Table of Contents
Chris Lori returns for a wide-ranging interview on honing a trader’s craft the right way—through structured experience, not randomness. A veteran FX specialist who now splits time between crypto and currencies, Chris breaks down how he trades across intraday, swing, and longer-term models, and why he’s stayed loyal to pure price behavior and market structure. He also shares why trading can feel lonely, why your unique brain is your real edge, and how to marry your strengths to the market so your decisions stop feeling like guesswork.
In this piece, you’ll learn Chris Lori’s core principles: trading the fractal nature of price across timeframes, using order placement to be the market maker (not taker), and focusing on liquidity-driven volatility instead of chasing entries. You’ll also see why journaling market observations beats logging trades, how to strip away unnecessary tools as your price-reading skill deepens, and the mindset that turns you into an independent thinker who doesn’t need outside validation. The goal is simple: adopt a deliberate practice that compounds into lasting confidence and performance.
Chris Lori Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Structured Experience Over Randomness
Random trades don’t compound into skill—deliberate, repeatable reps do. This section shows how Chris Lori turns observation into a training loop that actually upgrades your decision-making.
- Screenshot and annotate every qualified setup you study and every trade you take.
- Tag each image by pattern, context (trend/rotation/range), and outcome; keep tags consistent.
- For each tag, write a one-sentence “if/then” rule you can test in the next session.
- Revisit the same tag sets weekly and refine the rule, not your indicators.
- Treat wins and losses equally: log what price you did, not how you felt.
- Only promote a rule to your playbook after ~20 occurrences with positive expectancy.
Read Pure Price Behavior & Structure
Chris focuses on how price behaves around structural reference points, not on indicator overlap. Here’s how to translate structure into trades you can execute.
- Map swing highs/lows and the most recent break of structure (BOS) on your anchor timeframe.
- Mark the two nearest liquidity pools (equal highs/lows, clear stops) above and below the current price.
- Trade toward liquidity that hasn’t been run yet; stand down after it’s swept.
- Require an intraday micro-BOS back in the higher-timeframe direction before entering.
- If the structure is unclear on two consecutive timeframes, do not trade that symbol.
Fractal Alignment, Simple Execution
Price is fractal: the same behaviors echo across timeframes. Use a higher timeframe to set bias, then drop down to execute with precision.
- Choose one anchor (e.g., 4H or Daily) for bias, one execution (e.g., 15m/5m) for entries.
- Only take longs when the anchor swing structure makes higher highs/higher lows; shorts on lower highs/lower lows.
- On execution timeframe, wait for a clean pullback that respects the last broken level.
- If the pullback trades beyond your anchor invalidation, skip—bias is likely rotating.
- Cap yourself to the first two aligned setups per session to avoid overtrading.
Be the Market Maker, Not the Market Taker
Entering at market during emotional candles hands edge to someone else. Place orders where trapped participants must act.
- Prefer limit orders at obvious stop zones (prior swing high/low, untested pivot, gap edge).
- Enter into other traders’ stops when structure supports it; avoid chasing breakouts at the market.
- If price tags your level and immediately stalls (no follow-through in 2–3 bars), scratch to flat.
- Avoid placing orders directly into scheduled high-impact news; reload after the first impulse resolves.
- On thin books (e.g., some crypto pairs), halve the size and double patience.
Trade Selection & Hold Time
Chris emphasizes quality over frequency: a few A-setups beat constant activity. Decide what you’re hunting before screens turn on.
- Predefine the day’s mode: intraday fade, trend continuation, or swing carry (3–5 days).
- Take the first clean instance of your mode; ignore “second-best” look-alikes.
- If intraday: aim for one to two trades; if swing: focus on one idea and pyramid only after partials.
- Hold through normal pullbacks that don’t violate structure—don’t exit just because price breathed.
- If your first two trades are C-quality, stop for the session.
Liquidity & Volatility As The Compass
Where stops sit and how fast the price moves matter more than any single candle. Use both to time entries and exits.
- Identify resting liquidity: equal highs/lows, session extremes, round numbers, obvious trendline touches.
