Table of Contents
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani sits down with Etienne on YouTube to unpack the psychology behind consistent trading, drawing on her work as a performance coach and active index trader (DAX and US session opens). She’s been involved with live-trading projects like “The Trading Battle,” and she obsessively tracks how elite performers think, size risk, and adapt when markets get choppy. In this interview, Mandi explains why many traders can name their emotions but can’t pinpoint the technical skill gaps causing losses—and how closing that gap unlocks repeatable execution.
You’ll learn how Mandi separates mindset from skillset (e.g., “I know my exit vs. I don’t have one”), adjusts risk for volatility and liquidity spikes, and uses discipline training (her version of hard things—ice baths, stairs) to make following the plan the default. She dives into self-image rewiring, scarcity traps around time (“forcing trades before school pickup”), flexible bias shifts (failed long = short), and practical exit design so profits don’t evaporate. If you’re a beginner or a seasoned entrepreneur stepping into markets, this piece shows exactly what to train, how to think, and how to execute when conditions change.
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani Playbook & Strategy: How She Actually Trades
Regime First, Risk Second
Markets change character, so Mandi starts by reading regime and then scaling risk to fit reality—not the other way around. If candles are choppy and directionless, she tightens up fast instead of blaming “mindset.” This section shows how she translates market behavior into immediate risk changes.
- Define today’s regime in 60 seconds: “impulsive-trending” vs. “chop/mean-revert.” Adjust size before your first order.
- If you see alternating 1-minute green/red bars with no orderly impulses, cut unit risk by 50% and widen confirmation criteria.
- When a setup that worked last year stops working this year, retire it for the session; do not “mindset” your way through a broken edge.
Liquidity Windows and Algo Kicks
Mandi pays attention to time-of-day liquidity because it changes how stops behave. Algos often kick in near the close and can blow through static stops if you treat them like normal flow. Use these rules to survive the spikes.
- Flag 3:50–3:55 pm ET as “no tight stops” zone; either flatten or use half size + wider stop outside the prior 2-bar range.
- Futures traders (ES = ~$25/point) must pre-plan worst-case slippage on spikes; if your plan fails after slippage, size is too big.
- If you cannot trade micro size on your instrument, skip the spike windows entirely; edge ≠ exposure.
Flip Fast When the Long Fails
According to Mandi, a failed bullish pattern is itself a bearish trade. She trains flexibility so “paralysis” doesn’t follow a stopped-out idea. Here’s how to operationalize that nimbleness.
- Write the inversion: “If long fails at X, I short the retest of X with half risk.” Execute it mechanically once per idea.
- Nosecond-guessing: take one inversion attempt only; if it fails, stand down for 15 minutes.
- Add a “bias-flip” hotkey/template so you don’t freeze after a stop.
Instrument Focus: DAX and US Opens
Mandi keeps a narrow instrument set—primarily the DAX and, when time permits, the US index open. Less variety, more depth. Use these constraints to sharpen execution.
- Pick 1–2 indices; learn their open behavior and volatility clusters before expanding.
- Pre-label two playbooks per instrument: “opening drive continuation” and “failed drive fade.”
- If your last 20 trades include more than 25% from outside your primary instrument, cut new symbols until your win-rate recovers.
Discipline Training That Actually Transfers
Mandi practices discipline outside charts (ice baths, stairs) because hard reps make plan-following easier under stress. You don’t need her exact routines—pick challenges you’ll actually do. Then bring that discipline into entries, exits, and risk.
- Choose one “daily hard” you enjoy (cold exposure, stairs, focused breathwork) and log it beside P&L. Correlate completion with plan adherence.
- If you’re already naturally disciplined, skip rituals and prove it with a 30-trade no-deviation streak; otherwise, keep the ritual.
- Link discipline to inspiration: choose routines you want to do, not ones you’ll abandon.
Mindset vs. Skillset: Diagnose the Real Problem
Mandi sees traders naming emotions but missing technical skill gaps. Separate “feeling” from “flaw,” fix the flaw, and emotions quiet down. Here’s a quick diagnostic loop to do that daily.
