Back to Basic

Flat, Frustrated, and Still Winning

I finished today flat.
No trades. No gains. Just charts and notes.

On paper, that sounds like nothing. In practice, it was harder than taking a loss. Because the market moved exactly where I thought it would. I called it right, but didn’t step in.

That’s where the frustration creeps in.
It feels like you missed it.
Like you failed to act.

But that’s not the truth.

The truth is I followed my process.
My rules told me: not yet, not here.
So I stayed out.

Flat isn’t failure.
Flat is discipline.
It’s the choice that keeps mental capital intact for tomorrow, when the setup is cleaner and conviction is higher.

Some days the market pays in money.
Other days it pays in patience.

Both are wins – if you respect the process.

The Window Is the Edge

by Gav Leave a Comment

Most traders think edge lives in the chart.
Patterns, indicators, setups.

But this week reminded me that edge often lives in time.

I’ve been trading Tokyo mornings with smaller probes.

The pattern is clear: the first 90 minutes tell the truth. Moves are clean, the flow is directional. After that, the market slides into chop. Price flicks above and below VWAP, nothing sticks, and the mental cost rises with every candle.

The difference between those two windows isn’t subtle.

In the morning, I can place a trade with structure. Stop above anchor, target at a nearby high. If it works, partials are booked. If it doesn’t, stop gets hit clean and I’m out. By midday, the same logic doesn’t hold. Levels blur. One candle takes back the last three. There’s no reward for discipline, only noise.

It’s tempting to keep pushing. The screen is open, the tools are ready, the itch is there. But edge isn’t available all day. Recognizing when your edge is present and when it’s gone is as much part of the job as entry or exit.

This isn’t just about Tokyo. London opens give similar clarity.

Early, when volume is fresh, the market declares itself. Later, the grind takes over. I’ve learned it’s better to shut the book after the first clean hand than sit through a long, messy game.

The same pattern applies outside trading.

Writers know their sharpest hours.

Runners know when their stride feels easiest.

Builders know the window when focus comes without friction.

That’s where the real work gets done.

The mistake is trying to be “on” all day. Edge doesn’t scale like that. It narrows. It asks for respect.

So this week’s reminder was simple: my edge isn’t just what I trade, it’s when. Tokyo mornings. London opens. That’s my window. My job is to guard it, trade it cleanly, and step aside when it closes.

The rest isn’t wasted time. It’s preserved capital, preserved energy, and preserved clarity.

Because the window is the edge.

The Discipline of Probe Trades

by Gav Leave a Comment

Not every trade is meant to be a winner. Some trades are meant to ask a question.

This week reminded me of that.

A few setups looked ready to run, and I stepped in with small size to test the waters. The market’s response wasn’t there. Instead of forcing it, I cut them quickly. On paper, those trades were scratches. In practice, they were wins for discipline.

What a Probe Trade Really Is

A probe trade isn’t about profit. It’s about information.

When I talk about “probes,” I mean the small, deliberate entries I take to see if the market will confirm the bias I see. They’re light, low-risk, and designed to answer a question:

“Is the flow with me, or not?”

If it’s with me, the probe turns into a signal that I can press size when structure lines up.
If it’s not, the cost is minimal — I step aside and reset.

Why They Matter

The obvious reason is risk control. A probe that fails costs next to nothing. But the bigger reason is psychological.

Probes protect mental capital. They stop me from bleeding slowly in chop. They keep me from turning stubborn when the market isn’t ready. They act as a buffer between “having a bias” and “betting the farm on it.”

The probe lets me test my read without needing to be right. And that’s a huge difference in trading mindset.

A Week in Reflection

Take this Friday as an example.

Price pushed through a level that often sets off momentum. I took a small long — half of what I’d normally use, because the entry was away from my base. For a few minutes, it looked like it might run. Then it fizzled.

The old me would have held on, hoping it came back. Or worse, doubled down to prove the point. This time, I scratched it at break-even and moved on.

That’s a win. Not because of PnL, but because I executed exactly what a probe is for: I asked the market a question. The answer was no. That was enough.

Letting Probes Fail Quickly

This is the hard part.

A probe isn’t a position you defend. It’s not something you justify or fight for. It should either:

Work quickly and give you confidence, or
Fail quickly and be scratched.

Anything in between, the waiting, the hoping defeats the purpose. The moment you start treating a probe like a conviction trade, you’ve lost the edge it was meant to give you.

Carrying the Lesson Forward

What I carry from this week is simple: probes are discipline in action.

They don’t exist to make money. They exist to keep me aligned with the market without bleeding, without tilt, and without ego. They’re a filter that stops me from turning every bias into a big bet.

Over time, the ability to separate probes from production trades is what creates consistency. The probe asks the question. The production trade presses the answer.

Closing Reflection

A probe is just a question to the market. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Either way, you’re further ahead than you were before you asked.

And in trading, progress often looks like restraint.

Have a good weekend,

Gav

What a Week of Journaling My Trades Taught Me

by Gav Leave a Comment

Trading isn’t just about charts. It’s about showing up, paying attention, and writing down what actually happens.

