Table of Contents
Steve Miley—ex-institutional trader and head of a futures prop firm—joins the mic to break down where prop trading is going and what retail traders should actually care about. From broker risk to why futures data is cleaner than CFD feeds, Steve explains the real differences that impact your fills, your withdrawals, and your longevity as a trader. If you’ve wondered whether to stick with CFDs/“Forex” or migrate to exchange-traded futures, this conversation gives you the context straight from someone who’s operated on both sides of the fence.
You’ll learn Steve Miley’s actionable take on futures vs. CFDs, how broker/dealer models can distort pricing, and why exchange transparency matters when your capital is on the line. We’ll cover his pass-rate data for evaluations, the common pitfalls that sink funded accounts, and the risk rules he sees in traders who survive—position sizing that fits volatility, self-imposed daily/weekly loss limits, and zero “swing-for-the-fences” impulses. By the end, you’ll have a simple roadmap to align your trader strategy with a safer market structure and a process built to last.
Steve Miley Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
The Markets He Chooses (and Why)
Steve keeps it simple: liquid, exchange-traded futures where pricing is transparent and slippage is predictable. He prioritizes sessions with real participation so the tape “speaks” clearly and risk can be sized off an objective structure. Here’s exactly how he filters and focuses.
- Trade exchange-listed index and rate futures (e.g., ES, NQ, YM, CL, ZN) during their primary session hours.
- Avoid illiquid products and microcaps; if the bid/ask regularly widens beyond 1–2 ticks, skip it.
- Only trade when the economic calendar is clear or you have a predefined news plan; stand down 2–3 minutes before and after Tier-1 releases unless your setup explicitly covers news.
- Build a core watchlist of 2–3 products; scan others only if volatility drops below your minimum ATR threshold.
- Define “no-trade” windows (10–15 minutes after the open if you’re prone to FOMO; final 10 minutes if you overtrade the close).
The Setups He Actually Pulls the Trigger On
Steve treats setups as repeatable behaviors, not one-off hunches. He wants a tight link from condition → entry → risk → management. The point is to compress decision time and let rules do the heavy lifting.
- Opening Range Bias: Mark the first 5–15 minutes. Trade with the break only if the higher-timeframe bias (HTF) already points the same way.
- Trend Pullback: Enter only on a pullback to VWAP or a 20–50 EMA zone with a clear rejection candle; invalid if price closes beyond the zone by more than 0.3×ATR(14).
- Range Fades: Fade extremes only when range is established on at least 45–60 minutes of structure and delta/volume diverge; partial size, quicker targets.
- Break-and-Retest: After a session high/low break, wait for a one-minute close back at the broken level plus a second confirmation wick rejection.
- Single-Print/Gap Work: If the prior day left single prints or an untested gap, stalk first touch with ½ size and quicker stop-to-breakeven logic.
Pre-Trade Bias and Context
He starts from context, not predictions. That means reading where liquidity likely sits and how today differs from yesterday. You’re not forecasting; you’re framing.
- Map HTF structure first: prior day high/low, overnight high/low, weekly VWAP, and prior value area.
- Define the day type you expect (trend, range, balanced-to-trend) based on overnight inventory and opening location relative to value.
- Set one primary bias and one invalidation: e.g., “Bullish above prior VAH; neutral/bearish if we accept below overnight low.”
- If the open rejects your bias within the first 15 minutes, flatten and stand down for 10 minutes—no revenge trades.
- Pre-tag “thin zones” where a small push can run stops; either avoid entries there or widen stops and cut size.
Risk Sizing That Survives
Steve’s hallmark is making risk mechanical. He sizes to volatility and caps daily damage so one mistake doesn’t ruin the week. The math comes first; the trade comes second.
- Risk 0.25%–0.5% of account per trade; never more than 1% even on A+ setups.
- Position size by stop distance ÷ tick value; if stop widens, reduce contracts—don’t “hope” tighter.
- Daily loss limit: –2R hard stop; –3R circuit breaker (platform lockout or walk away).
- Weekly drawdown: –6R pause; drop size by 50% the following week and earn it back before scaling.
- Move to breakeven only after 1R unrealized or a structural shift (e.g., reclaim of VWAP against you); not before.
Entries, Stops, and Trade Management
Execution is about avoiding noise and letting the plan run. Steve prefers defined entries with clean invalidation and simple, rules-based management that compounds small edges.
- Place stops beyond structure, not at it: behind swing points, beyond VWAP bands, or past single-print edges by 1–2 ticks.
- Enter on confirmation, not anticipation: require a close or a delta shift to validate your trigger.
- Default targets: first scale at +1R, second at next HTF level (prior H/L, value edge, or measured move); trail the runner with a structure-based stop.
- If price stalls for three bars without progress and volume fades, cut to half size—free up risk budget.
- Never widen stops after entry; only reduce size or exit. If you “need” a wider stop, the entry was wrong.
Session Playbook (Open → Close)
Each session has a rhythm. Steve uses the same flow to reduce decision fatigue and catch the best windows while avoiding chop.
