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Kieran Duff sits down on the Words of Rizdom podcast to unpack how he went from discovering Bitcoin in 2017 to becoming a disciplined swing trader funded by prop firms like FTMO. He’s candid about the grind—balancing a full-time job, family, and 12–15 hour learning days—plus the setbacks that shaped his strategy, from the Terra/Luna implosion to a home break-in that shattered his routine. Why he matters: Kieran’s story is the relatable arc many retail traders live—signals and noisy communities at first, then a hard pivot to simple analysis, strict rules, and a low-frequency, high-conviction approach that actually fits real life.
In this piece, you’ll learn how Kieran structures a swing-trading week around one or two A-setups, scales with prop capital without forcing trades, and builds conviction by cutting external noise and leaning on a tight, rules-based checklist. We’ll cover the practical bits beginners care about—time management, accountability partners, and mindset—alongside his risk-thinking, simple chart reads, and why “less is more” can be the fastest way to consistency for part-time traders. Expect clear takeaways you can plug into your next session the same day.
Kieran Duff Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Who he is and what he trades
Kieran Duff is a UK-based trader who cut his teeth during the crypto boom, transitioned into FX and indices, and built a rules-first approach that suits real life—job, family, and limited screen time. He emphasizes simple charts, selective setups, and consistency over noise and prediction.
- Trade universe: majors (e.g., GBPUSD, EURUSD), gold, and a small set of index CFDs/futures; avoid adding new markets mid-month.
- Maximum markets on active watch: 4—drop anything that isn’t setting up to keep focus tight.
- Timeframes: higher-timeframe bias from daily/4H; execution on 1H/15m when volatility supports it.
- News stance: mark high-impact events; only trade if the setup still meets risk and structure rules post-release.
The A-Setup filter (only trade your best hand)
Here’s how he keeps quality high: a checklist that forces patience. If the market doesn’t hand him this picture, he does nothing—because flat is a position. This is the backbone of his “few trades, high conviction” style.
- Structure: higher-high/low (trend) or clean range with clear sweep; no “messy middle” trades.
- Location: confluence at a prior daily/4H level, weekly open, or an obvious liquidity pocket (stop sweep into a level).
- Trigger: break-retest or failed breakout back inside range; first pullback only—no chasing.
- Volatility gate: ATR(14) on execution timeframe ≥ your minimum (define per market) before considering entries.
- Session rule: take entries only during your two best sessions (e.g., London/NY overlap); outside that, watch only.
Entry mechanics that don’t wiggle
Entries are binary: it’s on or it isn’t. He wants one clean trigger and a predefined invalidation, so there’s nothing to “negotiate” after the click. That keeps the plan tradable even on busy days.
- Execution: limit or stop order placed at the retest; no market orders unless spread/volatility demands it.
- Invalidation: hard stop just beyond the structure that proves you wrong (e.g., wick high/low + buffer).
- Position size: risk a fixed % of equity per trade (e.g., 0.5%–1.0%); never scale into losers.
- Max attempts: 2 tries per idea per session; after two stopped attempts, the level is “burned.”
- One chart, one decision: once placed, walk away for the bar to close—no tick watching.
Risk, sizing, and weekly exposure caps
The edge compounds only if you’re still in the game next week. He keeps exposure small, consistent, and capped across correlated markets so a single theme doesn’t sink the boat.
- Per-trade risk: 0.5%–1.0% standard; 0.25% for B-quality conditions; 0% if criteria are not met.
- Weekly risk cap: 3% absolute. Stop trading for the week if reached.
- Pair correlation: max 2 concurrent USD-majors; if gold is on, reduce FX exposure by one slot.
- “Win cap” rule: after a strong day (+1.5R or more), reduce next trade risk by 50% to avoid giveback.
- Equity curve brake: if you’re down −2R on the day, close the platform.
Management: from open to paid
Trade management is formulaic. He locks risk when the market proves him right and scales out only at pre-planned zones, not feelings. This swaps “hope” for a repeatable protocol.
- Break-even move: when price closes beyond the first structure (e.g., prior swing), move stop to entry minus costs.
- Partial take-profit: 50% off at 1R; trail the remainder behind swing structure or a 20 EMA on execution timeframe.
- News protection: if a high-impact print is due and trade is <0.8R, flatten; if ≥1R, tighten stop to just inside structure.
