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If you’ve ever wondered how seasoned pros read markets with surgical precision, this interview with Cary Artac is a masterclass. Cary is a veteran technical analyst and trader who cut his teeth on the Chicago Board of Trade, later founding Artac Advisory and building a following for crisp, level-driven analysis. These days, you’ll also see his work powering WickedStocks, where he translates decades of chartcraft into clear support/resistance maps for everyone from swing traders to longer-term investors. He’s here to talk shop—what really works, why channel structures matter, and how to stay objective when your money’s on the line.
In this piece, you’ll learn Cary Artac’s practical trader strategy for mapping precise channels across daily, weekly, and monthly charts—and how to combine those with classic tools (trendlines, key reversals, Fibonacci) to find high-probability pivots. You’ll also pick up execution rules like scaling entries, waiting for confirmation without surrendering price location, and his signature “buy-signal rejection equals sell-signal” principle. Most importantly, Cary drills in risk management you can copy today: hard worst-case stops, portfolio sizing that caps any single idea, and a 10-position rhythm that keeps psychology steady so you can ride winners to objective targets.
Cary Artac Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Market Map: Multi-Timeframe Channels & Levels
Cary builds a simple, durable map of the market using channels and structural support/resistance pulled from monthly, weekly, and daily charts. The weekly close is sacred: it confirms or kills a level and sets the tone for the next swing. This section shows you how to recreate that map so decisions become objective and repeatable.
- Draw primary rising/falling channels on the monthly first; project midlines and parallels to define “road lanes.”
- Mark weekly support/resistance that has produced at least two prior turns; if it breaks on a weekly close, treat it as regime change.
- Daily, refine only the next actionable level; keep the bigger monthly/weekly lines intact to avoid overfitting.
- Tag each level with a role: entry zone, invalidator (hard stop), or objective (target)—never leave a line unlabeled.
- If daily momentum fights the weekly close, defer to the weekly; trade smaller or pass until alignment returns.
Setups & Triggers: Breaks, Retests, and Reversals
Cary’s bread-and-butter entries come from clean interactions with mapped levels: breakouts that close through, retests that hold, or failed signals that flip bias. Keeping triggers binary prevents “maybe” trades from leaking P&L.
- Break-and-Close: Enter only after a daily close through a mapped level; confirmation = follow-through above/below that level the next session.
- Retest-Hold: After a break, buy/sell the first retest that holds intraday and closes back in the breakout direction.
- Failure Flip: If price breaks a buy level intraday but closes back below (or vice versa), take the opposite signal on the next session open with tight risk.
- Level Priority: When two levels are close (<0.75× ATR), only trade the higher-timeframe level; skip the noise.
- One Try Rule: One attempt per level per direction; if stopped, wait for a fresh structure or different timeframe level.
Risk & Sizing Framework: Keep Losses Mechanical
Longevity comes from fixed, pre-declared risk and the refusal to “negotiate” with price. Cary’s approach uses hard invalidation at the level, modest risk per idea, and a portfolio cap to keep psychology steady through sequences.
- Risk a fixed 0.25%–0.75% of equity per trade; never exceed 5% total open risk across the book.
- Place the hard stop beyond the invalidation side of the mapped level (e.g., 0.5–0.8× ATR beyond), never inside the level.
- Use position size = (account × risk%) / stop distance; round down to the nearest lot/contract.
- Limit to 10 concurrent positions; if adding an 11th, close or scale down the lowest-conviction trade first.
- If slippage >30% of the planned stop distance at entry, cut size by half or stand down.
Execution Tactics: Enter, Scale, and Manage Orders
Clean execution preserves the edge. Cary favors limited entries at the level, minimal scaling, and pre-staged orders so emotions can’t hijack the plan. Here’s how to standardize fills and reduce regret.
- Place limit orders at the retest price; if unfilled and price runs, do not chase—set a buy-stop above the signal bar only if the setup was Break-and-Close.
- Scale in once (max twice): +50% size on the first successful retest that prints a higher low/lower high against the level.
- Scale out in thirds at T1 = 0.75R, T2 = 1.5R, T3 = mapped objective; move stop to breakeven at T1 only if structure has confirmed (e.g., a higher low).
- For gaps through stops, exit at market on open; do not “give it room” because the structure has already failed.
- If spread/volatility spikes (news, earnings), pause new entries until the next session’s close re-validates levels.
