Learn
Learn to read the auction
The ideas behind the journal, each in one place. New to market profile? Start with auction concepts, in order.
Auction concepts 8
Market profile, balance, opens, gaps and day types: how the auction works. Read in order.
Step 1Market profile guidelines and trading balanceThe loose rules I trade by: not absolute, but absolutely necessary for me to be consistent. How I spot a breakout of balance, how I trade it, and the mistakes to avoid: gStep 2Market profile spike and singles guidelinesA spike is emotional trading, and it leaves MGI we can trade against later. How I tell acceptance from rejection after a spike higher or lower, how I trade each, and my sStep 3Understanding market profile day typesWhere the time or volume builds, and how the distribution forms, tells us a lot about participants' positioning. The first step to using that is knowing your day types: hStep 4Market profile opening typesThe open gives us early clues to what participants intend, and the faster we recognise it, the less risk we need to take. The four opening types, how to spot each one, anStep 5TPOs, non-excess extremes and profile ledgesA non-excess high or low can mean continuation or absorption, and the two mean very different things. What TPOs, non-excess extremes and ledges are, how I tell the setupsStep 6How to trade VWAPA first look at VWAP, how and when to trade it: volume building into VWAP at 4140 on 6th June 2022, where it lined up with the IB low and the POC, and two execution exampStep 7Gaps and how to trade themThe two types of gap, the three things that can happen after an open out of range, a week of gaps marked on my chart, and the rules I use to trade them. Gaps announce thaStep 8Trading an inside day, week or monthInside structures often give a good risk-reward set-up, but it all happens at the extremes. How I spot a breakout that will sustain, how I trade it and avoid the false br
Trading events 5
NFP, CPI and PCE, holidays, month-end flows and elections: how scheduled events move the auction.
2022Trading non-farm payrollsNFP can trigger a rapid repricing of economic expectations and a temporary withdrawal of liquidity. What the release is, how I prepare with a reaction function table, the2022CPI and PCE: two measures of inflation, and how to trade themCPI is the inflation number everyone knows; PCE is the one the Fed actually uses. How they differ, why a hotter or softer print moves rates, the dollar and stocks, and th2022Trading the holiday effectHolidays drain liquidity, and a thin market can travel a long way from value before snapping back. What the holiday effect is, how it changes the auction, a back-test of 2022Delta, gamma and month-end flowsMy two-minute explanation of the two cyclical flows that move equity markets, option hedging into expiry and month-end rebalancing, with a diagram of how they shape a dow2024US election outcomes: strategy thoughtsElections move markets through the journey as well as the result. How the uncertainty feeds volatility, how I'd think about bonds, the yuan, crypto, energy, equities and
Mindset and process 9
The trading plan, the journal, losses, patience and knowing when to stop.
2024Writing a trading plan like a proA trading plan is the roadmap for your trading business. What it defines, why I keep my strategies in a separate playbook, and the habits that make it work: accountabilit2022What is a trade journal, and how important is it?What you don't track, you won't improve. Why a trading journal is the single most important tool for improving your performance, how to start one, what to write in it and2026Learn from your mistakesWhat Matthew Syed's Black Box Thinking taught me about failure: elite traders think like airline pilots, learning openly from every error, while struggling traders hide t2022Embrace trading failure: lessons from Black Box ThinkingMatthew Syed's Black Box Thinking contrasts aviation, which learns from every failure, with medicine, which too often covers it up. Elite traders think like pilots: how t2024Trading is gambling, and when to stopFor some traders, the rush of the trade becomes an addiction, and it's a physiological reality, not a figure of speech. How the reward loop works, the signs to look for, 2025Visualising success and failure: a motivational exerciseRecall your best trades and your worst mistake, then run both through your head before every session. The idea behind the exercise and the three steps to do it yourself; 2025Trading and patience: the conveyor belt analogyThe factory worker at the conveyor belt only lifts the boxes when they arrive; any other action is wasted. The market is the belt, the opportunities are the boxes, and pa2022A reminder to myselfA phone call with my friend and one-time mentor after his terrible week reminded me of four things about bad runs, rest and honesty. I needed to hear them myself.2023My lucky toilet break in trading9 months into a trainee scheme and £159 from a career stop, I bumped into the head trader in the men's toilet. One kind conversation turned my trading around, and what I
Research 1
Testing ideas with data before trading them.