- After each loss, write one sentence: “The technical error was ____ (late entry, stop too tight, no exit defined).” No psychology words allowed.
- Build a 3-column tracker: trigger → entry rule followed? → exit rule followed? Improve the worst column first.
- If fear/FOMO appears without a technical flaw, reduce the size next trade by 50% and keep trading; if a flaw appears, fix the rules before resuming.
Avoid “Time Scarcity” Trades
One trap Mandi highlights is forcing trades when personal schedules compress your window (school pickup, meetings). If the clock, not the chart, is driving you, you’re prey. Build buffers so you never need to “make it happen now.”
- If you have <60 minutes to trade, restrict to one pre-planned setup; if it doesn’t appear, do not trade.
- Schedule exists before obligations; never carry a new position into a hard deadline.
- Use alerts 10 minutes before your cutoff; if flat at the alert, you’re done.
Exit Design So Profits Don’t Evaporate
Mandi emphasizes that missing the initial entry can make the risk invalid for re-entry; chasing ruins stops logic. She builds exits that respect instrument volatility and whether the “big” move is still valid. Adopt these exit specifics.
- If you miss the A-entry, do not chase; wait for either a measured pullback or stand down—your original stop location defines whether re-entry is legal.
- For trend trades, take the first partial at 1R when volatility is high; trail the remainder behind the last confirmed swing.
- In chop regimes, swap to target-based exits (fixed 0.5–0.8R) and reduce position adds to zero.
De-Habituate “Buy the Dip”
Years of one-way markets taught bad habits. Mandi calls out lingering BTFD conditioning and replaces it with conditional logic that adapts to the current tape. Use these rules to unlearn yesterday’s market.
- Treat prior edges as hypotheses; require fresh confirmation (breadth, structure, impulse continuity) before deploying.
- Build one bearish continuation setup you trust so you aren’t psychologically blocked from shorting.
- If a bullish setup fails, auto-arm your bearish setup; no discretionary limbo.
Statistics as Your Coach
As a performance coach and trader, Mandi uses stats to pinpoint the single highest-leverage fix. Your data shows where the next 1% comes from—look there first, not in generic motivation.
- Weekly: pull hit rate by setup, by time of day, and by regime; only optimize the worst cell next week.
- Track “plan adherence %” separately from win rate; aim for 90%+ adherence before increasing size.
- When a metric improves for two consecutive weeks, scale size +10% on just that setup in that regime.
Start With the Market Regime, Then Size the Risk To Match
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani opens every session by asking, “What kind of market is this—trend or chop?” That single call dictates everything that follows, especially how much risk she’s willing to put on the table. If the tape is impulsive and directional, she permits herself to press winners; if it’s fragmented and mean-reverting, she cuts size and tightens criteria. The point isn’t to predict the day—it’s to recognize the current behavior and make your position size obey it.
She treats regime as a risk dial: in clean trends she scales to full unit risk, while in messy rotations she halves or even quarters exposure. Entries must also adapt; a trending session tolerates breakout triggers, whereas a choppy session demands pullbacks into defined levels. Exits change too—trend days get trail logic behind higher lows or lower highs, while chop days use fixed targets to bank quickly. By anchoring risk to regime first, Mandi keeps execution consistent and spares herself from forcing full-size trades into conditions that don’t deserve them.
Volatility-Based Allocation: Expand In Trends, Shrink In Chop
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani treats volatility as the throttle, not the thrill ride. When range and impulse expand, she allows position size to step up because the market is paying out distance per unit of risk. If the tape compresses and bars start overlapping, she deliberately scales down, even if the setup looks “perfect,” because the payoff distance shrinks while noise grows. Her goal is to keep R-multiples consistent by changing how much she risks, not by hoping the market stretches to fit her plan.
