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Jean-Francois Boucher sits down for a focused, live-trading breakdown that shows why he’s a must-study scalper for retail traders. In a tight, two-hour New York session window, he walks through his “trading on schedule” approach, reading EUR/USD through simple price ladders and a repeatable nine-pip “box” that frames support, resistance, and probability. No indicators circus—just time-of-day, levels, and disciplined execution that treats trading like a business shift.
In this piece, you’ll learn how Jean-Francois sizes risk at roughly 1% per box (up to four boxes), times entries against green/red candles to sell high or buy low, and “engineers” exits by averaging within a capped 36-pip risk envelope—without chasing. You’ll see how to map nine-pip swings, spot when speed implies another box, and set a hard stop-trading time so you leave the “casino” ahead. If you’re a newer trader, expect a clean blueprint you can practice tomorrow: define your box, trade the next move (not the last), and let process—not prediction—do the heavy lifting.
Jean-Francois Boucher Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
The 9-pip box that frames every decision
Boucher treats EUR/USD’s intraday movement like a “unit of measure.” He boxes price into a repeatable nine-pip height to anchor probability, context, and risk before he ever clicks. That simple frame tells him what’s “normal,” what’s stretched, and where the next high-odds decision lives.
- Draw a 9-pip tall box around the current action on EUR/USD; assume one “average move” spans ~1 hour.
- Treat each box as the baseline “standard deviation” for the session’s swings.
- If price traverses a full box unusually fast, anticipate another box (momentum continuation).
Ladder your levels, then trade the bias.
He builds a simple price ladder—nearby levels from today—to create “calls to action.” The ladder reinforces his top-down bias and tells him where to buy or sell when price tags a rung.
- Mark recent intraday highs/lows and intermediate steps as your ladder.
- Only act in the direction of your pre-defined bias unless the ladder clearly invalidates it.
- Space runs roughly ~9 pips apart to match the box logic.
Entry timing: sell green, buy red (don’t chase)
He wants the best price, not the most exciting candle. Boucher sells into green near resistance and buys into red near support, so he’s fading the expansion rather than chasing it.
- Short on a green candle into resistance; long on a red candle into support.
- Avoid late breakouts when price is already 2–3 boxes from the origin—assume reversion risk is high.
- Think “outside the band = fade or manage,” “inside the band = harvest small wins.”
Targets, stops, and engineering the exit.
His default aim is small and frequent: take a few pips, then reset. When price pushes against him, he averages with strict limits to “engineer” the exit back to breakeven or a small gain.
- Default target: ~3 pips; repeat it rather than swinging for home runs.
- Hard risk envelope: 36 pips from entry (~4 boxes). No exceptions.
- If the first entry doesn’t pay, add a second at the next qualified price to move the average toward the likely pullback.
Box-based position sizing (your daily budget)
He budgets risk by box, not by trade. That structure keeps him funded to fix problems and still take the next high-probability shot.
- Allocate ~1% of the account per box; max four boxes “in play.”
- If the market requires a 5th box, close box #1—never exceed four.
- Don’t scatter many tiny trades; reserve budget so you can average intelligently when needed.
Probability over perfection (entries are not the paycheck)
He doesn’t worship perfect entries. The money shows up through consistent exits and disciplined risk, even while being “wrong a lot.”
- Stop sniping; think in zones: “spread butter,” then manage into the exit.
- Expect a high hit-rate environment, but build your plan around catching and containing the minority losers.
- When a drawdown appears, use planned adds to walk your average toward breakeven—then take the small win and flatten.
Read speed and distance like a mechanic.
Distance covered per unit time signals whether one box likely leads to the next. Fast traversals mean momentum; slow, complete hours mean mean-reversion risk.
- If a full 9-pip box completes in minutes, prepare for another leg in the same direction.
- If price stalls mid-box, reduce conviction—assume 50/50 until it tags an edge.
- Let speed inform whether you harvest quickly or hold for a second box.
Trade the edges; manage the middle.
He treats the box’s edges as the business—where asymmetry lives—and the middle as coin-flip territory. That lens keeps him patient and process-driven.
- Favor entries near box edges aligned with your bias; pass on mid-box trades unless you have a fresh signal.
- Use edges to define adds and scale-outs so your average sits where the next small bounce pays you.
- If edges fail twice, assume the environment shifted—de-risk to your 36-pip envelope and reassess.
Cash-flow mindset: many small paydays
Inside “normal,” he aims to clip small, repeatable profits rather than chase trends. When stretched “outside normal,” he switches from harvesting to managing.
- In normal conditions, take the 3-pip pay and reset; don’t let winners turn into management problems.
- In stretched conditions (2–3 boxes from origin), focus on defense: fade, average within plan, and get flat.
- Always keep a budget in reserve so you can fix trades instead of hoping they fix themselves.
Practical session checklist
This is the nuts-and-bolts routine you can run each day. Keep it simple, keep it measured, and let the box think so you can do the executing.
- Pre-market: mark ladder rungs ~9 pips apart; define bias.
- During entries: sell green/buy red at edges; target 3 pips; stop envelope 36 pips.
- Management: add once per new box only if it improves your average inside the risk envelope.
