Hustler — admin in FMITC community — is the reason I started taking trading seriously as a craft, not a gamble. He has spent more than fifteen years working the markets, and instead of locking that experience behind a paywall, he shows up every single day to teach, review charts, and answer questions for anyone who wants to learn.
His classroom is a free, Macedonian-speaking community, and the bar he sets is simple: study hard, respect risk, and keep improving. This page exists to recognize that work and to collect everything I have learned from him in one place so I never lose the thread.
This is not a marketing page. It is a quiet thank-you from a student who would not be on this path without him.
Qullamaggie's edge is riding momentum breakouts and episodic pivots. He buys stocks that have a catalyst (earnings, news, sector rotation) and are breaking out of a consolidation on massive volume. His holding period is typically 1-20 days.
He also shorts parabolic stocks — names that have gone vertical and show signs of exhaustion. His short setups are high-conviction, quick trades.
- Grew a small account to $100M+ in verified gains
- Publicly streams his trading and education for free on Twitch/YouTube
- Documented his journey from ~$5K starting capital
- One of the most followed momentum traders worldwide
- Proved that momentum trading scales to nine figures
- Episodic Pivots — his signature setup. A catalyst event + massive gap + flag consolidation = entry
- Breakout trading — how to identify and trade clean breakouts from tight bases
- Parabolic shorts — how to short stocks that have gone vertical and show exhaustion
- Position sizing — how to scale in and manage risk across multiple positions
- The power of cash — being flat IS a position. Waiting for the right setup is a skill
- Transparency — he shares losses as openly as wins, teaching you that losing is part of the game
Minervini's edge is buying leading growth stocks at precise entry points using his SEPA framework. He combines technical analysis (VCP patterns, stage analysis) with strict fundamental criteria (accelerating EPS, revenue growth, institutional sponsorship).
His position sizing and risk management are legendary — he risks 0.5%-1.25% per trade and has achieved 220% annual returns with single-digit drawdowns.
- U.S. Investing Championship winner — multiple times with returns of 155%+ in a single year
- Averaged 220% annual return over a 5-year period
- Author of two bestselling books on trading methodology
- Featured in Jack Schwager's Stock Market Wizards
- Built his fortune from a small starting capital through disciplined execution
- Created the VCP (Volatility Contraction Pattern) framework used worldwide
- VCP Pattern — volatility contraction as the ultimate entry timing tool
- Stage Analysis — Weinstein's 4 stages applied to modern growth stocks
- SEPA checklist — a systematic entry criteria that removes guesswork
- Risk management math — the specific formulas for position sizing and stop placement
- Earnings analysis — how to read EPS acceleration and revenue trends
- Selling discipline — when to take profits and when to let winners run
O'Neil's edge is systematic stock selection through the CAN SLIM framework — a 7-factor checklist combining Current earnings, Annual earnings, New products/management, Supply & demand, Leaders, Institutional sponsorship, and Market direction.
He proved that the biggest stock winners of every decade share the same fundamental and technical characteristics — and that those characteristics can be identified before the move.
- Founded Investor's Business Daily (IBD) — one of the most influential financial publications
- Made his first million by age 30 trading stocks in the 1960s
- Bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange at age 30
- His book "How to Make Money in Stocks" has sold 2M+ copies
- Created the O'Neil Database — the most comprehensive study of winning stocks in history
- Influenced every major momentum trader of the last 50 years
- CAN SLIM stock selection — the systematic checklist that filters thousands of stocks down to the few worth buying
- Cup with Handle pattern — the base pattern that preceded many of the greatest stock winners in history
- Market direction analysis — how to use follow-through days and distribution days to time the market
- Relative Strength — always buy the strongest stocks relative to the market, never the cheapest
- Selling rules — the 7-8% stop loss rule and the 20-25% profit-taking rule
- Historical precedent — studying 100 years of winners teaches you what to look for today
The Episodic Pivot is triggered by an unpredictable binary event that changes investors' perception of a stock. The market must literally reprice the stock to a new level — former buyers take profit, shorts cover, and new institutional investors enter simultaneously.
The key is the extraordinary volume (10× to 50× the average): it confirms that major players are involved. Without this volume, the gap can close quickly.
