Table of Contents
In this interview, trader-mentor Mark Hutchinson sits down to unpack 15 years in the markets, fresh off a Dubai mastermind. Mark’s a UK-born veteran known for turning messy charts into clean, rules-driven decisions and calling out the industry’s shift from professional process to prop-firm gamification. If you’re new to trading or trying to steady the ship after a few blown challenges, his no-nonsense take on risk, routine, and realistic expectations is exactly the voice you want in your head.
You’ll learn why “follow the money” isn’t a cliché—it’s a workflow: start with higher-timeframe narrative, focus on sharp impulse zones, then execute mechanically while managing profits with a touch of discretion. Mark also breaks down a beginner-friendly risk model (keep risk steady, scale only from profit, and use a recovery plan), the trap of chasing leaderboards, and how the first 15 minutes of your morning can make or break your session discipline. Expect clear takeaways you can test today without fancy jargon or pipe-dream targets.
Mark Hutchinson Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Market Framework: “Follow the Money”
Here’s the big picture before any entry gets placed: build a clean, top-down narrative and track where liquidity is actually flowing. This section shows you how Mark frames markets without clutter—so your plan is simple, visual, and repeatable.
- Start on the higher timeframes (weekly → daily → 4H) to define trend, impulse, and correction; trade in line with the dominant leg.
- Keep charts clean—no indicators; rely on price action and structure only.
- Mark key areas: prior impulse origin, corrective channels/flags, and liquidity pools where stop runs are likely.
- Treat countertrend trades as lower-probability and size them smaller or skip entirely.
- If the narrative is unclear on HTF, do nothing until structure resolves.
Setup & Execution: Falcon Style Done Simply
Once the narrative is set, execution is mechanical: wait for simple continuation structures and take the trade. Below are the practical rules Mark uses to keep execution tight and repeatable.
- Primary patterns: continuation flags, ascending/descending channels breaking with momentum, and corrective pullbacks back into structure.
- Entry: place stops beyond the structure boundary (not arbitrary pip counts); avoid ultra-tight stops that don’t fit volatility.
- Only take A-setups that align with the HTF leg; pass on “maybe” trades—there’s always another clean flag.
- Set an alert at structure edges; no chart babysitting until your levels are hit.
- One market state, one play: don’t mix breakout and mean-reversion logic on the same chart.
Risk & Capital Partitioning: Professional First, Profits Second
Risk is standardized and scaled from performance, not emotion. These rules help you survive losing streaks and press your edge when it’s proven, not guessed.
- Fixed risk per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5%); only raise size after a defined profit milestone and equity curve stability.
- Cap daily loss (e.g., 1–1.5%) and weekly loss (e.g., 3–4%); hit a cap → stop trading and review playbook.
- Keep capital buckets separate: trading float, taxes, and long-term investments; never “borrow” from future you.
- One open risk unit per correlated theme; if you’re long USD across pairs, treat them as one basket for risk.
Trade Management: Let Winners Breathe, Pay Yourself Smart
Management is systematic but flexible enough to adapt to phases of trend. Use the rules below to avoid cutting winners early while still protecting equity.
- Move to break-even only after structure confirms (e.g., a clean higher low after the break), not after an arbitrary RR.
- Trail behind swing structure in trends; in choppier phases, partial at 1.5–2R and trail conservatively.
- If momentum stalls at HTF liquidity, pay yourself (scale 25–50%) and re-enter on the next flag continuation.
- Never widen stops after entry; if you’re wrong on structure, exit and re-build the narrative from HTF.
Realistic Expectations: Kill the Gamification
Mark is blunt about the prop-firm culture: real traders optimize consistency, not screenshots. Use these rules to keep your goals grounded and your edge intact.
- Target sustainable returns; consistency beats high-variance “hero” trades.
- Avoid micro-stops that only work on demo screenshots; size your stop to market structure, not ego.
- Evaluate performance monthly across a sample size (≥20 trades) before changing anything in the plan.