- Pre-Open (30–45 min): Mark levels, finalize bias, set alerts; no charts under 1 minute until bell.
- First Hour: Take only A-setups with full focus; one product preference; max two attempts per idea.
- Midday: Trade only if volatility and breadth confirm; otherwise, research, journal, or walk.
- Last 90 Minutes: Stalk HTF level tests and trend continuation; tighten management into the final 15 minutes.
- Shutdown: Flatten all day trades by session end; no “accidental swing” holds.
News and Event Handling
Events distort liquidity. Steve’s rule is binary: you either have a plan, or you stand aside. There’s no improvisation mid-release.
- Maintain a daily calendar and tag Tier-1 events relevant to your products.
- Flatten 2–3 minutes before releases unless your setup explicitly covers them with reduced size and wider, pre-planned stops.
- Post-news, wait for two closes back inside the structure (e.g., back above/below VWAP) before resuming normal risk.
- If spread > typical by 2× or slippage > 1.5× normal, reduce size by half for the next two trades.
Prop-Firm Evaluation and Funded Account Rules
Steve’s approach transfers directly to evaluations: pass cleanly and then keep the account. That means building rules around drawdown, scaling, and session selection.
- Pick plans with a trailing drawdown that stops trailing on open profit or static drawdown; know the exact math.
- Engineer a pass path: e.g., 10 trading days, target 6 green days at +0.7R average, max –2R day.
- Use half size until the trailing drawdown is “safe” by at least 2R buffer; only then scale.
- For funded accounts, set a hard daily stop at 60–70% of the platform’s daily limit to avoid forced closures.
- Withdraw on a schedule (e.g., every 2–4 weeks) and reset risk to baseline after each payout.
Data, Tools, and Chart Hygiene
Clean charts lead to clean decisions. Steve favors minimalism: fewer indicators, more structure, and consistent templates across markets.
- Standard template: HTF (60/15-minute), execution (5/1-minute), VWAP with bands, 20/50 EMAs, session volume profile.
- One volatility gauge only (ATR or realized volatility); if ATR falls below your minimum, stand down or switch product.
- Keep DOM/T&S visible during execution windows; if depth thins or iceberg behavior appears against your bias, cut risk.
- Pre-set alerts at HTF levels; avoid staring—let alerts bring you back for decisions.
- Journal screenshots before/after with entry, stop, target, and reason tags (setup, context, emotions).
Psychology You Can Actually Train
Mindset is a system, too. Steve operationalizes behavior so discipline doesn’t depend on willpower. You train it like any other edge.
- Write a one-page trading contract: max losses, timeouts, setup list, and what ends the session. Sign it daily.
- Use if-then plans for triggers (“If I hit –1R, then I take a 10-minute reset walk”).
- Cap screens-on time; fatigue breeds FOMO. If heart rate or breath rate climbs for 5 minutes, pause trading.
- Grade each trade on process (A/B/C) regardless of P&L; only increase size after 10 consecutive A/B executions.
- End of week: pick one fix (e.g., late entries) and train it next week—don’t overhaul everything at once.
Scaling the Account Without Breaking It
Growth comes from consistency plus measured size increases, not leaps. Steve scales only when the process proves it can carry more weight.
- Increase size after three green weeks and a max drawdown < half your weekly stop; bump contracts by +25%, not doubles.
- Keep a baseline size you can always drop to after a drawdown; never chase size to “win it back.”
- As size grows, raise your quality bar: during low-vol or sloppy tape, trade fewer setups or skip the day.
- Roll profits out monthly to a reserve account; keep risk based on the starting balance for the next month.
- Review slippage and heat monthly; if both rise with size, slow scaling until they normalize.
Weekend Prep That Pays on Monday
The edge starts before the week does. Steve’s weekend process creates a roadmap so Monday opens with clarity, not guesswork.
- Build a weekly narrative: catalysts, likely day types, and top HTF levels; write it in plain English.
- Pre-tag two A-setups per product with screenshots and invalidations; anything else is a pass.
- Set alerts at every HTF level so Monday is “click & trade,” not “hunt & hope.”
- Refresh rules: daily stop, weekly stop, and product priorities; commit to them in writing.
- Plan your first trade of the week—entry trigger, stop, target—then wait for it patiently.
Size Risk Like a Pro: Volatility-Synced Stops, Contracts, and Limits
Steve Miley starts by sizing risk before he even considers an entry, because the market’s volatility decides how big he can be. He anchors stops to the current range—think an ATR or recent swing—then backs into contracts from the tick value so each trade risks the same cash amount. If the stop widens, he cuts the size automatically rather than forcing a tighter, unrealistic stop. That way, a choppy day won’t quietly multiply his dollar-at-risk.
He also caps damage with a hard daily loss limit and a weekly circuit breaker, so one mistake can’t spiral into a blowup. Steve Miley treats scaling like a privilege: size only increases after multiple green weeks and normal slippage, and it drops the moment drawdown appears. He won’t move a stop wider after entry; the only choices are reduce, manage, or exit. This keeps risk constant, decisions simple, and the equity curve far smoother over time.
