my obstacle? Here for a price check and then we have to see. So what can happen is, if you get short here, your stop is above here and your obstacle is here and then we have a target below at 39.10, which I'll show you where that came from. But let's watch. Break, pull back, stop here. This is the first aggressive trade. Now there's another one that I think is better. So if you're on this, your stop is here. Now if you're like me, I cannot get in here. I'm looking at it and my entry is more like this. So 22, it looks pretty big, right? It's only a couple of points. I try to keep my stops three points or less in the S&P. So let's watch the behavior. Watch. This shifts down to here. There's more volume here. This is the new retail price. What is it saying? Too high, too high. So now we're moving down. Here's the next piece, opening swing. Opening swing high and now, and this was the initial low, right? We break the opening swing low. This is another indication, short. So you've got a couple pieces here. This is microstructure. This is more price based. So let's watch. So now what? Break, pull back. Same kind of trade right here if that's your trade. And what else do we have? Pull back towards the mid and the VWAP. This is aggressive. This is where it fails, you know? So if you weren't in here, you have the potential in here. This volume is here, potential break below. So if you didn't get in here, break, pull back. Same kind of trade as this. You see this? Now here. So if not here, break, pull back, stop here. Let's watch. And I'm going for 10, which let me show you where it is. Where is it? This. This is called a naked volume point of control. And all it is, is the last time we were down here, this was the retail price. And you'll notice during the day, this is called the volume point of control. During a developing timeframe, it moves around because the volume is moving around. If we have a previous day and we leave it and we don't come back to what was the retail price from the last time we were here, it stays open. Because if we leave an area, the market has the potential to come back and check. It's similar. It's like a retail price, but it was the total volume on a previous day. So we call it a naked volume point of control. 39.10. So that's my target. Okay? So is everybody tracking so far? Any questions? Micro structure. Hold on one second. I've got to scroll here a little bit. Okay. One second, please guys. I'm doing a little. Hold on. One second. Remember there's a 15 second delay in YouTube. And if you're a trader lab participant in the bookmap discord chat, remember this stream is available for you to review. Stan is asking about the volume point of control. It's only SVP, session volume profile. So I want the whole day. Okay? So this is, don't forget, I'm in the first minute. So how many trades do we have in the first minute? Potentially. And I consider this somewhat aggressive. And it's not a recommendation. Don't forget, I've been doing this. I kind of know what I'm looking at. And I've been using auction market theory and the profile, initially market profile back in the 80s. So, you know, and it doesn't mean it doesn't mean I don't get run over because I do. That's trading, you know. There's no magic bullet. But there is, if you can train your mind to recognize, and this is called unconscious competence, it just comes from a lot of screen time, replays, study, research. But you can get ideas. And in the trader lab, we have all these available to you to study. And everybody is different. You know, this is not necessarily, you know, anything that you should emulate. But what I think is to work, you might have an opportunity. So anyway, this is the target. Okay? So, if you got short here, you'd be risk neutral. Remember, we talk about a two lot in the trader lab. First one, to buy the stop on the second one. And it's a minimum configuration of two. So, and you can configure any way you want. But the goal in the trader lab is to help you create a career in trading. And to create a career, it's metric driven. So in most of us, including me, have to manage fear. Because fear never leaves you. Because we seek certainty in a random environment. So we have to accept there's no certainty. So what is the way to potentially deal with the fear psychologically? The way to deal with the fear, and again, it's subject to, you know, what you need is to get risk neutral. And then meant. So you're not micromanaging and putting your stops with the rest of the retail traders to get taken out of an opportunity like this. That is, and that's what we're trading for. I hope that makes sense. So look at the opportunities here. Aggressive here, if not here. So with these opportunities, you'd be risk neutral and you'd be hanging out. Going for this. So let's anyway, let's watch and see how this plays. Okay, another one here. So let's watch. Now you're going to see something pretty interesting. So let's watch where retail stops here. Mid and VWOP. I don't necessarily step in here unless they get taken out and then I'm looking for potential trade. Now where's my locations? Back here. But I'm aware there stops sitting over this. And here. Price check in aisle three. Memories of the supermarket. Watch. This, does this look familiar to this? Watch. Potential short. But I have to be conscious of this. Potential short. Here. Watch. Now look. Here. 3923. Right to this. Price check in aisle three. So this is what the market, and the market speaks. If you can understand the language of the market. Based on participant behavior. Remember, too high retail. Volume is moving down suggesting there's participant acceptance. This is moving down suggesting moving lower. What is this? Stops. Right here. Stops. Price check in aisle three. Does this look familiar? Potential short. Watch. If this is too high. Watch. Then we break low. Potential now to come back in here. And if we don't continue back up. Then continuation down. Let's watch. If you're short from here. And you don't, you have a scale. Your stop does not move. Target. And there's another one down here someplace. I think it's 95 or something. This is the report. I was not in this for the report. I just don't care. And I don't want to. I don't. I just don't mess with it, you know. This is the next target down. So. Nothing for me here. Now. I'm going to show you something else. The volume point of control shifts down. This is now retail. That says what was up above is too expensive. We have left it behind. We're below mid, we're below VWOP. It's definitely get short. 930. This. Here. Becomes what's called the initial balance low. And the initial balance low is the first hour low. And it sets at 930 my time. And it's this low right here. So I like this. And let me tell you why. There's over 90% probability. That either the initial balance high, your initial balance low will get taken out. During the RTA session. Well, all things considered. This looks like it's, you know, on the menu. And before I go further and show you the change in context. Which is very important. Do you have any questions? No, sir. What's no sir. Those are not responsive sellers. Moon Walker. Moon Walker is asking me if we had responsive seller. No. We had some responsive buying. And it fizzled out. And then initiative selling. So the selling is initiators. In other words, people getting short. And that upside rotation, which was very weak on the open, was just some responders. You know. You know, in other words buyers. And they look like they didn't come out so well. You know. So let's look at now. Let me explain context. The market is going down. We have everybody, all these longs are getting squished. So we know we don't want to get long and join the retreating army. We want to get short. Is everybody in alignment on the configuration of the context? Anybody not understand the context? And it's important. Because yesterday's context, what's what's called balance. It was two sided trade. Friday was one sided trade. It was a trend day up today is one sided trade a trend day down. So how do we participate able to get on this if we don't have specific setups? Well, how do we participate? Anybody know? You're asking me about heat map on Indian market. Post that in the discord chat. There's a specifically an Indian market channel. You should post it in there. And I think you, you know, you can get an answer from them. Right. Retracement. So how do we get in? Let's talk about context inside of context. This is multiple time frames, right? You know, one of the things and I think about the market in fractals. You guys think of it in time. I don't think in time. Because the rotations and the behavior of the participants is really not based on what the clock is telling us. I mean, you can slice and dice the market any way you want. I don't use time. I look at participant behavior. And I, and that's what the auction is about. So what happens now? I'm going to show you a change in context. Now the volume point of control. You remember how important this is? This is now the retail price. This is where most of the volume so far for the day is taking place. So this tracks that, right? It shifts down here. So what that is telling me potentially this is now the fair price. And coincidentally, it's down here, which was a fair price. This was a fair price that we left in yesterday's, you know, clothes and all, you know. So yesterday's clothes. I'm losing my mind here. Yeah. Right. 