Trader's Thread 05 (Jan 20 - Dec 26)

[winston]

99% of traders can’t wait for 5-star setups.

But your main job is not trading.
It’s waiting.

Waiting for setups so clean, so obvious, that ignoring them would feel stupid.
Setups where you think: “If this fails, fine — but I have to take this.”

That’s 5-star territory.
And it’s brutally hard.

I’m not immune to impatience.
I feel FOMO too.
I still sometimes trade things I know aren’t A+.

That’s human and most of my mistakes are very cheap.

But when I review my trading year, one thing is always clear:

Almost all profits come from very few trades.
Not from being active or busy.

Here’s what waiting for 5-star setups really looks like:

1) You say no all the time. To 99% of all stocks and to 80% of all setups.
Most charts look “okay.” Okay trades bleed capital and confidence.

2) You get comfortable with boredom.
If trading feels exciting, you’re probably doing it wrong.
The best phases feel quiet: Either you are waiting for good setups or sit in big winners.

3) The work happens before the move.
Creating a watchlist. Defining levels. Calculating risk.
When it triggers, there’s no debate. Only execution.
It takes me 1 second to execute a planned trade.

4) You accept missed trades.
Missing a winner hurts.
Sitting in bad trades hurts much more.
There a re lot of stocks moving higher without showing a good setup.

5) You let the market come to you.
No chasing. No hoping. No convincing yourself. Just waiting for great setups.

When you trade fewer, better setups:
– Stress drops
– Mistakes shrink
– Confidence builds
– Results finally compound

There is nothing that feels better:
- The planned trade.
- The one you waited weeks for.
- Low risk. Real upside.

That’s where the money is.