First Teaching: Introduction to Trade Setup Elements

Introduction

• Welcome: First official teaching session.
• Introduction Video: Essential to watch for setting proper expectations.
• Focus: Futures index trading mentorship, predominantly on NASDAQ e-mini futures.
• Trading Scope: Using paper trading on tradingview.com.
• Comparison: Real trades shown on Thinkorswim's live data.

Market Focus

• Primary Market: NASDAQ e-mini futures (intraday price action).
• Additional Markets: E-mini S&P and E-mini Dow futures.
• Characteristics of NASDAQ: Faster and more aggressive.
• Key Objective: Understand price action and predict movements.

Mentorship Goals

• Teaching Method: Focus on paper trading and hindsight data.
• Comparison with Other Educators: Emphasize on real trades and transparency.
• Consistency: Understanding and finding specific setups in demo accounts.
• Risk Management: Not enticing trading with live funds.

Trading Mechanics

• Terminology: Handles, ticks, margins, etc.
• Micro Accounts: Lower risk, suitable for traders with smaller capital.
• Live Trading Examples: Demonstrated via real trades on Thinkorswim.

Key Concepts

• Price Action: Observing and predicting market movements.
• Reversals: Identifying and understanding market reversals.
• Execution: Entries, exits, long and short positions.
• Consistency: Finding and executing consistent trade setups.

Weekly Analysis

• Weekly Candle: Predicting weekly candle movement (higher or lower).
• Daily Chart: Focus on swing highs and lows for liquidity.
• Intraday Analysis: Majority of trading insights derived from daily chart.

Trading Process

• Initial Bias: Based on weekly candle prediction.
• Daily Liquidity: Identifying key swing highs and lows.
• Market Structure: Breaks in market structure and imbalances.
• Algorithmic Trading: Understanding market behavior driven by algorithms.

Detailed Example

• 15-Minute Chart: Highlighting key areas of liquidity and market structure.
• 2-Minute Chart: Detailed view of break in market structure and imbalances.

Trading Framework

• Imbalance: Area of price inefficiency used for trade entries.
• Fair Value Gap: Concept introduced in 2016, key to finding trade setups.
• Execution Strategy: Entries based on imbalances and market structure breaks.
• Risk Management: Stop-loss placement above or below key levels.

Homework and Practice

• Chart Review: Analyze E-mini futures contract charts for patterns.
• Timeframes: Focus on hourly, 15-minute, and 2-minute charts.
• Market Structure Breaks: Identify breakouts and imbalances in historical data.
• Liquidity Points: Recognize buy stops and sell stops in practice.
• Consistency: Practice recognizing and executing trade setups.

Conclusion

• Next Lesson: Build on the foundation with next episode.
• Homework Assignment: Detailed review and practice of concepts taught.
• Encouragement: Keep studying and practicing for mastery.
• Next Session: Scheduled for next Tuesday, 10 o'clock New York local time.

Good Luck and Good Trading!