82. Yes. Yesterday's clothes. So we're back here. Okay. In a trend configuration. So how do I get on this? Now here's a change in context. And this is structural and it's like those Russian dolls, you know, you have the higher timeframe. You have the context of the developing timeframe, which is a trend down. And then what's happening inside of the downtrend. So how do we play this? Here's what it is. It's called mean reversion. And if you're interested in understanding this, I have some webinars that are on the book map page called trading in a, you know, a trend day. Trading FOMC trading, you know, CPI report all of this, but it's kind of the same basic behavior. Once the train leaves the station, a lot of us don't know how to participate and we don't always get opportunities and but what are, what is an opportunity potentially look like? It's called mean reversion. And here's how it works. The volume potent control is below us retail. And what is the function of the market? What is too high? What is too low? I mean, you are good prices on sale. You may buy it. I'm not saying we'd buy it today, but if this might be too low, where is too high? Where might the sellers come back in? Where might the buyers and who are the buyers down here? Are they long or are they by stops? This is showing me by stops. Watch. So I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, how do I get into this thing? And my goal is to come back here first. So too high. And I'm going to show it to you now. And I took this trade. Now here's, here's the other issue with this right here. This is called a low volume node. And what it does, and you might have heard some of this language before. Do you see this? This is a balance area. And to translate it, it's a consolidation. And it happened here. Let me show you back here someplace. Let me try to find it for you. This chop, chop, chop, chop. You see this too low, too high, too low, too high. In the middle of this is the volume. And this, I call this micro structure. But all it is, so we don't get carried away with vocabulary is a consolidation. And if you remember, what is a consolidation? Translated auction, too low, too high. That's the chop, chop. Now, inside of the chop is retail. And it creates, let me see if I can just isolate it a little bit more for you. I want to show you the structure. Because this is all about auction, right? And the volume and volume profile. Where is the volume? It is out here. You can see it right there. 3891, too high. So what is the potential? Potential is to come back and check it. Look at the liquidity thickening up in the book. So I'm looking outside. And I'm also looking here. Here's another consolidation. Right here. Look at the high volume. Right here. So I am looking until this shifts down. Because now, even though this is potential resistance and this is resistance, I have the highest volume of the day. And what is the market's potential? To come outside, try to find too high. And here's where too high is. When you break out of a consolidation, it's a breakout. Now, I don't trade breakouts. I trade retracement. It's just me. But when we break out, it leaves. This is not auction. This break, there's no chop, chop here. The chop, chop happens down here. So this is an unauctioned area and it leaves this. What I'm doing is I'm trying to explain to you what creates the separation. It's only a consolidation. Consolidation, breakout. Down to the next area. You see? Now, a new consolidation. This is an outside edge. So if we come outside and this is retail, I'm looking for something called mean reversion. I'm taking my time with this because you're going to see there's two targets on this. So short here, target back to retail. And again, I can sell it here, take a stop. I mean, this is trading. It's all fine. Don't like it? Live with it. And then the initial balance load. Do you remember the initial balance? I said there's over 90% probability that we'll get to this. So, boom. And then there's another target below, which was where? Should be on here someplace. Actually, this is, if you guys remember yesterday, in the stream, I think I mentioned to you that if we went, if we came out the bottom of yesterday and got rolling, 65 was a target. And 65 was the next target. So basically what you had was outside scale 65. And that's where I got off the train on my trade. I below, which is up here, and then 65. And that trade done. ES, shorted impulse. ES, shorted impulse. Check context. Check context. And that is as far as I've gotten because now, oh, watch, look at this. I wasn't, right here. Price check. This is another short, by the way. Not even paying attention. So this is called, oh, there's another one. I'm sorry. All this I've kind of missed. I did narrate this, but I'm starting the stream. There's several setups right here. One is here, and let's go back. Here, I'm sorry. Losing my place here. This, right here, remember. Boom. Pull back. Right. Short. Now, once we, and don't forget I'm going for 65, we have another setup. And this is not a trade recommendation. It's called the IB continuation trade. And what it is, once you break, now we got our 65, you pull back, pick stops at 70, because traders trail, and we're under yesterday's low, and it looks like, you know, this is our next target down here, around 43, 45. So let's see what this does. So this is another short. I'm going to open it up so you can see it. And these are all in the trader lab. So, you know, this is kind of common stuff we do, you know, because it's all, for me, it's all structured. You know, in other words, I kind of like wait for the bus. Here's the bus. Let me show you the bus. So this is called an IB continuation trade. Here's how it works. First of all, retail trader behavior. Where do they keep their stops? Right here. And you remember that low volume note up on top? Low volume, right here. So this becomes an outside edge. We have, now let me, so you know we don't know what's what. At this point, here's the low volume area and it is alignment with this first hour low. And this is called the IB continuation. Remember, we're under yesterday's low. We're in a trend. Everybody's running for the exit. We do not want to get long and we're continually looking for shorts. The short that was up here is called mean reversion. It's called outside it because it's just like the price went too high. Nobody would pay it. Retail's here. Now down we go. So here's the next trade. Then I'll look at questions because I think we'll be fairly caught. Actually, there's a couple of these. Here's the trade. And let me show you how this works. I got to open it up so you can see the minutiae. And then I'll come look at questions. And if I hope you find this useful, you know, I know you've been following the stream. This is kind of old hat, right? So watch break. Now you know this was a target coming down. And 65 was the target, right? Remember? So 65. This is called a stop pick. At least that's what I call it. So 65. Don't forget it's 65. Let's just say it's 65. You come right here. Actually, you got your 65, didn't you? Yeah, right there. Now I would leave a little for the sweeper. Give it a tick or two. No problem. Now the next trade is up in here. And there's stops sitting above here. You always have to look left and you've got this right here. So we're looking for a pick, which means stops and exhaustion. And then a continuation short. Don't forget we got 4345 down there. Here's your stops, right? 