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Denis Switalski sits down for a deep dive on how he actually trades: a “naked” price-action, swing-oriented approach shaped by his IT and pentesting background and refined through years of testing. He’s a self-directed trader and the creator behind a backtesting engine used to pressure-test ideas fast, which gives him a clear, rules-first framework without cluttering charts with indicators. If you’re curious how a methodical thinker translates engineering discipline into market decisions, this convo is your jam.
In this piece, you’ll learn Denis Switalski’s core strategy pillars: why he trades bare charts and treats time as a key variable, how he blends mostly systematic rules with a small discretionary layer, and the way rigorous backtesting builds confidence for live execution. We’ll cover his swing cadence, risk priorities, and the mindset shift from “strategy hopping” to owning your process—so you can take practical steps to tighten entries, standardize execution, and manage drawdowns like a pro.
Denis Switalski Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Naked Charts, Rules First
Denis trades from clean charts and lets price structure do the heavy lifting. The goal is to standardize decisions so execution is fast and consistent, with only a small layer of discretion when it truly adds value.
- Trade from uncluttered charts: price, levels, and time; no oscillators or moving-average stacks.
- Define the market condition first (trend, range, transition) before looking for setups.
- Pre-write rules for entries, stops, adds, and exits so they’re binary: “if X, then do Y.”
- Keep discretion limited to context checks (session, news heat, abnormal volatility), not to override risk rules.
- Review rules monthly; change one variable at a time and re-test before going live.
Markets, Sessions, and Timeframes
He thinks in “where and when” before “what to trade.” The focus is on liquid instruments and sessions where the edge historically shows up.
- Specialize in a small basket of liquid pairs/indices; drop symbols with wide spreads or erratic behavior.
- Anchor analysis on higher timeframes (H4/D1) to define bias; execute on H1/M15 for precision.
- Only trade during pre-approved sessions (e.g., London/early New York for FX; cash hours for indices).
- Stand down on major red-tier news for your instrument unless you have a tested news-playbook.
- Enforce a daily cutoff: when the session ends, new signals are ignored until the next session.
Levels and Structure: How Setups Form
Price action is read through swing structure, fresh levels, and where trapped traders might sit. Clean structure beats clever theory.
- Map HTF swing highs/lows, fresh support/resistance, and unfilled imbalance zones before the session.
- Bias long above prior day’s value area/high; bias short below prior day’s value area/low (adapt terms to your market).
- Only take A+ setups at HTF levels aligned with the current trend or a clear range edge with rejection.
- Require confluence: HTF level + intraday wick rejection or engulfing close back inside structure.
- If price chops around the level for >3 bars without follow-through, cancel the setup.
Entry Triggers: Keep It Binary
Entries are mechanical: one or two candle patterns plus location. No gut-feel entries; no chasing.
- Long trigger: bullish engulfing or strong close off a mapped demand level; entry on break of trigger high.
- Short trigger: bearish engulfing or strong close off mapped supply; entry on break of trigger low.
- Use stop-limit to avoid slippage on news spikes; if slipped >0.5R on entry, cancel the trade.
- Maximum two attempts per level per session; after two failed triggers, stand down.
- Never enter mid-range without a fresh level interaction logged in the playbook.
Risk Sizing and Trade Limits
Survivability matters more than being right. Denis caps exposure so a bad day never becomes a bad month.
- Risk 0.25%–0.5% per trade when the market is “normal”; cut to 0.1% in elevated volatility.
- Hard daily loss limit: 1R or 1% (whichever hits first). Stop trading for the day at that line.
- Weekly loss limit: 3R or 3%; trading pauses until a full weekend review is completed.
- Max concurrent risk: 1% across all open trades; correlated pairs count as a single position.
- No adding to losers; staging is only for winners (see next section).
Stop Placement and Initial Targets
Stops live beyond noise; targets respect the path of least resistance. Everything is pre-declared.
- Initial stop: beyond the invalidation structure (swing high/low + average wick for the timeframe).
- Minimum target: next opposing HTF level or 1.5R—whichever is closer—logged before entry.
- If the invalidation distance >2× your average, skip the trade; the location isn’t good enough.
- Move to break-even only after a full 1R is printed or after a clear structure shift in your favor.
- Trail only behind fresh swing structure; never trail based on P&L or “feel.”
