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Meet Lewis—29, marketing director turned dedicated trader—fresh off a flight from DXB to the UK and sitting down on the “Words of Rizdom” podcast. He’s based in Dubai, works remotely, and has been trading just over a year, bringing a grounded take on balancing career, life, and charts. The conversation digs into why he matters to newer traders: he’s close to the starting line, honest about mistakes, and precise about what’s moved the needle.
In this piece, you’ll learn the strategy-building blocks Lewis actually uses: tightening routine, treating trading like a business, showing up with intent, journaling progress, and managing anxiety with structure. We’ll unpack how he chose communities, why low-timeframe execution clicked, and the practical habits that turned “watching webinars” into real results—so you can copy the parts that work and skip the fluff.
Lewis Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Daily Routine & Prep
A consistent routine keeps Lewis calm, focused, and ready to execute. This section lays out the simple daily cadence he uses to reduce anxiety, build intent, and avoid impulsive trades.
- Wake window: same 2-hour block every day; no charts for the first 30 minutes.
- 10-minute breath + posture check before opening the platform; phone on Do Not Disturb.
- Pre-market scan: index futures, DXY, and sector leaders; write a single-sentence bias.
- Mark sessions on the chart (Asia/London/New York) and yesterday’s high/low, close, and VWAPs.
- Define “A-Setups” for the day (max 2 patterns) and pre-commit to skip everything else.
- Set a hard daily loss cap (e.g., 0.5R) and a max trades cap (e.g., 3 tickets).
Market Selection & Timeframes
Lewis keeps the universe tight, so decision quality stays high. Here’s how he picks instruments and aligns top-down context with lower-timeframe execution.
- Focus list: 1–3 liquid names (e.g., a major FX pair, index future, or a mega-cap equity).
- Top-down pass: HTF bias on H4/H1 → refine on M15/M5 → execute on M1–M3 only if volatility supports it.
- Avoid overlapping correlation (don’t trade EURUSD and DXY long at the same time).
- If HTF and LTF disagree, stand down or trade half-risk; no hero calls against higher timeframe structure.
- Volatility gate: if ATR(14) on the execution chart is below a set threshold, no entries.
Core Setup: Liquidity → Structure → Trigger
His edge comes from stalking stops, confirming structure, then taking a precise trigger. This keeps entries clean and stops small.
- Liquidity: define where traders are trapped (equal highs/lows, prior day’s extremes, session highs/lows).
- Structure: wait for displacement through a key level, then a pullback into an origin block/VWAP band.
- Trigger: M1–M3 change-of-character or a clean engulf of the pullback candle; enter on limit with wick room.
- Invalidation must be beyond the opposing liquidity pool; if not, skip the trade.
- If the first pullback is messy or wide (>50% of impulse), wait for the second test or stand aside.
Risk & Position Sizing
Lewis treats risk like a utility bill: boring, predictable, and non-negotiable. Use these rules to stay alive long enough for skill to compound.
- Fixed R per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5% of equity); never scale R because a setup “feels better.”
- Hard daily stop: 1R across all tickets; hit it, log it, stop trading.
- First scale plan defined before entry: size in once (no martingale), only add on fresh structure with the same stop logic.
- If spread + slippage > 25% of the planned stop, cancel the trade.
- News filter: 15 minutes flat before/after Tier-1 releases on instruments directly affected.
Trade Management: Targets, Stops, and Exits
Execution is only half the game; managing winners with intent is the other half. This section gives Lewis’s simple ladder for letting runners pay the bills.
- Partial at 1R to pay risk; move stop to entry only after a clean M5 close beyond structure.
- Second take-profit at opposing liquidity (prior H/L, VWAP, session mid); trail remainder behind M5 swing lows/highs.
- If momentum stalls and prints back-to-back absorption candles at the target, exit remainder—no “hope holds.”
- Time stop: if not at +0.5R within the session window, scratch or reduce.
- Never widen stops; only reduce or exit.
Session Playbook & Timing
Where you enter matters as much as why. Lewis aligns his plans with session volatility so he isn’t forcing trades at dead times.
- Primary window: first 90 minutes of London or New York; avoid mid-session chop.
- Only trade a session if the opening range breaks and holds (no trades if price whips both ways).
- If Asia sets the range and London fakes out, wait for New York confirmation—patience beats revenge.
- Cap: max 2 trades per session and 1 play per level (no re-chasing the same break).
Journal & Review (Fast and Useful)
Journaling is the engine of improvement, but it must be simple, or you won’t do it. Lewis keeps it lightweight and brutally honest.
- For every trade: attach 1 annotated screenshot (before/after) and tag it by setup name.
- Write three lines: “Why this?”, “Where wrong?”, “What’s repeatable?”
- Weekly: tally A-Setup win rate, average R, and slippage; kill or refine anything below thresholds.
- Build a “Playbook PDF” of only the top two setups with examples, rules, and red flags.
Psychology & Environment
Calm traders see more. Lewis designs his environment to prevent tilt before it starts and to recover quickly when it happens.
- Pre-trade checklist on paper; if you can’t tick all items, you can’t click buy/sell.
- Desk rules: single monitor chart + one watchlist; close social feeds and chat.
- When anxiety spikes: stand up, 10 deep breaths, re-read the A-Setup card; if still agitated, walk away for 15 minutes.
- End-of-day reset: short walk, no chart replays at night, plan tomorrow in 5 bullet points only.
Tools & Chart Markups
The tools are simple; the discipline around them is not. Here’s the minimal stack Lewis uses to keep clarity high and noise low.