28. I got to open it up. I want to show you because I go into microstructure. And this is how I use BookMap. Because when I, and I don't get crazy about anything, I have what I consider setups, you know the word setup. And what is my setup? I need to see the stops come out and I want to see exhaustion. So the stops are coming out here. And I'm not seeing a lot of stops going off. So let's watch. And where was this level? Let me get back here. I'm sorry. Here. See this? So I've got this. I've got this. I have stops. I have the outside edge of a distribution. This is our high volume area. And how does this operate? It's the same in a fractal. Outside in high volume retail in this consolidation. That's the highest volume area. South of the border. And again, nobody knows where south is, right? So this is a short. Here's your exhaustion. 10 stops, 6 stops. Now watch. And I don't know. I'm sitting here. I'm going, you know, but I have my setup. Now I'm just looking for triggering structure. Here it is. The volume isn't here. The volume is up here. Exhaustion break. It breaks below this volume. It pulls back to the micro structure. Now let's go back and look over here again. We're below here. The volume is here. The trigger is here. The pullback is to this micro structure. So watch there. So this is an extreme. So this is a short. This is the pullback just like I showed you with that VHVN except we're in more micro structure. Short. So short. Stop here. Break. You'd be scaled. Pullback to the volume and to this short here against the volume. Stop above here. Boom into this. See the alignment. IB short. So those are what's called IB continuations. Back to here 65 and then helmet. Storage changing any landmarks. Here. Back to volume. Volume. Back to here. Another continuation trade. Exhaustion. Looking for 65. Same trade. Helmet. And ultimately looking for 45. But who knows, right? I think I'm getting caught up, right? Okay. Volume point of control. And I haven't looked at this. So I'm just going to read it as we go. Volume point of control shifts down. What is that saying? Acceptance. Volume and price are moving together. And then I'm going to look at your questions. Okay. Let's watch. Does this look familiar? Look. Retail. What am I looking for? Remember this level here. Price check in aisle three. IB. I'm now at an outside edge. If this doesn't align with anything, there's nothing to do. Here. Too low. Retail. Now I have to be a bit concerned because this shifted up. The potential exists to squeeze. Or. Check this and then move down. And again, I have no idea. So let's see. If you couldn't get into this, then no trade. Okay. No big deal. Where are we here? Anyway, I think that's. Okay. This is a setup in the trader lab. And I haven't even been looking at these. We call it the VWAP to V-POC. You guys are familiar with the VWAP to V-BOC. Trade. You took that one. Congratulations, Moon Walker. Work your stats. The VWAP to V-POC trade is in a directional context. It is not necessarily in balanced context. Because balance, you're trading both sides. And I had questions yesterday about this. By the way. What is this? Is this retail? Remember too high, too low? Does this look familiar? Here's what you got. Too high. Retail. Back to this. Which is this. Aligned with this. Short. And you get short in here. Stop over here. Scale. Put on your helmet. And there we are. Any questions? Is everybody tracking? See the guys, the. Key in my humble opinion. Is to have the trade plan. Then when the bus shows up, your job. And the thing about it is. What I do is when I'm in the middle of stuff. I don't, I don't know what to do. What I do is I'm saying, where's my next trade? And I just sit back and I wait for it. If it never came back here. That's okay. I mean, then I don't have a trade. I can trade this. And here's the problem. You see this right here. Too low. I call this VPOC migration. It is suggesting at the moment. This might underline be too low. For now. So what's my trade? Here to here is the primary trade. And we have a name for this. What is it called? Anybody? What is besides VWAP to VPOC? What is the context? Anybody know? Mean reversion. Do you remember? What was I trying? Now, by the way, this is going to be a price check down here. Remember, so outside in. Watch my webinars on trading a trending market. For me, the primary way to get in is outside in. Once I'm not short, how do I get involved? I have to have something. So this, if the VWAP wasn't here, just so you know, this, I'd still be getting short because of this. But this had alignment made it even nicer for me. And here's some other piece under yesterday's close under. The naked volume point of control from 82 ish, which was our retail price from yesterday, right? So if that's too high, same concept, too high. Yesterday's fair price. I think it was yesterday. You know, I'm losing my place here. Hold on a second. Yeah, yesterday's retail price too high. See the fractal under yesterday's close under the overnight low. Throw everything at it, and this is the best it does. Short, all in alignment, mean reversion. This is your primary target. If you could be learning this, and I only talk about two lots as a minimum configuration and you have to vet that idea. Why? If you got short, and let's say you got short here, your stop is here, you're running this trade from 80 to 75. Whatever. You know, and that has to fit 77, about three, four points. Volatility picks up. This is okay for me. And then I need a four point scale. And this is my primary target. I could just be scaling in front of this. Again, subject to trade plan because in mean reversion, this is the mean. And I call it mean because you can get, you know, yesterday it was mean because I was trying to trade outside. I get stuck in a rotation and then get squeezed. That's just part of mean reversion. It's mean because you don't quite know where next here. And remember, what's our target 45 on the higher time frame, which 43, 40, which is this. And it never has to get here. I mean, you know, what do I know? I know, I don't know. I just keep trading towards targets. And if I, if this, for example, comes down here and this is, I call this a variable high volume node. And you see this volume here. This at one point was the highest volume. It's 10,000 contracts. Well, now there's about 15,000 over here. You know, so, you know, almost a thousand, a thousand contracts more. So this is retail. This was too low. This is my target. And this is a higher timeframe target. So I'm still headed for this. And I am one who has no idea. So I don't think I know anything. What I know is, first of all, I don't know. But what I know is if I have vetted setups in a trade plan, my job is to take the trade, get risk neutral, go for my primary targets or whatever subject to my plan, and then try to get to the outsized targets. I understand this is an obstacle. So let's mark it. It is around 3860-ish, right? So right here, that high volume, right? Somewhere around there. I'm going to get the exact number, because I want to show you how this might work. And again, might. You know, the word maybe. And trading, maybe. It's at 61. I'm going to mark it. All my book maps, hold on. And that is my next target. Price check in aisle three. I said 61. Let me just look. Yes, 61. This is now a variable high volume note. It's my target, not a trade recommendation. And I always leave a tick or so for the sweeper. That means ahead. So short, primary target. This is what mean reversion is. This is the mean. So it's outside in. Think of it like a shopper. Potentially too low, too low, too high. So gee, it's on sale. Look at that. Retails over here. Huh. Wow, I'm going to buy extra down here, because this is the now the fair price. The price goes up. You being the astute shopper go, you know, this is retail. I'm not going to pay that. Oh, and then the sellers have to lower the price to find the buyers retail. But since the trend is down, and this was too low, this becomes our next target. And in a higher time frame, and these are not recommendations. This is our outside target. So let's watch any questions. Now I'm caught up and I apologize, but I just, you know, yeah, Ashley, I'll be glad to show you that rare. The short bias was because of the opening swing and knowing the reports were coming out. And I had, I mean, and again, I don't know, but the first trade is a setup that we have in the trader lab. And the reason for it is if you are, put it this way, if you can understand participant behavior as it's represented, not by price alone, but by volume, because the volume is where, in my opinion, it is at. And what