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Samuel Plesnik sits down for a candid interview about how he went from rock-bottom life changes to consistent progress in the markets. Recorded on the Desire To Trade channel, this conversation matters because Samuel is refreshingly honest about the messy middle—early drawdowns, switching mentors, and the mindset shifts that helped him stop forcing styles that didn’t fit. He explains how he found traction by pairing strict rules with a methodical process, then leveraged teamwork and accountability to keep compounding small wins.
In this piece, you’ll learn the core of Samuel Plesnik’s approach: why he embraced beginner-minded execution (wider stops, realistic R-multiples), how deep manual backtesting turned vague ideas into precise rules, and how a Bollinger Bands reversal framework became his launchpad. You’ll also see how he balances skill set with mindset, uses mentorship to avoid strategy-hopping, and builds repeatable routines that integrate trading with real life. Expect practical takeaways you can apply today—from risk discipline to adding Confluence—so you can trade with clearer rules and fewer doubts.
Samuel Plesnik Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Simple Rules, Relentless Reps
Samuel Plesnik keeps the edge simple: one primary setup, traded repeatedly, with rules that leave little room for “maybe.” He prioritizes manual backtesting and strict execution so the stats, not emotions, drive decisions.
- Trade one primary setup until you have 200+ logged examples and stable performance metrics.
- Define every decision (entry, stop, add, reduce, exit) before the session starts.
- No new ideas live—trial anything new only in sim for 20–30 samples first.
- If you break a rule, stop trading for the day and review the playbook immediately.
Chart Setup: Bollinger Bands Reversal Framework
The backbone is a mean-reversion idea around Bollinger Bands. He uses this “rails and mean” view to objectively spot stretched moves, then times reversals when price re-accepts value.
- Use Bollinger Bands (20 SMA, 2.0 std dev) on your execution timeframe.
- Keep a clean chart: only price, bands, and session markers; add HTF levels from daily/4H.
- Optional: overlay ATR(14) and a 200-EMA for trend context; trade reversals only against exhausted extensions, not healthy trends.
Market & Timeframes: Where He Hunts
Samuel focuses on where structure is clean and liquidity is consistent. He’s selective about when to engage, favoring sessions with enough movement to push price to the bands.
- Trade FX majors and top index futures/CFDs with tight spreads and steady volume.
- Use 15m–1h for execution; reference 4h/daily for key levels and trend context.
- Primary activity window: first 2–3 hours of the New York session; stand down in dead ranges.
A+ Setup Criteria: Only the Best Reversals
He narrows the reversal to specific exhaustion conditions. The goal is to avoid catching every wick and instead wait for “overshoot + rejection + re-acceptance.”
- Price closes outside an outer band after a directional push of ≥ 3 same-color candles.
- The overshoot tags a daily/4h level or a clear intraday swing extreme.
- A rejection candle forms (pin bar/engulf) and closes back inside the band.
- ATR expansion precedes the move; once it stalls (2–3 candles of smaller bodies), prepare.
- Structure confluence: double top/bottom, micro-climax volume (if available), or prior day high/low.
Entry Triggers: Get In Only When the Price Re-Accepts
Entries are precise to prevent “early catching knives.” He waits for the market to confirm it wants back inside value.
- Long: after a downside band overshoot, enter on the break of the rejection candle high that closed back inside the bands.
- Short: after an upside band overshoot, enter on the break of the rejection candle low that closed back inside the bands.
- If the trigger candle is unusually large (>1.2× ATR(14)), split the entry: 50% on trigger, 50% on a 38.2–50% pullback.
- If price re-tags the outer band without a fresh close back inside, cancel the setup.
Risk Sizing & Initial Stop: Protect First
Samuel favors survivability by starting wider and rational, then tightening rules as data supports it. The priority is to avoid getting clipped before the mean-reversion can work.
- Risk a fixed % per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5% for funded/prop style; 0.5–1% for personal).
- Initial stop: beyond the extreme 2–5 pips/ticks beyond the spike high/low or 1.0× ATR(14), whichever is wider.
- If the trigger candle is huge, halve its size or skip—do not force full risk through extreme variance.
- Max daily risk: 1–2R. Hit it and stop for the day.
Trade Management: From Outer Band Back to Mean
The first target is the mean; after that, the trade must earn the right to run. Samuel treats partials as risk-recycling, not profit “celebration.”
- TP1 at the middle band (20-SMA) for 50–70% of the position; move stop to breakeven after TP1 fills.
- TP2 at the opposite inner band or the nearest HTF level; trail behind the last swing or a 9/20 EMA cross.
- If price stalls before the mid-band and prints two consecutive inside candles, reduce 25% and keep the stop at the original until TP1 or stop-out.
- Time stop: if not at TP1 within 6–10 candles, close the trade—mean reversion is failing.
Session Playbook: When to Stand Down
Not every minute is created equal. He filters away the hours that generate low-quality signals or spread spikes.
- No trades 10 minutes before and after top-tier news for the pair/index.
- Skip lunch lull and last-hour chop unless already managing a winner.
- If three setups fail to reclaim the band in a session, stop—trend day conditions likely dominate.
