My genuinely objective, rule-based, no bias, no subjectivity plan

I love cooking. I hate when a recipe says "season to taste". Tell me what it needs - that is exactly why I'm following a recipe.

I apply the same approach to my trading. I hate subjective. I loathe having to find bias or liquidity. I find they liquidity is everywhere and trends exist on every timeline but are interacting with each other and you can typically argue either side of the trade with at least some credibility.

So, finally, after all these many years, I have a truly objective system. It is truly rules-based and cannot cause confusion.

That's the good side. Here's the bad side, and it will make some of you run away as fast as you can:
This system has better than a 50% win rate, but not much. The RR is better than 1:1, but not much. There are times it gives me a 20R, but there are more times when it gives me a 0.09R. My method takes both with equal enthusiasm. It has losing days, plenty BE or small winning days, and fairly regular banger days. It is very much the case of waiting for the market to give me what it is willing to. That said, you will have a lot of singles and doubles. Like so many others, I swear to you that the small wins do add up and also help with psychology.

So, here we go:
1. Mark all swing highs and swing lows that have not been mitigated yet. I personally like seeing the mitigated levels, also, so I can quickly look at any chart and just know what is currently happening in a couple of seconds. I can literally walk up to a new chart with no context and place a trade by eye with no indicators. I have an indicator that I put together just for marking my lines and I'm working on an NT8 strategy that will fully automate it, but I'm not a coder and AI is a work in progress, as many of you know.

RULE: Swing highs and swing lows are based on a 3-candle pattern where the center of any given 3 consecutive candles is higher or lower than the neighboring candles. No equal lows, no almosts - greater than the neighboring highs or lower than the neighboring lows. Throw a horizontal ray on that bad boy extended to the right and you are good to go.

2. Wait for the first instance of any level being broken. If a previous low is broken by price moving down BELOW (not equal to!), it gives us the ok to start looking for a long trade. If a previous high is taken by price moving up ABOVE (not equal to!), it gives us the ok to start looking for a short.

RULE: Until a level is actually broken by at least 1 tick, there is no trade. At this point, we are waiting. For this method, we do not care about wicks or body closures.

3. Entry is via a stop market order at the ENTRY PRICE of the candle that BROKE THE LEVEL. SL is the next confirmed level against our trade. TP is the next confirmed level in the direction of our trade. Consider the number of ticks from your entry price and the SL price. This will determine your risk/contract and you can size however you wish following your own risk tolerance. I personally risk 0.5%, but that is totally up to you individually. If my risk/contract exceeds my max risk, I skip the trade completely.

RULE: Yes, you may enter into a trade on the same candle that breaks the level. Sometimes you will, sometimes it will take several candles before this leg of price action moves enough to engage your entry price. The levels remain persistent until they are either triggered or replaced with an overriding new trade setup. This is very important - set it and forget it until you have reason to change it. I personally do have a trading window (8:30 - 5:00EST) but only because I'm manually trying to get my AI-coded strategy working and I have to physically be at the computer to watch and confirm the automated trades. Getting better, but still not something I can trust with my money yet.

4. Scale-ins are allowed ONLY IF THE PRICE IS AT LEAST 1 TICK IN PROFIT AT THE ENTRY PRICE. If you are in a drawdown situation, this doesn't allow for scaling in. If you are up, feel free.

5. Reversal setups - If you are in an active trade in one direction and it forms an internal new level that is taken by price without taking out your SL or your TP, prepare the trade as a stop entry the other direction. DO NOT CLOSE THE ACTIVE TRADE. Move the SL of the active trade to the entry price of the new opposite setup. If your original premise was wrong, you can mitigate some risk or even lock in a partial profit when the opposing trade is triggered and now you are set for the potential move that the market might be getting ready to give you currently.

I personally trade this on MES and MGC, Tuesday - Friday. As with everything, your mileage may vary.

For reference, the blank ES chart with the lines just show how I draw my chart with the levels marked (solid: unmitigated, dashed: mitigated and no long relevant). The split chart shows my average morning. I took a loss after open on MES but that put me into the current short that is nicely in profit and likely to give me 1.45R. I only took 0.61R on the first MGC trade but that's still $140 to offset some of the loss of the MES loser. Since I took this shot, the price in the MGC has moved down to sweep the level at 4286.3 (07:00 candle) and gave me my entry long. If it wins, that's 3.17R. Presently green on the morning, as the MES went full TP while I was typing this (MGC in DD for full disclosure).

Here is the next setup for the MES long per my system. I took the winning short and now have a pending long. Now, should one of the lower levels be taken, this trade would be scrapped and we would enter the next setup based on the new levels - TP is likely the same but entry and SL are frequently changed as price develops.

This is the updated trade already set as a buy stop but until the trade is entered, I continue looking at new setups as they form. The bracket order on the left is the actual trade I have on, but I have the potential next trade market out as the price has opened a new candle. Should it take the next level at 7724.50 before it triggers the buy entry at 7738.50, we replace the old with the new, a 7.06R setup if it is triggered. I don't care if it is triggered. Eventually, it will have taken some lower level before it shifts higher and vice versa. My moving setups wait for the market to make up its mind. I don't try to predict. I'm genuinely unfazed by which trades are entered and which aren't. This is my automatable (soon to be automated because I make a LOT of human errors) system and I'm glad to just let it run.

Even in those instances where my SL would exceed my risk parameters, I still choose to move my SL to the would-be entry to protect my position. Will I get stopped out? Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes it means I miss the move. Sometimes it protects me from losses. It's all in the edge, not in having to win every single trade. I just got stopped out for 3 ticks of profit on one trade and am deeply in DD on another. Still green on the day! That's what's paying the bills and passing evals at this point.