She’ll predefine a “full unit” for trending sessions and a “micro unit” for choppy ones, switching between them as real-time volatility shifts. An ATR or recent average swing can set stop width; position size then backsolves so the dollar risk stays constant even as stops widen. On days like the DAX or US index open, where impulse is clean, she adds on continuation only after the initial risk is paid. When the market turns sloppy, Mandi caps herself to first targets and avoids adds entirely, accepting smaller wins over giving back hard-earned gains.
Mechanics Over Prediction: Rules, Triggers, Exits You Execute Daily
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani builds her edge on repeatable mechanics, not clever forecasts. She decides the setup in advance, defines the trigger, and commits to a prewritten stop and target before price moves. If the trigger doesn’t print exactly, she does nothing—no “close enough” entries. Her checklist is brutally binary: setup present or not, trigger fired or not, rules followed or not.
She treats entries like clockwork and saves creativity for post-trade review. Stops live where the setup is proven wrong, not where the P&L feels comfortable, and targets are sized to at least 1R before any add. If she’s late, she passes; chasing breaks the math and the mindset. Mandi logs plan adherence for every trade and only scales when her execution percentage is stable, because mechanics without discipline are just good intentions.
Diversify By Instrument, Strategy, And Trade Duration—Not Opinions
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani spreads her bets across what actually reduces risk: different instruments, different playbooks, and different holding times. She isn’t collecting hot takes; she’s balancing exposures so one idea’s failure doesn’t sink the day. A DAX opening drive, a US index fade, and an end-of-day continuation target different flows, not the same narrative in disguise. She caps correlation by asking, “Do these trades win and lose together?”—if yes, only one survives.
She also mixes timeframes on purpose. A quick scalp with a fixed target can sit next to a partial-position runner that trails behind structure, so she’s not all-in on timing perfection. If a setup is identical across charts, she treats it as one risk unit, not three separate “opinions.” Mandi reels the whole plan back to math: diversify by edge definition and duration, keep total daily risk intact, and let uncorrelated mechanics—not convictions—do the heavy lifting.
Define Risk Upfront; Avoid Undefined Exposure During Liquidity Spikes
Mandi Pour Rafsendjani starts every trade by fixing the maximum loss in dollars and the exact invalidation level on the chart. If the required stop is wider because volatility is elevated, she cuts position size so the cash risk stays constant rather than forcing a tighter, unrealistic stop. She refuses to average down or add before the initial risk is covered, because that turns a defined bet into an undefined liability. Bracket orders are prepared before entry, so slippage and emotion don’t rewrite the plan mid-trade.
She also treats time as a risk factor, especially around scheduled news, opens, and late-session algos. If she can’t honor the stop due to expected slippage—like into a high-impact release—she simply doesn’t hold; flat is a position. When spreads widen or tape accelerates, she flips to micro size or sidelines entirely, accepting missed opportunity over blown accounts. Mandi’s rule of thumb is simple: if you can’t predefine where you’re wrong and survive a realistic slip, you don’t have a trade—you have exposure.
In the end, Mandi Pour Rafsendjani’s edge is refreshingly simple: make your risk obey the market, not your hopes. She starts with a regime—trend or chop—and lets that single read set size, trigger strictness, and exit logic. Volatility is treated like a throttle: expand when the tape is paying distance, shrink when it’s noisy and overlapping. If a bullish idea fails, she flips bias with a prewritten inversion rather than stewing in frustration. All of it sits on mechanics over prediction—binary checklists, predefined stops at true invalidation, and targets that fit the day’s character.
She also builds durability into the process. Mandi diversifies by instrument, strategy, and duration so one narrative can’t wreck the day, and she refuses to carry undefined exposure through liquidity spikes or hard personal deadlines. Discipline is trained like a muscle—through daily habits and data—not just pep talks. Post-trade, she separates mindset from skillset to fix the real flaw, then uses statistics to scale what’s actually working. Put together, the lesson is clear: if you diagnose the environment first, codify rules that survive volatility, and hold yourself to measurable execution, you can trade smaller, cleaner, and longer—while letting the math, not moods, compound your account.
