Table of Contents
Meet Grecko—the prop-firm trader whose October run alone cleared about $55,000 in payouts and who’s managed up to roughly $1.7–2.0 million in firm funding. In this Titans of Tomorrow interview, he lays out why psychology—specifically “clarity of mind”—beats any checklist of technicals, and how that mindset helped him rebound from rock-bottom to consistent green months. You’ll hear the raw journey: early wins, a brutal wipeout, a reset focused on journaling and character, and then a return to form trading momentum with calm execution across multiple funded accounts.
In this piece, you’ll learn Grecko’s practical, beginner-friendly playbook: how to build “clarity of mind,” cap emotions before they snowball, and run simple risk rules (think small percent risk, fixed daily trade limits, and quit-for-the-day triggers) that keep payouts growing. We’ll also break down his momentum-driven market-structure reads, why he separates “9-to-5” slow accounts from higher-octane ones, and how to scale responsibly after a big payout without slipping into overconfidence. By the end, you’ll have a clear blueprint you can apply to your next session—minus the fluff, plus the discipline that actually gets funded and paid.
Grecko Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Psychology First: Build “Clarity of Mind” Before You Touch the Chart
If your head isn’t clear, your execution won’t be either. Grecko treats trading as professional decision-making, so the goal is to reduce noise and make the next decision obvious. This section gives you a quick routine to steady emotions and prevent the spiral that wrecks funded accounts.
- 5-minute pre-session reset: two deep breaths, say out loud your #1 objective for the session, and write your stop-for-the-day trigger.
- Name the feeling before the trade (e.g., “impatient,” “fearful,” “cocky”). If you can’t label it, you can’t limit it—skip the trade.
- Journal one page the night before: biggest mistake yesterday, root cause, single fix for tomorrow.
- If you feel the urge to “get it back,” immediately reduce size by 50% or stop until the next session—no exceptions.
- No trade after an adrenaline spike (win or loss) for 10 minutes; use a timer.
Risk Model: Simple Numbers You Can Actually Follow
Complicated risk plans break under pressure. Grecko keeps the arithmetic simple so it’s easy to obey during fast markets. Pick your caps, lock them in, and let them do the discipline for you.
- Risk per trade: 0.25%–0.50% of account; only goes to 0.75% when an A+ (pre-defined) setup appears.
- Max daily loss: 1.0%–1.5%; hard stop—the platform closes and logs off.
- Max trades per day: 3–5 tickets total (scales count); once hit, flatten and call it.
- After two consecutive losses, the size is cut to 50% for the rest of the session.
- After a green day > +1.0%, stop early—protect compounding and your headspace.
Session Selection & Tempo: Trade When You’re Sharp, Not When You’re Bored
Overtrading across every session burns clarity and increases rule breaks. Grecko concentrates risk in the window where he’s focused and the market pays. Here’s how to set a session plan that curbs FOMO and enforces quality.
- Choose one primary session (e.g., early NY or late London) and one backup; never trade all three in a day.
- A/B energy check: if sleep < 6 hours or mental fatigue > 6/10, trade the backup session or stand down.
- First 60–90 minutes of the chosen session is the “money window”—outside that, reduce size or stop.
- If no A-setup prints in your window, you didn’t “miss it”; you followed the plan—log it and move on.
Setup & Execution: Momentum With Structure, Not Guesswork
Grecko leans on momentum aligned with clear structure—trend, pullback, continuation. The idea is to let the market show its hand, then press with defined risk rather than predicting turns.
- Define bias first: higher-highs/higher-lows = long bias; lower-highs/lower-lows = short bias. No bias = no trade.
- Entry only at the confluence: prior structure level + fresh momentum impulse + risk ≤ 0.5%.
- If price moves 1R in your favor, partial 50% and move stop to breakeven (for funded accounts, protection > perfection).
- One add-on allowed only after a higher low (in uptrend) or lower high (in downtrend); total risk on stack ≤ 0.75%.
- No bottom/top catching; reversal attempts require two structure shifts (break of swing + successful retest).
News & Drawdown Protection: Don’t Let “Hidden Rules” Nuke You
Funded accounts can get clipped by daily drawdown and news filters. Grecko treats news like a risk event first, opportunity second. These rules minimize silly breaches that erase weeks of work.
- 15 minutes before and after high-impact news: flat or micro-size (≤ 0.10% risk).
- If a win was news-assisted, assume it may be adjusted—do not reuse that “freed” daily buffer.
- Track prop-firm time zone and daily-loss reset time; stop trading 30 minutes before reset if near limits.
