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Today’s interview features Mandi Pour Rafsendjani, a trading performance coach and long-time trader who’s spent years helping traders upgrade their mindset and execution. From Melbourne, she explains why she calls herself a coach (not a psychologist), how she’s coached since 2006, and why behavior—not just market knowledge—decides your results. The conversation digs into the real obstacles traders face: handling losses, emotional capital, and the life context that bleeds into every decision at the screen.
In this piece, you’ll learn Mandi’s practical playbook: building a morning prep that actually starts the night (and life) before, using a “Wheel of Life” to keep your health, relationships, and finances from sabotaging trades, and reframing structure and checklists as the true path to freedom. We’ll cover her rules for cutting losses, tracking stats (e.g., the simple “would I be profitable if I honored my 2% stop?” test), using mindfulness to catch greed and overconfidence early, and assembling a support team so you don’t fight markets—or yourself—alone.
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani Playbook & Strategy: How She Actually Trades
Operating Principles: What Drives Every Decision
This is the backbone of Mandi’s approach: keep the playbook tight, risk pre-defined, and behavior non-negotiable. Read this first so every later rule lands on solid ground.
- Run only two core setups for 30 trading days: one primary, one backup; ignore everything else.
- Fix risk per trade at 0.25R–1.0R; never increase risk to “win it back.”
- Session loss limit = 2R; hit it and stop for the day without opening charts again.
- Weekly drawdown breaker = 6R; if triggered, halve size for the next 5 sessions.
- Track both financial capital and emotional capital; if either is depleted, reduce exposure.
Daily Prep: Start Strong Before the Open
Mandi begins the “trade” before the market does by preparing body, mind, and plan. The goal is a calm state and a single clear intention for the session.
- Sleep ≥7 hours; if <6 hours, either skip the first two hours or trade half-size.
- Two-minute breathing scan: if heart rate or agitation is high, delay entries by 30 minutes.
- Write one-line bias: “trend up into resistance,” “inside day and coiled,” etc.
- Pre-mark levels: prior day H/L, session open, VWAP, and the single invalidation line per setup.
- Define a “no-trade” condition (e.g., choppy premarket, news storm) to avoid forcing trades.
Risk & Position Sizing: Put a Ceiling on Damage
This section translates intent into hard numbers so the worst day is survivable and recoverable. Mandi’s rules throttle leverage the same way every time.
- Position size = (account * risk%) / stop distance; round down to nearest lot/share.
- Risk% defaults: A-grade setup = 1.0R, B-grade = 0.5R, C-grade = no trade.
- Never widen stops after entry; only move to breakeven or tighter with a defined trigger.
- If three consecutive losses occur, cut size by 50% for the next two trades.
- Max concurrent risk = 1.5R across all open positions.
Setup Quality: Only A and B—Never “Meh”
She removes wiggle room by codifying what “good” looks like. These rules keep you from rationalizing mediocre trades.
- A-grade trend-pullback requires: higher-timeframe alignment, pullback to pre-tagged level, momentum re-engagement; if any leg is missing, it’s not A-grade.
- B-grade mean-reversion requires: range context, exhaustion signal, clear target at mid-range; fail any element, and pass.
- News filter: 15 minutes before/after tier-1 releases = no initial entries.
- First hour rule: if your setup statistically underperforms at the open, trade half-size or wait.
- If price gaps beyond the planned entry zone, cancel the setup; no chasing.
Entry Triggers: Flip the Switch, Don’t Nudge It
Entries should feel binary: on or off. Mandi prefers simple, observable triggers to avoid hesitation and FOMO.
- Enter only at your pre-planned price zone; use limit orders, not market, unless volatility spikes.
- Require one confirmation: break/reclaim of a micro-level or clear shift in tape/pace.
- If spread > 20% of stop distance, skip the trade to avoid slippage skew.
- For trend setups, avoid counter-trend entries within the first 15 minutes of your session.
- Missed entry? Do not “recreate” the setup mid-move; log it and move on.
Trade Management: Let Winners Breathe, Cage the Losers
Here’s how Mandi structures exits so trades are decided by rules, not emotion. Good management multiplies the edge you already have.
- Initial stop goes at technical invalidation, never arbitrary round numbers.
- Partial at +1R (30–50% off), trail the remainder behind the structure or a session VWAP rule.