we're trying, the market's job and the job of the participants is to find a fair price. Well, what's an unfair price? Right now, that is unfair. Right now, that is unfair. And right now, this is fair. So if this is too high, this is too low. And it doesn't mean this is the low or anything. It just means the volume moved up. Then the potential is this and then helmet because in a higher time frame, this is our target outside and here. And again, it never has to go there. But it's the auction. The truth of the market, and this is just an opinion, it's my truth, it's not necessarily anybody else's, you know, is what makes a market? What is the fundamental purpose of the market? How might we detect that behavior? And are there ways to participate based on our perception of the potential? And all we have in the market is maybe, right? But if you work or vet specific setups, your job is to find out what is the probability, first of all, of getting risk neutral on any trade. Risk neutral means the distance from entry to where a structure you leaned on fails. And then what is the probability of getting to the target? What is the probability of selling this and of course VWOT and getting a scale if that's your primary thing and getting here? What is that probability? If you know it's X percent and it's positive or you know that from the entry to failure and getting here, what is the probability of getting risk neutral? If it's better than 50%, you then have a positive expectancy. So if you can get risk neutral, does it give you the courage? And that's what it takes, courage to manage your fear because you know you have an edge to get risk neutral. And that risk neutral can be defined as the distance from wherever you enter to where the trade fails. And you have to have enough range to pay for the whole risk that you're taking. So the way this trade can work is price-based, in other words distance from entry, let's assume you got short here, you know, 70, whatever it is, 73 and it fails up, you know, up in here. Well, hold on. Here's microstructure. Check, break. This is your trigger. Here is your micro high volume, right here. This is the same thing I'm doing. Where'd it go? I want to show you because this is what's called fractal, guys. And it's not hard. Volume is a fractal. The trader lab, which is this. So look at the confluence. So here to here, same thing. You can see. And this is what kind of gets me going and has given me sleepless nights with excitement. Just me. Excitement because I see a process that's generic. So I take the same process right here. And I don't, look, guys, it takes practice and it's training your mind and your eye to recognize. So look, we come up 130 stops. We come up here. Now I open it up because this is my area. And remember, I have that variable high volume note, this. I have the VWAP and I'm under these levels and I'm under that 82, which was retail. You see how the pieces come together? It's the same watch. You're going to find this interesting. I do. So I'm able to act upon this because I know what I'm looking for. And I've spent a lot of time. Liquidity. And didn't we have liquidity from before? Let me look at my other book map here, guys. I just want to get back, try to put things together for you. 17. Let me, I'm just looking back. Stop the S cell 283. S&P cells top 484. So chop, chop, consolidation, location, too high, break, triggering structure, pull back here. Short. Me, I'm not, I can't get short here. Haven't figured that out yet. In here. If I was on this trade, which of course, you know, I'm with you guys, stop here. Mean reversion back to V pox. So let's go. ES, shorted impulse. ES, shorted impulse. Check context. Check context. It's down here somewhere, right? Lost it. Oh, yeah, we're going for this. And then hold. So this is how that works. Okay. So you'd be risk neutral or you're just going for this. And you'd be flat or subject to your trade plan and your risk, you know, and the condition, which is trend, you know, you might just go for this for your scale, but it has more risk. And then maybe you trail or whatever you do a little bit, you know, to try to get at least so you scratch if it comes back on you. Now remember where our target was, right? Next target is here. Let's see what it's doing. Did it get there? Here. So, so there was your next target. Is everybody tracking? And then you either have more on. That sounds like more on more on or you're flat. Questions. What do you think? Is this usable? Can you guys in YouTube, do you have any questions? Are you getting anything out of this? Do you think this might be helpful? Can you see a consistent behavior? By the way, price check in aisle three, right? Reminds me of my days in the supermarket. And we're not done maybe. And again, I have no idea. What's my target? Again, random, clueless, and it doesn't matter. Where's the stops? Here, right? And there's more. There's another setup here. So short target under the IB, right? Pullback to the IB. Did we pick? I'm not paying attention here because I'm chattering with you guys. Stop, pick IB, right? Break, pullback, potential short here, back to here, back to here. I mean, there's many opportunities if you vet a trade plan and you wait. Here's the other part. If you're anxious and you feel FOMO, take the cast iron frying pan out or the cattle prod and put yourself back in the trading mind, not in the emotional mind. You must, in my opinion, I strongly recommend you do not respond. See the behavior? Again, I don't know. So this can now come back up and mean revert. See, back up in here or bounce off here and go down. And I don't know which one. This is the primary trade. And what I'll say to you guys is the fact that 4345 is down below is not material to me. What's material is what the, now that 4543 was left behind from a big consolidation that we had. And it's a primary element. But what is the most current information? It's the auction today. It's the behavior of the participants in the present time. I trade the developing timeframe using the fractals of the current information available. So this down here, which was my target, is it a coincidence we came down and checked it? That is not a coincidence to me. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It's just something I look at. The market got too short. Like, wow, this is too low. This is too high, right? Price check. What's fair? Here. What was too low before? Here. There. I'd be flat. It doesn't matter to me. By the way, if it just comes here and keeps going, I'll have other opportunities or I could be done for now. Questions? Long midpoint reversal. Long midpoint reversal. I'm getting a question about thinkorswim. When the blue levels are gone and it's dark, does that mean there are no buyers? No, it doesn't. That's algorithmic behavior. They bracket the market and they're kind of mischievous. I do use liquidity, but this is not necessarily real. This can be spoofing. So you understand what happens? You all see this. Watch. If you want to see algorithmic, you'll see bracketing. And if you want to learn more about algorithmic activity and how to interpret algorithmic behavior and how the book behaves, Bruce does an incredible job every day. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, I should say 10A to the time I come on to about 11.30 strictly the behavior in order flow. Order flow setups, order flow behavior. Also, Bookmap has a course that's available on order flow. So everybody, you know, it's a tool that provides insight, you know. And before Bookmap, the process you see me doing here, I've been doing for, I don't know, 15 years or so. But the difference is, I didn't get Bookmap or an order flow tool until 2015. I got actually Bookmap in 2015. And Bookmap did not have all these tools. When they first started, it was, first of all, it was black and white. And it had the heat map, you know, which is, and the heat map reflects the limit order book. That's what this is, limit orders. All right. And the other thing is it had the bubbles, the volume. And, you know, POC and that kind of thing. So it fit because it was volume profile, you see. So that's how I got involved using this tool. And then over the years, Bookmap keeps, I mean, they're adding so many things. I mean, I'm better at testing stuff now that'll just really isn't, it just keeps getting better. And there's gonna, there's more and more coming. And I'm really glad. And this is just a personal opinion. And I'm not even recommending Bookmap, you know, I'm not a vendor. I