Do you see any red flags in my trading from today's session? Also, if you have been noticing any recurring harmful patterns in my trading, I would be grateful if you pointed those out.
I don't know if "red flags" are really appropriate in hindsight. That's why I've been pointing out stuff in chat. As far as "recurring harmful patterns", I try to leave that stuff alone. There are tons of people who will jump in to offer advice, but it's usually better to let the trader go through his own process in his own way and in his own time. Whatever discoveries he makes will have much more impact and stick a lot longer, perhaps forever. Everyone has had things pointed out to them at one time or another that either whizzed right by or that they blew off, only to find a couple of years later how obvious it had been all along and how it all makes sense now. (So they'll try to point these things out to others, usually with the same result; some experiences one just has to go through.) If anything, I suggest that you look into entering premkt. Quite often there will be excellent entries an hour or so before NY, and if you happen to be up, there's no special reason not to take them. Today was an excellent example.
All these months of analysis, synthesis and testing have brought me to the conclusion that success in day-trading is proportionate to one's quality of in session awareness. Awareness of what? Of attractive combinations of Energy and Risk, where energy is defined as the intensity of the Line of Least Resistance and risk is defined as the intensity of potential adverse movement. States of energy and risk are inferred by observing Price Action markers of Time, Quality, Position and Pressure. Various combinations of these markers herald future movement. Clear awareness leads to clear recognition and decisive action. A dynamic, time sensitive environment does not lend itself to formal in session analysis. Apart from the time pressure, the movement of price invokes intrinsic biases rooted deep within the trader.There is no time to make a pros and cons list or draw decision trees. All analyses has to be done outside the session. One has to know the base rates before the session starts. So the line of least resistance in this case is not to fight one's nature, but to recognize it. The purpose of in-session attention is to observe for cues and to then weave these cues into a coherent story that explains past action and heralds future movement. The medium of narrative keeps one rooted to the fundamentals, i.e. the behavior of both traders and of the system. The goal of analysis and synthesis is to clear distortions that separate awareness from reality. The end is reached when awareness and reality merge as one.
Which is pretty much what Magee was saying about the map and the territory. The map and the territory should match. If they don't, then it's much easier to get lost. Like all that nonsense about a Head&Shoulders in the ES.
I haven't gotten through your entire journal yet, but I'm making my way through it. There are so many nuggets of great information - especially in the beginning pages. Thanks for tracking your progress.