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Performance coach and former bank trader Steven Goldstein sits down on the Words of Wisdom podcast to unpack what separates consistent winners from everyone else. With 25+ years on the inside (prop desks, options, FX) and now co-hosting the AlphaMind Podcast, Steven’s rare mix of practitioner and coach gives this interview real teeth—especially for retail traders trying to compete without a team on the desk. Why he matters: he’s helped pros and independents break through plateaus using concrete frameworks, not platitudes.
In this piece, you’ll learn Steven’s core playbook: align your personality with your strategy (think scalper vs. portfolio style), build a setup-driven process you can actually execute, and strip out the “what-ifs” that sabotage entries and exits. We’ll touch on his risk-type profiling, the Process–Performance–Process cycle for staying present, and the “let go” habit elite traders use to reset after both wins and losses. If you’re a newer trader aiming for consistency—or a seasoned one stuck below your ceiling—you’ll walk away with practical, day-one changes to tighten execution, sizing, and discipline.
Steven Goldstein Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
What Makes His Edge Work
Steven treats trading like a performance craft: align who you are with what you do, then execute with repeatable routines. He focuses less on prediction and more on clean execution under uncertainty—your process is the edge that survives market shifts.
- Build your “who-am-I-to-risk?” profile: list 5 strengths/5 vulnerabilities that show up under stress; only run strategies that fit those traits.
- Choose one core style (e.g., swing, position, intraday) and commit for 90 days—no mixing until you’ve logged 30 trades per setup.
- Write a one-page trading philosophy: how you find risk, size it, and exit when wrong. Read it before the session starts.
Setups He Actually Takes
He prefers well-defined patterns that let him pre-plan risk and act without hesitation. The setup matters less than the conditions—trend quality, volatility regime, and a clear “invalidation” line.
- Trade only when at least 2 of 3 align: structure (trend/level), flow (momentum/relative strength), and volatility (ATR expanding/contracting).
- Define an invalidation before entry: “If price closes beyond X or time passes Y bars without progress, I’m wrong.”
- Avoid chop: if ATR(14)/price < 0.75% (or your instrument’s historical median), stand down unless you’re running a mean-reversion playbook.
Timeframes & Context
Steven frames trades top-down to avoid micro-noise dictating macro decisions. Big picture sets the bias; the lower timeframe gives the trigger.
- Weekly → Directional bias; Daily → Setup; 1H/15m → Execution. Do not reverse the order.
- If the higher timeframe is trendless (e.g., 20D and 50D MAs flat), cap position size at 50% of normal.
- Only trade countertrend when higher timeframe momentum (e.g., RSI(14) < 35 in uptrend pullback) aligns with a key level and a hard stop is obvious.
Risk & Position Sizing
His sizing flexes with volatility and conviction, but the maximum damage rule never changes. Survive first; scale when the market pays you.
- Risk per trade: 0.3%–0.7% of equity in normal conditions; 0.15% during event risk or flat higher timeframes.
- Use ATR-anchored stops: stop distance = 1.2–1.6 × ATR of your execution timeframe; position size = risk ÷ stop distance.
- Daily loss limit: 1.5× average risk per trade. Hit it? Flat screens, no “one more” trades.
Entry Triggers He Trusts
He wants a reason to act now that’s consistent across markets. Triggers reduce hesitation and keep entries mechanically clean.
- Break-retest-go: enter on the first pullback that holds the breakout level; invalidation is a close back inside.
- AVWAP reclaim: anchor VWAP to the last material pivot/catalyst day; go with the reclaim/reject on a closing basis.
- Momentum confirmation: after the retest holds, require a higher-low + first candle close above a short MA (e.g., 10EMA) to avoid catching falling knives.
Trade Management & Exits
The best trades behave early; the rest get managed tightly. He sets rules to protect equity when the market refuses to cooperate.
- “Go/no-go” timer: if after N bars (e.g., 8 on 15m) price hasn’t moved 0.5R in your favor, cut to half size or scratch.
