Table of Contents
This interview features AJ, the Australian trader known for flipping the usual script—buying into supply, selling into demand, and timing entries around London and New York opens. Recorded on Titans of Tomorrow, it spotlights how he went from a rough past to disciplined execution and a lifestyle that still prioritizes focused sessions over screen time. Why he matters: AJ distills “every strategy is liquidity” into a simple, repeatable approach with fixed stops and realistic R multiples that beginners can actually implement.
In this piece you’ll learn AJ’s core thesis—why obvious zones are liquidity magnets—and how he trades the inducement move into those areas with 10–12 pip stops on majors (20 pips on gold) and a clean 1:1 to 1:2 take-profit mindset. We’ll cover his checklist for spotting runs, the session timing that boosts probability, the psychology that keeps him calm-but-alert, and the simple routine that makes phone-based execution realistic without overcomplication. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to frame the market like AJ and turn “everyone’s short here” into a high-confidence long—minus the fluff.
AJ Currency Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Thesis: Liquidity First, Everything Else Second
Most traders get lost chasing bias; AJ starts by asking, “Where’s the money trapped?” This section shows how to frame the chart around obvious liquidity pools so your plan writes itself before price even moves. Do this and you’ll stop guessing direction and start stalking the crowd’s pain points.
- Mark external liquidity first: previous day’s high/low and the Asian range high/low.
- Box equal highs/lows (double tops/bottoms) and swing points that retail uses for stops.
- Treat fair-value gaps/inefficient candles as paths price prefers to travel through—not targets.
- Expect the first break of structure into a pool to be inducement; wait for the sweep.
- If price leaves clean, untouched highs/lows behind during a push, assume they’re magnets.
Sessions & Instruments: When He Actually Pulls The Trigger
AJ doesn’t trade all day—he targets windows where liquidity naturally rotates. You’ll learn the exact times and symbols he favors so you can compress screen time and expand edge.
- Focus sessions: London open (07:00–09:30 UK) and early New York (08:30–10:30 ET).
- Prime pairs: majors with tight spreads (EURUSD, GBPUSD) and XAUUSD if volatility is healthy.
- Skip dead zones: post-London lunch and late NY unless news just created fresh pools.
- If ADR is nearly filled before your session, size down or pass—liquidity may be spent.
- Avoid trading the very first minute of a session spike; let the stop run print, then react.
The Setup: Inducement Into Supply/Demand (Yes, He Buys “Into” Supply)
Here’s the pattern AJ actually trades: let price raid a well-advertised zone, wait for the sweep, then enter back through the inefficiency it leaves behind. Following these rules keeps you on the smart side of the trap.
- Identify a widely watched zone (e.g., 4H supply) that sits just beyond external liquidity.
- Wait for the stop run through that zone (wick > close) to confirm trapped participation.
- On the return leg, anchor an entry at the imbalance/fair-value gap created by the raid.
- Entry trigger: M1–M5 reclaim of structure (close back inside range) or a one-minute CHoCH.
- If price does not return to your gap within 3–5 candles after the sweep, cancel the idea.
Risk & Positioning: Fixed, Small, Repeatable
AJ’s edge isn’t about huge R multiples every time; it’s about fixed, defendable risk that he can recycle across sessions. Follow this blueprint to stay in business long enough for your edge to show.
- Default stops: 10–12 pips on majors; 20 pips on XAUUSD (adjust for current spread/vol).
- Hard daily risk cap: 1R–1.5R max; stop trading after two losers or when cap is hit.
- Only one position per idea; no averaging down. If invalid, out—no negotiation.
- Size so that one loser feels minor: risk 0.25%–0.5% per trade until you have 50+ trades logged.
- Weekly drawdown circuit-breaker: at −3R, cut size by half for the next five trades.
Targets & Management: Take What The Tape Gives
The market often hands you one clean leg after a raid. This section shows how AJ locks gains without needing home runs, so he can show up tomorrow with the same ammo.
- First target: opposite side of the internal range or the nearest obvious equal highs/lows.
- Base case: bank partials at 1:1; scale remainder at 1:1.5–1:2 if momentum persists.
- Move stop to break-even only after 1:1 or after a structural close beyond your entry impulse.
- If price fills your imbalance and stalls immediately (no follow-through in 3–5 bars), scratch.
