Table of Contents
In this interview, performance coach Rande Howell breaks down trader behavior from the inside out. Recorded on a trading podcast, Rande explains why your brain—not your chart—decides how you handle risk, losses, and uncertainty. He’s a former therapist turned trading coach who works with hedge-fund pros and retail traders, translating neurobiology into repeatable trading behavior you can actually use.
You’ll learn a practical framework for building a “good loser” mindset, taming overconfidence, and sticking to rules when real money is on the line. Rande shows how to train the emotional brain to engage randomness without spiraling into fight-or-flight, why consistent profitability beats home-run thinking, and how to measure real change through your equity curve—not your feelings. Expect clear guidance on risk limits, patience, and daily habits that keep your edge intact when stress hits.
Rande Howell Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Trade Uncertainty, Not Predictions
Rande’s edge starts with how he relates to uncertainty. The goal is to make risk manageable and routine so decisions stay rule-based when pressure hits. This section lays out his probability-first mindset and the guardrails that keep emotions from hijacking execution.
- Define edge as a repeatable process with positive expectancy over 30+ trades; never a single outcome.
- Commit to risk-first thinking: decide max loss per trade before hunting setups.
- Replace “right/wrong” framing with “followed/didn’t follow plan” to measure performance.
- Track emotional triggers (fear, euphoria, revenge) as “setups” you avoid with rules, same as bad chart patterns.
State Management: Getting Your Brain in the Chair
Before charts, Rande gets the nervous system calm and focused. If your body is in fight-or-flight, you’ll chase, hesitate, and cut winners. Use this pre-trade ritual to enter a stable, disciplined state every session.
- 2 minutes rhythmic breathing: in 4s, hold 2s, out 6s; repeat x20.
- Label the state out loud: “Calm. Patient. Probabilistic,” to prime behavior.
- Visualize the session: one clean A-setup, planned stop hit, planned win; accept both outcomes.
- If heart rate is> 15% above resting, pause trading until it normalizes.
Set up Selection: Only Trade What You Can Explain Simply
Clarity beats novelty. Choose a small set of high-quality setups you can describe in one sentence and test for expectancy. Here’s how Rande filters market noise into tradeable patterns.
- Maintain a 1-page playcard per setup (market, timeframe, structure, trigger, invalidation).
- Require confluence of structure + trigger (e.g., higher-timeframe level + lower-timeframe break/retest).
- Minimum sample proof: 100-paper or 30-live occurrences with positive R expectancy before adding any setup.
- Daily limit: trade max 2 distinct setups; avoid “menu creep”.
Risk Sizing: Keep Losses Small Enough to Stay Curious
Your position size must protect psychological capital. Rande emphasizes sizing that makes losses tolerable so you can follow the plan next trade, not flinch.
- Fixed fractional risk: 0.5%–1.0% of equity per trade; 1.5% only in peak conditions with proof.
- Use ATR or structure-based stops; never tighten after entry except to break even per rule.
- Compute size from stop distance; never move the stop to fit a larger size.
- Cap total open risk at 2% across all positions.
Entry & Execution: Press the Button Like a Professional
Execution is where emotions try to negotiate. This sequence makes entries mechanical and consistent with your edge.
- Pre-entry checklist (all must be true): setup match, location confirmed, stop mapped, size calculated, news checked.
- Enter on the trigger candle close; no “just in case” early entries.
- If price moves > 0.5R without you due to hesitation, skip—don’t chase.
- First management action only at +1R or at a planned structure milestone.
Loss Handling: Become a Good Loser to Become a Winner
Rande teaches that how you lose shapes your entire equity curve. This section shows how to normalize losses so they don’t spiral into tilt.
- When stopped, say out loud: “Loss paid for information,” then log it within 5 minutes.
- No immediate re-entry; enforce a 10-minute or one-bar cool-off.
- Tag the loss: plan-following vs. plan-violation; only the latter triggers corrective drills.
- If 3 plan-following losses in a row, run system check (not self-blame) and continue per rules.
Winner Management: Harvest R, Not Hope
Hope is not a strategy; rules are. Lock in structure-based gains while keeping room for the move to develop.
- At +1R, move stop to entry only if structure justifies; otherwise, trail behind last confirmed swing/ATR.
