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Felix Hartmann sits down in this interview to unpack how he went from stock-and-options tinkerer to a crypto day trader and ultimately a hedge fund manager. He’s candid about the early grind, why 2017 pulled him into digital assets, and what it took to set up Hartmann Capital when serious money started knocking. If you’re curious how a German-born, U.S.-based trader turned volatile markets into a career—and why that matters for your own playbook—this is your roadmap.
In this piece, you’ll learn Felix’s core risk philosophy (small, consistent wins over flashy leverage), his strict stop-loss habits, and the mental routines—journaling, gym, cool-down periods—that keep him in a “pro-only” headspace. We’ll walk through why crypto’s intraday ranges can mimic a stock’s full day, how he sizes risk so one bad trade never defines the week, and the exact mindset shift that helped him raise outside capital without losing discipline. You’ll leave with an actionable blueprint to trade like a pro—not by guessing the next moonshot, but by tightening process, protecting downside, and letting skill, not luck, compound.
Felix Hartmann Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Markets & Timeframes He Works
Felix Hartmann treats crypto’s intraday movement like a compressed version of stocks. He focuses on fast windows where a five- or fifteen-minute crypto chart can mirror a full day in equities—so he applies swing-style tactics to intraday crypto moves. This lets him capture range expansions without sitting in overnight risk.
- Trade BTC/ETH and top-tier alts on 5–15m charts; avoid holding through illiquid overnight gaps.
- Treat 15m crypto structure (breakouts/pullbacks) like a stock’s daily: wait for a clear base → break → retest.
- Skip wide swing holds in high-vol regimes; intraday cycles provide enough range with tighter risk.
Risk Limits & Position Sizing
His edge is built on strict max-risk caps. For the fund, a single position’s risk is tiny; personally, he kept risk near one percent, so a few losers never sink the week. The goal is professional survivability, not lottery tickets.
- Cap per-trade risk to ~0.25% at fund level; personal account ≤1% (2% only in A+ setups).
- Place stops where the setup is invalidated, not where it “feels safe”; skip trades that require >1–2% risk.
- Pre-define a daily loss limit (e.g., 2–3R). Hit it? Flatten and stop for the day—no “revenge” entries.
Entries, Exits, and Intraday Adaptation
Felix adapts tactics to crypto’s speed: he lets structure form, enters on confirmation, and forces exits when momentum fades. He avoids catching falling knives and uses clear, mechanical triggers to remove hesitation.
- Entry: wait for a higher-low after a base break on 5–15m; enter on reclaim of the trigger candle’s high.
- Initial stop: below the base or last higher-low; size so the dollar risk matches your cap.
- Add only on strength (new higher-low + breakout), never to “average down.”
- Exit partial at 1–1.5R; move stop to breakeven after first scale; trail under last higher-low until momentum stalls.
- No trade if volatility compresses and ATR shrinks—your edge is range expansion.
Journaling & Post-Trade Review
He audits every trade like a coach reviewing tape. Printing charts, marking entries/exits, and logging the “why” keeps the feedback loop tight and makes improvement measurable. If you can’t name your last ten trades and reasons, you’re flying blind.
- Journal every trade: setup name, market regime, trigger, stop, target, size, emotion (pre/during/post).
- Post-mortem daily: print or screenshot, mark entry/stop/exit time, note where the plan drifted.
- Track metrics weekly: win rate, average R, max adverse excursion, time-in-trade; adjust rules based on data.
Accountability That Improves Execution
Felix leverages accountability to cut dumb trades. Teaching, sharing results, or publicly posting forces him to “walk the talk,” which reduces impulsive behavior and tightens discipline.
- Publish a daily recap (private or public): the act of exposing results curbs impulse trades.
- Define three “hard stops” you’ll never break (max risk, daily loss limit, no averaging down).
- If you mentor/coach, treat sessions as performance audits—arrive with your logs and top 3 fixes.
Iteration via Sample Sizes
He tests rules in batches, not vibes. A plan gets a fair sample (e.g., 20 trades) before it judges it, which avoids overreacting to short streaks and keeps decisions data-driven.
- Commit to 20-trade cohorts per strategy; change nothing mid-cohort unless a risk rule is violated.
- After the cohort, keep, kill, or tweak based on expectancy (avg R) and consistency (stdev of R).
- Maintain a “kill switch”: any rule that produces a 3-loss streak at >1R each pauses for review.
Separating Fund Discipline from Personal Trading
Felix’s shift to managing outside capital sharpened his risk culture. The fund’s tighter risk per position forces cleaner setups and stricter execution, proving that small risk and process can still scale.
- Use institutional-style limits: tiny per-trade risk, aggregate exposure caps, and max daily/weekly drawdowns.
- Prefer liquid pairs (BTC/ETH) during peak session hours; avoid thin alts that distort fills.
- Document mandate differences (what you can/can’t trade) and follow them with zero exceptions.
Fixing Bad Trades Before They Break You
He refuses to “save” losers. When a trade violates the thesis, it’s out—no questions, no martingales. He then adds a new rule to prevent the same mistake from repeating.
- Never average down a failed thesis; exit and log the trigger that proved you wrong.
- Convert every pain point into a rule (e.g., “no adds during chop,” “no trades 5m before major prints”).
- Build a pre-trade checklist: trend, structure, level, trigger, stop, size, catalyst, liquidity.