- Enter before the sweep when structure points there; take partials after the sweep.
- Use Average True Range (or session range) to size targets: aim for 0.5–1.0x current ATR for intraday, 1.5–2.5x for swings.
- If realized volatility collapses (range < 60% of 20-day average), trade smaller or stand down.
- If spreads widen or slippage spikes, switch to limit-only execution or reduce size.
Position, Risk, and Invalidation
Chris frames risk around behavioral invalidation, not arbitrary pips. Define exactly where your idea is wrong.
- Place the stop beyond the invalidation swing that would negate your thesis (not a fixed distance).
- Risk a flat % per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5% of equity) and scale size to stop distance.
- If the first partial is reached (e.g., 0.8–1.0R), move stop to breakeven only if structure justifies it.
- Add only on fresh structure breaks that extend your edge—never to “repair” a losing entry.
- Hard stop hits end the idea; no immediate re-entries unless a new structure forms.
A Brain-Training Routine To Beat FOMO
Rewiring your impulse is a skill. This routine forces you to see the setup develop instead of chasing it.
- Before the open, write one sentence: “Today I wait for X pullback into Y level after Z break.”
- During live action, count to 30 after the first fast candle; if the level didn’t print, you still wait.
- Only arm the order at your level; keep the ticket closed until the price is within one spread.
- Log every chase you avoided; screenshot the spot and celebrate the pass.
- If you chase twice in a week, reduce the size by half the next week and trade only A-setups.
Observation Journal > Trade Journal
What you notice scales faster than what you did. Build a journal that compounds pattern recognition.
- Keep two pages per setup tag: page A = clean exemplars; page B = failed looks and why.
- For each exemplar, list the three context clues that preceded it (session timing, liquidity map, structure state).
- Review your top two tags nightly; add one micro-rule you’ll test tomorrow.
- Cull anything you haven’t seen in 30 days—dead rules cost attention.
- Once a month, rewrite the playbook from scratch using only rules that still earn.
Simplicity Over Tool Dependency
Independence beats vendor lock-in. Strip your chart to the essentials that help you read price faster.
- Run one clean template: candles, HTF levels, session markers, and ATR—nothing else.
- If an indicator doesn’t change entry, stop, or target, delete it.
- Standardize colors and drawings so your eye recognizes context instantly.
- Limit your watchlist to 6–10 symbols you actually know; rotate only when volatility dies.
- Schedule one maintenance hour weekly to tidy charts and retire stale annotations.
Size Risk by Invalidation, Not Pips: Keep Losses Mechanically Small
Chris Lori hammers home that risk should be defined by where the idea is wrong, not by a random pip count. Your stop belongs just beyond the swing that invalidates the thesis, so if price tags it, the market proved you wrong—clean and simple. This shifts sizing from “I always use 20 pips” to “I size position so the invalidation costs a fixed fraction of equity.” When you do that, every trade carries comparable consequences, and the law of large numbers can finally work for you.
Mechanically, small losses come from consistent position sizing rules—not hope. Chris Lori’s approach is to decide risk per trade first (e.g., 0.25%–0.5%), then calculate units from the distance to invalidation. If the structure tightens, size can increase; if the structure is wide, the size shrinks, but the dollar risk stays constant. The result is a portfolio that survives variance, lets winners express their asymmetry, and keeps you playing when others are sidelined.
Trade Liquidity and Volatility, Not Predictions: Let Price Do Work
Chris Lori teaches that liquidity tells you where traders are trapped and volatility tells you when they’re forced to act. Instead of guessing direction, map obvious pools—equal highs/lows, round numbers, prior session extremes—and let price move into those areas while you prepare your order. Volatility is your metronome: if range expands, you can target farther; if it contracts, you tighten expectations or stand down. The key is letting order flow spring the trap rather than chasing candles.
Chris Lori also emphasizes partials right after a sweep because that’s where reactive flows kick in and spreads can widen. When volatility spikes, he scales down size and uses limit orders at pre-planned levels, forcing the market to come to him. In quiet sessions, he cuts targets to match the smaller range and refuses to overstay after liquidity is harvested. The ethos is simple: stop predicting, start positioning—price will do the heavy lifting if you let the crowd’s stops power your trade.