- Never trade into the final challenge pass trade—wait for clean conditions next session.
Payout Discipline: Withdraw, Reset, Then Scale
Big payouts create overconfidence and sloppy sizing. Grecko formalizes the “celebrate then reset” loop so scaling is controlled and sustainable.
- On payout weeks, cut risk by 50% for the next 3 sessions—protect psychology after a high.
- Fixed withdrawal schedule (e.g., every 2–4 weeks); never increase risk size immediately after a payout.
- Keep a “house money” ledger: only increase contract size after 3 consecutive green weeks and < 1.5% max drawdown within that period.
- If you breach one account, you automatically reduce overall exposure across remaining accounts by 30% for one week.
Challenge & Evaluation Strategy: Pass With Process, Not Heroics
The fastest way to pass is to avoid failing. Grecko’s challenge map emphasizes controlled risk, consistent singles, and time-based patience.
- Target 0.5%–1.0% net per day over 10–20 trading days; no “go-for-goal” last-day gambles.
- One A+ setup per day is enough; forcing a second usually adds variance, not edge.
- If equity is within 0.3% of the target, halt new risk—wait for the next day’s liquidity to finish.
- Track “slip days” (rule breaks) separately; >2 slip days in a challenge triggers a restart at half size.
Review Loop: Turn Losses Into Upgrades
The edge compounds in review. Grecko treats every error as an upgrade opportunity, not a verdict. Keep the loop tight, and the rules get sharper each week.
- End-of-day (10 minutes): screenshot entries/exits, tag with bias/grade (A/B/C), and write one sentence on what you’d do again.
- Weekly audit (30 minutes): top 3 errors, their triggers, and the rule to block each trigger next week.
- Maintain a “do less” list (markets, times, patterns) that consistently underperform—ban them for 30 days.
- If your P&L swings > 2% week-to-week, reduce size by one tier until the volatility of results calms.
Multi-Account Handling: Keep Correlation From Biting You
Running several funded accounts magnifies both wins and mistakes. Grecko reduces correlation so one bad theme doesn’t wipe the board.
- Cap simultaneous exposure to one idea across accounts to ≤ 1.5% total risk.
- If two accounts are green on the same idea, the third must be half-size or flat.
- Never mirror revenge trades across accounts; if you stop on one, you stop on all for the session.
- Stagger entries or time windows across accounts to avoid identical fills and identical slippage events.
Trading Environment: Make Good Decisions Easy
Your setup should nudge you to follow rules without thinking. Grecko uses environment design, so discipline is the default, not a fight.
- Pre-program templates: position size calculator, 1R/2R levels, and hotkeys for “flatten now.”
- Dashboard shows only what you use for entries; hide everything else during the session.
- Pomodoro the session (25 on / 5 off); step away after each trade to reset attention.
- Keep a visible card: risk per trade, daily stop, news window, max trades—glance before every click.
Size Risk First: Fixed-R Scaling That Survives Any Session
Grecko starts every decision with risk, not with the chart. He uses a fixed-R framework—one unit of risk equals a predefined percent of equity—so position size adjusts automatically to volatility. By locking R before entry, he prevents the post-fill wobble that tempts traders to widen stops or add impulsively. This keeps his focus on execution quality while protecting the account when conditions shift mid-session.
Practically, that means choosing 0.25–0.50% per trade as standard R and only stepping up when an A-setup appears. If the first trade loses 1R, he halves the size for the next look and caps the day at a small, predefined draw. Winners scale at measured increments—partial at 1R, add on structure confirmation—so heat never exceeds total planned R. The result is a repeatable sizing rhythm that survives choppy hours and lets Grecko press only when the market proves him right.
Trade the Volatility You Have, Not the Market You Want
Grecko builds his plan around today’s realized volatility, not yesterday’s dream setup. If range and pace are thin, he narrows targets, widens patience, and cuts size so a normal wiggle doesn’t become a breach. When impulse expands, he flips to “pay the range”: broader profit targets, faster partials, and one controlled add-on only after structure confirms trend. This way, he’s trading what the tape is actually offering instead of forcing his favorite move into a dead market.
He measures volatility first—ATR, session range, and speed of follow-through—then picks tactics to fit the reading. In quiet sessions, Grecko prioritizes first clean continuation and skips mean-reversion traps that require prediction over mechanics. In fast sessions, he leans into momentum with pre-planned 1R partials and a breakeven stop shift to protect the account. The core rule is simple: volatility writes the playbook, and Grecko just runs the plays.