Scaling and Trade Management
Winners are managed in a planned, rules-based way—no tinkering just because P&L flickers.
- Scale in once after +1R if price retests the broken level and prints your trigger again; add 50% of initial risk.
- Partial take-profit at the first target (usually 50% of size); let the rest ride to the HTF target.
- If momentum stalls (3–5 bars of doji/chop near target), exit the remainder on the market close of that bar.
- If price returns through your entry level with a strong close against the position, exit—don’t hope.
- End-of-session rule: flatten intraday trades at the session close unless the plan classifies them as swings with HTF context.
Backtesting Workflow to Build Confidence
The edge comes from testing specific rules and measuring forward drift—not from vibe. Denis treats testing like training reps.
- Write the setup as a checklist: market condition, level criteria, trigger candle, stop/target logic, and invalidation.
- Run at least 100 historical trades per setup per market and session; record R-multiple for each.
- Track metrics: win rate, average R, max drawdown, time-in-trade, and worst 10-trade run.
- Only promote a setup to live when expectancy >0.3R and max drawdown fits your psychological pain threshold.
- Forward test for 20–30 trades in micro-size before normal risk.
Discretion: Where It’s Allowed (and Not)
Discretion is a scalpel, not a hammer. It refines structure reads and avoids outlier conditions—never to override risk.
- Allowed: skip a valid signal if the HTF level is “used” (recently traded through multiple times).
- Allowed: reduce size to 50% if ADR is already exceeded early in the session or spread widens abnormally.
- Not allowed: moving stops further “to give it room.”
- Not allowed: adding to a loser or ignoring a daily/weekly loss cap.
- Not allowed: taking trades outside your pre-approved sessions.
Journal, Metrics, and Review Cadence
Progress is tracked like a sport. The journal shows whether the playbook performs as designed.
- Journal every trade with screenshots at entry/management/exit; tag by setup name and market condition.
- Weekly review: calculate expectancy, note rule breaks, list “near-miss” A+ trades you didn’t take.
- Monthly: keep only the top two setups by net R; bench or rework anything that underperforms.
- Maintain a “mistake tax” log; any rule break reduces next session’s max risk by 50%.
- Build a personal dashboard: rolling 20-trade expectancy, average hold time, and % trades taken at planned levels.
Mindset and Process Discipline
Edge is fragile; discipline protects it. Denis prioritizes repeatability over prediction and treats boredom as a feature.
- Pre-session: 10-minute map—levels, bias, news windows, and “do-not-trade” conditions—written before charts.
- During session: no social feeds or adding new ideas; run the checklist and wait for triggers.
- Post-session: 5-minute debrief—were signals taken? Were exits according to plan? Any rule breaks noted?
- Accept streaks: your job is to execute the next trade with the same rules and size, not to “get it back.”
- When in doubt, stand down; missing a trade is cheaper than trading without plan alignment.
Implementation Starter Kit (Next Five Trading Days)
Turning ideas into action beats more reading. Use this mini-sprint to cement rules and build data fast.
- Day 1–2: choose two instruments and one setup; write the full checklist and map HTF levels.
- Day 3: backtest 25 historical samples of that setup on your execution timeframe; record R for each.
- Day 4: forward test 5 live micro-size trades only if all checklist items are met; otherwise, no trade.
- Day 5: review metrics, prune one weak rule, and lock the refined version for the next week—no further changes.
Size risk first: fixed-R positions that survive volatility spikes
Denis Switalski starts with risk, not setup, and that’s the tell. He decides the R before anything else, then fits the position to that fixed uni, so one loser equals one clean debit from the account, not a mood swing. When volatility expands, Denis shrinks in size but keeps the same R, so the stop still lives beyond structure instead of getting tightened into noise. He treats daily and weekly loss caps like circuit breakers to protect decision quality when markets or emotions get jumpy.
By sizing to a fixed-R, Denis keeps expectancy stable across changing conditions, which makes his equity curve less hostage to any single trade. He prefers wide, structure-based stops set where the idea is truly invalid, rather than arbitrary pip or point counts. If the stop is too far for the planned R, he passes—edge includes location, not just direction. That simple math-first habit is how Denis Switalski survives spikes and still has ammo when the clean A+ setups finally appear.
