In the Spirit of Growth and Shared Success: Journey in The Leap

Aug 10

(tradingview.com/the-leap/tradestation-july-2026/)

Trading is often viewed as a solitary pursuit, but true progress comes from testing our boundaries, learning alongside a global community, and sharing the fruits of our efforts.

Participating in The Leap with TradeStation on TradingView has been an extraordinarily rewarding experience—not just in refining strategies and navigating market dynamics, but in realizing how much power lies in collective learning and friendly competition.

I am deeply grateful for the insights gained and the community built along the way. In that spirit of generosity and mutual support, I want to share my journey, strategies, and key takeaways with fellow traders looking to hone their skills. May we all continue to learn from one another, lift each other up, and reach new heights together.

Aug 17

Note

Stop Guessing, Start Demanding: The Professional’s Path to Mastery

Most traders treat the market like a guessing game. They "think" a stock will go up, so they buy. But as we’ve discussed, "thinking" is often just a sign of ignorance; a professional "formulaic trader" replaces that ego-driven noise with a rigid, objective execution process. To achieve "thoughtless action," you need to stop reacting to your mind and start demanding specific behavior from the market.

The path to mastery involves a simple but powerful three-step system: Direction, Location, and Confirmation.

1. Direction: Finding the River’s Flow
Before you place a trade, you must know which way the "river" is flowing. We use the moving average as our compass to reveal the line of least resistance. It isn't a magic timing tool for buying or selling; it’s a guard rail to keep you in harmony with the dominant trend.

If the price is trading above a rising moving average, the direction is up—you only look for buying opportunities. If it’s below a falling average, the direction is down. If the average is flat, the market is undecided, and you simply wait.

2. Location: Strategic Patience
Once you know the direction, you don't just jump in anywhere. You act like a hunter waiting at a specific "line in the sand". This is Location. You are looking for pivotal points, like significant ceilings or floors where the market has previously struggled.

These locations are where the character of the market is likely to change. Instead of chasing a move that has already "run a marathon," the mentored trader waits for the price to reach these critical points before committing any capital.

3. Confirmation: The Final Validation
The final step is Confirmation, which provides the rational basis for your entry. A true breakout occurs when the price slices through a pivotal ceiling or floor with conviction and holds.

How do you know it’s real and not a trap? You look at volume. A reliable move is confirmed when volume "roars" or surges, proving that a large number of participants are committing real capital to the move. In a healthy trend, volume should increase during the main move and decrease during pullbacks. If pullbacks occur on higher volume, the trend’s conviction is weakening.

Becoming a Market Demander
By aligning Direction, Location, and Confirmation, you move beyond subjective "pops" and become a "whale hunter". You aren't guessing; you are executing a formula. This discipline is what allows the mentored trader to ignore emotional impulses and follow the "Eight Steps to Money" with professional consistency.

Does it make sense how using the moving average as a compass and volume as a validator takes the guesswork out of your entries?

Aug 19

Note

Hey traders! 🛢️ Let’s break down this powerful setup in Crude Oil.
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- This is a textbook Bull Elephant Bar Plus Clearing. Notice how it decisively stands taller than the previous five bars. But the real magic is the Location. It’s surging right off the 200 SMA while clearing a chunk of data to the left.

- In our formula, surges off a flat 200 are the "creme de la creme". Because it’s a clearing event off this key moving average, we don't even need a time filter; the conviction is unmistakable.

What is a time filter? →
...a time filter (also referred to as Time in Formation or TIF) is a specific rule governing anticipatory entries that requires a minimum amount of time to pass during a candlestick’s formation before a trader is allowed to strike.
Its primary purpose is to provide the trader with a higher degree of certainty that a bar will maintain its current state (such as an Elephant Bar) upon closing, preventing an instrument from having too much time to reverse and "change its nature" after the trader has already committed capital.

- By focusing on these objective structures → State, Position, and Event → we stop guessing and start demanding high-probability behavior from the market. 📈

What is a State of an instrument? →
...a state refers to the current condition of an instrument or market based on the physical relationship between its price and its two primary moving averages: the 20-period simple moving average (20ma) and the 200-period simple moving average (200ma).

The Mentored Trader knows that every tradable item vacillates between two dominant states, with a transitional third state in between:

1. The Narrow State (The "Inhale") →
a) Definition: This state occurs when the price, the 20ma, and the 200ma are all clustered relatively close together.
b) Significance: It represents the market "inhaling" or consolidating power. This is the most certain point in the market because it is a "heightened level of certainty" that an explosive breakout (an "exhale") is imminent.
c) Trading Strategy: The best trades of a trader's life are said to emerge from narrow states. Traders look for clearing elephant bars to ignite a move out of this state.

2. The Wide State (The "Exhale") →
a) Definition: This state is reached when the 20ma and 200ma separate and become far apart from each other.
b) Levels of Wide: The Mentored Trader identifies "layers" of wideness. The ultimate wide state is the "three-finger spread," where the 200ma is far from the 20ma, and the price is far from the 20ma.
c) Significance: It represents the market having "exhaled" its momentum. While wide states can continue for some time, they signal that the trend is mature and a "snap back" reversal toward the averages is likely.
d) Trading Strategy: Traders become contrarian in wide states, looking for reversal signs (like topping/bottoming tails or 180s) to play the move back toward the averages.

3. The Middle State (The Zone of Mastery) →
a) Definition: This is the transitional phase between the narrow and wide states.
b) Significance: The Mentored Trader calls this the "zone of mastery" because it involves managing, adding to, and holding positions as they trend. It is characterized by the 20ma moving into a smooth rise or decline.
c) Trading Strategy: This is where the "Color Game" is played and traders follow the trend by buying green bars that eliminate red bars (near a rising 20ma) or shorting red bars that eliminate green bars (near a declining 20ma).

The Market Cycle →
The methodology views the market as a repetitive breathing mechanism: Narrow (Inhale) → Wide (Exhale) → back to Narrow. By identifying the state, a professional trader eliminates guesswork and simply matches their trading style (breakout, trend following, or contrarian) to the market's current physical condition.

Does it make sense why this "skyscraper" bar signals such a strong entry?