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This interview features Yvan Byeajee on the Desire To Trade podcast—a trader and author known for clear, practical takes on psychology and performance. He traces his path from early struggles and a blown account to rebuilding with mindfulness, routine, and a calmer, evidence-based approach to decisions at the screen.
In this piece, you’ll learn why trying to “control” emotions backfires—and how adopting an observer stance, daily meditation, and tight habits builds real composure under uncertainty. We’ll cover Yvan’s routine, how psychology ties together system and risk, and the mindset shifts that turn setbacks into skill. Expect practical cues you can implement immediately to trade with steadier execution and fewer self-sabotaging impulses.
Yvan Byeajee Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core philosophy: equanimity beats excitement
Trading works when your behavior is stable under uncertainty. Yvan’s edge is a calm, rules-first process that prevents over-trading, revenge trading, and “need to be right” thinking.
- Define success as “followed plan flawlessly,” not P&L for any single session.
- Before the session, write one sentence: “My job is to execute, not predict.” Keep it visible.
- If heart rate spikes or breathing shortens, tag the state as “activation” and pause—do not click during activation.
- Limit discretionary overrides to two pre-defined exceptions (e.g., platform outage, news shock > X ATR).
- Use a 3-strike rule: three plan violations in a week = mandatory day off and process review before resuming size.
Daily prep: build a mind that trades well
You don’t get calm by wishing for it; you train it. Short, consistent mental reps before screens create the composure that protects the plan when markets get wild.
- 10 minutes of breath-focused meditation before charts; count to 10 on exhales, restart at mind-wanders.
- 2-minute body scan before first order: jaw, shoulders, chest, belly—release tension on the exhale.
- Write a 3-line intent card: market conditions, execution goal (e.g., “no early entries”), one risk guardrail.
- Pre-commit to two micro-breaks each hour (60–90 seconds): stand, breathe, reset posture.
- No market commentary or P&L on screen during setup selection; hide the running P&L window.
Market mapping: trade the path of least resistance
Clarity beats noise. Yvan prioritizes clean structure and obvious context so decisions are simpler and faster.
- Start with a top-down pass: higher-timeframe trend (HTF), key levels, and current volatility regime (low/expanding/high).
- Only trade instruments showing aligned structure across HTF and entry TF (e.g., daily + 15m).
- Mark one “if-then-else” map per instrument: “If price holds above X and momentum accelerates, I will look long; else, I stand down.”
- Skip assets with overlapping exposure (e.g., EUR/USD and DXY long signals at odds). Choose the cleaner tape.
- Hard cap: maximum of three instruments on the active plan for today.
Setup quality: simple patterns, strict context
A pattern without context is just a picture. Define the environment where your pattern statistically behaves best.
- Trade only two primary setups; name them (e.g., “HTF pullback” and “break–retest”).
- For each setup, codify context gates: trend state, proximity to HTF level, acceptable ATR, and time-of-day window.
- Require at least two of three confirmations: structure (higher high/low), momentum (e.g., strong close), and location (at/just beyond level).
- No trade if the ATR is below your minimum threshold or spreads/latency widen beyond your max tolerance.
- One-and-done rule in choppy conditions: if the first trade flags “chop” tag, do not re-enter the same idea.
Risk sizing that respects uncertainty.
Position size is the steering wheel of psychology. Keep risk small, consistent, and mechanically calculated to protect composure.
- Risk a fixed fraction per trade (e.g., 0.25%–0.5% of account); never exceed daily loss cap of 1R–1.5R.
- Size by volatility: position = (risk per trade) ÷ (stop distance in ticks or ATR multiple).
- Default stop placement: beyond the invalidation structure (e.g., below swing low for longs) OR 1.2× ATR(14), whichever is farther.
- If HTF is counter to the trade, halve the size or skip entirely—document the reason.
- After two consecutive losing trades, reduce size by 50% for the next trade; restore only after one full-plan winner.
Execution: reduce discretion at the moment of truth
Great plans still fail if entries are impulsive. Use checklists and timing rules to keep clicks deliberate.
- Entry requires a completed checklist: context gates met, risk computed, stop and target queued as OCO.
- Enter on candle close or predefined trigger, not mid-bar noise; avoid the first minute after a major news release.
- Use limit-if-touched for pullbacks and stop-market for breakouts—never chase.
- First scale is not allowed unless it’s part of the written plan; no ad-hoc “add to losers.”
- If platform or data hiccups occur during a live trade, flatten and stand down for 15 minutes.
Trade management: let the plan breathe
Micromanagement is just fear with a mouse. Pre-decide exits so you don’t negotiate with the market while under stress.
- Initial target = structure-based (prior swing/imbalance) or 1.5R–2R, whichever aligns with HTF context.