Diversify by Underlying, Strategy, and Timeframe to Smooth Equity Curves
Grecko treats diversification as a risk smoother, not a performance booster. He splits exposure across a few uncorrelated underlyings, so one theme can’t sink the day. When indices are choppy, he may rotate into a cleaner FX or commodity read rather than forcing another index attempt. The aim is simple: different engines, different cycles, fewer synchronized drawdowns.
He also diversifies by play type and holding period—momentum continuation for the main risk, with occasional mean-reversion or breakout filters when conditions justify them. Timeframe diversification is deliberate: execution on the lower timeframes, confirmation on the higher, and management rules that don’t depend on a single chart’s noise. Grecko caps total correlated risk at a strict percent across all tickets, so stacking the “same idea” on multiple symbols is off-limits. Over time, this mix turns equity from a jagged saw into a steadier staircase.
Mechanics Over Prediction: Rules for Entries, Exits, and Adds
Grecko builds trades from a checklist, not a hunch. Entry requires trend alignment, a clean pullback to structure, and a fresh impulse—if any piece is missing, he passes without debate. Stops anchor at the invalidation point first, then the size is computed to fit the fixed-R risk unit, keeping the heat constant. He refuses to chase; if the price leaves without him, the opportunity is logged and the next setup is hunted, not forced.
Exits are scripted: partial at 1R to pay himself, stop to breakeven once structure confirms, and trail behind higher lows or lower highs only when momentum persists. Adds are rare and conditional—one add after confirmation, never raising total risk beyond the preplanned cap. If momentum stalls or the structure that justified the trade breaks, he’s flat, no “let’s see” allowed. The outcome may vary, but the mechanics never do, and that’s why Grecko’s execution stays consistent across sessions.
Define Your Risk: Stop Placement, Max Daily Draw, Hard Halts
Grecko treats risk as a product decision: you define it once and execute it every time. Stops go where the trade thesis is invalidated—beyond the swing that proves you wrong—not where the P&L “feels” okay. He sizes the position to that technical stop using a fixed-R unit, so the chart dictates distance and the calculator dictates size. Before the bell, he writes a hard max daily draw number and a max trades count; if either hits, he’s flat for the day, no negotiations.
During the trade, Grecko manages risk like a thermostat. If the price reaches 1R, he pays himself and moves the stop to breakeven only after structure confirms, not just because it feels safe. If he takes two losses in a row, size auto-drops by half for the rest of the session to prevent tilt. Near news or widening spreads, stops aren’t widened—size is reduced or the trade is skipped. And if he breaches any rule mid-session, the session ends immediately; protecting the account is the strategy, not an afterthought.
In the end, Grecko’s edge isn’t a single indicator—it’s a system that protects him from himself while letting momentum do the heavy lifting. He starts with clarity of mind, sets a fixed-R risk unit, and builds every decision around that anchor. The chart never overrides the rules: entries require structure plus impulse, exits are scripted, and adds are conditional. When volatility shifts, he adapts targets and size to the tape in front of him, not the market he wishes he had.
He avoids synchronized drawdowns by diversifying across underlyings, play types, and timeframes, then caps correlated risk so one theme can’t torch multiple accounts at once. News windows are treated as risk events first, opportunity second; daily loss limits and trade counts are hard stops, not suggestions. After payouts, he resets risk lower to kill overconfidence before it starts, and his review loop turns mistakes into next week’s rule upgrades. Put simply: define risk, execute mechanics, trade the current volatility, and let discipline—not prediction—compound the account.
Related posts:
- Inside the Trader Mindset: The Prop Firm Strategy Behind a $2.5M Payout
- Trader Strategy Playbook: Inside a Prop Firm CEO’s Mind
- From Producer to Prop Firm Payouts: A Trader Strategy That Actually Sticks
- Night-Owl Trader Strategy: Rahat’s Prop Firm Playbook
- Prop-Firm Reality Check: A Trader Strategy That Actually Survives
- Banned Prop-Firm Trader Strategy: How Andrew Scaled to $6.7M
- Prop-Firm Trader Strategy: Kyle’s Playbook with Raja Banks
- The Most-Banned Prop-Firm Trader: Strategy, Scaling, and Real Payouts
- Prop Firm Trader Strategy: Kyle’s Weekly Cycle Edge
- Prop-Firm Trader Strategy: Pasquale’s Playbook for Turning Fundamentals into Payouts
- Prop Firm Reality Check: Trader Strategy from the Tech Side of the Industry
- Trader Psychology Strategy: Rande Howell’s Playbook