Targets & Trailing: Let Structure Do the Selling
Targets are not guesses—they’re drawn from the same channel framework: opposite rails, midlines, and prior swing boundaries. Trailing occurs only after the first objective hits or structure upgrades.
- Primary target = opposite channel boundary or next weekly S/R; secondary = channel midline if it aligns with a prior swing.
- After T1, trail stop one bar below/above the last swing against trend on the daily; after T2, promote the trail to the weekly swing.
- If weekly close rejects progress (e.g., closes back inside broken level), take profits down to a token runner (10–20%) or flat the trade.
- Time stop: if price hasn’t advanced ≥0.5R within 5 trading sessions after confirmation, exit and free risk budget.
Watchlist & Routine: Keep the Edge Fresh
Cary’s workflow is repeatable: scan, map, narrow, execute. A tight weekly and daily loop keeps focus on names where the structure is clean and risk is quantifiable.
- Weekend (90–120 min): Build/update monthly & weekly maps on core indices, futures, FX majors, and 20–30 liquid stocks; pre-tag A/B/C setups.
- Daily (20–30 min): Refresh only the 6–12 tickers with A-setups; adjust levels after the close and queue orders for the next session.
- Earnings/Events: For single-names within 3 trading days of earnings, downgrade to B-setup unless the level is weekly and the plan is pre-hedged.
- Archive charts with annotations; if a level fails, save the chart and a one-line reason—this tightens future filters.
Instrument & Timeframe Rules: Futures, FX, and Stocks
The mapping method is instrument-agnostic, but execution details vary. These rules keep the playbook consistent across asset classes without diluting the core framework.
- Futures: Prefer front-month continuous; roll levels at contract change and re-validate with the first weekly close.
- FX: Focus on New York 5 pm closes for daily confirmation; avoid entries in the last 30 minutes of the FX session rollover.
- Stocks/ETFs: Respect opening gaps—treat them as mini break-and-close signals and re-map if they jump past key levels.
- Timeframes: map monthly/weekly; trigger on daily; use H4/H1 only to fine-tune entry at the same level, not to invent new ones.
Optional Add-Ons Cary Uses Sparingly
Cary keeps it simple—levels first, everything else second. When he adds tools, it’s to confirm, not to predict. Use these as tie-breakers, never as standalone signals.
- Speedlines / Trendlines: Validate channel direction and spot acceleration/deceleration inside the broader structure.
- Fibonacci Confluence: If a channel boundary aligns with 38.2%–61.8% of the prior swing, upgrade the setup quality one notch.
- Relative Strength Check: Favor long setups in names outperforming their sector ETF on the weekly; downgrade if underperforming.
Example Template You Can Copy Today
Here’s the exact checklist to take from chart to trade the way Cary does—no guesswork, no vibe-trading. Fill it in for any symbol you’re stalking and let the structure make the calls.
- Map: Monthly/weekly channels drawn; key weekly S/R noted; daily refinement complete.
- Bias: Weekly close above/below ______ (level) sets bias long/short.
- Trigger: Break-and-Close through ______ OR Retest-Hold at ______.
- Entry: Limit at ______; backup buy-stop/sell-stop at ______ if Break-and-Close.
- Risk: Invalidation beyond ______; stop distance = ______; risk% = ______; size = ______.
- Targets: T1 = ______ (0.75R), T2 = ______ (1.5R), T3 = ______ (mapped objective).
- Trail: After T1, trail to last daily swing; after T2, promote to weekly swing.
- Time: Exit if <0.5R progress in 5 sessions.
- Notes: One try per level; stand down on conflicting closes; cap book risk at 5%.
Map Multi-Timeframe Channels, Let Weekly Closes Set Your Bias
Cary Artac starts with structure, not speculation. He maps broad channels on the monthly chart, then locks in key support and resistance on the weekly, so the market tells him where the lanes are. The weekly close is the judge and jury—above a level, he carries a bullish bias; below it, he flips or stands down. Daily charts are used to fine-tune entries, but they never overrule what the weekly just confirmed.
This keeps Cary Artac objective when volatility tempts traders into prediction. If a level breaks intraday but the weekly close doesn’t confirm, he treats it as noise and waits. When the weekly close does confirm, he narrows to the daily for a measured trigger at or near the mapped level. The result is a clean, mechanical read: structure first, confirmation second, execution last.
