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This episode features trader Gerald Tsu—one of the standout students from a well-known trading academy—sharing how he went from limited personal capital to running a six-figure friends-and-family fund. In a candid YouTube interview, he walks through the turning points: ditching complexity, committing to price action, and treating trading like a real business. Why he matters: Gerald’s path is practical and replicable—tight routines, data-backed decisions, and clear communication with investors—making his story a blueprint for ambitious beginners and emerging fund managers alike.
In this piece, you’ll learn Gerald Tsu’s two-pronged strategy stack—price action with Bollinger Bands and Stochastic for confluence, plus a pure price-action setup—and how he confines himself to just two FX pairs to keep execution clean. You’ll see how he journals relentlessly, drills with simulators on weekends, and structures his week so he takes only high-probability setups (often three trades per week), all while scaling responsibility without letting bigger numbers distort decisions. Most importantly, you’ll take away his playbook for managing other people’s money: focus on pips instead of dollars, expect drawdowns, communicate proactively with investors, and keep the process simple, disciplined, and rules-driven so results can compound without drama.
Gerald Tsu Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Treat It Like a Business
Gerald Tsu runs his trading like a business—clear goals, fixed rules, and zero tolerance for impulse. He focuses on simple, repeatable processes that scale without adding stress.
- Have a written trading plan you follow every session—no ad-hoc trades, ever.
- Define a weekly objective (e.g., protect equity first, then compound) and review it before the market opens.
- Keep your playbook tight: only run the setups you can execute flawlessly under pressure.
Markets & Time Allocation: Fewer Pairs, Cleaner Decisions
He deliberately restricts his universe to two FX pairs. This constraint keeps analysis sharp and execution consistent.
- Pick two currency pairs with reliable behavior during your active hours and study them deeply.
- Track ADR, session tendencies, and typical pullback depth for each pair—update weekly.
- If no A-setup appears on your pairs, do nothing; don’t “shop” other markets.
Setup 1: Price Action with Bands & Stochastic (Confluence)
Gerald’s first strategy is price-action led, using Bollinger Bands and a Stochastic as confirmation—never as the signal. This keeps the read anchored to structure, with indicators providing timing nudges.
- Start top-down: mark market phase, key support/resistance, and active swing.
- Trade only when price interacts with a pre-planned zone and structure agrees (break-retest, rejection wick, or inside-bar break).
- Use Bollinger Band touches/expansions only as confluence; require price-action confirmation first.
- Use Stochastic only to confirm momentum alignment at the decision candle—never to predict reversals.
Setup 2: Pure Price-Action Execution
He also runs a clean, indicator-free play focused on reading candles at levels inside the prevailing market phase. It’s built for clarity: less to watch, more to execute.
- Define the phase (trend, range, transition) on a higher timeframe and trade in line with it.
- Pre-label three decision zones per session: continuation zone, fade zone, and invalidation zone.
- Trigger only on a qualified signal (engulf, rejection, or break-retest close) that forms at a pre-marked level.
Risk Sizing & Drawdown Handling
Managing other people’s money magnifies emotions; Gerald neutralizes this by thinking in pips, not dollars, and by accepting that drawdowns are part of the game.
- Quote and log results in pips/R multiples—hide P&L currency on your platform where possible.
- Cap single-trade risk (e.g., 0.25–0.5% per idea); halve risk after two consecutive losses in a session.
- Pre-define max daily damage (e.g., −1R or −1%) and stop trading when hit—review, don’t revenge-trade.
- Expect drawdowns; write the exact recovery plan before you need it (risk cut, frequency cut, setup filtering).
Trade Management Rules
His edge comes from letting structure lead while indicators only confirm. Management is standardized to reduce second-guessing.
- Enter on the close of the signal candle; no market orders mid-bar.
- Initial stop goes beyond the invalidation structure (swing high/low or opposite zone), not an arbitrary pip count.
- Move to breakeven only after price closes beyond the first trouble area; partial at 1R, trail behind structure thereafter.
- Cancel the setup if the candle that should have triggered you closes back inside the range.
Weekly Routine & Skill Building
Gerald treats practice as compulsory—simulators and structured reviews are part of the job, not extras.
- Block weekend time for simulator reps: re-trade your week fast, tag each scenario, and measure execution quality.
- Before Monday’s open, re-mark levels on both pairs and write one sentence per likely scenario.
- Mid-week reset: if you’re off-plan by Wednesday, cut size and trade only A-setups for the rest of the week.
Journal & Metrics That Matter
He focuses on process and repeatability—what you measure improves. Keep the journal simple but relentless.
- Log: setup tag, pair, R planned, R realized, reason to enter, reason to exit, and a one-line “keep/kill” verdict.
- Track “discretion slippage”: entries/exits deviating from plan—aim to reduce it weekly.
- Review five screenshots per week (best, worst, most on-plan, most off-plan, nearly-triggered but skipped) and write what you’d repeat or fix.
Psychology for Managing Other People’s Money
Scaling capital is more psychology than tactics; Gerald scales gradually and de-emphasizes dollar P&L to stay unemotional and consistent.
- Scale in steps (e.g., +25–50% capital after a full month on plan), not leap changes; verify you can sleep through normal drawdown at the new size.
- Communicate in advance: set investor expectations about drawdown ranges, trade frequency, and review cadence.
- If emotions spike, shrink size immediately for three trades; only restore after three clean, on-plan executions.