Trade naked price action at prepared levels, not predictions
Denis Switalski strips the chart to basics and lets levels do the talking. He builds a map before the session—prior highs and lows, fresh support and resistance, and obvious swing points—so when price arrives, there’s no guessing, only execution. Denis waits for a clear reaction at those levels—an engulfing close, decisive rejection wick, or strong break-and-retest—then acts; if the market doesn’t confirm, he doesn’t chase. He isn’t forecasting the day; he’s responding to what the tape just printed.
By committing to prepared levels, Denis removes the temptation to improvise mid-session. The trigger is binary: either the pattern forms at the level or the idea is shelved. That keeps entries tight to structure and makes stops meaningful instead of arbitrary. For Denis Switalski, the win is not “calling the move” but getting paid when the market aligns with his plan, and standing down when it doesn’t.
Allocate by volatility and session, cap daily and weekly drawdown.s
Denis Switalski adjusts risk to the market he’s actually facing, not the one he wishes for. When ADR and spreads expand, he cuts position size while keeping his structural stop and fixed-R logic intact. He concentrates entries in the sessions where his edge has historically shown up—think London for FX or cash hours for indices—because time-of-day volatility changes win rate and slippage. If conditions are thin or jumpy outside those windows, Denis simply stands down and preserves mental capital.
To keep the account durable, Denis pairs volatility-aware sizing with hard circuit breakers. A daily cap stops him from trading after a set loss, so he doesn’t dig a hole, and a weekly cap forces a reset and review before more risk goes on. That structure also kills the urge to “make it back” when ranges compress or news makes fills erratic. By marrying session selection with volatility filters and strict drawdown limits, Denis Switalski keeps expectancy stable and his decision-making calm.
Diversify across setups, timeframes, and durations to smooth the equity curve.
Denis Switalski doesn’t rely on one trick; he runs a small roster of proven setups, so no single market condition owns his P&L. He pairs a higher-timeframe bias with lower-timeframe execution, which gives him both clear structure and precise entries. Some trades are intraday mean-reversions, others are swing follow-throughs—different engines for different traffic on the road.
By mixing time-in-trade, Denis spreads outcome variance and avoids clustered losses when one style cools off. He tags each setup and timeframe in the journal, then limits exposure if two ideas are highly correlated. When the environment shifts, he rotates focus to the setup with the best current stats instead of forcing yesterday’s play. That’s how Denis Switalski keeps his equity curve steadier—multiple edges, synchronized to the market, all bounded by the same risk framework.
Backtest, journal, enforce rules—process discipline beats hot takes.
Denis Switalski treats testing like training, not trivia. He converts each setup into a checklist, runs large sample backtests, and promotes only what shows positive expectancy with tolerable drawdowns. Every live trade is then journaled with screenshots at entry, management, and exit so he can see whether execution matched the plan. If he breaks a rule, he tags it, pays a “mistake tax” by cutting risk next session, and fixes the workflow, not the chart.
That same discipline keeps him from tinkering mid-trade or chasing new indicators after a cold streak. Denis runs weekly reviews to compare setups by net R, benches underperformers, and doubles down on the ones still producing clean stats. He re-tests any change before it touches real capital, which stops the endless “strategy hop” cycle. For Denis Switalski, the edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s the repeatable loop: test, trade, journal, refine, repeat.
In the end, Denis Switalski’s edge isn’t mystical—it’s a clean, rules-driven process wrapped around naked price action and respect for time. He reduces the chart to price and timing, then lets prepared levels dictate action, not forecasts. That minimalism pairs with an honest model of how trading works: a mostly systematic playbook supported by a small, intentional slice of discretion to handle the messy parts of live markets.
Denis backs the rules with real testing rigor. He built a visual rule manager to define entries, exits, and conditions quickly, then stress-tests concepts across decades of data, focusing as much on drawdowns and risk as on returns. The point isn’t speed—it’s statistical confidence that survives contact with the tape. When those stats say a setup underdelivers, it gets benched; when they show staying power, it moves up to live risk.
And he never confuses simulations with execution: demos and backtests build belief, but only live trading teaches the psychology of loss, pacing, and discipline. That’s why he treats risk exposure as the first decision, caps drawdowns, and chooses a swing cadence that fits his temperament—so the process is sustainable through both quiet ranges and violent spikes. Trade simply, test deeply, respect risk, and keep the discretionary scalpel sharp but small—that’s the Denis Switalski blueprint worth copying.
