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This interview sits down with prop-trading standout Lance Breitstein—ex-Trillium equities ace and widely respected mentor—on the Words of Wisdom podcast in New York. Lance opens up about going from slow-to-adapt rookie to top intraday performer, why environment and repetition mattered more than raw talent, and how his process was refined by real-time feedback and elite teammates. It’s a rare look at how a world-class trader actually thinks about speed, preparation, and discipline—and why he believes most retail traders underestimate the grind required to get good.
In this piece, you’ll learn the core of Lance’s strategy: build real edge, bet big only with “pocket aces,” and use meta-learning to accelerate execution, not just knowledge. We’ll unpack how to create positive feedback loops, why trading pods and mentorship compress the learning curve, and the rookie traps he sees everywhere—from ignoring breaking news to chasing shiny “funded” programs. If you’re newer to markets or rebuilding your playbook, Lance’s framework gives you a grounded path to consistency, clarity, and smarter risk.
Lance Breitstein Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Identity & Edge
Lance is a short-term, intraday equities specialist. He wins by waiting for asymmetric moments—catalyst-driven volatility where liquidity is deep and the tape confirms his read. Think “professional patience + violent execution” when A+ conditions align.
- Trade U.S. single-name stocks with fresh catalysts; ignore markets where you cannot demonstrate repeatable edge.
- Define your edge as “faster and truer reaction to new information” (levels, liquidity shifts, and tape context).
- Grade every potential setup A/B/C; only size up on A+ (your “pocket aces”).
- Track which patterns pay you; cut anything that doesn’t show positive expectancy over a large sample.
Market Selection & Universe Building
He concentrates where spreads are tight and volatility is real: earnings, guidance changes, regulatory headlines, M&A, product launches. A small, curated watchlist beats a bloated one.
- Build a daily universe of 10–25 names: earnings reporters, top pre-market movers, high short-interest outliers, sector sympathy plays.
- Require: average intraday range > 2× its 20-day median or pre-market gap > 2%.
- Exclude names with thin book depth (e.g., < 5k shares inside top 3 levels) unless the thesis demands it.
- Favor tickers with clear “who’s in control” tells (clean breaks/reclaims of prior day high/low or opening range).
Preparation: The Pre-Market Game Plan
Preparation sets the table for speed later. Lance front-loads decision-making so he can simply execute when the bell rings.
- For each ticker, pre-write: catalyst, key levels (pre-market high/low, prior day H/L, overnight VWAP/AVWAP anchors), invalidation, first add, and first scale-out.
- Create If/Then playbooks: “If open drives through pre-market high and holds AVWAP 1-min, then long with risk to AVWAP; first trim at +1R.”
- Tag scenarios: Trend, Mean-Reversion, Stuff-Fade, and Reclaim. Only trade the scenario that prints—don’t force the one you want.
Setup Criteria: “Pocket Aces” Only
He passes on most hands. When the stars align—catalyst + level + tape—he pushes size.
- Require all three: (1) Fresh news/catalyst; (2) Critical level (ORH/ORL, PDH/PDL, AVWAP, multi-day pivot); (3) Tape confirmation (speed-up in prints, stacked bids/offers, spread behavior).
- Disqualifiers: headline uncertainty (rumor without source), halts due to unknowns, sloppy overlapping ranges, or conflicting sector flows.
- Expectation math before entry: minimum +2R path with realistic liquidity; if not present, pass.
Execution Triggers: Levels, AVWAP, Tape
Entries are precise. He uses anchored VWAP from a key event and watches how the order book reacts there.
- Long trigger examples: reclaim of catalyst-anchor AVWAP after a shakeout; 1-min close above pre-market high with absorption; higher-low into AVWAP that holds.
- Short trigger examples: failure to reclaim AVWAP after an exhaustion wick; clean break of ORL with lower-high retest; aggressive offer stepping down while volume expands.
- Enter on trigger, not on hope: if the exact condition isn’t met, do nothing.
- Use hotkeys and predefined share brackets so execution speed never lags behind your read.
Risk, Sizing & Daily Guardrails
He caps downside so he can swing hard when it counts. Risk is defined before the click.
- Per-trade risk (PTR): 0.25–0.75% of equity on A setups; 1.0–1.5% on A+ only.
- Daily max loss (DML): 2× PTR average; hit it and you’re done—no overrides.
- Hard invalidation = level break + tape flip; exit instantly, not “near it.”
- Scale size with realized edge: increase risk 10–20% only after ≥ 30 trade sample shows Sharpe > 1 and drawdown contained.
