Our platform lays the groundwork for this guide, but don't fret if you're not a user yet. We've ensured our wisdom extends beyond our platform's walls, enhancing your journaling practices wherever you apply them.

Prologue

• A Stark Glimpse at Reality
• Soft Price Action Rules
• Uncovering Setups
• First Conquer Demo Profitability
• Novice Traders, Listen Up
• The Journey of Self-learning
• The Journey with a Coach

Trade Journaling

• Journal While You Trade
• Predict, Assess, and Learn
• The Art of Trade Review
• In Search of Solutions

The Stark Glimpse at Reality

Before we leap into the thick of things, let's confront an undeniable fact: if you've been immersing yourself in education from revered price action educators such as Al Brooks, Mack from PATs, Lance from YTC, or others, but success in trading still eludes you, the responsibility rests squarely on your shoulders, not on the educators.

Your struggle isn't a reflection of their ineffectiveness, rather it underscores your own gaps in understanding or a persistent inability to mend your errors.

Our ambition is to navigate you towards improving your price action through journaling on a demo trading account first.

Your ultimate success in live trading, however, hinges on you. In my experience, the jump from demo to live, when approached with moderation, doesn't have to be daunting - it's entirely achievable.

Soft Price Action Rules

The educator you've selected ought to equip you with the soft price action rules that will help you in predicting the market's next move. These guidelines, while universally recognized among price action aficionados, may bear different labels or interpretations.

• Deciphering the current trend or trading range
• Drawing channel lines
• Understanding overshoots and breaks of channels
• Proficiently utilizing the Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
• The market cycle
• Classifying ranges, trends, and continuations
• Reading bull and bear candle gaps
• Interpreting reversal candles
• Determining your profit target
• Measured moves
• Comprehending pullbacks
• Spotting second entries
• Identifying potential traps
• Calculating risk-to-reward
• Executing in trading ranges
• Trading with the trend
• Counter-trend trading
• Scaling in and out of trades

If your current educator falters in delivering clear and compact explanations of these core principles, it might be time to cast your net wider and explore other educational avenues.

Uncovering Setups

A trustworthy trading educator should not only enrich your knowledge about setups but also hone your ability to discern between robust and flawed ones. Educators such as Al Brooks and Mack from PATs go above and beyond by offering absolutely free daily analyses on YouTube.

First Conquer Demo Profitability

Before you venture into live trades, ensure you're consistently netting a 10-20% growth on your demo account every month. Also, when you're ready to dip your toes into live trading, start with the smallest possible account size.

Novice Traders, Listen Up

If you're taking your first steps into trading, we highly recommend absorbing the teachings of the educators mentioned above. While we're not connected with them in any official capacity, we stress the importance of dedicating resources towards trustworthy educational materials. Invest time and resources in learning, and practice trading on a demo account for at least the first year before you enter the live trading arena.

Pick up a book, start a journal, and immerse yourself in demo trading for a year or two.

Trading isn't a sprint, it's a marathon that demands unwavering commitment to understanding its complexities and ironing out your errors. Don't be disheartened if after a year, or even two, you discover that trading may not be your calling. This is where the demo account shines, providing invaluable insights without the financial risk.

The Journey of Self-learning

Learning on your own, augmented by interaction and learning from seasoned traders, can be a beneficial alternative to formal coaching. Building a network within a supportive trading community and participating in knowledge sharing can provide practical insights and catalyze your growth as a trader.

While paid coaching can offer benefits, it's imperative to evaluate its necessity and appropriateness based on your unique needs and circumstances.

The Journey with a Coach

Securing the guidance of a trading coach can be a pivotal step in your journey as a trader. From early on, such a mentor can illuminate the intricate technicalities of trading, progressively shaping your understanding and interpretation of market dynamics. Later, they can help navigate the psychological challenges that may arise, ensuring you remain on the correct trajectory.

However, the quest to discover the right coach may prove challenging, yet it is far from impossible. These specialized mentors do exist, and their potential to impact your trading journey is substantial.

One obstacle that traders often grapple with, as I personally did, is coming to terms with the fluid rules of price action. This field is fundamentally grounded in probabilities. Gaining trust in these probabilities can be a hurdle that requires patience and time.

Other traders may encounter different issues - persistent habits that impede their trading performance. In such situations, outside intervention can help. If you find yourself wrestling with these issues, it's vital to halt live trading and switch to demo trading. Continue practicing in this risk-free environment until you've thoroughly rectified your mistakes. Trading, after all, is a journey, one that demands continuous learning, adjustments, and resilience.

Remember, each trader's journey is unique. It's essential to reflect upon your needs and circumstances when considering the support of a paid coach. Your growth and success as a trader hinge on decisions made with careful deliberation and self-awareness.

Journal While You Trade

A mere glance at your weekly statistics will not elevate your trading prowess. Rather, reviewing these stats has little effect on refining your aptitude in price action trading.

The real deal in improving as a price action trader is in chart analysis and the precise prediction of future market movements, guided by soft price action rules.

The realization of this key tactic paved the way for the creation of this software.

