ES Emini Key Levels | AM Briefing
HOW TO TRADE ES KEY LEVELS
Monday November 17, 2025
Veteran trader Micros Trader emphasizes that success in trading hinges more on psychological discipline than profit metrics. His approach advocates for a shift from obsessing over daily P&L to evaluating personal execution and behavior. Traders are encouraged to prioritize patience, wait for high-quality setups, and adopt a mindset of stewardship over capital. This philosophy promotes long-term consistency and emotional stability, key drivers for sustainable profitability in volatile markets.
Opening Remarks
To an outsider, trading looks like a high-stakes game of charts, numbers, and the relentless pursuit of financial gain. The common perception is that success is measured by the daily profit and loss statement. But for those who make a living in the markets, the most critical battles are often fought not on the screen, but in the mind.
According to one veteran trader, the path to consistent profitability has less to do with hunting for the perfect entry and more to do with mastering your own psychology. This post distills three powerful, counter-intuitive lessons on what it truly takes to succeed—shifting the focus from the outcome to the process.
1. Your Real Goal Isn't Profit, It's Flawless Discipline
The first and most jarring piece of advice for new traders is to completely ignore their profit and loss (P&L). Instead, their only goal should be to grade their daily performance on a simple metric: their discipline score. The objective is to earn an 'A' or 'B' every single day by flawlessly executing their pre-defined trading plan.
This approach is impactful because it shifts focus from an uncontrollable outcome (the market’s movement) to a completely controllable input (your own behavior). When traders are fixated on P&L, they make disastrous emotional decisions. They override their stops, enter positions that are too large because they need to make back yesterday’s loss, and hold onto losers for far too long. By focusing exclusively on discipline, they build the foundational habits of a professional, allowing profits to become a natural byproduct of a sound process.
Micros Trader puts it plainly:
“I don't care about the P and L. You should care about perfect discipline... What you'll discover is your P and L catches up to your discipline. The discipline has to lead the way. The P and L is a following indicator.”
2. Stop Chasing Trades and Master the Art of Waiting
In a world of complex indicators and secret strategies, the true "golden ticket" to successful trading is remarkably simple: patience. Most traders fail because they feel a desperate need to "force" profits, leading them to take low-quality trades that don’t fit the strict criteria of their strategy. They trade out of boredom or a need for action rather than opportunity.
Mastering the art of waiting is difficult because it requires fighting the deep-seated human urge to always be "doing something." A detailed trading plan is what truly enables patience; without a plan defining the exact conditions for a trade, a trader has no framework for waiting and is more likely to act on impulse. It demands trusting that if you miss one opportunity, another will come.
Micros Trader illustrates this perfectly with a personal anecdote. One night, a setup formed on the chart while he was lying in bed. Though he saw the opportunity, he chose not to get up and trade it. Why? Because patience is more profitable than exhaustion.
As he says:
“If there is one thing that is the golden ticket to trading, it's patience of waiting for your setup... Don’t force it, don’t force the trades. You don’t need it, all you gotta do is wait.”
3. Treat Trading as Stewardship, Not a Battle for Survival
A trader cannot serve two masters. When profit is the ultimate master, trading becomes a desperate, high-anxiety activity. This mindset leads to what Micros Trader describes as the root of catastrophic failure, where every price movement feels like life or death.
“When profit becomes your master, every tick on the chart feels like life or death. You override your stops, chasing trades you shouldn’t take. Let fear and greed dictate your decisions instead of your trading plan.”
This verse cuts to the heart of why many traders blow up their accounts.
The alternative is to adopt a mindset of stewardship. When a trader views their role as responsibly managing capital—rather than desperately needing a win—their decision-making becomes clear and rational. They can take a necessary stop loss because their identity isn’t tied to a single trade’s outcome.
Micros Trader offers a practical rule of thumb:
“Always trade at the size where you go, ‘oh well’.”
This simple idea removes desperation and allows a trader to execute their plan with the calm objectivity of a professional.
Conclusion: Who Is Your Master?
The journey to trading success is an internal one. It requires prioritizing flawless discipline over daily P&L, embracing strategic patience over constant action, and adopting a calm mindset of stewardship over a desperate battle for survival.
By learning to trade with “open hands,” as Micros Trader puts it, you can remove the “stress from our table” and focus on the process—confident that the profits will eventually follow.
As you reflect on these principles, consider a broader application. In your own professional life, what decisions would change if you focused less on the daily P&L and more on serving a higher principle of discipline and stewardship?
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