I started just before the 2021 Bitcoin top, lost money in the FTX collapse and had to rebuild from scratch. Rebuilding my trading account taught me the order that matters: Process first. Risk managed. Profit later! I'm Sem, a Price Action Trader from the Netherlands. I worked weekend shifts for 2.5 years so I could trade Monday to Friday and build my trading process, all while raising a family with my wife. I trade based on: Structure • Liquidity • Risk. Mainly Swing Failure Patterns (SFPs) on bitcoin:native and ethereum:native On X I share my framework, charts, trades and the lessons I learned along the way. Let's talk about it! New here? 👇 Start at semtrades.com/ There you'll find my full trading process (STOS) explained step by step, my journey, and 2 downloads: my E-book and the Excel trade journal I personally use. Everything is 100% free: No signups. No referral links. No paywall, it's zero monetization! When I started trading I learned from traders who shared openly and freely. This is me paying it forward. Nothing I post is financial advice! It's just the trading process that works for me.

Good morning. Waiting for the retest has a cost. Sometimes price leaves without one and I miss the move. I accept that. Entering early and calling it a confirmed setup afterwards would change my process.

A long wick is not a setup. It shows me where price traded. The close shows me where the candle ended. Before I act, I still need a relevant level, a failed move and a usable retest. Do you wait for the candle to close before you read the wick?

A book can't give you patience or make you respect a stop. Repeated decisions and honest feedback do.

I don't short because price is high. I watch whether the attempt higher fails. For me, the long and the short use the same questions. Only the direction turns over. For a long: Price sweeps a range low and returns inside. Later it comes back to that swept-low area. I want the push lower to fail there and the area to hold. For a short: Price sweeps a range high and returns inside. Later it comes back to that swept-high area. I want the push higher to fail there. In both cases the sweep only tells me where to pay attention. The retest helps me decide if the idea still makes sense. Each stage becomes known as price develops. I can't assume the next one when the first sweep happens. And a local failure does not reverse the whole market. The wider trend and the target still matter. Same questions. Opposite direction.

This is what i mean with wick pocket: 👇 The wick area created by the sweep candle, it can be support or resistance. its where i want to enter if it gives the low time frame reaction that im looking for on the retest!

Come on Eth, you better do something good here! 👇 (eth/btc chart)

Bitcoin is rejecting 79.9k atm. Let's see what price does below 79.3k. Waiting patiently ...

GM. At my job as a process operator, I need to know the normal flow and which values matter. When something changes, I ask what caused it, whether I need to step in, and what my action affects further down the line. Changing something just because I can is not an improvement. STOS is how I bring that to the chart. Where am I watching? What needs to happen there? What tells me the idea has failed? Having time or feeling the urge to trade is not new market information.

Still no futher break down on bitcoin:native Still no displacement up after a potential SFP Market is still deciding on direction. I think tueseday will turn out to be a desicive price action day. My levels are set, now give me a reaction to work with!

Trading and investing live in separate accounts for me. I don't want a failed short-term trade to become an "investment" because I refused to accept the stop. A stopped trade stays a stopped trade.

If every chart in my study collection reverses perfectly, it's teaching me hindsight, not the setup.

A tight stop only helps if it sits beyond a meaningful invalidation. Squeezing it inside normal movement to make the R/R look impressive doesn't improve the setup. Ordinary noise can be enough to stop me out. That's why I like the wick pocket after a failed high or a supported low. Entry can sit close to the point that proves me wrong, while the next opposing level sits farther away. It doesn't make winning more likely. It keeps the entry, the stop and the objective part of one idea. When you set a stop, does it come from the chart or from the size you wanted first?

I didn't start with a process. In 2021 I bought Bitcoin, watched the first drop, added on the recovery and held through the bear market. That wasn't a strategy. I was holding and hoping. During the decline I sold part of it for everyday expenses. Later, one of my two small daytrading accounts disappeared in the FTX collapse. No stop on a chart protects you from the exchange failing. The turning point was taking responsibility for the decisions I could control. I had followed predictions instead of information. So I moved towards cleaner charts, structure and the auction behind them. Screen time, small positions, mistakes and a journal slowly made the picture clearer. Having a view is easy. Knowing what would prove it wrong takes more work.