Big-Picture Vision & Fit
Felix pushes traders to know who they are—because style-fit beats FOMO. If you’re highly emotional or hate screens, a fast intraday crypto style may not be your game; pick the lane you can execute day after day.
- Write a one-page “trader identity”: time commitment, preferred pace (scalp/intraday/swing), risk comfort, and strengths.
- Align markets and tactics to that identity; misalignment creates churn, not P&L.
- Reassess quarterly—styles evolve; update rules to match who you are now.
Size Risk First: Small Position Caps That Survive Losing Streaks
Felix Hartmann starts with risk, not setups, because position size decides whether you’re still around after a cold week. He treats per-trade risk like rent—non-negotiable, paid up front, and never allowed to balloon. That means defining a tiny slice of equity for any single idea, so three losers in a row dent confidence, not the account. When you cap the downside first, every chart pattern instantly becomes easier to trade because the worst-case is already known.
Hartmann also builds daily guardrails that end the session before tilt begins. A fixed loss limit turns off the screens when you’re not sharp, preventing one bad day from snowballing into a bad month. He sizes entries from the stop outward—stop goes where the thesis dies, then the position is calculated to fit the risk cap. The message is simple: protect the base, let winners stack, and you’ll survive long enough for skill to compound.
Trade The Range Expansion: Use Volatility Windows, Skip Dead Chop
Felix Hartmann hunts for moments when crypto wakes up and starts moving, not when it’s meandering in tight ranges. He watches for clear bases, expansion candles, and clean retests that signal real participation. When the window opens—often around session overlaps or catalysts—he plays offense; when volatility dries up, he stands down. The edge is catching the burst, not babysitting chop.
Hartmann keeps the rules simple: wait for structure, confirm momentum, and get paid while the tape is wide. If a move stalls or compresses, he exits and preserves mental capital for the next expansion. He’d rather take one A-quality burst than five B-minus chops that drain focus. Trade the windows, skip the sludge—that’s how Felix Hartmann keeps the expectancy positive.
Rules Over Predictions: Base-Break, Retest, Execute, Then Trail Stops
Felix Hartmann doesn’t forecast; he follows rules. He waits for a clear base to form, takes the break, and only pulls the trigger on the retest when the level holds. That one-two confirms participation and keeps him out of head-fakes. The stop lives where the base fails, not where it “feels” safe.
After entry, Felix Hartmann manages the trade like a checklist: scale partials at predefined R-multiples, trail under successive higher lows, and never add if momentum stalls. If price slips back through the retest level, he’s out—no negotiating with the tape. The goal isn’t to be right early; it’s to execute the same sequence every time and let the math work.
Diversify By Liquidity And Session: BTC, ETH Focus, Avoid Thin Alts
Felix Hartmann spreads exposure across liquid pairs and time-of-day edges instead of chasing every ticker. He centers the book on BTC and ETH because fills, spreads, and depth are predictable, then sprinkles small risk on only the top-tier movers. Sessions matter: London open, New York overlap, and specific catalyst windows each offer different range profiles. Diversifying across these windows reduces the chance that one dead session torpedoes the day.
Felix Hartmann also diversifies by strategy and duration—trend continuation during expansion, mean-reversion in controlled pullbacks, and flat during chop. He avoids thin alts where one whale can invalidate the setup, and he sizes smaller when liquidity tapers. If slippage exceeds the planned stop distance, he cuts the idea—no trade is better than a bad fill. The net effect is a portfolio built on liquidity first, where diversification is about dependable execution, not collecting tickers.
Process Discipline Daily: Journal, Loss Limits, Twenty-Trade Cohort Reviews
Felix Hartmann treats discipline like a daily workout, not a once-a-week tune-up. He journals every trade with the setup name, trigger, stop, target, and emotion snapshot so patterns become obvious. That written record exposes leaks like late entries or impulse adds long before they become expensive. A fixed daily loss limit then acts as a circuit breaker when focus slips. When the limit is hit, Felix Hartmann shuts it down and protects both capital and confidence.
He also evaluates strategies in cohorts, giving each rule set a fair sample before judging it. Twenty trades per cohort are enough to measure expectancy without overreacting to noise. After the cohort, Felix Hartmann keeps, kills, or tweaks the play based on average R and consistency, not vibes. The compounding effect is real: small process upgrades, repeated daily, turn into cleaner execution and steadier P&L.
In the end, Felix Hartmann’s edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s ruthless clarity about risk and process. He sizes first so no single idea can wreck the week, anchors stops where the thesis truly dies, and respects a hard daily loss limit that shuts down tilt before it starts. He hunts volatility windows instead of forcing trades in dead chop, leans on clean base-breaks with retests, and manages positions with predefined scales and trailing stops. Liquidity is a feature, not an afterthought: BTC and ETH get the bulk of attention, with smaller risk on only the strongest movers, and only when spreads and depth cooperate.
Just as important, Felix treats improvement like a system. He journals every trade, reviews cohorts of twenty to judge expectancy, and turns recurring mistakes into new rules. That accountability loop—plus the discipline forged from managing outside capital—keeps him executing the same playbook whether the market is hot or cold. If you boil it down to the lessons worth stealing: size small, trade the expansion, follow rules not predictions, prioritize liquidity and session edges, and iterate through relentless journaling and sample-size testing. Do that consistently, and you’ll give yourself the one advantage retail rarely keeps—professional durability.
