You Don’t Have To Trade 23 Hours A Day | AM Briefing #814

AM BRIEFING

ES CHART | KEY LEVELS | SETUPS

PRUDENCE VS. FOOLISHNESS — THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE

“Every prudent man acts with knowledge. The fool lays open his folly.” George broke it down for the trader. Prudence means responsible. Careful. You have a realistic plan. Acting with knowledge means you APPLY your education, you apply your technical analysis, and you stay within your risk parameters.

The fool does the opposite:

• Impulsive: Trades on emotion instead of a plan.
• Ignorance: Refuses to invest in education and training, so they stay stuck.
• Continual lack of discipline: Knows what they’re doing wrong… and keeps doing it anyway.
• Overconfidence: Thinks they know EXACTLY what’s going to happen, which leads right back to impulse.

This is a tough business. It’s leveraged to the max, and the sky’s the limit in both directions. Blown accounts bring emotional and mental damage that’s sometimes unrepairable, even financial ruin. The antidote is simple… get training, read the psychology books, keep improving yourself, and stay in a group that reinforces it.

TIP OF THE DAY: 23 HOURS OPEN DOESN’T MEAN 23 HOURS TRADED

Futures are open 23 hours a day. Do you have to be open 23 hours a day? No sir. You don’t have to trade overnight. Your brain needs a break, and grinding around the clock is a fast track to the impulsive, undisciplined mistakes the scripture just warned about.

You are going to miss moves. George misses moves all the time… he’s not up at night trading. And it’s okay. The team does very well in the hour they trade live on Zoom in the morning. If you happen to be up and you see a trade developing outside those hours, you can take it — but you do NOT need to be glued to the screen 23 hours a day.

NEW: BATTLE PLAN BOOT CAMP SIMULATOR

George quietly released Battle Plan Boot Camp this weekend — front and center on MicrosTrader.com. It’s a Battle Plan Simulator built on REAL sessions, not cherry-picked days. He used last week’s actual Battle Plan trades because they’re freshest in memory… a regular old week in July with the summer’s disgusting price action, exactly the tape you have to trade in real life.

Everything in it is real: the actual TradingView candles, the original Battle Plan, the real Strong Levels, and the word-for-word Battle Plan notes. There are two modes:

• Boot Camp Mode: Press the spacebar and the animation plays. It stops on notes you should read and walks you through EXACTLY how George would be thinking each level — click each Battle Plan number to see the notes.
• Replay Mode: Now YOU trade that exact Battle Plan on the exact candles. Right-click the chart, select your number of contracts, set your entry at the ideal spot, move your stop to where you want to be flat, and set your take profit at the next Strong Level. You can back up in time, re-enter a missed trade, and speed the replay from 3x up to 20x.

Five Battle Plans from last week are loaded, and each ends with a debrief. In one example, the runner didn’t reach the ultimate target… yet a 36-point move run through the 3-Contract System still would have paid like a mortgage payment on ES, or better than a schoolteacher’s day on MES.

CORE STRATEGY ACADEMY — A MAJOR UPGRADE IN PROGRESS

Two people became full members this weekend, so George gave a preview of where the advanced training is headed. He’s about 30% done and not ready to fully release it… but the same simulation software is taking Core Strategy Academy to another level. The awesome training videos themselves aren’t changing — practice is getting embedded around them.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

Here’s the new path as George walked it:

• Sandbox: A practice area where you draw exactly like you do on TradingView.
• Study Hall: Every training video, and it resumes right where you stopped — down to the minute and second.
• Watch George: Play the animation and watch George draw the levels live.
• Copy George: See where the levels were, then clear them, draw where YOU think they belong, and get graded with notes on what you missed and what George was thinking.
• Fly Solo: No help — draw the levels and run the same grading process.
• Earn Your Badges: Four badges to earn. The system randomly selects three charts to mark up, then a Discord button sends your work to George to grade in a clean, easy-to-read format.

New members are entering a transition period into this upgraded path… reps, feedback, and repetition built right into the advanced training.

THE ONLY VIEW THAT MATTERS: UNDER THE BULL BEAR LINE

Last week the room crushed it — the 75/74 area got traded all week, with multiple 50-point longs and some shorts off it too. Question is, can we do it again this week? The numbers aren’t always that high, and you won’t be in every single trade… and that’s okay.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

Right now, the tape reads defensive:

• Bias: We are UNDER the Bull Bear Line. Be cautious.
• The gap: The gap down from Thursday was not filled overnight. It got nagging close in George’s opinion, but it’s still open.
• The plan: See money, take money. George is hoping price pushes further down… because the deeper the flush, the more violent, beautiful, gorgeous the short-covering rally later can be. Short covering into the close is his favorite trade to be in.

