The Foundations

Before setups and strategies, you need to understand how price actually moves.

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How to Read Price Action

Price tells you everything if you know how to listen. Learn to read candlestick structure, identify trend vs. range environments, and understand what buyers and sellers are doing at every bar.

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Market Structure

Higher highs and higher lows define an uptrend. Lower highs and lower lows define a downtrend. Knowing exactly when structure breaks and what it means for your next trade separates disciplined traders from gamblers.

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Support & Resistance

Price has memory. Levels where buyers stepped in before tend to attract buyers again. Learn how to identify real S/R versus noise and how to use it for entries, stops, and targets.

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Candlestick Patterns That Matter

Learn the ones with real edge — rejection wicks, engulfing candles, inside bars — and what each signals about the balance of power between buyers and sellers.

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Trend Lines & Channels

Learn how to connect valid swing points, identify channel boundaries, and use them to anticipate where price is likely to react.

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Supply & Demand Zones

Supply and demand zones mark where large orders were placed. When price returns to those areas, big money is often waiting. Learn to identify fresh zones and time your entries accordingly.

Multi-Timeframe Confluence

The framework I use on every single trade. Higher timeframes set context. Lower timeframes give entry.

4H

Bias

The 4-hour chart tells you the overall directional bias. You only take trades that align with this bias. Trading against the 4H is where most losses come from.

1H

Momentum

The 1-hour chart confirms momentum in the direction of your 4H bias. If the 1H is pulling back against the 4H trend, wait — don't chase.

15M

Entry & Stop

The 15-minute chart is where you time your entry and place your stop. Wait for a precise trigger — a structure break, a rejection wick, a clean level hold.

The Rule

All three timeframes need to tell the same story before you put on a trade. One timeframe against you means you wait. Two timeframes against you means you walk away. This single filter eliminates most bad trades before they happen.

Core Short-Selling Setups

The three setups I trade most on MNQ and NQ. Each has a clear structure, a clear entry, and a clear invalidation.

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BLOW-OFF TOP

Blow-Off Top

Price makes a sharp, near-vertical move upward on high momentum — then stalls, wicks hard, and reverses fast. Late buyers get trapped at the top and the flush begins.

What I look for: Parabolic move into a known resistance area, rejection wick on the 15M, 4H bias already bearish. Entry on the first lower high after the wick.

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GAP & TRAP

Gap & Trap

Price gaps up at the open, triggers FOMO buying, then reverses and fills the gap. The gap creates excitement. The trap catches the buyers who chased.

What I look for: Gap into resistance or prior day high, failed follow-through in the first 15-30 minutes, price stalling and rolling over.

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BACKSIDE FADE

Backside Fade

After a trend move up, price attempts a bounce — but the bounce is weak and runs out of steam well below the prior high. Sellers are in control and any rally is a shorting opportunity.

What I look for: Weak bounce to a prior structure level, lower high confirmed on the 1H, 15M entry on the rollover.

Risk Management

The best setup in the world means nothing without a plan for when you're wrong.

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Position Sizing on MNQ & NQ

MNQ is $2 per point. NQ is $20 per point. Know your max dollar risk per trade before you enter. If your stop is 20 points away and you risk $100, that's 5 MNQ contracts. Size to the stop, not to the gut feeling.

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Stop Loss Placement

Your stop goes where your trade idea is wrong — not where it hurts least. Place it beyond a clear structure level. If the stop placement makes the trade not worth taking, the trade isn't worth taking.

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Risk/Reward Ratio

Minimum 2:1 reward to risk on every trade. If you're risking 20 points, you need at least a 40-point target. This math means you can be wrong half the time and still come out ahead — if you stick to it.

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EOD Trailing Drawdown

For prop accounts, EOD trailing drawdown is the only structure I trade under. Your drawdown level moves up with your highest end-of-day balance — not tick by tick during the session.

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Lock & Done

Hit your daily target — stop trading. The market will always offer another opportunity tomorrow. Hit the number, log off. Non-negotiable.

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Daily Loss Limits

Set a max daily loss before the session starts. If you hit it, you're done for the day — no exceptions, no "one more trade." Uncontrolled losing days are what blow accounts.

Prop Firm Basics

What you need to know before you fund your first eval.

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Understand the drawdown structure before you buy. EOD trailing and intraday trailing are not the same. Intraday trailing locks in against your high-water mark tick by tick. EOD trailing only moves at end of day. Know which one you're under — it changes everything.
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Pass the eval the same way you plan to trade funded. Don't swing for fast eval completion. Trade your normal size, your normal targets, your normal risk.
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Scale accounts, not contract size. Running multiple funded accounts at your proven contract size is safer than adding contracts to one account. Get the system right on one, then replicate it.
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Track every trade, every day. Your journal is your edge finder. Without data on your trades, you're guessing at what's working.
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Request payouts consistently. Don't let profits sit in a funded account indefinitely. The money isn't yours until it's in your account.