- If you hit a prop rule (daily/overall drawdown), stop for the period—treat rules as hard risk limits.
Routine & Psychology: System First, Self Always
Clean charts mean nothing without a clean routine. Here’s how to build daily habits that keep execution stable, even when emotions flare.
- Pre-market: 15–20 minutes to update HTF levels, validate the bias, and write one sentence: “Today I will execute only [setup].”
- During session: alarms at levels; no impulsive “chart surfing.” If no alert triggers, you didn’t miss a trade.
- Post-market: journal the three things—context (HTF), catalyst (pattern/trigger), conduct (did you follow rules?). Adjust only after sample size, not after a single loss.
Discretion vs. “100% Mechanical”: The Middle That Works
Mark rejects the fantasy that purely mechanical rules remove psychology. Use structured discretion—rules with room for context—so your edge survives real markets.
- Define the few decisions you’re allowed to make (e.g., pass on an A-setup if HTF hits major liquidity within 1R).
- Everything else is locked: risk per trade, entry trigger, initial stop placement, and management tiers.
- If you can’t write a rule for it, you can’t trade it—convert gut feelings into checklist items or delete them.
Funding & Scaling: Earn It, Then Expand
Funding is a tool, not the goal. These steps keep scaling tied to competence so you don’t outgrow your process.
- Prove profitability on your own float first; then add external funding in stages.
- As notional size grows, widen stops to fit real volatility; reduce position size to keep risk constant in % terms.
- Maintain a “no-scale” rule after any rule break or -3R day; re-qualify with a mini-challenge (e.g., 10 trades, 60% plan adherence).
Wealth Pipeline: Trading Is the Engine, Not the Destination
The end game isn’t more charts—it’s freedom. Use trading profits to build cash-flowing assets so markets become optional, not mandatory.
- Allocate a fixed cut of monthly profits (e.g., 20–30%) to long-term, income-producing assets.
- Prioritize vehicles with contractual cash flow and limited management drag; keep this capital ring-fenced from trading.
- Review the pipeline quarterly: what % of your lifestyle is covered by passive income? Increase that ratio over time.
Who He Is & Why This Works
Mark has been trading since the late 2000s, founding Falcon FX in 2017 to teach a clean, price-action, structure-based approach with a strong emphasis on psychology and community. The playbook above reflects that philosophy: minimal indicators, clear structure, disciplined risk, and a practical path from skill to scalable capital.
Size Risk First: Fixed Percent, Scale Only From Profits
Mark Hutchinson hammers one idea before anything else: lock your risk per trade as a fixed percentage and protect the account like it’s your business. He treats position size as a direct output of stop distance—not a guess—so every setup carries the same percentage risk even when volatility changes. That simple constraint kills the urge to revenge trade or “make it back” by swinging bigger when you’re emotional.
Scaling comes later, and only from realized gains. Mark raises size in small, pre-planned steps after a profit milestone and a stable equity curve, never mid-drawdown or after two wins. If the week hits a loss cap, he cuts the platform for the day and resets; no “one more” trade. The message is simple: consistency compounds, ego explodes—so let the math, not mood, decide how big you go.
Trade What You See: Mechanics Over Prediction Every Session
Mark Hutchinson refuses to play fortune-teller; he shows up with a checklist, not a crystal ball. His routine starts on higher timeframes to define the dominant leg, then he hunts for clean continuation structures that either trigger or don’t. If the market won’t give the pattern, he won’t force a narrative—no bias battles, no “it should turn here” monologues. Mark’s mantra is simple: if the structure isn’t there, the trade doesn’t exist.
Execution is equally unemotional: alerts at levels, predefined entry and stop, and a management plan that lives on paper before the candle prints. Mark treats every setup like a lab experiment—same criteria, same measurements, same pass/fail. That discipline starves FOMO and keeps him from mixing strategies mid-trade. The edge isn’t prediction; it’s repeating a mechanical process until the sample size does the heavy lifting.