- Move stop to breakeven only after a clear HH/LL or target-1 tag—whichever is in your stats.
- If momentum stalls for two consecutive candles at target-1, cut 25% extra.
- Never add to a loser; add to winners only on planned “pullback add” with net risk ≤ original R.
Session Structure: Boundaries That Build Consistency
Time windows and activity caps prevent overtrading. Mandi’s structure ensures high energy when it counts and recovery when it doesn’t.
- Define two trading windows (e.g., first 90 minutes and last hour); no live trading in between.
- Max 5 tickets per session (entries + exits); if hit early, stop and review.
- If you start red (-1R) in the first 30 minutes, pause for 15 minutes before any new trade.
- If you finish green ≥ +2R before mid-session, consider closing the platform and banking the day.
- No new trades in the final 10 minutes unless managing existing positions.
Emotional Capital: Stay Clear, Then Trade
Mandi treats mood and energy like position size. These rules protect the decision-maker behind the keyboard.
- Pre-trade “state score” 1–5; if ≤3, trade half-size or switch to sim.
- Identify your top two triggers (e.g., revenge after slippage); write the counter-routine and use it.
- If anger, fear, or euphoria persists for 10 minutes, step away for a reset walk or breathing set.
- Ban multitasking: no social media, notifications, or chat during active trades.
- Use a one-line mantra at entry: “Follow plan, manage risk, let it play.”
Journal & Metrics: Turn Days Into Data
The review is where Mandi cements improvement. Keep it lightweight but precise so you can iterate weekly.
- Record only five fields per trade: setup grade, R result, adherence score, entry/exit reason, and screenshot.
- Daily “Would I be green if I honored my stop?” audit; count rule breaks, not P&L.
- Tag common errors (late entry, chasing, moving stop); fix one tag per week.
- Weekly scoreboard: win rate, average R, expectancy, and rule-adherence ≥80%.
- Build a 10-shot drill on the sim for any single recurring mistake until it disappears.
Recovery Protocols: When the Wheels Wobble
Drawdowns and bad days happen. Mandi’s protocols slow things down so you can rebuild confidence and stats the right way.
- After a 4R down day: two days at 0.5R max risk and only A-grade setups.
- After a rule break, the next session starts with one sim trade to re-anchor execution.
- After two breaker weeks in a quarter, take a full week off live trading and rebuild the playbook.
- If life stress > 7/10 (health, relationships, money), drop to maintenance mode (one micro-trade/day max or none).
Environment & Team: Don’t Trade Alone Against Yourself
Your context matters as much as charts. Mandi uses environmental design and support to keep behavior consistent.
- Clean desk, single screen for execution, second screen for plan/journal only.
- Pre-trade checklist posted physically; mark each item before the first order.
- Accountability partner call 1–2x/week to review adherence and one improvement focus.
- Keep a “kill switch” note on your desk: the exact condition that shuts the platform.
Growth Loops: Get Better on Purpose
Finally, make improvement systematic. These rules ensure you level up without bloating your playbook.
- One setup improvement goal per month (e.g., earlier partials, better adds).
- One market read improvement per quarter (e.g., auction context, volatility regimes).
- Replace any rule you can’t follow with a simpler one that you will follow.
- Promote a B-grade to an A-grade only after 50 logged trades with positive expectancy.
Size risk first, then trade: fixed R, hard daily loss limits
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani starts by fixing the loss before she ever thinks about the win, and that’s not just a slogan—it’s her operating system. She defines a constant R per trade and builds everything around it so the worst case is known, small, and survivable. With a fixed R, she can compare setups apples-to-apples and stop the emotional creep that leads to “just a little bigger this time.” The result is fewer impulse decisions and a smoother equity curve that doesn’t hinge on any single hero trade.
Mandi also caps the day, not just the trade, using a hard daily loss limit that triggers a full stop on execution. That ceiling protects emotional capital by preventing tilt, revenge entries, and sloppy sizing after a hit. When the limit is reached, she closes the platform and reviews, because clarity returns faster than capital when you stop bleeding. By sizing first and locking the door on bad days, Mandi ensures every session is a controlled experiment instead of a coin flip.
Let volatility set position size, not your hopes or fears.