- Move stop to breakeven only after price closes beyond the first target zone or travels 1R with structure confirmation.
- Trail only on structure changes (higher lows for longs, lower highs for shorts) or ATR-based step (e.g., 0.5× ATR).
- If price stalls for two full cycles at your level, take partial (25%–33%) and trail the rest.
- Hard time-stop: if trade hasn’t progressed within your average hold time × 1.5, exit at market.
Handling emotions in real time
Emotions aren’t enemies; unmanaged emotions are. Build small rituals that short-circuit impulsive behavior.
- Notice–Name–Normalize loop: “Noticing anxiety → naming it → reminding it’s expected.” Then re-read the checklist.
- Use a 3-breath reset before any manual change to stops or targets. If the urge persists, take a 60-second chair-stand-walk.
- Keep a “don’t do” card near the screen: no doubling down, no moving stops wider, no adding after a loss.
- If you violate a rule intraday, mark the chart with a red tag and stop trading for 30 minutes.
- End of day, write one line: “What feeling most pulled me off plan today?”
Review: turn experience into an edge
Learning happens after the bell. Brief, consistent reviews compound faster than sporadic, exhaustive ones.
- Journal three templates: (1) Pre-market plan snapshot, (2) Post-trade debrief (context → action → outcome), (3) End-day summary.
- Tag each trade with states: calm, rushed, fearful, greedy; correlate tags with outcomes weekly.
- Compute weekly plan-adherence rate (%) and average R; improve the adherence trend, not just the equity curve.
- Screenshot only two moments per trade: entry and final management decision—annotate why, not what.
- Weekly “tiny fix”: pick one micro-rule to adjust (e.g., widen stop to structure, restrict early session entries).
Environment & lifestyle: protect the operator
Performance is a byproduct of the environment. Shape your hours, inputs, and workspace for repeatability.
- Trade at the same desk, same time blocks; avoid overnight changes to monitors, layouts, or color schemes.
- Pre-session: caffeine cutoff 60 minutes before open; hydration check; quick posture reset.
- Remove non-trading browsers/apps during sessions; whitelist only platform, notes, and timer.
- Sleep target and screen curfew: aim for a consistent bedtime and no charts 60 minutes before sleep.
- One restoration block per day (20–30 minutes): walk, stretch, or breathwork—no screens.
Playbook for scaling up
You earn size by proving stability at the current size. Scale only when your process—not luck—deserves it.
- Define a “promotion” metric: four consecutive weeks with ≥85% plan adherence and positive expectancy.
- Increase size by the smaller of +25% or what keeps daily max loss under the comfort threshold.
- After any 3R drawdown, auto-decrease size by 33% and review the three recent mistakes.
- Add markets only when you’ve logged 50+ trades per setup in the current one with stable stats.
- Keep one “maintenance day” each week, trading half size to focus purely on execution quality.
Simple templates you can copy today
Make the right action the easy action. Use short, repeatable templates to remove ambiguity in the heat of battle.
- Pre-market card: “Bias: ___ / Key levels: ___ / Vol regime: ___ / Setup allowed: A, B / Max risk today: ___.”
- Execution checklist (print it): context → trigger → order type → stop/target queued → breathe → click.
- Emotion protocol: notice → name → normalize → breathe ×3 → re-read rule → proceed or stand down.
- Post-trade debrief: “What did I do that I can repeat? What will I change tomorrow?”
- Weekly scoreboard: plan adherence %, average R, # of impulsive actions, and one tiny fix for next week.
Size risk is small and consistent to protect execution under stress
Yvan Byeajee hammers this point because it’s the keystone of calm execution. When every trade risks the same small fraction of equity, your brain stops treating outcomes like life-or-death events. Tiny, repeatable R keeps the focus on process quality rather than the last P&L swing. The result is fewer impulsive overrides and a cleaner signal-to-noise ratio in your decision-making.
Byeajee’s rule of thumb is to decide risk before charts, not after you feel excitement or fear. Use volatility to translate that fixed R into size, and let invalidation—not hope—set the stop. If a setup demands a larger risk than your cap, you pass without debate. Over time, this discipline compounds twice—once in smaller drawdowns, and again in sharper execution when it matters most.
Trade mechanics over predictions: rules-first entries, exits, and reviews
Yvan Byeajee pushes traders to shelve forecasts and obsess over repeatable mechanics. He wants entries triggered by clear conditions, not feelings about where the price “should” go. A rules-first checklist turns uncertainty into a simple yes/no decision, lowering the odds of hesitation or chase.