- Daily cutoff: no new positions in the last 60 minutes of your active session.
- Weekend rule: flat by Friday close unless swing is ≥2R and stop can be trailed beyond invalidation on the higher timeframe.
Prop capital and scaling without forcing trades
Duff is open about using prop firm capital and professional platforms to scale responsibly. The key is uniformity: the same plan, copied across accounts, not more trades.
- Challenge mode: halve standard risk per trade (e.g., 0.25%–0.5%) to survive drawdown phases.
- Consistency filter: no more than 1 net new trade idea per day during evaluations.
- Payout protection: after a +7% month, drop risk to 0.25% for the final week to secure payout thresholds.
- Copy discipline: identical instruments, sessions, risk, and management across all accounts—no experimentation on funded accounts.
- Cool-off: after an account breach or payout, a mandatory 48-hour review window before resuming size.
Weekly workflow (what gets measured gets managed)
He treats the week like a mini-project: prep, execute, review. This is where most traders lose edge—Duff wins by being boringly consistent.
- Sunday map: mark the two best markets, three levels each, scenarios A/B, and event times.
- Daily pre-market: 10 minutes to re-validate bias, volatility, and levels; set alerts; write a one-line plan.
- Midweek audit: if 0 A-setups by Wednesday, accept it—do not “manufacture” trades; expand alerts, not markets.
- Friday review: export trades, tag by setup/market/session, and grade execution (A, B, C).
- Monthly prune: remove the lowest-edge market from your universe and add only one candidate for next month.
Psychology and routine that actually fits life
This isn’t monk-mode; it’s sustainable. Duff talks about balancing work and family with trading by shrinking decision time and outsourcing willpower to rules.
- Timebox screens: max 90 minutes per active session; outside that, alerts only.
- Pre-commit: tell an accountability partner your daily rule (e.g., “one idea or none”).
- Environment: one chart template per market; hide indicators you don’t use; notifications only for your levels.
- Emotion kill-switch: if you catch yourself “chart hopping” or widening stops, close the platform for 30 minutes.
- Health anchor: non-negotiable sleep/walk routine; no trading after <6 hours of sleep.
Data, journaling, and continuous edge
He keeps data simple and lean. The point isn’t fancy dashboards; it’s seeing patterns you can act on next week.
- Journal fields: setup tag, session, ATR value, risk %, R multiple, management notes, screenshot before/after.
- Weekly stat pack: hit rate, average R, net R, “setup quality” distribution; drop anything that drags the average R below 0.8.
- Hypothesis sprints: test one tweak per month (e.g., different partial at 0.8R vs 1.0R) on micro-risk only.
- Kill switches: if hit rate <35% or average R <0.6 for two straight weeks, pause live risk and run SIM for five sessions.
- Playbook refresh: once per quarter, rewrite the A-setup in plain English and re-shoot chart examples.
Minimal tools, maximum clarity
Kieran’s style doesn’t need a cockpit. It needs clean charts and a way to measure yourself. Less gear, more rules.
- Charting: naked candles + levels; optional 20 EMA for trailing; ATR(14) for volatility gating.
- Alerts over eyeballs: set price + time alerts at your levels so you’re not glued to screens.
- One risk calculator: pre-compute size per stop distance; no manual math under pressure.
- Template library: screenshots of A-setups by market; compare live charts to templates before placing orders.
- Backup plan: if the platform or data fail, the default action is “flat,” not “guess.”
Size Risk First: Fixed Percent Bets Beat Emotional Sizing
Kieran Duff keeps it simple: pick a fixed percentage per trade and stick to it, no matter how “good” a setup feels. By locking risk at, say, 0.5%–1.0% of equity, he removes the urge to randomly upsize winners or chase losses. That one rule instantly standardizes outcomes, making the equity curve reflect edge, not mood swings. It also forces cleaner entries, because sloppy stops become expensive when your size is pre-committed.
Duff’s second move is capping total weekly risk, so a cold streak can’t snowball into a crater. He limits correlated exposure, refusing to stack positions that are basically the same dollar bet in disguise. After a strong day, he dials back the size to avoid giving it all back in a victory lap. The message is blunt and freeing: define your risk before you trade, or you’re not really trading—you’re hoping.