Qullamaggie often enters in the first minutes of the open, once the gap direction is confirmed. He then looks for a pullback to VWAP or the gap zone as an add-on entry point.
The Breakout is one of Qullamaggie's most classic setups. The principle is simple: the best stocks in Stage 2 (uptrend) make brief pauses of several weeks to months, allowing institutions to accumulate quietly.
The signature of accumulation is the volume drying up progressively during the consolidation. When volume returns massively and price breaks the resistance, that's the signal that institutions have finished accumulating and let the price run.
Qullamaggie looks for tight bases of 4 to 20 weeks, with an amplitude of less than 25–30%. The tighter the base, the greater the potential upside.
The Parabolic Short exploits market irrationality in its final phase. When a stock rises exponentially, it attracts a crowd of retail traders buying out of FOMO. This euphoria creates a volume climax — everyone who wanted to buy has already bought, and all that's left is to sell.
Exhaustion signs include: outside reversal days (open high, close low on huge volume), exhaustion gaps, days where price rises little despite record volume, or a final acceleration in a red candle after a long series of green candles.
Qullamaggie waits for the first day of pronounced weakness after the climax — that's where he enters short with a tight stop above the recent high.
The VCP is the foundation of Mark Minervini's SEPA methodology. The core idea: institutions progressively accumulate a stock by absorbing sell offers. Each correction is shallower than the previous, and volume reduces — the signature of "drying supply".
Minervini typically identifies 2 to 4 contractions (C1, C2, C3, sometimes C4), each of smaller amplitude. The rule: each contraction must be smaller than the previous in amplitude and volume.
At the final pivot point (after the last contraction), the range is minimal (5–10%), volume is at its lowest, and price is ready to explode. The breakout must happen on volume 2 to 3× above the average to be valid.
The Breakout & Retest is built on a fundamental principle of technical analysis: former resistance levels become support once broken. Desiano Vincent uses this principle to enter with the best possible precision.
The psychological logic is powerful: traders who sold at the resistance now see price rising above it — they regret their exit, and will buy back at the same level on the pullback. New buyers see a second chance. This confluence creates a wall of buyers at the retest.
The key according to Vincent: the pullback must happen on low volume (no urgency to sell) and the bounce off the level must occur on rising volume. An ideal retest often forms a pinbar, bullish engulfing, or inside bar at the level.
The High Tight Flag is described by Minervini as one of the most powerful setups of his career. It occurs when a stock doubles or more in 8 weeks (sometimes in 4–6 weeks), then consolidates very tightly.
The key: the consolidation is short (3–5 weeks) and shallow (10–25%). This tight "flag" signals that sellers have no power — the stock refuses to correct despite the enormous gain. It's the sign that institutions are absorbing every sell order.
On the breakout of the top of the flag, the stock can replicate a move equal to the pole. Minervini used it on stocks like NVDA in 2023, Tesla, and hundreds of other multibaggers.
The Power Earnings Gap according to Minervini is distinguished from a simple gap by the extraordinary institutional volume and the quality of the underlying financial results. It's not just any gap — it's a structural repricing triggered by transformed fundamentals.
Minervini then looks for a consolidation of 1 to 5 days post-gap, forming a "Power Earnings Gap Base". This mini-consolidation absorbs short-term sellers and creates a defined-risk entry point. The key: price must stay above the low of the gap day at all times.
The difference from the Episodic Pivot (Qullamaggie): Minervini places more emphasis on the fundamentals (EPS, revenue, margins) and often uses the PEG as a trigger to add to an existing VCP position.
The Flat Base is the cleanest formation you can find in technical analysis. A stock in an uptrend pauses, but sellers are so few that price barely corrects — less than 15% from high to low.
The key to the flat base is the behavior of weekly closes: they must be very close to each other, ideally in the last 3 weeks before the breakout. Volume must dry up progressively — proof that institutions have no desire to sell.
According to O'Neil and Minervini, a flat base is often a "2nd stage base" — it forms after a stock has already had a breakout and risen 20–30%. The higher the base within the trend, the more mature and reliable the setup is.
The Opening Range (OR) is the high-low band established in the first minutes of the session — typically the first 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Once that band is set, any break of the high with volume is a signal to go long; any break of the low is a signal to go short.