- Trail behind one-minute swing lows/highs only when market is one-sided and time-of-day supports it.
Pre-Trade Checklist: Fast, Ruthless Filters
Most losses come from trading when you shouldn’t. Use AJ’s fast filters to keep powder dry and take only the A-setups.
- Is there fresh, obvious liquidity to raid? If not, pass.
- Is session timing aligned? If outside London/NY prime, you need exceptional context.
- Has ADR already expanded >80%? If yes, you need confluence or you stand down.
- Is spread ≤ 10% of stop size? If not, skip; your edge is getting taxed.
- Do you know exactly where you’re wrong (invalid level) before you click? If not, no trade.
Chart Markups: What Goes On The Screen (And What Doesn’t)
Clutter kills execution. These visuals are all AJ needs to read intent and act without hesitation.
- Plot: previous day high/low, Asian high/low, session opens (London/NY), and ADR.
- Draw: only the imbalance that formed on the raid candle and the level that invalidates your idea.
- Hide: oscillators unless they quantify session volatility; no multi-indicator stacks.
- Timeframes: mark context on H1/H4; execute on M1–M5; don’t mix beyond these for day trades.
- Color code: external liquidity in one color, internal swings in another—nothing else.
Psychology & Routine: Small Windows, High Focus
AJ optimizes for a calm, brief workday—because a stable mind reads tape better. Here’s how to build that rhythm so you stop forcing trades and start waiting for them.
- Trade a max 90-minute window; set a literal timer and close the platform when it ends.
- Pre-session: 5–10 minutes of breathwork or a short walk; no social feeds.
- Mid-session rule: if you speak your bias out loud, you’re likely anchoring—restate the invalidation instead.
- Post-session: tag outcomes as “followed plan” or “deviated,” not win/loss; size adjusts only on plan-following.
- Sleep, hydration, and one non-market hobby are mandatory—edge degrades when your life does.
News & Volatility: When To Stand Down (Or Step On It)
Not all catalysts are equal. Use these rules to avoid getting steamrolled—or to capitalize when the tape is orderly.
- 5 minutes before/after tier-1 releases (CPI, NFP, FOMC), do not enter fresh trades.
- If a release creates a one-sided displacement that sweeps both sides, look for the first clean imbalance retest.
- If spreads widen beyond your fixed stop rules, step aside until they normalize.
- On news days, target 1:1 and be done; let someone else catch the fairy-tale runner.
- If VIX/DXY shock aligns against your pair’s typical behavior, size down by 50% or pass.
Play-To-Practice: How To Log And Level Up
Edge compounds with iteration. These logging rules convert screen time into systematic improvement without needing fancy software.
- For every trade, capture: session, pair, liquidity pool raided, entry trigger, stop size, RR taken, emotion (1–5).
- Weekly audit: screenshot five trades—three winners, two losers—and write a one-line lesson for each.
- Track only three metrics for 30 days: win rate, average RR, plan-adherence rate; optimize the third first.
- If plan-adherence <80%, do not tweak the strategy—tweak your routine and risk instead.
- Graduate sizing only after two consecutive months with positive expectancy and >80% adherence.
Size Risk First: Fixed R Per Trade, Never Average Losers
AJ keeps it simple: every trade risks the same small slice of equity, and that number doesn’t move just because a setup “feels good.” He calls it fixed R—risking a consistent percentage so results are comparable and drawdowns don’t snowball. AJ sets a hard daily risk cap and walks away when it’s hit, protecting both capital and mindset. The point, AJ says, is to let skill show over a large sample, not to let one oversized bet define your month.
Before entry, AJ defines invalidation and calculates size to fit the stop—never the other way around. If volatility expands and the stop must widen, he reduces position so the risk stays constant. AJ refuses to average into losers; if a trade is wrong, it’s closed and re-framed from scratch. Scaling is allowed only on fresh signals with separate, pre-planned risk—never to “fix” a mistake.
Let Volatility Lead: Adjust Position And Targets To ATR
AJ anchors his sizing and targets to volatility so the same setup doesn’t turn into a different trade on a wild day. He reads ATR and ADR first, then sets stop distance to fit the tape and back-calculates position to keep risk constant. When range expands, AJ widens stops and cuts size; when range compresses, he tightens stops and allows normal size. The goal, AJ explains, is to let the market’s tempo dictate expectations instead of forcing a fixed playbook onto shifting conditions.