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani treats volatility like a thermostat for risk, not a background weather report. When the market is hot and ranges expand, she dials position size down so the same stop distance still equals a constant R. When it’s cold and ranges contract, she can step size up without changing the dollar risk. That way, the chart dictates exposure, and her emotions don’t sneak into the calculator.
Mandi keeps it simple in practice: measure recent range, set a technical stop beyond invalidation, then back into size so the distance equals her fixed R. If range doubles, size halves; if range halves, size can grow—always within a pre-set cap. She avoids averaging rules or “gut feel” adds and lets the volatility toggle do the work. By letting volatility lead, Mandi preserves consistency across regimes and stays in the game when everyone else is blowing up on the same move.
Diversify by underlying, strategy, and timeframes to smooth equity swings.
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani spreads risk across instruments, setups, and holding periods so no single theme can sink the day. She avoids stacking highly correlated trades—if she’s long an index future, she won’t also load up on beta-heavy stocks that move the same way. Different strategies get different jobs: trend-pullback for the meat of moves, mean-reversion for chop, and a breakout filter when volatility compresses. By mixing edges with low overlap, her equity curve draws down less and recovers faster.
She diversifies by duration too, pairing intraday scalps with swing holds so P&L isn’t tied to one timeframe’s weather. Heat is capped per theme and per symbol, which keeps “looks different, risk is the same” traps from sneaking in. Entries are staggered instead of clustered, and exits target separate structures so winners can pay while others set up. Mandi’s rule is simple: treat diversification as risk control first and return enhancer second—because survival compounds everything.
Mechanics beat prediction: checklist entries, predefined exits, no improvisation.
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani builds her edge on execution, not on calling tops and bottoms. She runs a pre-trade checklist that either lights up green or it doesn’t—no negotiating with the rules. If the setup doesn’t meet the checklist threshold, she passes without doomscrolling for confirmation elsewhere. The goal is binary decisions that reduce hesitation, chase, and the endless what-ifs.
Once in a trade, Mandi lets predefined exits do the talking so she isn’t inventing logic mid-move. Stops sit at technical invalidation, targets are staged ahead of time, and only specific triggers allow a move to breakeven or a trail. If conditions degrade, she scales out by rule; if momentum persists, she holds by rule—never by hope. No adding to losers, no “one more try,” and no changing timeframes to justify staying in. By keeping mechanics sacrosanct, Mandi turns a messy market into a series of simple yes/no actions that compound into consistency.
Choose defined risk first; control undefined risk with structure and stat.s
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani starts with trades where the maximum loss is known from the outset—defined risk beats cleverness. Options with fixed debit, tight stop placements beyond invalidation, and pre-sized futures positions keep the downside capped and measurable. If the trade can gap past the stop or slip wildly, she shrinks the size or switches to a structure that hard-limits loss. The point is simple: if you can’t price the pain, you can’t play the game.
When she does engage potential undefined risk—overnights, news bursts, or instruments with jump risk—Mandi brings structure and stats. She cuts exposure ahead of events with known fat tails, uses time-in-market limits, and staggers exits so one spike can’t take it all. Historical volatility bands set distance; expectancy data sets targets and partials; adherence logs catch any drift from plan. No martingale, no adding to red, and no moving stops wider to “let it breathe.” By privileging defined risk and taming the rest with rules and numbers, Mandi stays solvent long enough for the edge to compound.
At the core, Mandi Pour Rafsendjani drives home one big idea: your behavior is the edge you can control every single day. She builds trades on a fixed-R foundation, sizes by current volatility, and sets hard session limits so bad days stop early and good days aren’t given back. Her process is simple on purpose—pre-mark levels, run a checklist, and place the order only if the plan lights up green. No improvisation, no chasing, and no adding to losers. She treats emotional capital like cash in the account, using routines, breathwork, and clear “no-trade” conditions to keep the decision-maker steady before a single click.
From there, Mandi widens the lens: diversify by underlying, strategy, and duration so no single theme can wreck the P&L; prefer defined risk first, and bring structure and stats when you must face undefined risk. She journals lean—five fields per trade—then fixes one error tag per week to ensure progress compounds. Recovery protocols are pre-written for drawdowns, and environment design (clean desk, posted checklist, accountability partner) turns good intentions into consistent execution. Taken together, her lessons form a durable operating system: prepare well, trade small and clear, manage by rules, and let time do the heavy lifting.
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