I look forward to your trade breakdowns, Jim! 
No problem , they might not be the best , but they will be breakdown of trades 
25th September 2025 btc
Missed entry, relative to my analysis from yesterday failed ,I realised that in a Distibutio.cycle you don’t get that much of a deep retracement OTE ,
But I did get an entry I that 4hr -fvg
Especially with that liquidity inside been raided and rejected but I close too soon ,for fear of loss, as I had very limited capital on bybit could have used my demo
It’s very obvious price isn’t going back there ,it was a clean trade setup yet I missed,or gave it up . For a swing trade the 4hr is where my setup should form and it did , but I ,fear ,and lack of confidence,I still feel bad ,but Ill wait for another entry rather than chasing
Also there was a 90min. SMT between BTC& ETH after that 4hr lq raid
though the day just began, I expect the today’s news drivers to expand price lower
Let’s see if price trades above/ close to the midnight open price
September 25, 2025
Trade #: Trade 1
Asset/Pair: BTC USD
Entry Price: 11555
Exit Price: 108500
Position: short
Trade Outcome: Profit ()/r:r 1:1
Reason for Trade: LQ raid on 1H chart into fp.fvg
What Went Well: price expanded as expected, DOL was good .
What to Improve: Could’ve taken a smooth & better entry if I had left emotions out
When I’m bearish, I’ll only focus on PDAs that should resist price vice versa
Notes: because I was emotional I was seeking something that was technically illogical at moment (expecting price to trade back above a pdh that raided lq and rejected, in a strong bear trend
I absolutely love this style of post. This is what a trading journal entry should look like.
When you look back on this with some distance, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned and what mistakes you’ve made. In other words, you’ll see how far you’ve come.
Keep it up! 
Thanks for your words of encouragement, I’m moved to keep learning and sharing
6months since I last journaled publicly, hopefully this time , I remain consistent
Meanwhile I closed a trade this morning, so i might as well Journal
As a trader I sometimes get biased (favour)and it would be fair to say emotionally attached , how can I analyse DXY confirm it to be bullish and its in fact playing out and because I love gold to be on the moon ,I ignore all technical and fundamental reasons why gold could go lower , and just hit buy because 1hr said so 
and TP is set to ATH great , but the daily is still bearish ,not even a CSD (up-lose candle close above a down-close candle) Had to manually close that, wasn’t much of loss, but it still counts as one though. I don’t care if It rallies after , its not part of my gameplay it doesn’t check my rule of CE: confirmation entry ,I’m happy I closed it ,
Meanwhile the outcome for gold 
17th April 2026
Watching Asia H for EU and GU and Asia L for DXY if we find support, I’m still leaning towards the downside short-term atleast ,1.13500 for GU meanwhile i prefer to EU and GU does not find support above Asia, I prefer a raid scenario, but that’s just how Im looking at the market right now .(Currently London open/session) . Today is Friday and no major or red folder event on the economic calendar, except for FOMC member Waller’s speech by 2pm , , a good reason to be cautious + it a Friday , I have my short on GU trailed.
5pm GMT 12am EST 17th April update
Another Freaky Friday the above didn’t pay out a I expected, Fridays haven’t always worked well for me .
I might as well reduce my expectations and exposure .
Meanwhile the GU trade was closed at BE without an initial partial, I expected the Asia high to act as resistance and to push price lower ,but then I could have taken partial since I was already up about 2.5x, and I was sure it was headed for Asia high I saw it coming. This is what I don’t normally do (i take partials alot on my trades to give me confidence to hold the rest of the TP ).
The good thing about this week is that I took few trades and had a proper understanding of my trade execution even though my trade management was really bad , I saw what gold did but I’m not freaking out as to why I closed early , it rallied all the way to my TP (I’ll attach the screenshot to the previous post) after I manually closed it ,
Going forward I’ll adjust my trade management so it allows me to keep my paper gains locked
Cut my expectations and exposure when it Friday :
I’m really glad you’ve started journaling again. I’ll be watching you 
20th April 2026 9am GMT 4am EST
I’m sitting out today, I think we might see a bit of range up till London Close or Asia heading into Tuesday. I suspect Tuesday London open might offer strong expansion ,
I’m looking at today as/like the Asian range for the week , I’m neutral today but “gun to my head”(ICT’s words) I’d like to see the range high taken and failing to act as support therefore rolling downwards , but then I’ll wait for price to do it’s thing ,
21st April 2026
I had FOMO, cause I was busy with other activities, I didn’t want to miss the trade , and rush into taking an entry I wasn’t supposed to because I expected price was going to expand aggressively afterwards but it didn’t, I had to manually close when I saw price going against my trade idea .I knew it was going to
hit my stop so I close it
Trade journal for Wednesday 22nd April 2026
I was abit occupied I almost forgot to put this down ,but then here I am doi it . So in the early hours of Wednesday at Asia session (I was there because I believed London had something to offer , 2am EST GBP CPI release ) had to prepare, I had a bearish bias which I’ve been holding on to for EU and GU base on what I had seen on the DXY,. On the 4hr TF the 13pm 4hr candle had formed a range across and all 3 market/pair where trading within it ,then I saw what looked like a potential high and low for Asia So I had it drawn out across EU GU and DXY, with intentions of adjusting if new highs are made in the session it held up fine .
