Daily Log - October 13, 2025

A few years ago I was sure I would never swing trade. I really liked the idea of scalping — quick in, quick out — and spending less time in the market to avoid fakeouts. But after trading for a few years now, I really think the time has come to test swing trading more seriously. After today, I actually think I might start to like it.

The concept of Al Brooks also includes scalping, but since the stop placement carries much larger risk compared to Mack or TW, it’s really not possible as a beginner in this strategy to only scalp. The risk/reward just isn’t sustainable, and you often have to scale in when a trade goes against you — and that’s no picnic. It can be deadly for both the prop account and the mind, LOL.

Today I started as planned, trading some Tradify evals using an Al Brooks-style approach. I’m far from a pro at it and mostly go on instinct about what I think are good entries in alignment with the context. This ties into the frustration I’ve had when trading the 2K chart—spending hours waiting for context to get clear, and once it does, there are often no true setups that follow the rules. Then, later, I’ll see an entry that looks great locally but ends up being a trap because it forms too late in the trend or in a mediocre location relative to context.

So today I focused mostly on the 5-minute chart. It’s much slower, but that’s actually a good thing—it gives me more time to analyze each bar: what happens if you enter here, both as a buyer and a seller? Who is this bar good for? Who is trapped now? Is the market more likely to go up or down?

Swing trading adds more risk, but it also gives much more time to evaluate whether to stay in a trade, add on, or just get out. With scalping, the stop loss is so tight that even the smallest move can take you out, leaving no time to react. With swing trading, you can tolerate bigger stops since the targets are larger, and you can still profit even with a win rate below 50%—or even 40%.

The only thing I find stressful now is the time spent in a trade. I’m used to being out within seconds or a few minutes, but a swing trade for 20–30 points can easily take a long time with several pullbacks. That’s something I need to get more comfortable with. Luckily, I have a good tolerance for not monkeying with trades, which is crucial for swing trading. Still, I need to watch for clues when a trade isn’t working as it should and take action to scratch or move to breakeven.

Not much to log on the 2K today since I hardly watched it—I was more focused on the 5-minute chart, and overall I liked it much more than I imagined. I’ll keep thinking about how to progress from here. It’s not easy to trade both the 2K and 5-minute charts at the same time, and evaluating entries for a swing trade versus a 2-point scalp is very different. Maybe I’ll spend a few weeks trading only the 5-minute chart, but I’ll see how it goes after a few more days.