use the tool. And it's what it's done for me among other things is it helps me, and especially with the stop and the iceberg detector. And all this is doing, it's not an indicator. All it does is measure the orders. You know, the CME tags orders. And they tag it like, is it a stop? Is it a limit order? You know, is it an iceberg? And that's, I mean, they'd have to tag an order, right? If it's a limit or is it a stop? So all that is tagged. So because of that, we can see it. Well, that's incredible insight. So it helps me see the exhaustion. So it helps me differentiate between quote, buyers and buy stops. Now a stop is a market order. And buyers, depending on their urgency is a market order. But if I see exhaustion with the stops and then I see price and exhaustion, you know, the stops start dropping down and I don't see progression in the price that I know those market orders were by stops, which become a market order. It's a different kind of buyer. And if I have alignment, you see, it's putting all these pieces together and then I can see the order flow, see what happens with the book, how all of a sudden this liquidity comes in, that's like a hand. Pushing the market down. And below it, this dark area is they're pulling and you see how the liquidity, now you notice how the book thickens right at the volume point of control. That's why it's a scale. It bounces up and notice it here it comes in, pushes. So now this is sitting up here. What are they going to do? And where is it? The I be low. Where are the stops right here? Theoretically, this is a short back to here. Not enough range, you know, subject to your trade plan. I would swap meat on the bone, you know, and where are the stops? They're sitting over here right on your paper. You should be taking notes. I hope you do. Look left. Every once in a while, I get myopic and I'm looking at this and I forget that I'm right in front of retail stops. That's usually not a good plan. So, in fact, I have to program that into my IRT, you know, so it says look left. I have a thing, a saying, and we have this in the trader lab and a little saying, first of all, I narrate in real time. Write this down. It's if this, then that. If not, then what? If the market does something, then potentially it's going to do something else. In other words, it gets to a level, it reverses, then what? Then it's potentially going to go wherever. If it doesn't do it, what does it mean? Then I have to, that puts my mind on alert that something might be changing. So, I just don't sit there like a deer in the headlights. Maybe the context is changing or why did it take out a level? If it does, what's the next level above? You see? There's something I have to do. And the other thing is think like a retail trader. Write this down. Don't act like one. What do retail traders do? They put their stops here and here. Well, what's the potential? And it's above here. So, there's stops and potentially we can come back up into here, take these stops out and mean revert again or keep going. And again, I don't know. Let's watch the behavior. So, getting in over here has more risk because the stops are here. And again, it might be a short but it's only back to here. So, it's not enough meat on the bone for me. Let's watch the behavior. This is still mean reversion. So, in your trade plan, so here's how I would narrate this. First of all, I can't get involved because I need range to pay for my stop. And even though I have target below, I cannot get in here because there's stops here, here, up in here, right? So, my potential, this is still mean reversion, is potentially to come back here. But it's a dangerous trade. I can't take it. And again, it doesn't mean anything because it has to fit my trade plan. So, I need outside to pay. How can I enter this here? You see what I mean? And this is my target in mean reversion. This is the same trade from out here. This is the same trade except it's right here. I can't do anything. Does that make sense? Because remember, in the auction, it's the potential behavior. It's not the range. The range is a function of the setup in the minimum risk-reward ratio. You see? The auction doesn't care about the range. We care about the range. The auction is about the behavior. You see? Does that make sense? See that space boy? Cowboy, I'm glad I'm answering your question. I'm clairvoyant. By the way, those of you who are, I don't know, if you haven't visited the Trader Lab, I want to offer you an invitation. You don't have to be a book map subscriber. You will not be solicited. There's a lot of free education. Stocks, options, crypto, market maker behavior, of course, order flow, algorithmic levels, all kinds of different inputs that you can get. And there isn't one size fits all. I think trading plan, for me, it's kind of what speaks to you. What can you align your brain with? What makes sense? And I started out in indicator world. Actually, no. I started out before there were indicators. So it was by hand draw line. Because computers, there were no computers. There were terminals. We did not have desktops. You know, Apple I had a 2E was my first computer. So, you see, this is the main reversion. It's outside in. And again, you see the behavior. So you can narrate this behavior. So this is your outside edge. Scale, target. So this trade could be over. This is outside, mean reversion, too close, nothing to do. Target is down at 45, 43, which it never has to go to. We can stay in a chopper tier if we don't get below this level. I'm still thinking, and I know it has the potential to go lower. And the word potential is all we have in trading. What'll do? No idea. Hope it makes sense. If you guys are interested, I invite you to come to the Trader Lab. It's a collaborative group of like-minded traders who want to leverage their experience with the goal that we all get better. We learn from each other. We develop trade plans. We attempt to vet trading ideas and use developed setups, deal with the psychology, and gradually build a career as traders, not behaving like typical retail traders. And you guys probably know retail traders don't have a high probability success rate. And there's good reasons for it. One of them is they don't realize it, but they're gamblers. They don't have a trade plan or statistical edge that they validated or vetted. The other thing is they use indicators in a vacuum, which are backwards looking, not based. And the thing is, if you're using an indicator, and I have nothing against indicators, I think they're used wrong. And so you understand. I started with classical bar charting, and I took a course at the CME. That's kind of where it all starts. And then went from there. And then indicators started coming along, Wells Wilder, oscillators. And you guys who know about me, I shared an office with George Lane. He created Stochastics. So oscillators, when they started evolving, CCI, MACDs, all that started evolving. It was like, oh, wow, the Holy Grail is finally here. And then, of course, not so much. And the reason for that issue with indicators is, first of all, they lag. And we're thinking that looking backwards gives us a look forward. But because of the lag, typically there's a lot more risk. At least I found for me. And then I went into system design with the idea, and it ended up really with some great curve fitting. Because in essence, when I started in trading, I kind of thought of it like a business, which was the right way to think of it. But I thought if I could squeeze risk out of it, and that's where it led to the curve fit, then I would get higher yield. So it looked great on paper, but when you do walk forward and you trade it in real time, it would break down pretty quick. So I have to do that in working with system design. And I actually worked initially, I did work on the development chassis of what became Trade Station. So I mean, I do go back a ways. So just so you know a little bit about me. But I had to abandon all that because I was always kind of chasing the market. And the other thing I didn't understand is the market works on context. Context, because it's not the same trade. Yesterday was balanced. It's a different construct and different behavior. It was pretty much mean reversion all day yesterday. Which is what we're doing here except because this is mean reversion. But in a downtrend, only one side, you see. And yesterday I was only on the short side anyway because I was looking for it to break down yesterday, which it didn't do. And 65 was our target yesterday, you