Professional Standards & Communication
Gerald frames trading as a professional service with clear guardrails and honest reporting—it builds trust and keeps him disciplined.
- Report monthly in pips, R, and %—avoid dollar headlines; include a short note on what you improved.
- Keep a one-page “Investor FAQ” that explains strategy, risk limits, typical drawdown, and when you’ll stop trading for the month.
- Maintain a dedicated email channel and fixed response window for investor questions; never discuss open trades.
Size risk in pips, not dollars, to stay emotionally neutral
Gerald Tsu learned that quoting everything in pips strips out the dollar drama that wrecks decision-making. When you think “20 pips to stop” instead of “$200 at risk,” you execute the plan instead of negotiating with it mid-trade. He frames entries, stops, and targets purely in pips and R, so the math is identical whether he’s trading a small account or managing more capital. That separation lets him focus on setup quality and structure, not the tug of P&L.
Gerald Tsu also keeps the conversion to dollars hidden until the trade is closed, which helps him avoid tinkering when price wobbles. By sizing lots off a fixed pip stop and a predefined R, he knows exactly how many losses he can absorb without denting the account. That consistency keeps emotions flat across winning and losing streaks and makes his review data cleaner. The simple rule is: define risk in pips, translate to position size, then forget the money until it’s done.
Volatility-based position sizing: adjust lots to ADR and session range
Gerald Tsu sizes positions by the market’s current “breathing room,” not a fixed lot size. He checks the pair’s Average Daily Range and the typical range of his active session to set an expected stop distance in pips. If ADR is expanded, he trims the lot; if it’s compressed, he nudges size up while keeping risk per trade constant. This keeps his R consistent even when the market speeds up or slows down.
Gerald Tsu also recalibrates intraday when volatility regime shifts midweek. He won’t take a setup if the stop would exceed a set fraction of ADR or the session’s median swing; instead, he waits for a tighter structure. On days with outsized news-driven ranges, he reduces size and widens stops to avoid getting wicked out. The rule is simple: measure the environment first, then let volatility dictate lot size so edge lives in execution, not luck.
Diversify by strategy, duration, and pair—not just number of trades.
Gerald Tsu spreads risk across how he trades, how long he holds, and which pairs he touches—not by stacking more entries of the same kind. He keeps a short-term play and a slower swing framewor,k so a cold streak in one style doesn’t freeze his entire week. He’ll also split attention between two currency pairs with different personalities, so one choppy market doesn’t dictate the outcome. The point is to avoid correlation traps that look like diversification but move as one when volatility hits.
Gerald Tsu plans his sessions with a mix of setup types rather than variations of the same idea. If his price-action continuation play fires, he won’t immediately take another identical continuation; he looks for a mean-reversion or structure-break opportunity with a different profile. He staggers hold times—one trade to first trouble area, another allowed to trail—so exits don’t cluster. By diversifying across strategy, duration, and pair, he keeps equity swings smoother and gives his edge more chances to show up.
Trade the playbook, not predictions: mechanics first, opinions last.
Gerald Tsu treats forecasts like background noise and the playbook like law. He predefines the setup, trigger, invalidation, and management before the session, then runs that script without negotiating mid-trade. If price doesn’t meet the checklist, he simply does nothing—no early clicks, no “it looks like” exceptions. News and hot takes might color the day, but they never outrank structure and rules.
Gerald Tsu’s execution is an if-then flow, not a vibe check. If the level breaks and retests, he enters on close; if the candle closes back inside, he cancels the idea. Once in, he follows the management plan he wrote when calm—move to flat risk only after price clears the first obstacle, scale at planned milestones, and trail behind structure, not feelings. By enforcing mechanics over opinions, he keeps the edge intact across good days, bad days, and everything in between.
Define risk upfront, standardize exits, and review every execution.
Gerald Tsu starts every idea by fixing risk before anything else —hard stop beyond the invalidation structure and position size computed to the penny, then locked. Targets are standardized too: first scale at 1R or the first trouble area, then trail behind structure using swing points or prior candle lows/highs. If price negates the thesis—like a close back inside the range—he cancels the setup without argument. This uniformity makes every trade comparable, so performance comes from edge, not improvisation.
Gerald Tsu then grades each execution against the plan, not the P&L, to keep learning honest. He logs MAE/MFE, on-plan vs. off-plan behavior, and notes exactly where emotions tried to hijack the process. If a rule breaks twice in a week, he adds a friction fix—alerts, checklist step, or reduced size—until compliance returns. The rhythm is simple: define risk, run the exit template, and review ruthlessly so the next trade is cleaner than the last.
In the end, Gerald Tsu’s edge isn’t a fancy indicator—it’s discipline you can actually execute. He sizes risk in pips to mute emotions, lets volatility set the lot so R stays consistent, and diversifies by strategy, duration, and pair to avoid hidden correlation. He runs a tight two-setup playbook—one with confluence, one pure price action—and he refuses to trade unless the checklist is met at pre-planned levels. Every idea starts with risk defined, management standardized, and a clear invalidation that kills the trade the moment the thesis dies.
What makes this stick is Gerald Tsu’s businesslike routine. He limits markets to the ones he knows best, rehearses on weekends, and journals with an eye for execution quality, not dollar outcomes. He communicates expectations, accepts drawdowns as part of the job, and scales only when process compliance proves he’s ready. If you want takeaway rules you can use tomorrow: think in pips, let volatility guide size, trade the script—not opinions—then grade yourself against the plan and come back cleaner on the next trade.
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