Trade the Retest, Not the Breakout: Mechanical Triggers, Zero Guesswork
Cary Artac waits for the market to leave a footprint, then steps where it’s already proven. Instead of chasing the first push through a level, he lets price close beyond it and then stalks the first clean retest. If that retest holds and closes back in the breakout direction, he enters with a limit order near the level so his stop can sit just beyond structural invalidation. This keeps slippage small, defines risk precisely, and prevents “hope trades” launched in the heat of the moment.
Cary Artac also treats failed breaks as information, not frustration. If price pokes through a buy level intraday but finishes back below, he reads it as a failure and prepares for an opposite-direction setup on the next session with tight risk. He uses one try per level per direction to avoid death by a thousand retries, and he sizes the position from the stop distance—often anchored to a fraction of ATR beyond the line. The result is binary: either the retest holds and he’s in with edge, or it fails and he’s flat and ready for the next clean signal.
Size Small, Cap Portfolio Risk, Survive Sequences Without Emotional Damage
Cary Artac runs a small, mechanical risk, so one bad trade—or even a cluster—can’t knock him off center. He fixes a modest percentage risk per idea and calculates size from the stop distance, so every position has the same economic bite. A hard invalidation line is chosen before entry, and the stop lives beyond that line, not inside it. This way, even if the next few trades lose, the drawdown is controlled and the playbook doesn’t change.
Cary Artac also caps total open risk across the whole book to keep sequences survivable. If a new setup would push risk above the cap, he passes or reduces size, protecting decision quality during rough patches. He avoids adding to losers, scales only after confirmation, and accepts slippage or gaps as structure failure—exit first, analyze later. The point isn’t perfection; it’s staying emotionally steady so the next valid signal gets traded with the same discipline as the last.
Use Hard Invalidation And ATR Stops, Not Undefined Risk
Cary Artac defines the exact price that would prove his idea wrong before he ever clicks buy or sell. That invalidation line lives just beyond the mapped level, and the stop is placed a measured buffer outside it—often a fraction of ATR—to account for normal noise. By anchoring the stop to structure plus volatility, Cary Artac avoids the common mistake of hiding stops inside the battle zone where they’ll get clipped. The result is a clean “in or out” decision: if the price reaches the invalidation, the thesis is finished and the position goes flat.
This approach also forces position size to fit the stop, not the ego. Cary Artac calculates size from risk per trade and the ATR-based distance, so a wider, choppier market simply earns a smaller position. He doesn’t move, stops to “give it room”; only structure upgrades—like a fresh higher low—justify changes. And when gaps or slippage jump past the stop, he exits at the next available print because the invalidation already happened. Defined risk, measured buffer, and zero negotiation with price—that’s how the account stays protected while the strategy hunts for big, clean moves.
Diversify By Instrument, Strategy, And Timeframe To Smooth Equity Curve
Cary Artac doesn’t rely on one market or one flavor of setup to carry the month. He spreads risk across indices, futures, FX majors, and a handful of liquid stocks, so a slump in one corner doesn’t sink the whole ship. Within that mix, Cary Artac separates trend-continuation channel trades from reversal-at-boundary trades, treating them as distinct strategies with their own slots.
He also diversifies by clock: weekly closes set bias, daily charts trigger entries, and he staggers start times so positions don’t light up all at once. If correlations spike—say, multiple equity names marching to the same index rhythm—he caps the cluster and prioritizes the cleanest structure. Winners get room to work while new risk is directed to a different instrument or timeframe, keeping the curve steadier and the decision-making calmer.
Cary Artac’s core lesson is ruthless objectivity: map channels from the extremes, respect how fast they rise or fall, and let the higher timeframes settle the argument. He explicitly builds “worst-case” channels by anchoring trendlines to the most extreme lows and projecting them against the extreme highs, then waits for that last defensible boundary to truly break before declaring a trend change. He measures the slope precisely—down to odd rates like 0.65 or 3.72 points per day—using pro charting tools so his lines aren’t guesses. And he cross-checks signals across daily, weekly, and monthly bar charts, with the weekly close carrying outsized weight for confirming or killing a level.
Execution is just as systematic: he scales in around key levels, accepts that confirmation can cost price location, and treats “buy-signal rejection” as a valid sell signal instead of a personal failure. Risk is non-negotiable: use good-til-canceled worst-case stops, define maximum drawdown and margin-to-equity ahead of time, and cap how much any one position can occupy in the portfolio. Put simply, Cary Artac’s edge is a disciplined chain: extreme-based channels, timeframe confirmation, binary triggers, and pre-declared risk rules that let you act decisively—and sleep at night.