- Risk: 1% per box, max four; if a 5th is needed, flatten the first.
Frame the Day with a 9-Pip Box, Not Predictions.
Jean-Francois Boucher starts by boxing EUR/USD into a clean nine-pip frame so the chart stops feeling random. That fixed unit gives him a “normal move” to anchor expectations before any trade idea gets airtime. Once the box is drawn, he cares less about where the price “should” go and more about how far it has actually traveled. If one box prints fast, he reads momentum; if it grinds, he prepares for mean reversion at the edges.
The box also dictates where Jean-Francois Boucher will do business—near the top to sell strength, near the bottom to buy weakness. Mid-box is usually noise, so he waits for the price to tag an edge and then times into the pullback. This keeps him from chasing late candles and forces discipline around distance and time. By letting a nine-pip box define “normal,” he trades the market that exists—not the forecast in his head.
Size Risk by Boxes: 1% Each, Max Four in Play
Jean-Francois Boucher treats risk like inventory, not vibes—each nine-pip box gets about 1% of account risk. That simple cap keeps him funded to manage trades without ever letting one idea hijack the day. With a maximum of four boxes “in play,” he knows exactly how many attempts or adds he can afford before calling it. The clarity reduces hesitation and revenge clicks because the budget is pre-decided.
Mechanically, he deploys the first box at the edge, then only adds if the next qualified price improves his average inside the plan. If the market requires a fifth box to fix the trade, he flattens the earliest box—no exceptions. This prevents small misreads from compounding into a blowup while still giving room to engineer an exit. The result is a crisp risk envelope that lets Jean-Francois Boucher act decisively and survive cold streaks without shrinking to scared sizing.
Sell Green at Resistance, Buy Red at Support—Then Clip
Jean-Francois Boucher times entries against candle color to get paid for other people’s urgency. When price tags a mapped resistance and prints green, he sells into that push rather than chasing the breakout; at mapped support with a red candle, he buys weakness the crowd is dumping. He wants the best location plus the emotional overshoot, not just a level touch. This simple “fade the expansion” rule keeps him a step ahead of the turn instead of behind it.
Once in, Boucher clips quickly—think a few pips—and resets before the market turns a winner into a management problem. If momentum keeps stretching, he waits for the next qualified price rather than averaging mindlessly in the middle. Mid-range trades are mostly noise, so he lets the edges do the heavy lifting and uses candle color only as the trigger, not the thesis. By pairing level precision with candle behavior, Jean-Francois Boucher converts noisy intraday swings into clean, repeatable paydays.
Engineer Exits with Capped Adds Inside a 36-Pip Envelope.
Jean-Francois Boucher treats exits as a build, not a hope. He sets a hard 36-pip risk envelope—about four boxes—and only adds if the next qualified price improves the average and keeps him inside that cap. The goal isn’t to be “right” on the first try; it’s to manufacture a favorable average where a routine pullback pays him. Once the average is in a spot where a small snap can cash out, he takes the quick exit and resets rather than negotiating with the market.
If a trade would require a fifth box, Boucher cuts the earliest one and refuses to expand the envelope. He scales out on the bounce that touches his engineered average, clips the pay, and goes flat without chasing extra pips. No averaging in the dead middle, no adds that don’t move the math—only purposeful entries that change the outcome. This structure keeps losers contained, turns many “bad” starts into small wins, and preserves capital for the next clean setup.
Trade on Schedule: Two Focused Hours and Hard Stop
Jean-Francois Boucher runs his trading like a shift, not an open-ended marathon. He picks a two-hour New York window, shows up with a pre-marked ladder and box levels, and works the plan—then he’s done. The clock creates focus: fewer distractions, fewer random trades, and decisions anchored to time as much as price. By compressing effort, he captures the day’s cleanest moves and avoids the slow, mistake-prone sprawl.
When the hard stop hits, Boucher closes the platform—even if he just had a loss or sees one more “tempting” setup. No “after-hours” redemption trades, no extending the envelope to earn it back. The schedule protects his edge: consistent energy, consistent execution, consistent review. It also keeps trading subordinate to life, which makes Jean-Francois Boucher sharper the next session and less emotionally attached to any single day’s P&L.
Jean-Francois Boucher’s core lesson is to turn EUR/USD into a measured environment: use a nine-pip “box” as your unit of move, expect roughly an hour per box, and let speed signal momentum—when a box completes in minutes, be ready for the next leg. This framing makes the edges high-probability and the middle a coin flip, so you plan trades at the perimeter and manage risk with the box as your security blanket.
Execution stays simple: sell green into mapped resistance, buy red into mapped support, target about three pips, and cap downside with a 36-pip envelope—roughly four boxes—while adding only if it improves your average inside that cap. Inside “normal,” you clip small wins repeatedly; when price stretches to 2–3 boxes from origin, you shift to defense and manage back to the engineered average rather than hoping.
The operating model is discipline over drama: focus on one instrument and recycle the same trade many times instead of spreading across markets; run a tight two-hour session with a predefined “potential average yield” and walk away when it’s met. Journal, review, and align a simple top-down view so your intraday plan has the wind at its back. This approach is transferable—find the average box for your chosen market, respect time of day, and let the measuring cup think so you can execute.