Trade Volatility, Not Wishes: ATR Gates and Session Windows
Kieran Duff builds entries around what the market is actually offering, not what he hopes to see. He uses ATR as a gate: no trade unless the execution timeframe’s ATR is at or above a pre-defined minimum. When volatility expands, he allows wider stops and larger targets; when it compresses, he either downshifts to smaller targets or stands aside. That simple filter kills most chop and eliminates the urge to “make something happen” on a slow day.
He also limits entries to his two highest-quality windows—typically London and the London–NY overlap—when range extension is statistically more likely. If a setup triggers outside the window, he logs it but doesn’t chase, preserving focus for prime hours. Ahead of major news, Kieran Duff either tightens conditions or waits for the post-release structure to reset the edge. The net effect: fewer trades, cleaner moves, and profits harvested from volatility, not from wishful thinking.
Diversify by Instrument, Strategy, and Timeframe—Not Redundant Correlations
Kieran Duff avoids the classic trap of “diversification” that’s really the same macro bet in disguise. If GBPUSD and EURUSD are both leaning on the same USD theme, he counts them as one risk, not two opportunities. Instead, he mixes instruments with different drivers—one major FX pair, maybe gold, and a single index future—so one headline can’t nuke the entire book. He also diversifies by playbook: a trend-continuation setup in one market, a range-reversion in another, and a breakout only when structure screams it.
Risk gets split across time, too, because Kieran Duff doesn’t want every position resolving on the same candle. A swing in gold might run for days, while a tactical FX fade is designed to finish within the session, spreading outcome paths. He caps concurrent positions that share the same primary catalyst, and if correlation spikes, he reduces the size or drops the extra trades. The result is true diversification: fewer clustered losses, smoother equity, and a portfolio built to survive when markets stop behaving.
Let Mechanics Rule: Checklist Entries, Hard Stops, Preplanned Exits
Kieran Duff treats execution like a pre-flight check: if every box isn’t ticked, the trade doesn’t take off. He defines the setup in plain terms—structure, location, trigger—and won’t budge once the market is live. Entry is binary (on/off), and the invalidation point is fixed before he clicks, so there’s no “let’s just give it a little room” after the fact. That structure frees him from second-guessing and keeps his actions repeatable on busy days.
Stops are hard, not “mental,” and they sit just beyond the level that proves the idea wrong. Exits are equally mechanical: partial at a predefined R target, then trail behind a structure or a simple moving anchor—no freelancing. If the plan says two attempts per idea and both fail, Kieran Duff burns the level and moves on. By letting mechanics rule every decision, he replaces hope with a workflow—and consistency shows up where drama used to live.
Discipline Over Drama: Weekly Risk Caps, Win Limits, Review Rituals
Kieran Duff treats risk like a budget: once it’s spent, the week is over—no negotiations. He runs a hard weekly drawdown limit and a daily “win cap” that dials back size after a strong session, cutting off the classic victory-lap giveaway. That one-two combo keeps emotions out of the driver’s seat and forces him to protect green weeks like assets, not lottery tickets.
The second pillar is review. Kieran Duff tags every trade by setup quality, session, ATR, and outcome, then looks for patterns that either earn more size or get cut. If hit rate slips or average R dips below his line in the sand, he flips to SIM and fixes the leak before touching real risk again. The payoff is boring on purpose: fewer revenge trades, tighter feedback loops, and a steadier curve that’s built on habits, not hype.
In the end, Kieran Duff’s edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s the discipline to do the simple things every day. He sizes first and trades second, runs hard weekly risk caps, and treats correlated markets as one bet, not three. He lets volatility set the tempo with ATR gates and time-of-day windows, then executes with a binary checklist, hard stops, and preplanned exits. When he scales with prop capital, the rules don’t change—risk just gets copied across accounts. And the whole thing is powered by a boring-but-deadly routine: prep on Sunday, one clean idea per day at most, midweek audit, Friday review, and a quick SIM reset whenever the stats slip.
What should you take from him? Trade less but better. Keep your universe small, your triggers simple, and your risk math fixed. Diversify by driver and duration, not by stacking the same USD theme across pairs. Protect green weeks with win limits, kill revenge trades with exposure caps, and make journaling the place where next week’s improvements are decided. Kieran Duff proves that consistency isn’t glamorous—but it’s exactly what turns a busy life and limited screen time into a strategy that actually pays.
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