Byeajee also ties exits and reviews to the same mechanical spine. Targets, stop moves, and time stops are decided ahead of time and executed without haggling with the tape. After the trade, a brief review grades plan adherence before P&L, reinforcing the behavior that actually scales. Over many reps, this mechanics-first loop builds trust in your process and quietly edges out the need to predict.
Let volatility set position size, stop distance, and profit targets.
Yvan Byeajee treats volatility as the market’s volume knob—and sizes exposure to match its loudness. When ATR expands, he reduces position size so the same R covers wider swings; when ATR contracts, he allows slightly larger size but keeps risk per trade constant. Stops live beyond structural invalidation or a volatility multiple, whichever is farther, so noise doesn’t knock you out before the thesis is tested.
Targets follow the same logic: in a quiet regime, he takes closer, structure-aligned profits; in fast regimes, he lets winners breathe toward wider, volatility-informed objectives. By letting volatility dictate size, stop, and target, Byeajee keeps the experience of each trade psychologically equal. That consistency stabilizes execution across regimes and prevents the classic mistake of trading big when markets are wild and your edge is most fragile.
Diversify by setup, timeframe, and market to reduce drawdown clustering.g
Yvan Byeajee emphasizes that concentration isn’t just about symbols—it’s also about patterns and holding periods. If all your trades are the same setup on the same timeframe, a single market mood can sink a week. By mixing a trend-continuation setup with a mean-reversion play, and pairing intraday executions with swing holds, you spread regime risk, not just ticker risk.
He also rotates instruments with correlated behavior in mind, so EUR/USD and DXY don’t double-count the same bet. The goal is a portfolio of independent edges where losers don’t arrive in synchronized waves. When setups, timeframes, and markets are deliberately uncorrelated, drawdowns get shallower and recoveries faster—making consistency easier to maintain. That stability is what lets Byeajee keep clicking his plan when others are trapped in a losing streak echo chamber.
Prefer defined-risk structures; ban averaging down and widening stops.
Yvan Byeajee is blunt about this: survival comes from capping downside before you click. Defined-risk structures—hard stops, option spreads, pre-set OCO brackets—turn “hope” into math and stop single trades from hijacking your month. He forbids averaging down because it converts a controlled bet into an open-ended liability. If the idea is still valid, it shouldn’t require a bigger size at worse prices to work.
Byeajee treats a widened stop as a broken promise to yourself. The only acceptable adjustment is tighter risk when structure improves, never looser risk when fear kicks in. He prefers recycling risk—flat and re-enter on a fresh signal—over negotiating with a losing position. This keeps expectancy intact, drawdowns shallow, and confidence unshaken for the next opportunity.
Yvan Byeajee’s core message is simple and powerful: your psychology is the glue that holds system and risk together. He learned it the hard way—through years of struggle and even blowing up an account—then rebuilt by reframing failure as instruction and committing to a calmer, rule-driven process. From there, his edge became behavioral: fixed-fraction risk so every trade feels the same, volatility-aware sizing so stops live beyond invalidation, and prewritten mechanics so entries, exits, and reviews don’t depend on mood. What makes this stick is the observer stance—notice thoughts and urges without acting on them—paired with short daily meditation that steadies execution when markets get loud. The result isn’t flashy, but it’s durable: smaller drawdowns, cleaner decisions, and a process that survives any one trade.
If you’re taking one thing forward, make it this: trade a plan you can stay composed enough to follow. Define risk before charts, let volatility translate that risk into size, and forbid yourself from widening stops or averaging down. Build an if-then map each session, limit correlated exposure across setups and markets, and grade yourself on adherence before P&L. Most importantly, practice being the observer at the screen—name frustration, fear, or impatience and let it pass before you click. Over time, that composure compounds; it turns setbacks into data, transforms randomness into repeatable rules, and makes consistency feel normal.
Related posts:
- Yvan Byeajee: Trader Psychology & Process-First Strategy
- Yvan Byeajee Trader Strategy: Mindfulness That Wins the Market’s Mental Game
- Jared Tendler on Trader Psychology & Strategy You Can Actually Use
- Trader Psychology Strategy: Rande Howell’s Playbook
- Jared Tendler on Trader Psychology and Strategy that Actually Scales
- Mandi Pour Rafsendjani: Trader Psychology & Strategy You Can Actually Use
- Trader Strategy Playbook: Shabs on Psychology, Risk, and Results
- Trader Psychology vs Technicals: A Real-World Strategy Traders Can Actually Use
- Andrew Menaker Trader Psychology & Strategy: How to Build an Edge You Can Keep
- Daniel Martin Trader Strategy: Psychology-First Path to Getting Funded
- Mandi Pour Rafsendjani on Trader Psychology & Strategy That Actually Sticks
- Walter Peters Trader Strategy: Psychology-First, Price-Action Done Right