The logic is simple: the opening minutes are when institutions and retail meet and agree on a short-term fair value. Once price escapes that zone on volume, it usually extends in the same direction because the losing side is forced to cover.
Works best on stocks with a premarket catalyst (earnings, news, sector strength) and on days with a clear SPY/QQQ directional bias. Weak in chop and on FOMC-type days where the first moves are fake.
ORB is a fast intraday move — you want maximum gamma, low theta exposure, and strikes that react 1:1 to the breakout. Avoid far OTM lottery tickets that need the stock to explode.
A divergence occurs when price and a momentum oscillator disagree. The most useful oscillator is RSI(14), but MACD and Stochastic work too.
Bullish (regular): price makes a lower low but RSI makes a higher low. Selling pressure is weakening — a reversal up is likely.
Bearish (regular): price makes a higher high but RSI makes a lower high. Buying pressure is fading — a reversal down is likely.
Hidden divergence (trend continuation): price makes a higher low but RSI makes a lower low (bullish hidden), or vice versa. Signals the existing trend is resuming after a shallow pullback.
Divergence alone is not a trigger. You need a confirmation candle (engulfing, pinbar, break of structure) before entering.
Divergences are counter-trend trades with uncertain timing. You want enough time for the reversal to play out without paying too much theta. Avoid 0DTE — the move you're anticipating might take a day or two to set up.
A day trader never holds a position overnight. Every trade opens and closes inside the session. The trader exploits intraday order flow: premarket gaps, opening range breakouts, VWAP reclaims, news momentum, and late-day trend extensions.
The session is split into predictable phases:
- Premarket (4:00–9:30 ET): scanning, news, levels to watch
- Opening (9:30–10:00 ET): opening range, morning breakouts
- Mid-morning (10:00–11:30 ET): trend continuation or fade
- Lunch (11:30 AM–1:30 PM ET): chop — avoid new entries
- Power hour (3:00–4:00 PM ET): end-of-day trends and MOC flows
The ideal day trader treats it as a job, not a hobby: 2–4 hours of intense focus, 3–8 trades max, and a hard stop when the daily loss limit is hit.
Day traders using options want pure directional leverage with minimum time decay cost. Use liquid names only — if you can't exit without slippage, you can't day-trade options.
The swing trader operates on the daily chart (and sometimes weekly) instead of minutes. Positions are held 2 days to several weeks — long enough to capture real trends, short enough to avoid news risk on any single stock.
The playbook: find stocks in a strong Stage 2 uptrend, identify a clean base (VCP, Flat Base, Cup & Handle), wait for the breakout on volume, enter at the pivot, trail with the weekly MA10 or daily MA20.
Unlike day trading, swing trading is compatible with a full-time job. Research and planning happen on evenings and weekends; the actual execution takes minutes per day.
Swing trading with options means buying deep-ITM calls (or puts) with enough DTE to let the trend develop. Avoid short-dated options — theta will eat your profits during the normal pullbacks that every winning swing experiences.
LEAPS are options with 12 to 24 months until expiration. The classic use case: buy deep-ITM calls on a high-conviction Stage 2 stock instead of buying the shares directly. You capture most of the upside at a fraction of the capital.
Example: NVDA at $500. Instead of buying 100 shares for $50,000, buy one 18-month $400 call (delta ~0.80) for ~$13,000. You participate in the move at 80% efficiency while tying up 26% of the capital.
The trade-off: you pay time value (intrinsic + extrinsic). On a deep-ITM LEAPS the extrinsic is small (<10% of premium) and theta decay is slow — manageable for a long-term hold. You also get the benefit of built-in leverage without margin interest.
Rule of thumb: roll the LEAPS out when 90 days of DTE remain. Close the short-dated one, open a new one 12+ months out. This avoids the steep theta decay that accelerates inside 60 DTE.
LEAPS are the opposite of 0DTE. You want maximum delta (stock-like behavior), minimal theta exposure, and IV that is not overpriced. Everything is geared toward acting like a leveraged shareholder rather than a short-term speculator.
Minervini: "75% of stocks follow the general market trend." The best setup in the world will fail if the market is in correction. Always check the macro before placing a trade.
Relative Strength measures how a stock performs vs the S&P 500. It's one of the most important filters used by Minervini and O'Neil. Always buy the strongest, never the cheapest.
