Table of Contents
This episode of the Words of Rizdom podcast (recorded in New York) features Abdu—a Canadian trader from the Falcon community—whose path runs from building real economies inside RuneScape and boosting in League of Legends to developing a rigorous, probability-first trading approach. He’s candid about learning to think like “the house,” leaning on data, and setting realistic milestones for funded accounts, which makes his story especially useful for newer traders who want a clear blueprint rather than hype.
In this post, you’ll learn the core of Abdu’s strategy: how to anchor decisions in probabilities, tame tilt with simple risk rules, and make steady progress through intentional practice (think: short, focused sessions, daily ASR, and damage control that keeps you in the game). We’ll unpack his data habits, why 100–250K funded targets can be a smarter on-ramp than chasing seven figures, and how to translate a gamer’s edge into a trader’s repeatable process—so you can apply the same mindset to your own charts starting today.
Abdu Trades Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Think Like “The House”
Here’s the mindset that keeps the account alive long enough to compound. It’s probability-first, not prediction-first, and it treats risk as a fixed cost of doing business. Read this, adopt it, and your decisions will start feeling calmer—and more consistent—fast.
- Define edge as: “rules that, over 100+ trades, net positive R.”
- Target consistency over excitement: one playbook, one risk model, minimal deviations.
- Trade fewer, better: quality filters aim to cut 30–50% of marginal setups.
- Protect the down days: damage-control rules trigger before emotions do.
- Accept variance: plan for clusters of losses; size so that 5 losers in a row is tolerable.
Market & Timeframe Selection
You don’t need twenty markets. Fewer pairs and a clean routine beat constant switching. Pick instruments that trend cleanly and respect sessions you can actually trade.
- Focus universe: 6–10 FX majors/crosses (e.g., EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, USDJPY, EURJPY, GBPAUD).
- Primary timeframe: 4H for structure, 1H/15M for timing.
- Sessions: London and NY overlap prioritized; avoid illiquid Asia chop unless a HTF move is in play.
- Weekly cap: maximum 15 chart alerts; if you’re watching everything, you’re watching nothing.
- News filter: stand down 15 minutes before/after Tier-1 events (CPI, NFP, central banks).
Structure First, Then Setup
Entries make sense only inside a bigger picture. Start with trend + corrective behavior, then zoom in for a low-risk trigger.
- HTF bias: identify impulse vs. correction on 4H/1D; only trade in impulse direction.
- Corrective patterns to stalk: flags, channels, expanding corrections into prior structure.
- Key levels: prior swing highs/lows + liquidity pockets; avoid mid-range drift.
- Confluence rule: need at least 2 of 3—HTF impulse, clean correction, LTF trigger.
- Skip wide, messy corrections (overlapping candles, no momentum follow-through).
Entry Triggers (Simple, Repeatable)
If it takes more than a few seconds to explain the trigger, it’s not robust. Use clean, visual patterns you can screenshot and label the same way every time.
- Break-and-retest of the corrective boundary with momentum close (15M/1H).
- Micro flag after an impulsive break (continuation trigger); enter on the break of the micro flag.
- Liquidity sweep + reclaim: wick through level, body closes back inside with follow-up candle.
- Time filter: only take triggers inside your session window; skip off-hours breaks.
- One chance rule: if the first retest fails, don’t chase subsequent weaker retests.
Risk Per Trade & Position Sizing
Survival first, scaling second. You won’t fear clicking the button when the downside is perfectly known.
- Fixed fractional risk: 0.25%–0.5% per trade to start; cap 0.75% when in a strong groove.
- Hard stop always placed; risk = (entry – stop)*position size, never vibe-based.
- Spread/volatility buffer: add 0.1–0.2× ATR(14, 15M) to stop beyond structure.
- Daily risk cap: 1% max closed risk; after 1% day, stop trading.
- Weekly drawdown guardrail: at −3% on the week, reduce risk by 50% until back to high-water.
Trade Management & Exits
This is where most edges are lost. Use prewritten rules so emotions aren’t deciding mid-trade.
- First scale: take 1/3 off at +1.5R; move the stop to entry after a strong close beyond the level.
- Let winners breathe: trail behind 15M swing structure only after price has moved +2R.
- Time stop: if no progress after 24 trading hours and structure degrades, exit flat or at −0.3R.
- News proximity: flatten partials to bank +1R if a Tier-1 event is imminent and you’re >+1.5R.
- Max hold: if still trending cleanly, allow runners to 4–8R; otherwise, take at 3R base target.
Damage Control Protocol (When Things Go Wrong)
Bad days happen. The job is to keep them small and rare. Use this circuit breaker to prevent tilt.
- Two-strike day: after 2 consecutive losses, mandate a 60-minute break and full ASR.
- Pattern review: screenshots + 3 bullet mistakes before any new order.