Here is a mixed result from the whatever that just hit. MES straight to full TP (1.37R). The MGC trade was a miss - I did not enjoy that entire upswing. Why? I got taken out by the last candle before that spike up for a small profit. It protected me a touch too well, in this instance. I gained a few bucks but missed the big one. Cool. Moving on to the next, up 2.5R on the day as a very average day.

Here is a real example of the evolution of my trade setups. The short position drawn on the left was based on the previous candle that had taken 5 levels in one move. It was valid until the current candle broke the next level. The SL didn't change, the TP didn't change - only the entry and the RR potential. If it takes the current SL level before it triggers the sell entry (spoiler alert - it just triggered)? The next potential trade is drawn on the right with the updated SL if this current candle manages to take it out. If it is taken out on a different candle, that's fine, we just have to adjust the entry price level to the opening price of whichever candle actually broke our level.

Following with interest - thanks for sharing!

This is a great example of potential reversal setup while in an open position. The lower level from 1500 candle (7764.00) was taken by the current candle, setting up a POTENTIAL long. We don't panic - hold the open position as is with the TP in the same place as before. Now set a pending stop in the opposite direction and move the current SL to the same price as your new entry. If it continues to move in our favor, we have a win and a idea of where the next opposing trade will be. If it moves against us, it either locks in a little profit or can reduce total loss for the trade and then get in position for the next leg. In the current setting, I don't know where it is going. Either I make $405 on the current short or I get closed out of the current and enter the long. My current SL is 2 ticks in profit, so it'll be BE + a couple cents after the commission, but I'm protected from the $250 risk that had existed if it continues against me. Then, I have a 0.78R long ready to be managed. It's super easy - riding up and riding down. Yes, I do lose. Fairly often, honestly. But then I see the full TP and know in the past I would have chickened out and closed before the full target. Now, I'm not ever surprised even on the big RR trades. It's my system and I expect it work like this. 2.5R today and counting. I know that is nothing to some of you guys, but a dude that has numerous years chasing it is feeling a whole lot better about his prospects now.

Aftermarket edit: It took the first lower level midway through the profit markup by just a couple ticks, establishing a better reversal setup that was triggered, closing the original trade in a little profit and then a full TP on the second trade overnight.

Correct entry?

Yes! You got wrecked on it like I did, but that is exactly right. Today isn't winning any awards so far, but that fits with what I warned up front. There are losses, but it defends drawdown nicely.

One of the things I like while I'm manually trading this and working out the kinks of my automation is that there is no "heat of the moment" to this method. It takes at least another 15 minutes for a level to be confirmed, so they never come as a surprise. Also, the SL and TP are rigidly fixed. I keep potential setups drawn on the basis that one or the other will be triggered, so I just move entries as new candles are formed and always have it ready to just hit stop entry -- trade.

https://www.tradingview.com/script/J...els-Indicator/ That's my indicator. It has some unnecessary things that can be disabled that I was trying to build into a TV strategy before switching to NT8 for execution automation. But the lines are drawn correctly. There is a limit of lines drawn so it won't go back tooooo far but it's great for quick visual of the situation.

DISCLAIMER: Don't use the signals from the indicator. I remove them entirely from my chart. This logic was never fully fleshed out. It's wrong, DO NOT TRUST IT. Just trust the lines.

Initial losses on MES, now a small recovery (0.33R) locked in and the next setup. MGC also started with a loss, found a small win, and is now in a great trade. I'll update as the trades progress.

This is an interesting situation. The original trade triggered in the 10:45 candle and moved into some profit. The up move created the swing high that was then taken during 11:30 candle, setting up the potential down trade and moving the SL up to the new entry, which happened to be in profit, locking in $43. The distance to the SL for the new potential short was too far away for my risk parameters, so I did not take it. Anyone who did would have seen a small lock in profit of $46. Additionally, the new long that was triggered has a very slightly better entry price and a very slightly better SL level. Win or lose, we have improved our net result by $89 following the method (and taking both trades -- I only took the one but the concept holds). If it wins, the improvement is from $341 to $435. If it loses, the loss improves from -$237 to -121.

I had a request for a little more clarity. The first chart is the configuration prior to the trade, then the actual trade (it lost), and then the setup for the next trade about to form. Hope this helps a bit! If not, I'm happy to keep trying until I clear up what I'm trying to say.

Started the day down but a series of tiny base hits have me back looking at a green day if my open trade hits. It might grind, but it plays defense really nicely. Then, I'm ready to ride the whole thing on the home runs that come often enough.

If you place a stop entry and before it triggers a new swing point forms, do you cancel that entry and wait for a trigger of the new area?

When there is a new setup, yes, I do cancel the original and replace it with the new setup. Trading manually on 2 instruments on the 15m, I'll usually have maybe 20 setups potentially in a NY session. I don't get that many trades, but that many setup alerts from my indicator (because I'm probably paying attention to something else at this point, my concerns no longer really existing for this method). Working out the automation will make this a lot easier, but even by hand, it really isn't that much. I should be funded on my eval (Apex 50k EOD) today or Monday trading just this. It is super pedestrian and it suits me just right.

This is more what this method realistically does most days. Surfing both directions for small wins. On trending days, it has fewer trades but the wins tend to be a bit larger. It genuinely likes range days, too, which has been a challenge for me in the past. And, yes, daily P&L just went green! Very robust DD defense from this!

Just to make sure; per rules you should on the 2nd trade (the buy) have placed TP around the first unmitigated level around 7806 right? Or was it too close so you took the further TP(?)