Apex Trader Funding Journal - 23May2024 - US Session

The market has fallen significantly since the open and the expectation is price will now chop sideways, or rise in a bear flag, for the remainder of the session.

Trade 6 consolidates below the initial entry but increasing higher lows give confidence to stay in the trade.  The exit is based on price being unable to re-enter the consolidation block to the left (see first orange line).

Trade 7.  Once price enters the consolidation block and is supported by strong bids, this is a quick scalp to 1t below the top of the consolidation block.

Trade 8.  In the consolidation block, Order Flow shows that price is likely to break higher.  A long is entered expecting a move higher.  This trade moves lower but Order Flow supports staying in the trade.

Trade 9.  As price retests the breakdown area, this is a decision point - to cancel losing trade 8, or to add.  There is support below (the 3rd orange line) so if the trade is wrong, there will be an opportunity to exit all trades at 5328.  Trade 8 was a failed break lower and price has re-entered the consolidation range, so I enter a 2nd position long with a target of the FVG (which coincides with my initial entry).  Price breaks above the breakdown area (the 2nd orange line) by one tick, and the bid moves up.  There are no sellers at the higher bid so this gives me the confidence to stay in both trades.  Adding to a losing trade once is allowed under Apex DCA rules.

Trade 10.  A second scalp is entered on exactly the same thesis as trade 9, but with a closer profit target.  This second scalp is allowed as it is only adding to the losing trade once - Trade 9 was closed before opening Trade 10.

Trade 8 exit.  Although in hindsight it is easy to see the correct decision would have been to stay in the trade, I decided to exit at a small loss.  There were a sequence of lower highs which caused me to doubt that price would break higher from this level.

Trade 11.  Although I had just exited Long Trade 8, on this cycle it failed to make a lower low, and instead made a higher low.  In addition it dropped just 1 tick below a small consolidation area into a micro FVG and there was strong bid support and positive delta.  I therefore entered a long to scalp back to the top of the range.

Trades 12 to 17.  Order Flow now supports weakening resistance and strengthening support, so break-out scalps are taken when Order Flow shows strong bid support.

Trade 18 broke support (the last horizontal orange line), so the take profit was reduced to 3t and no more long 'break out' scalps should be taken until Order Flow reconfirms higher prices.

Green lines indicate winning trades.  Red lines indicate losing trades.

Trade: The trade number on this day.

DCA: Dollar Cost Average - This increases each time a trade is added to a losing trade.  As per Apex rules, this should never be greater than 1.

AIP: Add In Profit - This increases each time a trade is added to a winning trade.  This can be unlimited.

Entry: Time in UTC.

Exit: Time in UTC.

Size: The number of ES contracts traded.

Direction: Long or Short.

MAE: Maximum Adverse Excursion.  This is the maximum number of ticks the trade moved against me during the duration of the trade.  As per Apex rules, this should average less than 4 (risk) to 1 (reward).  Apex have stated that this is not a hard rule providing risk is sensibly managed.

TC: Ticks Captured.  The number of ticks captured by the trade.  A negative number indicates a loss.  To calculate the profit, multiple TC by Size.