- Scale out into 1R/2R/3R targets if trend quality is average; hold full size if trend quality is strong (breadth confirming, ATR expanding).
- Trailing logic: once at +1R, trail behind the last swing low/high or a 20EMA close; never widen a stop.
Mindset: Letting Go Fast
Steven’s hallmark is rapid reset—win or lose, return to process. This keeps emotional carryover from sabotaging the next decision.
- After any exit, take a 120-second reset: stand up, breathe 4-7-8 × 3, note state (calm/tense) in journal, then decide if you’re eligible to trade.
- If you breach any rule (revenge trade, size creep), stop for the day and run a quick incident report: trigger → emotion → behavior → cost → fix.
- Pre-commit to no trade when stress >7/10 (subjective scale) or sleep <6 hours.
Pre-Market Routine
He front-loads decisions so execution is near-automatic during live conditions. Preparation shrinks uncertainty and impulse.
- 30 minutes before open: mark bias, key levels, AVWAP anchors, ATR, and event times; write a one-sentence plan per instrument.
- Define “A/B/C” days: A = full size allowed; B = half size; C = observation only. Decide before price moves.
- Visualize 3 adverse scenarios per setup and pre-write the exit script you’ll follow.
Post-Trade Review
Review is where edge compounds. He scores process over P&L, so improvement continues even in drawdowns.
- Log for each trade: setup tag, risk, stop rationale, trigger, go/no-go timer result, management actions, and rule breaches.
- Score 0–5 on process adherence; only scale size after 20 trades with an average score ≥4.
- Weekly: export stats by setup tag—win rate, expectancy, MAE/MFE, time-to-1R. Cut or refactor any tag with a negative expectancy over 30+ samples.
Building Your Personal Playbook (Steven-Style)
Copying someone else’s system fails unless it fits you. Steven’s method turns your tendencies into rules you can trust.
- Start with one core setup and one market; collect 50 trades before adding another.
- Convert every recurring decision into a checklist item; the setup isn’t “real” until its checklist has ≤10 binary checks.
- Run a 90-day experiment: fixed risk, fixed hours, fixed playbook. At day 90, keep what’s positive-expectancy, delete the rest—no mercy.
Handling News & Events
He treats catalysts as context, not crystal balls. The plan is about reaction, not prediction.
- If a scheduled event is within 30 minutes: either flatten or reduce to 25% size unless already +2R with a trailed stop.
- Post-event AVWAP: wait for the first clean reclaim/reject on a closing basis before initiating.
- If spread/volatility jumps (ATR(1) > 2× ATR(14) on your execution timeframe), halve size and double stop distance to keep risk constant.
Drawdown Protocol
Staying in the game is priority one. He codifies behavior for the inevitable cold streaks.
- At −5R rolling drawdown: switch to “capital preservation mode”—risk per trade halves; trade count caps at 2/day.
- At −10R: pause trading for 48 hours; conduct a deep review of the last 20 trades and rebuild the next week’s plan.
- No new strategies during drawdown—only proven playbook tags with historical positive expectancy.
Size Risk First: Small, Consistent Bets Beat Big Hero Trades
Steven Goldstein hammers one principle before anything else: control the downside, and the upside will take care of itself. He sizes positions so a single loss can’t dent his mental capital, not just the dollar balance. That lets him execute the next trade without fear or hesitation.
Goldstein keeps risk per trade small and steady, turning variance from an enemy into background noise. He’d rather stack a series of clean, 0.5R–1R gains than swing for a home run that can erase a week. By letting the stop dictate size—not conviction—he removes ego from the calculus. The result is durable compounding, where survival isn’t a goal; it’s the operating system.
Let Volatility Decide Position Size, Targets, and Daily Trade Count
Steven Goldstein treats volatility like the speed limit for risk—when the road is wet, you slow down. He scales position size by the instrument’s recent range so that a wider market means smaller size, tighter stops, and fewer trades. In calm conditions, he allows slightly larger sizes and gives the trade more room, but only within a pre-set cap. This keeps risk constant in a world where price movement isn’t.