Fractal Timeframe Alignment: One Bias, One Trigger, One Target
Chris Lori keeps it brutally simple: set a higher-timeframe bias, wait for a lower-timeframe trigger, and predefine a realistic target. The anchor chart decides direction; the execution chart decides timing. When the two disagree, there is no trade—because mixed signals equal mixed results. This removes indecision and keeps your attention on the cleanest opportunities.
In practice, Chris Lori looks for a clear break of structure on the anchor, then a pullback on the execution chart that respects that break. The trigger is a clean shift back in the anchor direction—no guessing, no “maybe” entries. Invalidation sits beyond the swing that would undo the bias, so risk is objective and repeatable. One target keeps you from inventing exits mid-trade; if you want to scale, plan those partials before clicking. If the first two aligned setups don’t print, he stands down—edge comes from alignment, not activity.
Diversify by Strategy, Duration, and Market Type to Smooth Equity
Chris Lori stresses that diversification isn’t just owning more symbols—it’s spreading decisions across how you trade, how long you hold, and what kind of market you’re in. He’ll combine a high-probability intraday continuation model with a slower swing carry so one isn’t hostage to the other’s dry spells. When trends go choppy, the swing model rests while the mean-reversion intraday takes the wheel; when ranges break, the swing model harvests the move while the scalper steps aside. This way, drawdowns are shared across playbooks instead of concentrated in one fragile approach.
According to Chris Lori, you also smooth the curve by mixing durations—hours, days, and occasional multi-day holds—so your P&L isn’t tied to one session’s volatility regime. He recommends selecting a small basket of uncorrelated underlyings (for example, one major FX pair, one index future, one crypto leader) and assigning each a primary strategy that fits its character. If a market type shifts—trend to range or vice versa—you rotate the strategy, not your discipline, keeping risk constant while tactics adapt. The result is a steadier equity line where no single strategy, duration, or market type can dominate outcomes, and your confidence isn’t wrecked by one model’s bad week.
Process Discipline: Predefine Setups, Journal Observations, Review Rules Weekly
Chris Lori insists that discipline isn’t a mood; it’s a checklist you repeat until it’s automatic. Before the session, he predefines the exact setups he’ll trade and the ones he’ll ignore, so there’s no mid-candle improvisation. During live action, he journals observations about price behavior and context, not just trade outcomes, because noticing patterns compounds faster than logging P&L. After the close, he reviews whether he followed the plan and adjusts rules only when repeated evidence demands it.
For Chris Lori, the weekly review is where the edge gets sharpened. He tallies adherence (did he execute the playbook?) and performance (did the rules still earn?) and then promotes, edits, or cuts rules with a simple keep/modify/delete decision. Anything that doesn’t change entry, stop, or target gets stripped to reduce mental load. Over time, this loop builds a lean playbook that fits how he actually trades, turning discipline from a pep talk into a system that runs whether he feels “motivated” or not.
In the end, Chris Lori’s message is disarmingly simple: build an edge you can repeat. Size every trade off structural invalidation so losses stay mechanically small and winners have room to breathe. Read price behavior around liquidity and volatility instead of guessing direction, and let the crowd’s stops power your moves. Keep the fractal workflow tight—one higher-timeframe bias, one lower-timeframe trigger, one preplanned target—so you never improvise mid-candle. Diversify by strategy, duration, and market type to smooth the curve, and rotate tactics when conditions shift without changing your risk discipline.
Equally important, Chris Lori shows that professionalism is a habit, not a mood. Predefine setups before the session, trade only what fits, and journal observations about how the price actually behaves. Review weekly, promote rules that keep earning, and delete anything that doesn’t change entry, stop, or target. Strip tools to what speeds up your reading of structure, place orders like a market maker, and take partials when liquidity flushes. Do this long enough and your process becomes the edge—calm, consistent, and scalable across markets and regimes.
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