see, if you remember. And now what do we have? There's the mean here. What's tricky? This, is this the real one? Sometimes, yeah, I take stops. If you think, if somebody tells you, you know, no, I take stops. But I know, and here, look how far out it came. Looks like the outside edge. Now this doesn't show you the microstructure. I didn't take this because I had Bookman. But I want you to see that. When I used to just use these kind of, these are Renko's. I would see the reversal, you see. Because what looks different? Does this look very different? I'm going to break this up, break high. This is the same structure you see me using except it's micro. Break low. So this is a short right in here. But my range, the range is higher. So with Bookmap, I can enter better. And here, watch. Target, where does it pull back? Right here. Too high back here. Do you guys see something consistent? Well, MF, we opened up outside yesterday's range. How do you change your context in the downside? We were inside yesterday's range when we opened. So we were inside, not out. And we had, and I did, if you're in the Trader Lab, you should go to bookmap.com. You'll see, join the Discord chat. You'll be able to review this after the market. It's available to Trader Lab participants for 20. So you see why I got this? And now in park, where are the stops? Here, here. This is how I organized the auction. And remember, I don't know what's going to happen. You know, there's no magic bullet. But this gives me insight to what the part, remember, what is the auction about? Who creates the market? It's the participant behavior. So that's what mean reversion is. And this is the process, guys. And I'm not done. I just want to remind everybody, come to the Trader Lab. Take advantage. There's over 50 or 60 PDFs of different behaviors that I documented that are available to you. You can download them. There's a primer webinar I did for Advanced Trader Webinar that I did for Bookmap that really will show you minutia and give you an understanding of, this is the process. Ultimately, the market is based on the auction. That is the participant behavior. And auction is, and for me, I like consolidations because they're micro auctions. And they happen in all timeframes. That's when I talk about fractals. So timeframe is really fractal. It can be 30 seconds. It could be five seconds. Because in that time, there is participant behavior. And there's a too high, too low, which is your auction and retail. And if I get to integrated timeframes or fractals of multiple timeframe, I can see, in other words, that minutia. I say minutia, you know, the Russian dolls that have the little ones inside, the bigger ones inside, the bigger ones. And that's really what I'm doing. Most traders don't understand context. And this is where I had a hard time early on because I kind of had a one-size-fits-all. You know, always sell the mid or do whatever it was, right? And it doesn't work that way. That's why we're now in a mean reversion process, whereas initially we were in a different... I was approaching it differently, as you probably observed. How do I know what to do? This is why indicators are a problem. It might be possible that if you can recognize context that you can have a... We actually, I have a separate trade plan based on the context. And there's only two contexts, really. Trending and then rotational or mean reversion. And mean reversion, it doesn't have to come back to the VPOC. It can come to the high volume node inside of a consolidation. It's all the same. But do you have a separate plan for different conditions? If you're finding inconsistency, it may be that you haven't isolated the different behaviors. And what you're observing me do just recently here is mean reversion, which is a separate context. So I'm still trading in alignment with the higher timeframe trend, which is down. I'm trading outside it. And Bookmap helps me see the minutia. Microstructure, order flow, all the thing in the nuance to try to trigger. So I'm using this for potential triggering and alignment, getting all of these pieces in alignment. And remember, the outcome of any trade is random, and that's okay too, as long as you have a plan for risk management, scaling, attempting to get risk neutral, targeting based on behavior, not an indicator. If I'm using an indicator, what would I be doing? What would I do here? Would I be long? Would I know that this has relevant? Maybe you do. I just don't. So if you do, that's all good. This is now balanced. So it's outside in, and the market is accepting this at the moment. It's resting. And I still have, let's go back. I don't want you to forget 45-ish, 43. Higher timeframe target. It may not get there today. Here is my obstacle. And I have no opinion. My job's not to have an opinion. See, my job is to have no opinion. My job is to follow a trade plan and leave my opinion, park it at the door, because what's my opinion worth? Nothing of is the ability to interpret potential participant behavior. It is the participants that make the market. My opinion has no value. My setups, my trade plan, my vetting, my research, that has value. My job is to wait patiently, fight off the demons, the psychology that affects all of us, the fear, the FOMO. If you miss this move down, you're anxious. You want to make it back. You think you can get it. I didn't get that. You're thinking dollars. I missed that 40-point move. I got to get in. If that's running through your head, you got to look to the next level beneath that self-talking. It's FOMO. You see? Because FOMO in the emotional states might be your biggest obstacle. You got to have a trade plan, in my opinion, and you got to develop the discipline. One of the things we talk about in the trader lab, and I haven't brought it up recently, is something called, you're the Russian doll. It's called the error-cost calculator. This is an incredible exercise because if you make errors, and I make errors, I do things and I'm going, I fail to look left. I step in front of retail behavior. I take a stop. Of course, I want to hit myself with a cold codfish because there's no excuse, but it is an error. When that happens, it goes into a spreadsheet. At the end of the week or the end of the month, if I've had errors, and I make them from time to time, in spite of my intention, because I'm human, I figure out what that costs me. When you start seeing thousands of dollars going out the door for no good reason, let me tell you something. You'll get motivated because you may find that you are a profitable trader or break-even trader, and you could be profitable or have 30% more potential profit at the end of the week or the end of the month. And what I do then, and I've suggested this, is you write a checkout to the group or individual that you have, let's just say, an unfair opinion of, because you're basically writing a checkout and pasting it on your monitor. Errors. $4,000 last month. Trade's not taken. Why? Being passive and not following your plan. Add it up. You see what I'm saying? Because our nature is to avoid pain and move on to the next trade and not even think about the one, the error or the one we didn't take. If you quantify it, and I challenge you to do the work, you want to get motivated to develop discipline, you've got to hold yourself accountable and you've got to quantify it. Like I say, you want to be motivated. If you're leaving $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000 a month, basically you're giving it away to somebody else is what you're doing. And that's why the check goes on the monitor. That's why you quantify it and now you set goals. You should have goals. What are your goals? Trade plan. Take the trades. Improve. Wait for triggers. Don't front run, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Work on the discipline. When you break the plan, what does it cost you? If you break the plan and you get a profit, deduct it. It's an error. It doesn't matter. It's an error. Why? You're not following your trade plan. If you have FOMO and you succumb to it, it will put you out of the business. You're playing in SIM trading 10 lots and you don't have the account size. Trade two. Treat it like a business. This is a business. Now, this is not a lecture. We have to separate it from what it is. You know, this is business. Losses are cost of production. You have to reframe it. It's not about you being right. The only right or wrong is your trade plan. You are accountable to your trade plan, not the market. The market's