Rather than just noting down your trades and thoughts post-trading, embrace the active approach of noting down your forecasts during the trading session in a journal.

Evaluate each prediction on a scale of 1 to 5 and make annotations about the rights and wrongs. Once your trading session concludes, concentrate on recognizing the missteps and formulate ways to correct them. Keep iterating this practice for constant enhancement.

In essence, keeping a journal while trading enables you to jot down your thoughts and observations in real-time. Attempting to recall and note these post-trading could result in omission of crucial insights and details that were evident in the moment.

Predict, Assess, and Learn

A vital facet of price action trading is the capability to anticipate key entry points in the market. These entry points are the zones where traders foresee potential setups.

The educator you choose should arm you with a method to dissect the market context. This component of the material is pivotal as not all setups are alike.

Let's delve into the following instance to elucidate our prediction:

1. Launch your charting platform and scrutinize the price action.
2. Plot channels and identify support/resistance (S/R) levels on your chart.
3. Consider the placement of price in relation to the exponential moving average (EMA).
4. By applying the principles provided by your selected educators, we can assess the market and forecast potential setups.

For example, envision that the London session is on the verge of commencement, and we intend to forecast the direction in which we plan to enter at the session's opening.

Document your prediction directly on your chart or log it in your journal.

A sample prediction might read as:

"Following the observation of an overshoot in an uptrend, succeeded by a double top pattern, I discerned a sharp fall below the EMA, complemented by bearish gaps. This hints at a probable reversal, and I am contemplating a short position at the EMA."

If for any reason, you find yourself unable to make predictions, seek a more adept and efficient educator to equip you with necessary knowledge and insights.

Once your prediction materializes, rate its precision assigning it 1-5 stars, along with a succinct justification for your rating.

If your prediction misses the mark significantly, it points to the need for further review. Investigate the reasons behind the failed prediction. Study the charts to understand the factors that resulted in the failure. If identifying the cause eludes you, refer back to the educational materials provided by your chosen educators. It's imperative to remember that when something in price action fails, it usually harbors a reason, and uncovering it is your duty.

Now, let's imagine that our prediction has materialized. By this point, you should possess a solid understanding of the setup and an approximation of the number of bars it will take to occur. This is when you start building a strong case for your trade, ensuring you gather a minimum of 5-10 positives and no more than 1-2 negatives.

These positives should be starkly clear to you, and after the trade execution, you should be able to document these positives and negatives.

During this stage, you might be pressed for time to note all these positives and negatives directly on the chart in a box or via our logging or journaling features. In such instances, keep this information in your mind and later, post-trade, document them on the chart for reference.

Postives:

1. Second entry short
2. Strong signal bar
3. Clear 2 legs back to EMA
4. Lower high
5. Entry below and at the EMA
6. Uptrend overshoot prior to London open, indicating a possible reversal
7. Double top before opening
8. Robust push below EMA with bearish gaps forming, suggesting a potential channel spike

Negatives:

1. Potential continuation of the uptrend

By dissecting the pros and cons of the setup, we can evaluate the potential of the trade. It is crucial to have a significant count of pros and limited cons, ideally around 5-10 pros and no more than 1-2 cons, to justify initiating the trade.

Now, evaluate your trade on a scale of 1-5 and provide a reason for your rating. If the trade fails and your prediction turns out incorrect, it is vital to identify the reason behind the error. The answer to your mistake is in the chart itself or in the educational materials provided by your chosen educators or support forum.

Next, apply the soft price action rules provided by your educator to anticipate the market's next move. Repeat this process throughout the trading session, ensuring you analyze each potential move and setup and construct a case based on the pros and cons for every trade.

The Art of Trade Review

Conduct a review of your trading sessions daily, weekly, or monthly, as per your convenience. I personally suggest reviewing the session the next day.

During the review, you will possess a wider perspective than what you experienced during the live trading. If you've been proactively predicting moves and trades throughout the trading session, your review process should be relatively straightforward. The goal is to pinpoint the shortcomings and provide an overall performance rating with a note.

For instance:

"I rate this session 2 stars as I didn't let my trades run long enough."

The rationale behind your review rating will offer valuable insights into areas needing improvement. Use this as a heading in your journal and concentrate on addressing and rectifying that specific issue. Although the path of self-improvement in trading can be demanding, adhering to what we call the review-learn cycle will reveal considerable progress in your trading skills within a brief time.

It's crucial to acknowledge that if you opt not to journal your trades and predictions as you trade, making progress as a trader may prove challenging.

In Search of Solutions

Discovering solutions to the missteps is imperative. Remember to rate your trades and predictions on a scale of 1-5 stars. Keep making predictions and executing trades during your trading sessions.

Invest sufficient time in thoroughly reviewing everything on the platform that receives a low rating. Delve into the learning materials, analyze charts, and seek additional resources to boost your understanding. Persevere and keep learning until you attain profitability.

I firmly hold the belief that nearly anyone can learn to trade by adhering to this process. We sincerely wish you success on your trading journey.

Be assured, we are committed to refining and updating this guide as time progresses. However, it should already be evident what is required to learn and improve in price action.

If you have further questions or require any other assistance, feel free to reach out.