Cash is a position. The hardest skill in trading is doing nothing when the market doesn't favor your style. Here's the framework:
- Full offense (3-8 positions): Market in confirmed uptrend. SPY above rising MA50. New highs expanding. Your setups are working.
- Half offense (1-3 positions): Market is choppy. Mixed signals. Only take A+ setups with tight stops.
- Cash mode (0 positions): Market in correction. SPY below MA50 and falling. Distribution days stacking up. Protect capital — the next rally will come.
The biggest losses don't come from bad setups — they come from trading the right setup in the wrong market.
Market structure is the framework that defines whether a stock is in an uptrend, downtrend, or range. It's built from a simple concept: the sequence of highs and lows that price makes over time.
Uptrend: Higher Highs (HH) and Higher Lows (HL). Each swing high is above the last, each pullback holds above the previous low. Buyers are in control.
Downtrend: Lower Highs (LH) and Lower Lows (LL). Each rally fails below the last high, each drop breaks below the previous low. Sellers dominate.
Range / Consolidation: Highs and lows are roughly equal. Neither buyers nor sellers have control. Price oscillates between support and resistance.
Understanding structure before looking for a setup tells you whether the environment favors your trade. Most breakout setups work in uptrends. Most short setups work in downtrends. Trading against the structure is swimming upstream.
A stock is in an uptrend when it consistently makes:
- Higher Highs (HH) — each new swing high surpasses the previous one
- Higher Lows (HL) — each pullback holds above where the last pullback bottomed
Key moving averages for confirmation:
- Price above the 20 EMA (short-term trend)
- Price above the 50 SMA (intermediate trend)
- 50 SMA above the 200 SMA (long-term trend, "golden cross")
A stock in Stage 2 (Weinstein) meets all three conditions. This is where the vast majority of breakout profits are made.
A stock is in a downtrend when it makes:
- Lower Highs (LH) — each rally fails below the previous rally peak
- Lower Lows (LL) — each decline breaks below the prior swing low
Key signals:
- Price below the 50 SMA and 200 SMA
- Moving averages are declining
- "Death cross" — 50 SMA crosses below 200 SMA
Rule: Never buy breakouts in a downtrend. Wait for structure to shift (a Higher Low followed by a Higher High) before going long.
Support and resistance are price levels where buying or selling pressure has historically concentrated. They are the invisible walls that price bounces off — until it doesn't.
Support — a price level where demand is strong enough to prevent further decline. Buyers step in because they see value. The more times a level holds, the stronger it becomes.
Resistance — a price level where supply overwhelms demand. Sellers take profits or enter shorts. A stock that fails at resistance multiple times is "building a wall."
Key concepts:
- Support becomes resistance: When a support level breaks, it often flips into resistance (old buyers are now trapped and want to sell at breakeven)
- Resistance becomes support: When price breaks above resistance, that level often becomes the new floor (the breakout-and-retest pattern)
- Round numbers act as psychological S/R ($50, $100, $200)
- Volume at price (Volume Profile) shows where the most trading occurred — these are the strongest S/R zones
- Moving averages (20 EMA, 50 SMA, 200 SMA) act as dynamic S/R
Every chart is a sequence of swing highs and swing lows. The relationship between consecutive swings defines the trend. This is the most fundamental skill in all of trading — if you can identify these four points, you can read any chart.
A Break of Structure (BOS) occurs when price breaks through a previous swing point in the direction of the existing trend. It's the market confirming that the trend is continuing — not reversing.
In an uptrend, price makes a new Higher High — it breaks above the previous swing high. This confirms that buyers are still in control and the uptrend is intact.
What to do: Look for the next pullback (HL) as a buying opportunity. The BOS validates that the structure is bullish.
In a downtrend, price makes a new Lower Low — it breaks below the previous swing low. Sellers are still in control and the downtrend continues.
What to do: Avoid buying. Wait for a CHoCH (see below) before considering longs. Short sellers look for the next rally (LH) as an entry.
A Change of Character (CHoCH) is the first signal that a trend may be reversing. It happens when price breaks a swing point against the existing trend — the first crack in the structure.
The stock was in an uptrend (HH + HL). Then it makes a Lower Low — breaking below the most recent HL. This is the first sign that buyers lost control.