going to do what it does. We have no control. The thing we control is a vetted trade plan in our execution when the trade shows up. And then if you have it vetted, you have statistics. When you take three losses in a row, which happens, you open your book to the setup and you say, you know, this setup has a 60% probability of it winning over a 50 trade or whatever, iterations. And this is just three. This is a string. Because the same setup may give you three wins in a row. And then your ego starts floating away on you. But you will be brought down to ground in reality because there's a random distribution without a vetted trade plan and the ability to look at the metrics when the dust settles. Or as you're taking those three stops in a row and you want to throw something at your monitor, you open up your book where you did your research. You look at the numbers and you say, I have to keep taking this trade because it has a positive expectancy over the sample size. And the outcome of any trade is random. Can you think like that? Can you look at the losses as cost of production and not a reflection on how smart you are? You see? Yes. Or being, quote, right? Being right is following your trade plan. You have no control over the outcome of the trade. You see? Notice the mean reversion, by the way. See? Back here. Back here. Back here. This is the context. Back here. See rotation. This is a consolidation. Where is it going to go? Don't know. But no trade. No range. Now, if we were back out here, short, mean reversion in alignment with the trend. For me, no longs. How can I get long when the planet is in retreat, when the trend is down? I can't take a long. Now, there's some that might. It's not my trade. My trade is to take advantage of the squeezes, like up to here, to come back, mean reversion. And then, of course, this was the next target, right? Any questions? MF, I don't think we opened that at today's range. At yesterday's range, I mean. Let me look. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. I got you. Okay. Yeah, we opened. Sellers took over. And then 3910 was the initial target. Back to Friday's retail price. So that was the first target. I'm sorry about that. I was distracted. MF, you know what I recommend? Go to the bookmap.com, join the Discord chat. Go to the trader lab. And there's a link in there for this webinar stream. And you can review it tonight. And I recommend everybody review this stream. These are the days that make your week and your month. A day like yesterday. I'll tell you, for me, I felt like I was beating my head on the desk. I ended up taking a lot of trades. And I didn't get much for it, you know? I mean, my broker, I get the gift basket this morning. And I'm going, gee, that's very kind. I'm sending his kid to college. But that's trading, you know? You just take the trades. And if you have a good trade plan, you know, hopefully on days that are difficult. I mean, for me, it's difficult yesterday. Only because the nature of balance is a lot of rotation. So there's a lot of trades, you know? So I was trading this yesterday. This was all day yesterday. And it was outside and it would squeeze. And then, you know, potentially come in. And yesterday, my last trade was down to 70, whatever. It was 70 something, 77 or something. See how this is behaving now? You're in the Chappateria. So I can't, that's why I can't do anything. I hope it makes sense. And I hope you can see why this was my target. Is this logical? So where's the stops? See? All these guys in here, which is why I cannot take this. I hope this makes sense. What, what for? Where's the stops? Remember? See, you have to go back. What was I saying? And I'm not, it's not about me knowing. I know nothing. I know retail trader behavior. So here, here, fuel. Look at this. Now, I'm in park. Where else are the stops? VWOP, MID. So I don't need to do anything. There's stops up here. This is still important, is potentially important. And this is not a recommendation. This might be setting up a VWOP to VPOG. But it has to take out the stops. And this is still our reference point. So we can come back up into here. So we'll see. Not a recommendation. You have to kind of dance with it. But you see this? And remember, these are not trade recommendations. If you're interested, go to bookmap.com. Join the trader lab chat or discard chat. Come over to the trader lab. See this micro behavior right here? Not a recommendation. Watch. These are not trades. Just watch this high volume right here. Yesterday's low. Stops are above yesterday's low. So it's not a place to be charging in. You want to watch the behavior. Right against here. Now, if it keeps pushing, nothing to do. So just watch. We'll see what it does. I'm in park. It's going to break above. So we got to watch. See, nothing to do. Where are the stops? Remember, here. So this is ripe. So let's watch the behavior. And you can get a rotation off here. And we're at an outside edge. Let me check the what's going on elsewhere. I got to hold on. And if you look at bookmap. You'll see a lot of bubbleage. Bye-bye-bye. Going up on stops, stops. Kind of exhaustion. Watch the behavior. This is a potential trigger. Not a trade recommendation. This would be your target. And this is not anything. All right, I'm just, we're just cruising together. Right? So this would be your target. For a scale, it's not a recommendation. And this would be your next target. Let's just see what happens. And again, this has to be aligned with your trade plan. I don't call trades. I'm just saying watch for the behavior. Chop, chop. Break high. Right in here, the volume, you see it. And then here. And here. But this, this is your scale. Ahead of this. Right in here. Then either we come back and go for the VWOP. Or we come here. Let's see. Any questions? Jerry, I can't answer that. I did it before. It's just, before I had the stop in icebergs, I would look at structure. Price action structure. This is a consolidation. Right here, you see it. This is the volume in this structure. Right there. So this is the volume. And I look at it in here. So in here. And then I'm looking for exhaustion. Before I had the tool, it was just a little harder. Because I'd be looking, in other words, if I just had price action, this is what I used to do before the tool. And then I'm just looking, where am I? And where's fair? So remember, where's the stops? Well, we know above here. And we know above here. I know above here. And I know I'm at an outside edge somewhere. We're coming out on stops. If I can't get here, and we may get back here. Then I have the potential for this. And if I come back under here, then this. It's still me in reversion. So let's just see what it does. See, scale right here. So if you got short in here, wherever you got short, your stops above here, your scale is here, and then your helmet is on, and you're looking for this. If it takes this out, then it's going to VWAP, and then that's my next area to observe. Are you guys tracking mean reversion? Jerry, I hope that answered your question. You know, I invite you guys come to the Trader Lab, you know, kind of see what's going on. So you can understand why this was important. That's why scale here. So your risk neutral. And remember, what's above us. Stops now are sitting here. So this is a, you know, and if it's not part of your trade plan, it's all good. Doesn't matter. You know, the key, what matters is this, getting risk neutral. Now, if you're sitting short, stops are sitting here and stops are sitting here. Remember? So this right here is where we hope, theoretically, it doesn't get above. This volume. This was too high in the microstructure. That's why it's mean reversion. So this potentially was too high. Take this out, then there. And what is this? If then, if this, then that. If, and then here. If not, then what? If we don't take this out, then what? Then out here, here. Potentially. And again, no idea. But this is your quote resistance. See the behavior right in here. This volume. Does this look familiar? Can you guys see something? YouTubers, how we doing? If you're getting anything out of this, how about a thumb up? And if you are interested, the trader lab is a community of like-minded traders. It's no nonsense. This is about creating a business and understanding trading as a business and understanding it's a random outcome business. In the sense of what might happen. And all you know is maybe. And if you can understand maybe, it's not about being right. It's about maybe. Maybe we'll