Overtrading chop days got me again. Six trades in a 38-point ES range on Wednesday (March 18). Won two. Lost four. Net negative.
You’d think after blowing three accounts I’d recognize chop when I see it. ES bounced between 6656 and 6695 all session. NQ did the same thing, grinding between 24562 and 24725. Nothing was trending. Nothing was breaking out. And I sat there taking entries like something was about to happen.
It wasn’t.
The Trap of Overtrading Chop Days
Chop days have this specific feel and I still fall for it every single time. Price moves 15 points. Looks like momentum. You get in. It reverses. You get out. It moves again. You get back in. Reverses again.
Rinse, repeat, watch your PnL go red.
The worst part? I knew it was chop by the second trade. ES was just ping-ponging off the same levels. No volume expansion. No conviction. Just noise dressed up as movement. But my brain kept saying “this time it’ll follow through.”
It did not follow through.
Here’s what I should have done after that second loss.. walked away. Closed the platform. Gone outside. Literally anything except take four more trades in the same garbage range.
Why Sitting Flat Feels Like Losing
But sitting flat feels like losing too. That’s the trap with overtrading chop days specifically. You’re watching price move and your brain screams “you’re missing it.” Missing what? Missing the chance to donate more money to the market?
I’ve been trading long enough to know that the best trade is often no trade. I’ve written about it on PropWhisperer before. I’ve told other people about it. And then Wednesday shows up with a tight range and I forget everything I know.
Real talk – my best weeks aren’t the ones where I nail some huge runner. They’re the weeks where I take two or four clean setups and ignore everything else. The weeks where I’m “bored” are usually green.
The weeks where I’m active? Where I feel like I’m really working? Those are the ones where I give it all back.
My Rule I Keep Breaking
So here’s my rule that I keep breaking and keep re-learning. If ES is stuck in a sub-40 point range and NQ isn’t leading, I’m done. No more “maybe this one breaks.” No more scalping the chop for 4 ticks that I give back plus slippage on the next entry.
Wednesday’s session closed ES at 6685. NQ at 24681. Both basically flat from the open. The market told me all day long there was nothing to do. I just wasn’t listening.
Anyway. Thursday’s a new day. Probably gonna do the same thing again if I’m being honest 😅