Trade the Structure, Not Predictions: Context, Levels, and Confirmation-Only Entries
Steve Miley builds a bias from structure, not gut calls. He maps prior day high/low, overnight extremes, VWAP, and value edges to see where acceptance or rejection is most likely. If the open locates inside the value, he expects balance; if it opens above and holds, he treats it as a potential trend day. The key is simple: level → reaction → plan, not horoscope-style forecasting.
For entries, Steve Miley demands confirmation—no touch-and-hope clicks. He wants a close through the level plus a clean retest, or a rejection wick at a pre-mapped boundary with momentum resuming in the intended direction. If confirmation is messy or volume thins, he waits; missed trades beat bad trades. Two tries per idea max, then he stands down until a new structural cue appears.
Diversify Smartly: Underlying, Strategy, and Holding Duration for Smoother Equity Curves
Steve Miley spreads risk across different engines of P&L, not just different tickers that all move together. He’ll mix index, rates, and energy futures so one macro theme doesn’t dominate his day. Then he layers distinct playbooks—trend pullback, break-and-retest, and range fade—so when one goes cold, another can still print. Correlation is watched like a hawk; if two markets or two setups are behaving the same, he treats them as one risk.
Steve Miley also diversifies by time-in-trade: quick opening-drive plays, slower VWAP rotations, and occasional afternoon continuations. He caps concurrent exposure so total heat across open trades never exceeds his per-trade R by more than a preset multiple. If conditions compress (low ATR, choppy tape), he shifts weight toward mean-revert setups and shorter holds; when ranges expand, he favors continuation and lets runners breathe. The result is a steadier equity curve that depends on process breadth, not one fragile edge.
Defined Risk Every Time: Opening Range, Break-Retest, and VWAP Pullback Rules
Steve Miley treats every trade as a fixed-risk bet with rules that trigger or disqualify the setup fast. On the open, he boxes the first 5–15 minutes; he only trades an opening-range break if the higher-timeframe bias already agrees, and the stop sits just beyond the opposite side of that box. For break-and-retest, Steve Miley requires a close through the level, a clean pullback that holds on reduced volume, and an entry on the first sign of resumed momentum; any deep wick through the level by more than a couple of ticks voids the idea. If the market hesitates for several bars without progress, he pares risk or exits rather than letting heat build.
For VWAP pullbacks, he looks for the price to return to VWAP or its bands with a rejection candle, then he places the stop just beyond the band and targets the next structural level. If VWAP flattens and order flow goes thin, he passes, because chop turns defined risk into death by a thousand cuts. Steve Miley never widens stops; if volatility expands, he shrinks size and keeps the invalidation where the setup says it must be. Two attempts per structure is the cap—after the second fail, he stands down and waits for a fresh level or a new session phase.
Process Beats Emotion: Daily Loss Stops, Timeouts, and Journal-Based Upgrades
Steve Miley runs his day with guardrails that make tilt impossible. He sets a hard daily loss stop before the session and treats it like a fire door—hit it, and the platform closes, or he steps away, no debate. When frustration creeps in, Steve Miley triggers a timed timeout to reset physiology, not just mindset, because a calmer body makes cleaner decisions. He also preplans a “first red trade response” so the next decision is scripted, not emotional.
After the bell, Steve Miley upgrades the process with a tight journal loop. He tags each trade by setup quality, context fit, and emotional state, then writes one fix to train next week instead of rewriting the whole playbook. Wins that broke rules get flagged as “lucky” and don’t count toward size increases. By promoting rule-following over P&L, he turns discipline into a habit—and habits beat adrenaline every time.
Steve Miley’s core lesson is that consistency is engineered, not discovered. He builds everything around transparent, exchange-traded markets, then frames the day with higher-timeframe levels, opening location, and VWAP, so he’s trading structure—not forecasts. Risk comes first, always: stops live beyond real invalidation, size flexes with volatility, and daily/weekly loss limits keep the account alive long enough for the edge to play out. When the tape is thin or news distorts liquidity, he steps aside; when ranges expand, he leans into continuation and lets winners breathe. The throughline is simple: choose markets that treat you fairly, define your risk in advance, and let confirmation—not hope—pull the trigger.
Beyond setups, Steve Miley shows how pros keep equity curves smooth. He diversifies by underlying, strategy type, and time-in-trade, so one cold patch doesn’t sink the week. He scales only after process wins—multiple green weeks with normal slippage—and he cuts size the moment drawdown appears. Journal loops convert results into upgrades: grade each trade on process, tag emotions, pick one fix per week, and train it deliberately. For prop evaluations and funded accounts, he designs a pass path, protects trailing drawdown with conservative sizing, and schedules withdrawals to bank progress. Put together, his playbook is a blueprint for durable trading: structure before signals, rules before impulses, and a risk engine that makes the next trade just another well-priced bet.
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