get scaled. Maybe we'll take a stop before the scale. Maybe we'll come back here and not get above it. Or maybe now stops are here and here. And we know this, remember, is possible. Maybe we'll only get a scale. And then maybe we just put our stop here because we know there's stops up here. Or maybe whatever. What's your plan? If I get risk neutral, I can very well just put my stop up here and make a burger. And go on to the next trade. I don't worry about it. I want to get the, but I need range to my obstacles. See, so that's why when we were talking here. There is not yet. It's mean reversion. You see mean reversion. What we're doing now is we're coming further outside and we're still looking mean reversion. And the mean part, of course, is where's outside? See mean. So and it's a joke. Yeah, it's mean. So if we get above this volume, then potentially north. Why retail trader behavior? Where's the fuel above us? Again, not a recommendation. It's just the nature of the beast. So and you have to be okay with it. Do we take this out? Not yet. I think it will. But then again, my job is not to think too much. My job is to follow my plan. And my plan was short scale. Take this out and remember when we, when I first was discussing this, I said, you know, you got this. So chances are this. And that has to be okay. It's just one trade of thousands. And you need to think about that too. You should write that down. You don't live and die on one trade. A trade is just an opportunity in business. That's all. If you get stopped out, it's overhead. The goal is to get risk neutral. So you paid for the trade. Okay. Get taken out. Scratch. All right. Send your broker the gift basket for exchange. If it doesn't take this. Now this is right here. This is a weak high. This will potentially get taken out. And again, I have no idea. See how the book is pressing. But there's stops up here now. Retail behavior. That is the fuel. This is a weak high. This weak. This is like a double top. Those are weak. So this has the potential to get taken out. So again, the trade fails above here. Didn't fail. This was your scale. Remember, this is your target. Let's see what it does. And then we'll be done pretty much for the day in a couple of minutes. Any final questions? And remember, if you go to bookmap.com, join the Discord chat. I'd love to meet you guys. It's an open invitation. Come visit the Trader Lab. Leverage your experience with the experience of other like-minded traders. Our senior trader has over 54 years experience. Makes me look like a toddler. And I have over 40 years experience in trading. Which is neither here nor there, other than I've probably done some of the things you've done. I've probably gone down those dead ends like you have. And I can assure you, I've probably gone down more dead ends than you have. And with all the information that's available out there on the internet and all, it's like the next best thing is always right around the corner. Well, I don't think there's an next best thing. I think it's just do the work, understand participant behavior, develop a vetted trade plan that's statistically valid. Doesn't matter how you do it. You know, you can have a dart board if it works or the Magic 8-Ball, go for it, you know. Believe me, I tried the Magic 8-Ball, didn't work. So, and I've done a lot of things in my career and I'm still working on it. I'm still trying to get better. The purpose of the Trader Lab is to leverage our collective experience, save time and work as a team towards creating a career, a business of trading, not just passing through as a potential retail casualty. And you know, statistically, the deck is stacked. So, you might find some value in that. You will not be solicited. You do not have to be a book map subscriber now, ever and never. I am not a vendor. I just do this and I do it because it seems it helps some traders. And my learning curve was horrendous because there was no information when I started. You know, I started in 1980 and it was, at that point, technical analysis was looked on as voodoo. If you were, quote, a trader, you were on the floor. Everybody I knew were floor traders. They thought, you know, I was, might as well be on Mars because nobody was really doing this. There was no real, we didn't have domes, we didn't have anything. You know, not a zippo. So, that's how I started. So, it was kind of like in the Model T era. So, you know, and I started out, I was a swing trader, you know. I was not doing anything like this. So, I'm just saying I've kind of come from a different angle and still working at getting better. So, you can see mean reversion is still in play, right? So, luckily, and that's all it is. Remember, weak high, short, scale, target. We'll see. And remember, down below, and remember 65 was also an important target coming down, right? So, now we're at 65 potential. And by the way, and I'm not saying anything more than, as we know, this was a potential short. This could have been another short or not. This is our target, mean reversion guys. You're seeing something called context. Do you think understanding the differences in behavior and potentially aligning a specific trade plan for this behavior might be useful? If you're interested in that, welcome, go to bookmap.com. Join the Discord chat. You'll see, you know, you'll see a little introductory thing when you join and you'll see all kinds of different channels for different education, stocks, options, crypto, market maker, behavior, order flow, how to use the stocks, stops and iceberg. You know, there's a lot of free education and you can take advantage of all of it. And of course, the trader lab, which is what I do. And I do continue narration from time to time in the trader lab, post, you know, a lot of stuff in there during the day. Plus, the traders are all like-minded and they're creating trade plans and, you know, ideas and things, sharing. It's leverage, you know. And if you think that might be useful, and this is an open invitation to all of you, come visit bookmap.com. Take advantage of the education. You don't have to be a bookmap subscriber and you will not be solicited. I appreciate you guys visiting with me today. If you have any further questions, drop them in the chat or preferably, where I'll have more time, go to the Bookmap Discord Trader Lab and ask questions in there. Introduce yourself, say hi. You might have another trader in your backyard that you might be able to collaborate with and maybe leverage, you know, all up to you. There's really a lot of opportunity to get better. And there's tools, a lot of, you know, those PDFs, an introductory webinar. And this stream is available for review if you're in the Bookmap Discord Trader Lab chat. It does not get posted on YouTube. Any last questions? Rare, the opening swing is just a part of a setup. You know, that's really what it is. It's just one of many. And it's really not for the faint of heart or the novice. There's loads of opportunity in the market. So, you know, I show it to you because it fits a process that is participant-oriented and volume-profile-oriented. And it's about understanding behavior. It takes an understanding. It's not about being in a hurry. It's about reading the participant behavior. And if instead of relying on backwards-looking indicators, it's really all about the participants. And if you can see it, you might be able to activate on it sooner, which might mean less risk, better trade location, better opportunity to get risk-neutral if that's part of your plan, et cetera. And all of this takes time, practice, vetting. But all this information is available and, you know, it's free. Unlike other educators, you know, I'm an educator, but I'm a trader. And so a trader first, I'm not a vendor. I don't have a subscription or service. I don't sell anything, you know? But I'm passionate about what I do. And I also know what it was for me to try to sort this out because there was no information. Today, retail traders get too much and they run around in circles and I don't think you need to do that. The key is get information and see if it can resonate with you in a line. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for visiting the Trader Lab. Go to bookmap.com if you're interested in checking out the Trader Lab. Join the Discord chat and mosey on over to the Trader Lab and introduce yourself. I look forward to meeting you. Thanks again. And thanks for visiting the Trader Lab today. We'll see you tomorrow, FOMC Day. Have a great evening, everybody.