OVERNIGHT BATTLE PLANS: WHY THE SAME SHORT CAN BE A TAKE OR A SKIP

Two clean mappings printed overnight, and one carried a critical piece of nuance.

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

▶ Watch this moment in the AM Briefing

Battle Plan 4 — the unusual short. Price came up, back down, back up, then came back and offered a short. For traders who follow the Battle Plan, this was an unusual short… and George was upfront about it. We are definitively under the Bull Bear Line, so the short has context. But here’s the discipline: “I would skip this trade if I’m already long from below.” If a deeper Battle Plan long had already put him long, there’s no way he takes that short against his own position. If it were the FIRST trade presented, he takes it. It ran about 12 points, never got the follow-through to the actual target… a good mapping and a good trade if you took it.

Battle Plan 3 — the reclaim long. Price reclaimed the Strong Level, got back above the Strong Range, and offered a long moving in that direction. Another nice mapping.

COMMON QUESTIONS FOR ES FUTURES TRADERS

Do I have to trade ES futures overnight since the market is open 23 hours a day?

A: No. Futures are open roughly 23 hours a day, but you don’t have to be. Trading overnight wears down your brain and pushes you toward impulsive, off-plan decisions. It’s fine to miss moves — even George misses them all the time. Concentrate your edge on the morning RTH session when you’re sharp, and only take an overnight trade if you happen to be up and see one develop.

What is the Bull Bear Line and why does it matter today?

A: The Bull Bear Line is the key dividing level between bullish and bearish bias on the ES. Today the market is trading under it, which tells you to stay cautious, favor caution over aggression, and “see money, take money” rather than pressing longs into a bearish structure.

What is Battle Plan Boot Camp?

A: Battle Plan Boot Camp is a free simulator on MicrosTrader.com built from real sessions — actual TradingView candles, the original Battle Plan, real Strong Levels, and word-for-word notes. Boot Camp Mode animates each session and walks you through how George thinks about the levels. Replay Mode lets you trade the exact Battle Plan yourself: set contracts, entry, stop, and take profit, then rewind and re-enter to practice.

What is the 3-Contract System and how much can it make?

A: The 3-Contract System is Micros Trader’s core position-sizing framework for managing a trade across multiple contracts — banking scales while leaving a runner to chase the extended target. In one Boot Camp example, a 36-point move managed through the system paid like a mortgage payment on ES, or better than a schoolteacher’s day on MES, even though the runner never reached the ultimate target.

Why would George skip a valid short setup?

A: Context and your existing position decide the trade. Overnight, Battle Plan 4 offered an unusual short that was valid because price was definitively under the Bull Bear Line. But George said he’d skip it if he were already long from below — you don’t want to open a short that fights a long you already hold. The same setup is a take if it’s the first trade presented and a skip if it works against your book.

What does “see money, take money” mean?

A: It’s a discipline reminder for a cautious, under-the-Bull-Bear-Line environment. When a trade shows you profit, bank it rather than getting greedy and hoping for a full target that a choppy or bearish tape may never deliver. It’s the same spirit as Green Over Greed.

What is a short-covering rally and why is it George’s favorite trade?

A: A short-covering rally happens when a market that has flushed lower snaps back as shorts are forced to buy to cover their positions, fueling a sharp move up. George is hoping price pushes further down today precisely because a deeper flush sets up a more violent, high-momentum short-covering rally later in the session — his favorite trade to be in.

What does the upgraded Core Strategy Academy add for members?

A: The training videos stay the same, but new practice is being embedded around them: a Sandbox to draw like you do on TradingView, Study Hall videos that resume where you left off, Watch George and Copy George drills, a graded Fly Solo mode, and four earnable badges where the system randomly selects three charts to mark up and sends your work to George on Discord for feedback.

What separates a prudent futures trader from a foolish one?

A: A prudent trader acts with knowledge — applying their education and technical analysis while staying inside their risk parameters. A foolish trader is impulsive, ignores training, keeps repeating known mistakes, and lets overconfidence convince them they know exactly what’s coming. In a leveraged business, that gap is the difference between longevity and a blown account.

📅 Upcoming This Week

Hit the bell — every AM Briefing and live trading session this week is already scheduled on YouTube:

• Tuesday, Tue Jul 21: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Wednesday, Wed Jul 22: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Thursday, Thu Jul 23: AM Briefing · Live Stream
• Friday, Fri Jul 24: AM Briefing · Live Stream