Trade Management: Adds, Trims, Exits
He treats winners like a business: pay yourself while the thesis lives, flatten when it doesn’t.
- First add only after +0.5R in favor and the next higher-low (long) or lower-high (short) holds above/below AVWAP.
- Automatic first trim at +1R; move stop to breakeven only after structure confirms (e.g., new higher-low above your entry for longs).
- Exit plan hierarchy: (1) thesis invalidated; (2) time stop if momentum dies (e.g., 15–20 min without progress); (3) target met (prior supply/demand node).
- Never widen stops; reduce to core and reassess at the next decision level.
Volatility & Catalyst Playbook
He thrives when markets move. Volatility is the fuel, but only with structure.
- Earnings Trend: join on ORH break that retests/holds AVWAP; target 1.5–2.5R with partials at prior day high and whole-number magnets.
- Negative Surprise Fade: first thrust fails at daily supply; short the lower-high into AVWAP fail; risk = wick high, cover into prior day low.
- Reclaim/Reversal: capitulation into multi-day support, capitulation candle + reclaim AVWAP; long only after a higher-low forms.
- Sector Sympathy: if the leader runs on news, pick the liquid follower with clean levels; smaller size, tighter leash.
The “No-Edge” Filter
He ruthlessly avoids arenas where his stats don’t show an edge. That discipline preserves capital and focus.
- If 90-day stats in a product/strategy are ≤ breakeven after fees/slippage, put it on a do-not-trade list.
- Don’t chase broad index futures or FX unless your journal proves edge there; single-name equities with catalysts are easier to exploit intraday.
- Reduce or skip days with inside-day indices, overlapping value, or event risk you can’t quantify.
Data, Journal, and Film Review
Skill compounds through feedback. He measures everything and studies tape like game film.
- Log each trade: catalyst, setup tag, entry trigger, risk, adds/trims, exit reason, and whether the tape behaved as expected.
- Weekly: export stats by setup tag; cut bottom decile, re-allocate risk to top quartile.
- Screen-record opening 90 minutes; annotate pauses at your entries/exits and note book behavior (absorption, sweeps, spread).
- Run “what-if” sizing sims: what happens if you halve losers and add once to winners only?
Team, Mentorship, and Pods
Surrounding yourself with pros compresses the learning curve. Shared eyes on order flow reveal more A+ moments.
- Trade in a small pod: one news hawk, one levels/tape specialist, one risk monitor.
- Pre-market: two strongest ideas per person, with exact triggers and invalidations; at the bell, call out tape tells in real time.
- Post-close: each member reviews one winner/one loser with chart + tape; extract one rule to keep, one to kill.
Mindset & Performance Habits
Consistency beats heroics. He protects his best mental state and designs rules that make it easier to do the right thing.
- Start with a “green day floor”: stop trading after +2R unless an A+ setup appears (then single additional trade allowed).
- Use a reset protocol after two consecutive losers: 15-minute break, reduce size by 50%, trade only A setups for the rest of the session.
- Maintain physical cues: timer for posture/eye breaks every 45–60 minutes; hydration and glucose steady to keep reaction time sharp.
- Write a one-line intention before the open: “Only trade AVWAP reclaims/fails with catalyst today.”
Size Up Only on A+ Setups; Protect Downside Ruthlessly
Lance Breitstein built his edge by refusing to treat all trades equally. He grades every idea before the open, then sizes up only when catalyst, level, and tape all align—the “pocket aces” moments. Anything less than an A+ gets small size or a pass, because conserving firepower matters more than being active. That selectivity keeps his mental bandwidth clean and his P&L volatility controlled.
When he does press, Lance ties size to objective signals and hard invalidation—not feeling. Risk is set first, exits are immediate on level breaks or a tape flip, and he never widens stops to “see what happens.” He pays himself into strength, scales only after the trade proves itself, and cuts losers before they metastasize. The result is simple: trade big when the market proves you right, trade tiny—or not at all—when it hasn’t.
Let Volatility Dictate Allocation; Trade Bigger When Range Expands
Lance Breitstein treats volatility like a green light for opportunity and a governor for risk. When the tape stretches—wider ranges, faster prints, cleaner trends—he increases allocation because the path to +2R or +3R becomes realistic. On sleepy days, he intentionally runs smaller or sits out, accepting that tight ranges compress edge and inflate slippage-to-reward. The goal isn’t constant action—it’s matching size to the market’s ability to pay.
