One setup. Traded with discipline, not hope.
I don't have ten strategies. I have one: a higher-timeframe trend, a pullback into a premium zone, and a structure-shift entry on the low timeframe. Below is the whole thing, broken down with the actual chart anatomy. No secrets, no upsell to a $2k course. The edge was never the setup. It's whether I follow my own rules.
Find the trend on the 1H/4H using market structure. Wait for price to pull back into the 0.618 premium zone. Inside that zone, mark the fair value gaps, order blocks and volume. Then drop to the 1m–5m and enter on a clean body close that breaks structure in the trend's direction, but only if it pays at least 1.2R to first resistance. Stop below the swing. Take what the level gives.
Read the full breakdown
Every step below comes with its own chart diagram, how I map structure, mark the zone, and time the entry. It's free. Drop your email and it unlocks instantly.
Read the trend with market structure
Before anything else I ask one question: which way is structure pointing on the 1H and 4H? Structure is just swing highs and swing lows. Higher highs and higher lows = uptrend, I look for longs only. Lower highs and lower lows = downtrend, shorts only. I never fight it, a great setup against the higher-timeframe trend is just a good way to lose.
I trade with structure, never against it. The 1H/4H direction is the filter every single setup has to pass first.
Wait for the premium zone, the 0.618
I don't chase the move. I wait for price to pull back beyond the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement of the up-leg, anywhere from the 0.618 down toward where the swing began. That whole region is my premium zone: deep enough for a tight stop and a clean reward. If price only retraces shallow of the 0.618, I'm not interested; if it runs past the swing's origin, the idea's invalid anyway. No pullback past the 0.618, no entry. Price comes to me.
No pullback beyond the 0.618, no trade. Buying shallow of it instead of waiting for the discount is how you end up with a stop that's too wide and a reward that isn't there.
Mark the zone, FVG, order block, volume
The 0.618 tells me where to look. Now I want a reason for price to actually turn there. Three things can give it: a fair value gap (the 3-candle imbalance between the first candle's high and the third candle's low, which the market tends to revisit), an order block (the last opposing candle before the impulse, where size entered), and the volume profile, the point of control plus the value-area high and low. I mark all of these out beyond the 0.618. They rarely sit at the exact same price, so together they give me an area to watch, I don't need them to align. I wait to see which one price reacts from.
They don't have to agree. I mark each one as a level beyond the 0.618, then let price show me which it respects, the break of structure off that level is the confirmation.
Enter on a clean break of structure
Price being in the zone isn't the trigger, confirmation is. I drop to the 1m–5m and wait for a break of structure in the trend's direction: a clean candle body close back through the most recent low-timeframe swing. A wick poking through doesn't count, I need the close. That's the market telling me the pullback is done and the trend is resuming.
Body close or it didn't happen. This one filter throws out most of the fakeouts that used to drag me into trades early.
The 1.2R filter, the trade has to pay
Here's the rule that quietly saves the account. Before I take the break, I measure from entry to first resistance. If the move only pays ~1R, I don't take it, the reward isn't worth the risk. Instead I wait for a small pullback into a fair value gap, order block or 0.618 on the entry timeframe, take the tighter entry, and now the same target pays 1.2R or more. Same trade, better price, real reward.
1.2R minimum or I pass. At a 50% win rate a 1.2R trade is already profitable. This is the single most important number in the whole system.
Manage it, stop below the swing, take what the level gives
Stop goes below the swing that produced the entry, if price trades back through it, the idea was wrong and I'm out. Target is first resistance. I take what the level gives, somewhere between 1.2R and 2R, I never force a 2R that isn't there, and I never hold past my target hoping for the home run. Move the stop to breakeven once it's working, and it stops counting against my two-trade live-risk limit.
The hardest rule to keep is the simplest: take the profit at the level. Holding past target to "make more" is the exact behaviour that costs traders their accounts, including, historically, mine.
The part that actually matters
I can teach the setup in ten minutes. The setup was never the problem. Every dollar I've ever lost came from breaking my own rules, chasing the 5R when the level said take 1.5, holding past target to claw back yesterday, sizing up after a green day. So the system isn't really the entry. It's these four guardrails.
Two losses, I'm done
A hard daily stop. No "one more". It exists because the worst damage always came right after a good day, when I felt invincible.
Max two live-risk trades
Only two open trades can actually lose at once. Once a stop is at breakeven, it's risk-free and stops counting.
Base hits build the account
1.2R–2R, over and over. The data is clear: a 55–65% win rate at sub-2R beats swinging for the fences every time.
Making it back is a by-product
Recovery comes from following the rules, never from forcing a trade to fix the scoreboard. The moment it's the goal, I break.
This is the system I'm being held to, in public
Every day of the $100k challenge, you'll see whether I actually followed it. The green days and the red ones. The whole point is the accountability, and the app I'm building, Temper, is the thing that catches the rule-break in the moment.