- Scale out a fixed 50% at +1.5R or at the first major target; let the rest trail to 3R+.
- Never widen stops to avoid giving back profit.
- End-of-day rule: flatten intraday positions unless the playbook explicitly allows swing holds with defined risk.
Journal & Debrief: Build Self-Awareness You Can Trade
Rande’s edge lives in reflection. The goal is to tighten the loop between behavior and outcome until consistency shows in the curve.
- Log every trade with a screenshot, emotions (0–10 scale), rule adherence (Y/N), and lesson.
- Daily debrief: 5 bullets—what I did well, where I drifted, the cue that preceded drift, the correction, tomorrow’s focus.
- Weekly audit: sort trades by setup and by emotional state to find leakage.
- Keep a “Top 3 Corrections” card and review it before opening each day.
Drawdown Protocols: Stop the Slide Early
Drawdowns are inevitable; chaos is optional. This protocol preserves capital and confidence so you can rebound with the process intact.
- At −4R weekly drawdown: cut size by 50% and limit to 1 trade/day until +2R recovery.
- At −8R rolling drawdown: trading halt for 48 hours; review 20 most recent trades with mentor/peer.
- No strategy changes mid-session; adjustments only after a full review block.
- Resume normal size only after two consecutive green days following the halt.
Mindset Drills: Train the Emotional Brain Like a Muscle
You can’t think your way out of adrenaline. You train it. These drills condition calm under pressure and make rule-following automatic.
- 3x/day 90-second breath + body scan; tag sensations without judgment.
- “If-then” scripts: “If I feel urgency, then I step back one bar and re-run the checklist.”
- Micro-exposures: replay stopped-out trades and rehearse calm exits and re-centering.
- Pre-commitment statement written and signed before the session: rules you will follow and the consequences if you don’t.
Environment & Tools: Remove Friction, Reduce Noise
Your workspace shapes behavior. Clean inputs and standardized tools reduce decision fatigue and emotional spikes.
- Two chart layouts only: higher-timeframe structure and execution timeframe; no extra indicators unless they’re on the playcard.
- Disable P&L display during the session; show R-multiples instead.
- Use alerts for levels to avoid screen-glue and impulsive clicks.
- Trade in a distraction-free block: phone on airplane, notifications off, scheduled bio breaks.
Accountability & Metrics: What Gets Measured Improves
Rande favors objective scorekeeping that reflects process, not just P&L. Track these metrics to know whether the operator—you—is improving.
- Daily process score (0–10) covering state prep, checklist use, risk adherence, and journaling.
- Win rate, average win/loss in R, expectancy, and time-in-trade by setup.
- “Rule Drift” counter: number of deviations per week; target ≤1.
- Equity curve review every 20 trades; only then consider any rule tweaks.
Recovery & Resilience: Protect the Asset—You
Sustainable performance needs deliberate recovery. Treat energy like risk capital and protect it with routines that recharge the system.
- Minimum 7 hours sleep; no trading on <5 hours.
- Exercise 20 minutes before the session or a brisk walk to reduce baseline arousal.
- Stop trading at the first signs of cognitive fatigue (slower reading, rising impulsivity); resume only after a break.
- One unplugged day per week; review playbook, but do not trade.
Scaling Up: Grow Size Without Breaking Discipline
As consistency builds, scale methodically. The idea is to increase the size while keeping the same behavior under stress.
- After 60 trades with expectancy > 0.4R and rule drift ≤1/week, increase risk by 25%.
- Only scale one variable at a time (size first, frequency later).
- Revert size after any −6R drawdown; rebuild with the protocol.
- Keep performance bonuses (profits above plan) out of the live account to reduce pressure.
Size risk so losses feel tolerable and discipline stays intact
Rande Howell insists your position size should make a normal stop feel boring, not catastrophic. If the loss makes your chest tighten, the size is already too big. Keep risk a fixed fraction of equity so your brain knows what to expect each trade. Use ATR or structure to place stops first, then back into size—never the other way around.
Rande Howell also recommends capping total open risk so multiple small cuts don’t snowball into panic. Track your “flinch point” and size below it until you can execute calmly for 30 trades in a row. Measure pain in R, not dollars, so your process isn’t hostage to P&L swings. When you can lose gracefully, you can finally follow rules long enough for the edge to show.