He uses objective tells to decide when to press: premarket gaps, expanding ATR versus the 20-day baseline, halts and headline catalysts, and one-way order flow that respects levels. In those conditions, Lance will allow adds only after the trade proves itself—higher low into AVWAP on longs or lower high on shorts—and he trims into momentum pockets to lock realized gains. When volatility fades, he scales down immediately, switches to mean-reversion scouts, or stops trading altogether. It’s simple, repeatable, and disciplined: volatility expands, size expands; volatility contracts, size contracts.
Diversify by Strategy, Timeframe, and Ticker—Not Randomly
Lance Breitstein doesn’t diversify for the sake of activity; he diversifies to control correlation and smooth the P&L. He buckets risk across distinct playbooks—trend continuation, reclaim reversals, and mean-reversion fades—so one bad regime doesn’t mow down the entire day. Timeframe diversification matters too: opening drive tactics for velocity, midday scouts for structure, and late-day follow-through when volume returns. By mixing strategies and time horizons, Lance reduces overlap and keeps his edge present in more tapes.
He also spreads exposure across uncorrelated tickers rather than stacking three trades that live and die on the same sector headline. If two names move as one, he’ll either choose the cleaner tape or cut size on both. Each position must have its own catalyst, its own levels, and its own exit logic; otherwise, it’s just doubled risk in disguise. That’s the rule: diversify by playbook, by clock, and by name—never by hope.
Mechanics Over Prediction: Trigger, Execute, Manage, Exit Without Hesitation
Lance Breitstein hammers a simple truth: your job isn’t to be right about the future—it’s to execute the present. He predefines triggers (reclaim of AVWAP, break-and-hold of ORH/ORL, a higher-low after a shakeout) and only acts when those conditions print. No trigger, no trade. Once in, he follows a mechanical flow: confirm structure, protect risk, pay himself into strength, and kill the trade the moment invalidation shows up on the tape.
Prediction invites ego, but mechanics invite repeatability—that’s Lance’s edge. He uses exact stop levels, not “areas,” and he never widens a stop to negotiate with reality. If the tape flips (absorption vanishes, spreads widen, offers step down), he exits first and asks questions later. The result is speed without hurry: a checklist that moves him from signal to execution to management to exit, with zero hesitation and zero drama.
Prefer Defined Risk; Kill Trades When Invalidation Level Breaks
Lance Breitstein treats risk like a line in the sand, not a suggestion. He defines the loss before entry—at the exact level that proves the thesis wrong—and sizes the position around that fixed amount. No “let’s see” breathing room, no averaging down to make the chart fit the trade. If the market prints the invalidation, the trade is done—flatten, don’t negotiate.
He builds those lines from objective structures: AVWAP from the catalyst, opening range high/low, prior day levels, and the wick that marked exhaustion. If price loses the level and the tape confirms (spreads widen, bids vanish, offers step down), he exits on the spot and resists the impulse to re-enter without a fresh trigger. When volatility is extreme, Lance tightens risk rather than moving stops farther; defined risk keeps him solvent for the next A+ opportunity. The discipline is simple and brutal: respect the invalidation, or the market will teach you to.
In the end, Lance Breitstein’s message is disarmingly simple: earn the right to size up by waiting for A+ conditions, then execute with speed and ruthless risk control. He filters for fresh catalysts, clean levels, and tape confirmation—often around anchors like AVWAP, opening range, and prior-day highs/lows—so he’s trading the market that exists, not the one he hopes for. When those ingredients align, he presses; when they don’t, he protects capital and patience. Defined invalidation isn’t a suggestion—it’s the exit. That single habit keeps drawdowns shallow enough to stay aggressive when opportunity finally shows.
He treats volatility like a thermostat for risk and selects trades to avoid hidden correlation: diversify by playbook, timeframe, and ticker, not by adding more of the same exposure. Preparation compresses decision time—prewritten scenarios, If/Then triggers, and bracketed orders mean he’s ready the instant the tape confirms. Once in, he manages with mechanical consistency: additive only after the trade proves itself, trims into strength, time stops when momentum stalls, and zero tolerance for widening stops.
Finally, the edge compounds in review. He journals every trade by catalyst and setup, kills the bottom performers, and reallocates risk to what actually pays. Pods and post-close film study sharpen the read on order flow so tomorrow’s execution is cleaner than today’s. Put together, the lessons are a blueprint for durable consistency: wait for true edge, let volatility guide allocation, keep risk defined, and let disciplined mechanics do the heavy lifting.