Since I was bearish I was looking to see a buyside raided and my interest was in the Asia and 13pm 4hr candle high (I saw those as relatively equal highs) just before the 2am release 1:45am did the run and retraced , and this point I had a little bit of FOMO, I when in early and then added another entry pass t 5am when I noticed price was ready to move .
I’ve seen GU lagging for some times now showing strength against my bearish idea on price , but because of that 2am GBP CPI release, I felt it would bring enough volatility to breakdown GU but I didn’t. I’ll do well to consider shorting weaker pair and buying stronger pairs when necessary,
So in total I took 4 trades on EU and GU just at London 2 for each . I took partial closing 1 position for each pair just before the retracement up into the range . So I was left with 1 position for each pair GU showed so much strength trading high into the range taking me out at BE. I was left with 1 position in EU , I went short again on both pairs knowing it was just a retracement as there was an SMT (bearish ) GU took out NY high .but EU didn’t. But I decide to close all trade and call it a day reason being that I didnt re allocate my risk I used the same risk amount as my initial trades , but I didn’t want to give back the profit I had made, , also GU seem very discouraging to me so I couldn’t hold it .
Whenever there is a purge and a reversal and displacement follows keep in mind that there a very high chance for a retracement back into the displacement fvg , that’s the first entry opportunity low risk entry( becaus trying to catch the top , is a riskier entry ) ,
But if you had entered at or near the top/bottom of the reversal,the best thing to do is to take partial on signs of a retracement back into the displacement leg , it’s not a time to panic and close in drawdown, because the retracement can go deeper than expected triggering fear , that’s why the partial is important .
That retracement is a significant signature ICT himself taught it as the 2022 YouTube model first retracement into a MSS fvg , which took place after a purge on LQ . It’s a good entry opportunity because the number of times I’ve seen it in the chart speed usually comes after .
30th April 2026 Thursday
London session
Economic calendar, interest rate, GBP and EUR
This loss was unnecessary, but I was too eager that I didn’t wait for CE on the LTF ,
Also I got married to my analysis and ignored ND failed to see the signs of a change in trend
It wasn’t a stop placement problem it was just wrong analysis and bias
With so many economic releases those could be landmines, warning 
signs
_______
I’ll Be more flexible with how I view the market , keep zooming out on my HTF to see if the trend, analy6and bias is still valid or changing
Avoid trading just before interest rate release even for currencies like the Pound and Euro as thy may carry significant volatility just as that of Dollar , why not it’s interest rate the biggest driver for currencies
________
I like that fact that I left my stop intact even when I realised the trade won’t play out for me , though the loss was painful, it is better for price to invalidate my trade that for me to do so .
Today being 1st May 2026
In this new month
I hope to be more disciplined with my trade execution, Journal more and review more , study more .
Visual recap for April not the best but they were lessons learnt
it’s nice because you realized your mistake, but I think we need a rules to aware when something feel wrong, a sign. Like when you want to take that trade so much, you have to find a reason to enter it, then don’t enter that trade
There are rules , they were overridden by emotion.
Monday 4th May 2026
Short on EU and GU
Economic events:nil , GBP bank holiday
Entry : Asia 24:04 EST 4:04 GMT
Exit : London 5:08 EST 10:08 GMT
~6hrs
There was a sweep at a key level on GU and also a sweep on EU. Also an SMT (GU took out PMH while EU failed to ) the Friday body close below the raided LQ gave me much confluence
A 4hr CSD and multiple rejection. Both pairs had similar price action
My entry was in Asia when I saw price tap the 1hr -fvg