Let Volatility Decide: Stop Distance First, Position Size Second
Mark Hutchinson keeps it brutally simple: the market’s volatility sets your stop, and your stop sets your size. He starts with structure—swing high/low, clear pattern boundary—then checks recent range to avoid placing a stop where normal noise will knock him out. If the stop needs to be wider because the market’s moving fast, position size gets smaller to keep the same fixed percent risk. No “tight stop heroics,” no wedging a setup into a one-size-fits-all pip count.
Mark treats volatility as a regime switch that dictates behavior, not just mood. In quiet conditions, he’ll accept tighter structure stops and standard size; in stormy phases, he widens the stop, cuts size, and lets the trade breathe. The result is consistent dollar risk across wildly different markets and days, which keeps the equity curve smoother. If a setup can’t justify a stop that fits both structure and volatility, Mark skips it—because forcing size is just another way of gambling.
Diversify Smartly: Underlying, Strategy, and Holding Duration Buckets
Mark Hutchinson doesn’t spread trades randomly—he diversifies with intention across three buckets: what you trade, how you trade, and how long you hold it. First, he avoids stacking correlated exposure; if he’s long USD via multiple pairs, he treats them as one theme and caps total risk. Second, he runs distinct play types (e.g., continuation flags vs. reversal traps) so one market phase can’t sink the whole week. Third, he mixes holding periods—intraday plays for flow, swing positions for the bigger leg—so results don’t hinge on a single timeframe.
Mark’s rule is simple: no more than one open risk unit per theme, one active setup type per chart, and clear time-horizon labels on every trade. If the day turns choppy, he leans on the swing bucket to avoid overtrading noise; if trends rip, he lets the intraday bucket compound while the swing rides. He audits correlation weekly and trims any bucket that’s dominating results, keeping the portfolio balanced and durable. That structure lets him press when conditions align—without blowing up when one idea, one strategy, or one timeframe goes cold.
Define Risk Relentlessly: Pre-Set Exits, No Widening, Journal Review
Mark Hutchinson builds the trade backwards from the exit: he defines the invalidation point first, then designs the position around it. Before he clicks buy or sell, the stop is fixed at the level that proves the idea wrong—no exceptions, no “just a few more pips.” If price tags that line, he’s out and done; new information means a new trade, not a rescue mission. This removes the most expensive habit in retail trading: turning a planned loss into an unplanned disaster.
Management is equally strict. Mark won’t widen stops, add to losers, or “average down to feel better.” He journals each trade with three checks—context, trigger, conduct—to see whether he followed the plan or freelanced. Wins that break rules are flagged as red, because bad process with good outcomes is still a leak. Over time, that simple loop—pre-set exit, no widening, honest journal—keeps risk small, lessons large, and the edge alive.
In the end, Mark Hutchinson’s message is disarmingly simple: protect the account, trade the structure, and let the stats—not your mood—do the talking. He builds every decision around defined risk first, fixing a small, repeatable percent per trade and refusing to widen stops or “rescue” ideas. His edge isn’t prediction; it’s mechanical execution of clean price action—higher-timeframe narrative, liquidity zones, impulse versus correction—and only taking the patterns that actually print. When conditions are fast, he widens the stop and cuts position size; when price is quieter, he tightens up—but the dollar risk stays constant. He journals context, trigger, and conduct so wins that break rules don’t get celebrated and losses that follow plan become tuition, not trauma.
Mark is ruthless about correlation and overexposure: one theme equals one risk unit, and he splits his book by what he trades, how he trades it, and how long he intends to hold. Scaling is earned, never assumed—size only ratchets up from realized profits after a stable equity curve, and it ratchets down the minute discipline slips. He treats prop rules like hard risk limits and ignores the leaderboard circus, choosing consistency over theatrics. The takeaway is a professional loop any trader can copy: write the plan, size by the stop, execute the pattern, manage by structure, and audit the behavior. Do that long enough and the compounding takes care of itself.
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