- Downgrade risk: cut position risk by 50% for the next 3 trades after a −2R sequence.
- “No revenge” rule: forbidden to re-enter the same level immediately after a stop-out.
- Sleep rule: no new trades after local 7 p.m.; tired brains overtrade.
Journal, Data & ASR/DSR
Edge compounds when you can see it. Take five minutes to create receipts you’ll thank yourself for later.
- Log every trade with 3 images (HTF context, LTF entry, exit/management).
- Tag outcomes: setup type, session, R multiple, reason to exit; review weekly stats by tag.
- DSR (Daily): 5 bullets—what worked, what didn’t, one process tweak, one life factor, one note to future you.
- ASR (Advanced/Weekly): compute hit rate, avg R, expectancy; prune the worst 10% setups by data.
- Playbook refresh: keep a 10-slide deck of your A+ examples; review before each session.
Funding & Scaling Path
Stop dreaming about seven figures. Step through funding in stages that match your skill and psychology.
- Milestones: 25K → 50K → 100–200K total funding; advance only after 40–60 trades with positive expectancy.
- Payout rule: withdraw monthly if equity > start; leave half of profits to grow cushion.
- Risk unlocks: increase risk by +0.1% only after two green months and <6% peak drawdown.
- Correlation guard: never hold >2 positions that are >0.7 correlated in direction.
- Equity stop: if cumulative DD hits 8% from equity high, pause live trading, run sim for a week.
Pre-Session Checklist (5 Minutes)
Rituals reduce noise. This is the small, boring stuff that prevents big, exciting mistakes.
- Calendar: mark Tier-1 events and times you will be flat or light.
- Bias: write one HTF sentence per market (e.g., “GBPUSD trending up; watching bull flag continuation”).
- Alerts: place price alerts at breakout/retest areas; no staring at charts needed.
- Max trades today: set a hard number (e.g., 3 attempts total).
- Rule card on desk: risk %, first scale plan, time stop, and damage control triggers.
Playbook Setups (A+ Only)
Keep the menu short. These are the patterns with the best read-and-repeat value.
- Flag continuation: 4H uptrend, 1H/15M tight flag, break with body close, enter on micro pullback; stop beyond flag low; aim 3–6R.
- Channel break + retest: descending channel into HTF support; 1H break, 15M retest holds; enter with tight stop below retest; partial at 1.5R, trail.
- Liquidity sweep + reclaim: wick takes prior low, strong close back above level, follow-through candle confirms; enter on reclaim; invalidate if closes back below.
- Expansion to mean: post-news overextension into HTF level; wait for the first corrective flag back to mean, then continuation in impulse direction.
Psychology In-Trade
Your brain will offer bargains you shouldn’t accept. Box yourself in with rules that protect focus.
- No P&L watching until the first scale is hit; trade the chart, not the dollars.
- Breath anchor: 4-7-8 breathing for 60 seconds after entry to flatten adrenaline spike.
- Language filter: replace “hope”/“fear” with “if-then”—if structure breaks, then exit.
- Distraction kill: charts only; no phone, no social feeds during open risk.
- Celebration rule: treat big winners the same as small—log, learn, move on.
Example Parameters (Tune to Your Data)
You need numbers to start. Adjust after 50–100 trades with your own stats.
- ATR guide: want stops ~0.8–1.2× ATR(14, 15M) beyond structure.
- Base targets: 3R default; extend to 5–8R only in HTF impulse with clean stairs-up momentum.
- Max concurrent risk: ≤1.5% across all open trades.
- Review cadence: daily DSR (10 minutes), weekly ASR (45–60 minutes), monthly strategy sync (90 minutes).
- Improvement sprints: one focus metric per fortnight (e.g., reduce premature exits; track it explicitly).
After-Action: Turning Charts into Lessons
Winning or losing, the gold is in what you learn before the next session. Turn each outcome into something you can reuse.
- Annotate exits: circle the exact candle that triggered the exit; write 1 sentence on why.
- Save the top 3 plays of the week to your A+ deck; delete mediocre examples ruthlessly.
- Convert mistakes into if-then rules (“If M15 momentum candle is >2× avg, then wait one pullback”).
- Rehearse tomorrow: 5 minutes visualizing executing rules without hesitation.
- Reset environment: clear desk, close platforms, set tomorrow’s first alerts before logging off.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, Daily Max, Survive Losing Streaks
Abdu’s first rule is simple: decide your downside before you even look for an entry. He boxes every trade into a fixed R amount (a small, repeatable slice of equity), then caps the day so a cold streak can’t spiral. That lets him click without fear, because the worst-case is already paid for. When you size this way, your edge has space to play out across dozens of trades instead of dying on one bad afternoon.