Sequence: HH → HL → HH → LL (CHoCH!) → LH → LL (confirmed downtrend)
What to do: If you're long, tighten stops immediately or exit. Do NOT buy new breakouts until structure is repaired (new HH + HL).
The stock was in a downtrend (LH + LL). Then it makes a Higher High — breaking above the most recent LH. Sellers lost control for the first time.
Sequence: LL → LH → LL → HH (CHoCH!) → HL → HH (confirmed uptrend)
What to do: This is the earliest entry for a potential trend reversal. Wait for the first HL after the CHoCH for a safer entry with a defined stop.
Every setup in this journal — Breakout, VCP, Episodic Pivot, Flat Base — works best when the underlying structure is bullish (HH + HL on the daily chart). Here's how structure connects to your setups:
- Breakout: only valid if the stock is in an uptrend (HH+HL). A breakout in a downtrend (LH+LL) is a trap
- VCP: the base forms during an uptrend pullback (creating a HL). The pivot is the BOS that starts the next leg
- Episodic Pivot: the gap resets the structure. Look for HH+HL AFTER the gap to confirm the new trend
- Parabolic Short: short after a CHoCH — when the parabolic stock makes its first LL, sellers have arrived
- Stop placement: place your stop below the most recent HL in an uptrend. If that HL breaks, it's a CHoCH and you should be out anyway
Every stock cycles through four phases. Knowing which stage a stock is in tells you whether to buy, hold, sell, or short. This framework, developed by Stan Weinstein, is used by Minervini, O'Neil, and most professional momentum traders.
Before entering any trade, answer these questions about market structure:
Each candlestick represents one period of trading (1 day on a daily chart, 5 minutes on a 5-min chart). It has four data points:
- Open — where price started the period
- Close — where price ended the period
- High — the highest price reached (top of the wick)
- Low — the lowest price reached (bottom of the wick)
Green/bullish candle: close > open. Buyers won this period. The body shows the range between open (bottom) and close (top).
Red/bearish candle: close < open. Sellers won. The body shows open (top) to close (bottom).
The wicks (shadows) tell the story of the battle. A long lower wick means sellers pushed hard but buyers fought back. A long upper wick means buyers tried but sellers rejected them.
Dozens of patterns exist, but only a few consistently move the needle for momentum and swing traders. Master these six and you'll read 90% of what a chart is telling you:
Price tells you what happened. Volume tells you how much conviction was behind it. A candlestick pattern without volume confirmation is just a pattern — add volume and it becomes a signal.
No single element — candle, volume, or structure — is enough on its own. The best entries happen when all three align:
- Structure says BUY — the stock is making HH + HL, in Stage 2, above rising MAs (see Market Structure)
- Candlestick says NOW — a bullish engulfing, hammer, or strong green bar at support/MA/base breakout
- Volume says REAL — the signal candle has 1.5-2x+ average volume, confirming institutional participation
When all three agree, take the trade with confidence. When any one disagrees, reduce size or skip.
Minervini says: "Stocks don't make big moves without a fundamental reason." Accelerating earnings are the fuel of great bull trends. Institutions don't take large positions in companies that don't show real growth.
History shows that the biggest multibaggers (NVDA, Tesla, Amazon, Google) all experienced a remarkable acceleration of their EPS before their big moves. This is not a coincidence.
The key is not just growth — it's the acceleration of growth. A company going from +20% EPS to +50% EPS to +100% EPS from one quarter to the next is infinitely more attractive than one growing at a steady +50%.
Valorian is a personal trading journal designed for stocks and options traders. It helps you track every trade, review your performance, document your setups, and build the discipline that separates profitable traders from the rest.
The journal is not about recording numbers — any spreadsheet can do that. It's about building a feedback loop: you trade, you record, you review, you learn, you improve. Over hundreds of trades, this loop compounds into a real edge.
Studies show that 80-90% of retail traders lose money. The common thread? No system, no review, no accountability. The traders who survive and profit share one habit: they journal.
- See your real numbers — not what your ego tells you. Win rate, profit factor, average R:R, drawdowns — these are the truth.
- Stop repeating mistakes — without a log, you make the same error 50 times before you notice. With a log, you catch it after 3.
- Build pattern recognition — reviewing your own trades teaches you more than any course. You start seeing which setups work for you.