Allocate by volatility, not conviction; adjust position size to market rhythm.
Rande Howell argues that conviction is a terrible sizing model because it spikes just when risk is highest. He prefers volatility-based allocation, so every trade risks a similar fraction of your mental capital. Use ATR or recent range to translate market noise into distance-to-stop, then compute size from that distance. When range expands, size contracts; when range compresses and your setup quality holds, size can rise modestly.
Rande Howell also stresses keeping risk per trade constant in R while letting the number of shares or contracts float with volatility. Set a daily volatility cap so you don’t stack large positions during regime shifts, and throttle exposure when correlated names heat up together. Review your last 20 trades to see if your biggest losers coincided with volatility spikes—if yes, your sizing isn’t adaptive enough. The goal is smooth emotional load across trades so execution stays calm regardless of market tempo.
Diversify across underlying, strategy, and duration to smooth your equity curve.e
Rande Howell recommends spreading risk so no single market mood can wreck your week. Mix uncorrelated underlyings—index, sector, commodity, and FX—so winners can offset drawdowns when one sleeve stalls. Pair a breakout approach with a mean-reversion or pullback system to avoid relying on one market regime. Add a swing timeframe alongside your intraday plays so opportunity doesn’t disappear when volatility shifts.
Rande Howell also suggests setting risk budgets per sleeve instead of guessing on the fly. Cap exposure to any single underlying and keep correlated names from secretly doubling your bet. Stagger holding periods and exit rules so trades “mature” at different times, reducing equity curve clumping. Review 20–30 recent trades by sleeve and trim or reweight the laggards before they drain your focus.
Trade mechanical rules over predictions; let probabilities drive every decision.
Rande Howell says prediction is a trap that feeds ego and fear. He pushes traders to script rules that fire the same way under stress as they do in backtests. Define your setup, trigger, stop, and target in plain language so there’s no debate when price prints. If the conditions are met, you execute; if not, you pass without bargaining.
Rande Howell adds that probabilities only pay when the sample size is large and behavior is consistent. Grade each trade as “followed plan” or “didn’t follow plan,” not “win” or “loss.” Accept a streak of plan-following losses as the cost of doing business, not a verdict on your identity. The goal is simple: let a rule-based process accumulate edge while your emotions sit on the bench.
Prefer defined risk structures; pre-plan exits and forbid hope-driven adjustments.
Rande Howell teaches that defined risk makes uncertainty tradable because you know the cost before you click. Place the stop at structural invalidation—then size to it—so you never negotiate mid-trade. Map target zones in advance and decide how you’ll scale or trail if price behaves. When price reaches your stop, exit instantly; the plan—not your feelings—calls the shot.
Rande Howell also warns that hope is just fear wearing a mask. If you’re moving stops wider or canceling targets, you’re no longer trading a strategy—you’re gambling. Use a written “if-then” for adverse moves and profit taking, so decisions are automatic. Review any deviation as a process error, not a creative adjustment, and retrain until your exits are as mechanical as your entries.
Rande Howell’s message lands with unusual clarity: trading is not a battle to predict the future, it’s a daily practice of training the brain to engage uncertainty without triggering survival mode. He hammers home that your account is a truth meter, reflecting the beliefs you project onto risk far more accurately than self-talk ever will. That’s why the foundation is emotional regulation and rule fidelity—breathing, labeling state, rehearsing adverse outcomes—so you can execute small, boring losses and let positive expectancy show up over a meaningful sample. When the culture screams for home runs, Rande keeps pointing to professionals who compound steadily, guard their downside near ~1% risk per trade, and measure success by consistency rather than bravado.
From there, everything becomes practical: size to structural invalidation and volatility, not to feelings; make entries and exits mechanical; and treat losses as paid information logged within minutes. He urges traders to diversify by underlying, strategy, and duration to reduce equity clumping, cap correlated exposure, and protect psychological capital. Most of all, he frames mindset as trainable hardware, not motivational fluff—you build it with rituals, audits, and if-then scripts that hold under pressure. Internalize those habits, and the equity curve starts reflecting who you’ve become: a rule-driven operator who can sit calmly with randomness, harvest R when it’s offered, and stay in the game long enough for edge to do its compounding.