He also respects clustering—losses often arrive together—so he plans for it with a weekly guardrail and a hard stop to trading if the day goes red by a preset amount. Abdu’s playbook turns survivability into a habit: same risk per trade, same daily max, same response to drawdown. The goal isn’t to avoid red days; it’s to keep them small and boring. That’s how he stays in the game long enough for the winners to matter.
Let Volatility Drive Position Size, Targets, And Stop Distance
Abdu builds his trades around current volatility, not vibes. He measures the average move first, then sizes down when ranges expand and up when they contract—so the pain per trade stays constant. Stops live just beyond structure with a small ATR buffer, and profit targets flex with conditions: wider ranges earn wider targets, sleepy markets get modest expectations. This keeps his expectancy stable across shifting regimes.
He won’t take a setup that requires an unrealistically tight stop relative to the day’s range; if volatility says “big leash,” he either sizes smaller or passes. Abdu also times partials to the tape—banking a chunk when price travels a typical ATR move, then letting the runner breathe if momentum holds. When vol spikes into news, he scales exposure or stands down; when vol compresses, he looks for break-and-go patterns with cleaner asymmetry. Let the market’s heartbeat set your distance and dollars, and your risk will finally match reality.
Diversify By Underlying, Strategy, And Trade Duration To Smooth Equity
Abdu avoids putting all his risk on one idea type or one market. He splits exposure across a short list of clean FX pairs, mixes continuation and reversal plays, and runs both intraday and swing holds. That blend reduces correlation—so when one bucket stalls, another can carry the week. He also limits same-direction bets on highly correlated pairs to prevent a single theme from doubling his drawdown.
On the execution side, Abdu staggers time-in-market: quick M15 continuations for cash flow, selective 4H swings for multiple-R payoffs. If two strategies start behaving the same in his data, he prunes one to keep true diversification. He caps active positions and requires each new trade to add a unique edge—different pair, structure, or timeframe. The result is a smoother equity line that’s built on uncorrelated edges, not hope.
Trade Rules Over Predictions: Mechanics, Triggers, And Repeatable Execution
Abdu treats forecasts as noise and rules as the product. He predefines entry mechanics—break-and-retest, micro-flag continuation, or liquidity sweep-and-reclaim—then executes only when the trigger prints during his session window. Each trigger has exact checklist items: HTF impulse confirmed, corrective structure clean, momentum close through level, ATR-buffered stop placed. If any box fails, he passes without negotiation.
Management is just as scripted: partial at +1.5R, stop to entry after a strong continuation close, trail behind fresh swing structure, and exit on time-stop if momentum dies. Abdu bans mid-trade tinkering—no shrinking stops, no adding risk, no chasing second retests after the first failure. The journal is his referee; if a discretionary deviation sneaks in, it’s tagged and penalized in size for the next three trades. Predictions come and go, but the rules fire the same way tomorrow as they did today.
Prefer Defined Risk Structures; Hedge Or Reduce Exposure When Undefined
Abdu starts by asking one question: Is the risk capped by design? If the answer is yes—clear stop beyond structure, tight invalidation, measured position size—he’s interested. If the answer is no—gaps, news landmines, or messy ranges that require “hope,” he immediately scales down or skips. Defined risk lets Abdu price the worst-case and still pull the trigger.
When markets turn “undefined,” Abdu flips to defense: he cuts size by half, widens stops only with a volatility buffer, and shortens hold time so he’s not donating theta to chop. He’ll hedge exposure by pairing trades in different directions or by offsetting correlated bets instead of doubling down. If a setup can’t be hedged or sized responsibly, it doesn’t belong in the book. That discipline keeps Abdu’s equity curve stable while he waits for cleaner, defined opportunities to return.
Abdu’s core message is deceptively simple: think like the house, not the hero. Across the interview, he hammers the same drum—protect downside with fixed-R risk, cap the day, and let probability—not prediction—do the heavy lifting. He sizes by volatility so the “pain per trade” stays constant, keeps stops just beyond structure with a sensible buffer, and scales winners methodically instead of guessing. When markets get messy or “undefined,” Abdu either reduces exposure, hedges intelligently, or stands down. That discipline—plus a ruthless damage-control protocol when tilt shows up—is what keeps him solvent long enough for edge to compound.
Just as important is how Abdu makes equity smoother: he diversifies by underlying, by play type (continuations and selective reversals), and by duration (intraday cash-flow vs. higher-timeframe swings). He trades rules over narratives—clean triggers like break-and-retest, micro-flag continuation, or a liquidity sweep and reclaim—and bans mid-trade tinkering. Journal receipts, ASR/weekly reviews, and pruning low-quality patterns turn experience into data and data into upgrades. Finally, his funding path is pragmatic: step through sustainable account sizes, withdraw on schedule, increase risk only after proven stability, and control correlation so one theme can’t wreck a week. Abdu’s edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s a process you can actually run tomorrow.