- Reduce emotional trading — when you know you have to write down why you entered, FOMO and revenge trades become much harder to justify.
The Dashboard shows your overall performance at a glance: total P&L, win rate, profit factor, equity curve, and monthly breakdown. Check it daily after the close to see how the day affected your account.
Every closed trade lives here with full detail: entry, exit, P&L, hold time, and your notes. Click any row to open the trade detail panel where you can add screenshots, notes, and setup tags.
Attach a chart screenshot to every trade. When you review a month later, the screenshot tells you more than any number. Mark entry, stop, and target on the chart before saving. Supported: JPG, PNG, WEBP (max 2 MB, auto-compressed).
The Performance page calculates win rate, profit factor, streaks, best/worst setups, and P&L by day of week. Use it weekly to identify what's working and what's bleeding your account.
The Education section contains a 5-stage learning path from foundations to advanced strategies, plus detailed breakdowns of 15+ setups (Breakout, VCP, Episodic Pivot, Parabolic Short, and more). Each setup has entry rules, risk placement, pros/cons, video resources, and a personal photo gallery for your own chart examples. Use it as your strategy reference library.
A good trade note answers these questions in 2-3 sentences:
- Why I entered — the setup, the trigger, what confirmed it
- Market condition — trending, choppy, pre-earnings, news-driven?
- Timeframe used — daily chart, 5-min, hourly? Were they aligned?
- Setup type — tag it (Breakout, VCP, EP, etc.) for later analysis
- Risk level — where was your stop? What % of account was at risk?
- Emotions — were you calm, anxious, greedy, fearful, bored?
- Mistakes — what would you do differently?
- Lesson — one thing to carry forward
These notes tell you nothing when you review them a month later. You won't remember why you entered, what the market was doing, or what you learned.
These notes are specific, honest, and actionable. You'll learn something every time you re-read them.
In addition to per-trade notes, use the Daily Recap page to write a short end-of-day summary. This is where you capture the overall market environment, your mental state, and whether you followed your plan. Even 2-3 sentences help. Over time, you'll see patterns: "I always overtrade on Fridays" or "I perform best when I limit myself to 2 setups."
A setup is a repeatable set of conditions that, when met, give you an edge. Examples: "Breakout above resistance on 2x volume," "VCP with 3+ contractions," or "Episodic pivot with gap > 10%." The key word is repeatable — if you can't describe it in one sentence, it's not a setup, it's a guess.
After 50+ trades, the Performance page breaks down your results by setup. You'll see something like:
- Breakout: 35 trades, 65% WR, +$2,140
- VCP: 12 trades, 75% WR, +$980
- No Setup: 8 trades, 25% WR, -$620
The "No Setup" row is the insight: every trade without a defined setup lost money. This data is only possible because you tagged each trade.
- Go to the By Setup page in the sidebar
- Click + New setup
- Give it a clear name (e.g., "Breakout", "Gap & Go", "VWAP Fade")
- Pick an icon from the icon grid
- If you're an admin, choose Public (everyone sees it) or Private (just you)
- Click Save setup
Once created, you can tag any trade with this setup from the trade detail panel. The Performance page will then track its win rate, P&L, and frequency automatically.
For each setup, document in the Education section:
- Entry conditions — what MUST be true before you enter
- Stop placement — exact rule (e.g., "below the base low")
- Target — where you take profit (measured move, R multiple, prior high)
- Chart examples — upload annotated screenshots of past trades that fit this setup. The Education photo gallery is built for this.
- When to skip — market conditions where this setup fails (e.g., "don't trade breakouts in a down-trending market")
After every trade, ask yourself these questions:
- Did I follow my rules? — entry criteria, stop placement, position size
- Was the setup valid? — did it meet all conditions, or did I force it?
- Was my risk correct? — was I within 1% of account? Was the stop logical?
- Did emotions affect execution? — did I enter early, exit late, move my stop?
- What would I do differently? — one specific thing to improve next time
- Would I take this trade again? — if yes, it was a good process trade regardless of outcome
The most powerful review tool is a screenshot with annotations. Here's how to do it:
- Open the chart at the time of your trade (TradingView daily chart works best)
- Mark your entry (green line), stop (red line), and target (blue line)
- Add any notes on the chart (support/resistance levels, volume bars, etc.)