Targets flex too: AJ aims for a base 1:1 when volatility is messy, stretching to 1:1.5–1:2 only if momentum is clean. If ADR is 80–100% filled before his session, he either halves size or skips the idea altogether. On sudden spikes, AJ waits for post-sweep structure to settle rather than guessing mid-whip. Volatility is the steering wheel in AJ’s process—he follows it, he doesn’t fight it.
Diversify Smart: Mix Underlyings, Strategy Types, And Holding Durations
AJ spreads his edge across a small basket instead of forcing every idea through one pair. He rotates between majors and gold based on session behavior and correlation, keeping any single product capped so one theme can’t wreck the week. AJ also splits execution styles—trend-continuation, fade-the-sweep, and breakout-retests—so if one mode cools off, another can carry the load. He treats time itself as a diversifier, running quick scalp windows alongside intraday swings when structure allows.
To keep it controlled, AJ assigns risk buckets per underlying and per strategy, then staggers entries so overlapping exposures don’t stack. If correlations spike or multiple positions begin responding to the same catalyst, he compresses size or flattens the laggard. AJ constantly asks whether the next trade truly adds independent edge or just doubles down on the same idea in disguise. Diversification isn’t about trading everything; for AJ, it’s about trading a few things in genuinely different ways.
Trade The Rules, Not Predictions: Mechanics Over Macro Opinions
AJ doesn’t try to guess tomorrow’s headline or call the weekly top—he just executes the same checklist every session. He defines the setup, identifies liquidity, sets the stop, and presses the button if conditions match—no think pieces, no narratives. If a rule is met, he takes it; if a rule is broken, he cancels it. AJ says the market pays for repeatable mechanics, not for being the smartest person in the room.
When emotions flare, AJ falls back on structure: fixed R, pre-planned invalidation, and time-of-day filters. He’ll miss trades that don’t align with the plan, and he’s fine with that because discipline compounds. If he catches himself “explaining” the market, he resets by restating the rule that governs the next decision. For AJ, predictions are entertainment—mechanics are the business.
Define Risk, Define Exit: Pre-Plan Invalidations, Take Profits Systematically
AJ starts every idea by circling the exact price that proves him wrong and builds the trade backward from that point. He decides the stop first, sets size to keep R fixed, and only then looks for the cleanest entry that expresses the thesis. AJ’s partials are not vibes—they’re mapped to structure: first scale at 1:1 or the nearest opposing liquidity, then let the rest work if momentum confirms. If price stalls after filling his imbalance and won’t push, AJ scratches early instead of “hoping” the plan revives.
Exits are just as rule-based as entries for AJ. He moves to break-even only after the market closes past his impulse leg or banks the first partial—never earlier. If the tape flips and prints a clear counter-structure, AJ closes without debate and logs the reason in plain language. For AJ, protecting downside and rehearsing exits is what keeps him consistent; profits are simply the byproduct of executing those decisions the same way every time.
AJ’s overarching message is simple: consistency beats cleverness. He frames every session around where liquidity is likely to be swept, times entries to London and early New York, and risks a fixed R so outcomes are comparable and drawdowns capped. Stops come first, size is back-calculated, and volatility (ATR/ADR) decides whether to widen the stop or pass entirely. He won’t average into losers, won’t chase spikes, and won’t trade once the daily risk cap is hit. The goal isn’t to predict; it’s to execute the same mechanics—identify the raid, enter on the reclaim, take the base 1:1, and only stretch if momentum confirms.
From there, AJ diversifies with intention rather than volume: a tight roster of instruments (EURUSD, GBPUSD, XAUUSD), a few setup archetypes (sweep-to-reclaim, continuation, clean retest), and staggered holding durations so no single theme can sink the week. He keeps charts uncluttered—yesterday’s high/low, Asian range, session opens, imbalances—and uses a fast pre-trade checklist to filter B-setups when ADR is spent or spreads are bloated. News gets respect: stand down around tier-1 releases, then look for the first clean displacement and retest. Above all, AJ treats discipline as the edge itself—fixed risk, predefined invalidation, and systematic exits—so profits become the byproduct of repeating a good decision, not the reward for a lucky call.
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