Goldstein also lets volatility frame targets and the number of attempts per day. If ATR expands, he aims for bigger take-profits and accepts that fewer, higher-quality trades will do the work. If ATR contracts, he narrows targets and stops after a set number of small shots to avoid churn. The rule is simple: volatility tells him how hard to press, how long to hold, and when to stop trading for the session.
Diversify by Underlying, Strategy, and Duration—Not Just Tickers
Steven Goldstein pushes diversification beyond a cosmetic list of symbols. He separates risk across different drivers—rates, commodities, FX, equities—so one macro shock can’t torpedo everything at once. Then he diversifies by strategy (trend-follow, breakout, mean-reversion) to avoid a single playbook failing in a regime shift. Finally, he staggers duration—intraday, swing, and position—so P&L isn’t hostage to one timeframe’s noise. The goal is uncorrelated edges, not a crowded roster of look-alikes.
Goldstein caps exposure per theme and timeframe to keep correlation creep in check. If two trades share the same catalyst or factor, he sizes them as one risk unit, not two. He also uses a rolling “heat” limit: only a fixed number of positions can be open in any one asset class or strategy bucket. When a bucket hits its cap, the next idea must replace a weaker one, not add to pile-on risk. That way, diversification becomes a daily rule set, not a wish.
Trade Mechanics Over Predictions: Rules, Checklists, and Preplanned Exits
Steven Goldstein trades the tape in front of him, not the story in his head. He commits to mechanical triggers—level breaks, AVWAP reclaims, or first pullbacks—so he isn’t negotiating with uncertainty mid-trade. A short checklist forces alignment before entry: structure, momentum, volatility, and a clear invalidation level. If one item fails, the trade doesn’t fire, no matter how persuasive the narrative feels.
Goldstein prewrites exit logic to remove guesswork when emotions spike. He sets the initial stop where the setup is objectively wrong, then maps profit-taking in units of risk (1R/2R/3R) or via a trailing rule like a 20EMA close. A “go/no-go” timer kills slow trades that refuse to move, keeping capital fresh for higher-quality opportunities. By elevating mechanics over predictions, he stays consistent across regimes—and lets probability, not opinions, do the heavy lifting.
Know Your Risk: Defined Wins, Undefined Risks Get Cut Immediately
Steven Goldstein draws a hard line between trades with bounded downside and trades that can spiral. If the stop, thesis, and exit ladder are clear, he’ll take the shot and accept normal variance. If slippage risk explodes around a catalyst or liquidity thins, he treats the position as radioactive—size tiny or pass. Defined risk lets him survive cold streaks and keep emotional capital intact.
Goldstein’s playbook is ruthless once a trade drifts into “undefined” territory. If the instrument gaps through levels, he dumps first and debriefs later—no averaging, no hope tactics. He resets with a smaller size until market conditions stabilize and only re-engages when structure and volatility give him a predictable invalidation. The result is simple math: many small, known losses versus the one career-ending unknown.
In the end, Steven Goldstein’s edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s a relentless commitment to sizing small, respecting volatility, and letting mechanics drive decisions. He treats risk as the first input, not an afterthought, and adapts his size, targets, and trade frequency to the market’s speed. Diversification is real only when it spans different drivers, strategies, and timeframes, with caps that prevent correlation creep. Most importantly, his process is alive: clear invalidation, prewritten exits, and a timer that cuts sluggish trades so capital stays fresh.
Goldstein’s playbook is built to survive and compound. He draws a bright line between defined and undefined risk, exits fast when structure breaks, and resets emotional state before the next decision. Preparation sets the table; review improves the recipe. If you adopt just a handful of his rules—risk first, volatility as gearbox, mechanics over opinions—you’ll find that consistency isn’t a mood or a hot streak. It’s a system you can run day after day, across regimes, with your head clear and your account intact.
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