- Take a screenshot (Win+Shift+S on Windows, Cmd+Shift+4 on Mac)
- Open the trade in Valorian, click the screenshot zone, and upload
When you review a month later, the annotated screenshot instantly reminds you of the context. Numbers alone don't tell the full story.
After 20-30 trades, patterns emerge. Common ones to watch for:
- Overtrading — more trades on losing days (check the Rules page for violations)
- Moving stops — "giving it more room" always means bigger losses
- FOMO entries — entering late because the stock already moved 5%+
- Revenge trading — two losses → impulsive third trade to "make it back"
- Size violations — bigger size after a win streak, smaller after losses
The key is to focus on process, not money. A losing trade with perfect execution is a good trade. A winning trade that broke your rules is a bad trade.
- Daily (2 min) — log trades, add notes, upload screenshots
- Weekly (15 min) — review the week's trades on the Daily Recap page. Check the Rules page for violations. Write a weekly summary.
- Monthly (30 min) — open the Monthly Recap. Check P&L by setup. Identify your best and worst patterns. Set one goal for next month.
Method: Flex Query XML (automated) or Activity Statement CSV
Option A: Automated Flex Query (recommended)
- Log in to IBKR Client Portal
- Go to Reports → Flex Queries
- Create a new Flex Query with these sections: Trades (all fields)
- Save the query and note the Query ID
- Go to Settings → Flex Web Service and generate a Token
- In Valorian, click Import → IBKR Auto Import
- The system fetches your trades automatically via the Flex API
Option B: Manual CSV import
- Log in to IBKR Client Portal
- Go to Reports → Statements → Activity
- Select your date range and download as CSV
- In Valorian, click Import → IBKR CSV
- Upload the file — trades are mapped and imported automatically
If your broker exports trade history as a CSV file, you can import it using the Generic CSV importer.
- Export your trade history from your broker as CSV
- In Valorian, click Import → Generic CSV
- Upload the file — the system shows you the column headers
- Map each column to the correct field: Date, Symbol, P&L (required), plus optional: Entry, Exit, Qty, Fees
- Preview the first 5 rows to verify the mapping
- Click Import — done
Direct MetaTrader integration is planned. In the meantime, you can use the Generic CSV importer:
- In MetaTrader, go to Account History tab
- Right-click → Save as Detailed Report (HTML)
- Open the HTML file, select the trade table, copy-paste into a spreadsheet
- Save as CSV and import via the Generic CSV option
NinjaTrader direct import is planned. Current workaround:
- In NinjaTrader, go to Trade Performance
- Click Export to save your trade list as CSV
- Import via Valorian's Generic CSV option
cTrader integration is planned. Current workaround:
- In cTrader, go to History
- Select your date range and click Export to Excel
- Save as CSV and import via Valorian's Generic CSV option
Yes. Every trade, including the ones you're embarrassed about. Those are actually the most valuable to review. Skipping bad trades means you'll never learn from them. Import your full broker history — the journal does the work of organizing it.
The daily chart showing your entry, stop, and target. Use TradingView, mark the levels with horizontal lines, and screenshot the full setup. For intraday trades, also capture the intraday chart (5-min or 15-min) showing the exact entry timing.
2-4 sentences is enough. Cover: why you entered, what happened, and what you learned. Don't write essays — you won't read them during review. Be specific and honest.
Open trades are positions you currently hold — the journal tracks their live P&L. Closed trades are completed positions with a final entry, exit, and P&L. Most of your journaling and review happens on closed trades.
Absolutely. Reviewing winners teaches you what works. Did you follow your rules? Was the setup clean? Could you have held longer? Many traders only review losses and never learn to repeat their best trades.
Use the Rules page — set your risk limits (max position size, max daily loss, max trades/day) and the system automatically flags violations. Also, tag trades with "No Setup" when you enter impulsively — after 20 trades, check the Performance page to see how those trades performed vs. your planned setups.
Use the Generic CSV importer — it lets you re-map columns to fields, so even if your broker changes their export layout, you can adjust the mapping on the fly. For IBKR Flex Query, the format is standardized and rarely changes.
Yes. All data is protected by Row-Level Security in Supabase. No user can see another user's trades, notes, or screenshots — ever. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Guest data is stored only in your browser's localStorage.
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