This past week, I journaled every single Tokyo session I traded. The surprising part? The lessons I pulled from journaling were more valuable than the trades themselves.

1. Showing Up Matters More Than Chasing Setups

When you sit down with a routine — same time, same preparation — clarity comes naturally. I realized that consistency in showing up gave me more insight than running after the perfect setup.

2. Context First

Without context, every tick looks like noise.
Starting with a higher view of the market before drilling down grounded me. It gave me a map instead of staring at random movements.

3. Process Over Prediction

The real value wasn’t in calling tops or bottoms. It was in sticking to a process: observe, wait, execute, manage.
A “good trade” wasn’t always a winning one — it was one where I followed my sequence without shortcuts.

4. Knowing When Not to Trade

Some sessions are clean. Others are messy.
The mistakes usually came not from the charts, but from me forcing trades in chop. Learning to sit out was just as important as pulling the trigger.

5. Scaling and Securing Gains

Swinging for home runs never felt right.
What worked better was scaling out, locking in gains, and letting the rest play. Journaling helped me see this pattern in my own behavior — it’s how I trade best.

6. Journaling Sharpens the Edge

Writing every day exposed trends:

Times when the market tended to trend
My emotional reactions
The entries I actually trusted

That’s where edge lives — in small observations that only surface when you put them on paper.

7. A Trader’s Edge Is Boring

No magic indicators. No secret tricks.
Just structure, discipline, and the habit of writing things down until they become instinct. That’s how consistency is built.

Closing thought:
Edges don’t just come from charts. They come from showing up, sticking to process, and journaling until the lessons compound into something usable.

My Chart Gets Cleaned Before My Teeth Are Brushed

by Gav Leave a Comment

Why I reset my charts daily, not for analysis, but to clear mental noise before the session even begins

I clean my charts before I brush my teeth.

Not because it’s efficient.

Not because I’m a robot with a routine.

But because it clears the noise before the market adds its own.

A blank chart is a calm mind

Every morning, I open TradingView and reset my workspace.

No zones.

No lines.

No indicators.

Only price left on the chart.

I’ll take a moment to scroll through the session range, maybe glance at the prior day’s high/low and then I strip it all down again.

This isn’t prep.

It’s decompression.

By the time most people sit down to trade, their charts look like a conspiracy wall. Arrows, alerts, fibs, last week’s “almost perfect” setup. All of it bleeds into the next session. Quietly, it biases you.

Cleaning is part of the work

Wiping the chart is like cleaning your kitchen before you cook.

You could technically still prep your meal with yesterday’s mess in the way. But it slows you down. It clutters your thinking. Eventually, you’ll grab the wrong knife.

Same with trading.

Old markings aren’t neutral, they’re sticky. You draw them with conviction, and they start to feel permanent. Even if price has moved on.

So I clear everything.

Because if the setup’s real, it’ll reappear. If the bias holds, I’ll see it again.

And if not? Then maybe it never deserved to be there in the first place.

This isn’t about minimalism

It’s about mental hygiene.

A clean chart doesn’t guarantee good trades. But it does reduce one form of self-sabotage: hanging onto yesterday’s story when today’s market is telling a new one.

And for me, the act of cleaning isn’t some aesthetic flex.

It’s a reset switch.

It means I’m not coming to the market already halfway into a narrative. I’m coming in with a fresh look and that’s when I trade best.

Try it for a week

If you’re the type who adds layers every day but never subtracts, give this a go.

Reset your chart before your coffee.

No zones, no indicators, just price.

Start clean.

Then see what really shows up.

—

Second Nature is a series about the small habits that make trading smoother.
Nothing fancy. Just things I’ve built into my rhythm.

If you’ve got one of your own, keep refining it. That’s how your edge gets sharper. Quietly, over time.

Coffee Thoughts – The Market Owes You Nothing

by Gav Leave a Comment

I thought I was past this.

After a string of red days, I caught myself thinking:
“Surely I’m due for a winner.”

That quiet little expectation-
like the market keeps tabs and eventually hands you a break.

It doesn’t.

You can show up on time, follow your plan, do all the right things… and still lose.
Then show up sloppy the next day and somehow walk away green.
There’s no moral balance sheet here.

The market doesn’t reward effort.
It doesn’t care how bad yesterday felt.
It doesn’t owe you a damn thing.

And honestly? That’s hard to swallow when you’ve been doing this for a while.
Because with some experience comes pride.
And pride says, “I deserve better.”

But trading doesn’t care what you think you deserve.

Each session is a reset.
Each trade has its own terms.
If you’re dragging yesterday’s emotion into today’s execution, you’re already off-balance.

That mindset – “I’m owed” is subtle, but dangerous.
It leads to forced trades, oversized positions, trying to make the market give back what it “took.”

What helped me:
Reminding myself that my job isn’t to be right.
It’s to stay aligned with my process — regardless of what the market gives (or doesn’t).

Some days it pays.
Some days it doesn’t.
But none of it is personal.

— Gav, with coffee

Side note: If you’ve been at this for a while and still feel the pull of emotional trades, my Back to Basics of Trading series might help sharpen your edge again.

Flat, Frustrated, and Still Winning

The Window Is the Edge