When I got to the chart, the market looked like it was forming a trading range after a big spike up that closed the overnight gap. Prices then dropped sharply — a big up, big down move — confirming the range structure.

At the bottom of the range, we got a great bullish signal bar, and I took the trade, expecting a second leg up back toward the top of the range. I got trapped on the initial entry, but I scaled in on the move back up and managed to get out at breakeven. I still have a lot to learn about scaling in. I was pretty scared during the strong bear pullback, so my main focus was just getting out at breakeven. In reality, I could have held it — prices did return to my entry, and it could have been a nice profit if I had kept the contracts. But scaling in is still a work in progress for me, and I only did this on my five eval accounts.

After I exited, prices continued up to the top of the range. At the top, the market formed a LH MTR, but I didn’t take it since I wasn’t sure — it would have worked nicely. Prices then tested the previous low, and the market formed a small bearish flag. I didn’t trust that setup either, since I was leaning toward a range day and was thinking it could easily form a double bottom. But prices broke out of the flag and made another strong bearish leg down.