- Clean chart template: candles, session boxes, prior H/L, VWAP/AVWAP; no more than two MAs (e.g., 20/50 EMA for rhythm).
- Use alerts at levels so you’re not glued to the screen.
- Hotkeys for entry, reduce, and flat; discretionary delays cause worse fills.
- Keep a “no-trade list” of patterns you repeatedly mis-handle (e.g., news spikes, mid-range breakouts).
Rules for Scaling Up
Consistency comes first, then size. Lewis scales only when the data demands it—not emotions.
- 20 trading days with ≥55% A-Setup accuracy and expectancy ≥ +0.3R before increasing risk.
- Increase risk by 10–20% increments only; hold for another 20 days to validate.
- Withdraw a fixed % of profits monthly; build psychological separation between trading balance and life expenses.
- If a drawdown hits 3R from equity highs, cut risk in half until the curve recovers.
Size Risk Like Rent: Fixed R, Hard Daily Loss Stop
Lewis treats risk like a non-negotiable monthly bill—you pay it first, then you decide everything else. He picks a fixed R per trade and sticks to it, no matter how “obvious” a setup feels. That rule makes every decision cleaner: either the trade fits the template or it’s a pass. When the emotional heat rises, the preset size keeps Lewis from quietly doubling down.
He also runs a hard daily loss stop, so one bad session can’t spiral into a bad week. Once that limit hits, he’s done—screens off, walks away, review later. Lewis says this habit turned chaos into consistency because it kills revenge trades at the root. With risk pre-boxed and the day capped, he can focus on execution quality instead of fighting his own adrenaline.
Trade the Volatility You Have: ATR Gates and Session Windows
Lewis builds his day around volatility instead of wishes. He checks ATR first, then decides if his setup even qualifies—no ATR, no trade. If London or New York opens with energy, he engages; if the tape is sleepy, he preserves mental capital. Lewis avoids the mid-session lull because it tempts low-quality entries and forces stops to do heavy lifting.
When ATR expands, Lewis allows cleaner runners and widens targets to the next liquidity pool. When ATR contracts, he shrinks expectations, cuts position count, and tightens the playbook to just one A-setup. He times entries inside the first 60–90 minutes of his chosen session, where structure forms and breakouts actually follow through. Lewis says this simple volatility gate keeps him aligned with the market he has, not the market he hoped for.
Mechanics Over Predictions: Liquidity, Structure, Then Precise Trigger
Lewis stops guessing and starts mapping where traders are trapped. He marks equal highs/lows, prior session extremes, and obvious stop zones, then waits for the price to punch through and show displacement. Only after the structure confirms does he care about an entry; the story is in the break and the pullback, not a hunch. This keeps Lewis out of “almost” trades and inside moves that already proved intent.
When it’s time to click, Lewis wants a small, surgical trigger—clean engulf, change-of-character, or a tight pullback that leaves a practical stop beyond the opposing pool. If the pullback is sloppy or the stop lands inside the noise, he bins it and waits. Targets come from the next liquidity pool, not a random round number, so exits are logical and repeatable. Lewis says this mechanics-first approach turns the chart into a checklist, making execution boring in the best possible way.
Diversify Smartly: Underlying, Strategy Type, and Holding Duration
Lewis doesn’t spread himself thin—he spreads his risk across distinct edges. He pairs a core intraday setup with a separate swing framework so one slow tape doesn’t stall his entire week. Underlyings are chosen for different drivers (e.g., a USD major vs. a tech index) so news or macro shocks don’t hit everything at once. Lewis says this keeps his equity curve from living or dying on a single theme.
He also diversifies by time-in-trade: quick session plays to harvest structure, plus occasional multi-session runners when higher timeframes align. If two trades share the same catalyst or correlation, he treats them as one position and halves the risk. Rules stay modular—each strategy has its own entry, stop, and management, with zero cross-contamination. That way, Lewis can judge what’s truly working, then scale only the bucket that’s earning its keep.
Process Discipline That Sticks: Routine, Journaling, Review, Scale Gradually
Lewis keeps his process simple enough to repeat on tired days and tough enough to keep him honest. He starts with a short pre-market checklist, writes a one-line bias, and defines one or two A-setups before any chart time sucks him in. After each trade, Lewis captures a before/after screenshot and a three-line debrief so he’s reviewing decisions, not memories.
At week’s end, Lewis tallies win rate and expectancy for just the A-setups, kills low-quality patterns, and updates his playbook with fresh examples. Scaling comes last: he nudges risk only after a full month of positive expectancy and stable psychology, then holds size steady to re-validate. If drawdown hits a set threshold, Lewis automatically halves risk and returns to basics until the curve recovers. This tight loop—plan, execute, review, adjust—is why his discipline sticks when the market gets loud.
Lewis’s interview boils down to a simple truth: consistency is a process, not a prediction. He keeps a tight routine, sets a fixed R before the day begins, and caps losses so a single session can’t wreck his week. He respects session timing instead of forcing trades, waits for structure to confirm before he clicks, and places stops where the idea is clearly invalidated—never where they “feel safe.” The result is a boring, repeatable playbook that minimizes drama and maximizes clarity.
What traders can steal immediately is the loop he lives by: plan the day in plain English, trade only pre-defined A-setups, manage winners with rules not hope, and then journal the specifics—screenshot, rationale, result. Lewis’s edge isn’t a secret indicator; it’s alignment with volatility, clean triggers, and brutal honesty in review. Diversify edges across underlying, strategy type, and holding duration so one tape or theme can’t sink you. Scale only when the data says so, and cut risk automatically when you’re off your game. That’s the strategy that turns effort into an equity curve you can actually live with.