Add-On & Scale Rules: Earn the Size
Adds only come after evidence that the trade is “right.” Scaling is systematic, never impulsive.
- Allow one add-on only after TP1: add on a pullback that holds the 20-SMA and prints a continuation candle.
- The ad uses half initial risk; stop for the aadgoes below/above the pullback swing.
- Never pyramid into a mean-reversion before TP1—edge deteriorates as you average into extremes.
Data & Journaling: Make the Playbook Smarter
Samuel’s edge compounds through repetition and measurement. He treats journaling and backtesting as part of the job, not an optional extra.
- Log every setup with screenshots (pre-, during-, post-trade), R result, and rule compliance (Y/N).
- Tag outcomes by pattern subtype: overshoot-pin, overshoot-engulf, double-tap, news-fade, trend-day fail.
- Review weekly: remove the bottom 10% of patterns by expectancy; tighten rules where invalidations cluster.
- Re-backtest any rule change over at least 50 historical samples before going live.
Mindset & Process Controls: Guardrails Against Tilt
He builds guardrails so bad days don’t become bad weeks. The process keeps emotions small and stats large.
- Pre-session checklist: HTF levels marked, session plan written, news checked, A+ criteria visible.
- Live checklist at entry: outside → reject → close in → trigger break; if any step is missing, pass.
- Two-strike rule: two rule breaks in a day = stop trading and debrief immediately.
- End-of-day: replay winners and losers at 2× speed; write one improvement you’ll apply tomorrow.
Prop/Funded Friendly Settings: Keep the Curve Smooth
For evaluation accounts or tight drawdown rules, Samuel adapts sizing and cadence to protect the trailing equity.
- Cap risk at 0.25–0.5% per trade; max two trades open at once.
- Hard daily loss cap at 1R; hard weekly loss cap at 3R—hit either and stop until next period.
- Prefer pairs/indices with consistent spreads during your session; avoid rollover and news spikes.
- Withdraw or scale down size after new equity highs to avoid give-back during rule tweaks.
Lock Risk First with Fixed R Sizing and Hard Daily Loss Cap
Samuel Plesnik starts every decision from the downside, not the upside. He fixes risk per trade in R—small, repeatable, and never “felt out” on the fly. That lets him judge performance by process quality, not dollar swings. He sets a hard daily loss cap so a bad morning can’t snowball into a bad week.
With that guardrail, Samuel Plesnik can trade cleaner and think slower when it matters. If the plan says 0.5R or 1R, he places the stop and size to match—no “just this once” exceptions. Hit the daily cap and he’s done, shifting to review mode rather than revenge mode. The result is simple: survivability first, consistency second, profits as a byproduct.
Trade Mean Reversion: Wait for Bollinger Overshoot, Rejection, Re-Acceptance Entry
Samuel Plesnik times reversals by letting price stretch, snap, and then prove it wants back inside value. He waits for a close outside the Bollinger Bands, then a clear rejection candle that closes back inside, and only enters on the break of that rejection. This sequence keeps him from catching early knives and forces the market to show its hand. If the trigger candle is huge, he’ll scale in on a partial pullback rather than chase.
He respects context too: ATR expansion should precede the move, but if the day is trending cleanly, he’ll pass on mean reversion entirely. Stops live beyond the extreme wick so normal noise can’t shake him out, and the first target is the mid-band to bank a quick, rule-based win. From there, he lets the trade earn more by trailing only if momentum continues toward the opposite band. The whole point, according to Samuel Plesnik, is simple: don’t predict tops or bottoms—let the band overshoot, the rejection, and the re-acceptance do the talking.
Let Volatility Guide Stops; Use ATR Widths and Mid-Band Partials
Samuel Plesnik sizes his stops to the market, not his mood. He measures current volatility with ATR and places the initial stop beyond the extreme—often around 1.0× ATR or a few ticks past the overshoot wick—so normal noise doesn’t knock him out. Position size flexes to keep risk per trade constant, which means bigger ranges equal smaller size and vice versa.
Once in, Samuel Plesnik takes the first partial at the mid-band to book a rule-based win and shift the trade to “house money.” If price stalls before the mid-band with two inside candles, he trims and reassesses rather than hoping. Only when momentum carries beyond the mean does he trail for a second target, letting volatility contraction guide a tighter stop. The effect is a calm, mechanical loop: volatility defines the risk, the mid-band secures the base hit, and any runner must earn its keep.
Diversify Smartly Across Instruments, Sessions, and Durations Without Diluting Edge
Samuel Plesnik spreads his exposure across a small basket of liquid markets, but he keeps the same playbook in each. He rotates between instruments that regularly hit his setup—FX majors and a couple of indices—so he’s not forcing trades in a dead pair. Session diversification matters too: he favors the first hours of New York, but if London gagiveshe the overshoot, he treats New York as a management window, not a chase window.
Duration is flexible, edge is not. Samuel Plesnik will take the same Bollinger reversal on a 15-minute or a 1-hour chart, but he never mixes rules mid-trade. If a market is trending cleanly, he stands down instead of “diversifying” into low-quality mean reversion. He caps concurrent positions to avoid correlated drawdowns and respects a weekly R limit, ensuring one noisy day across instruments doesn’t swamp his equity curve. The result is variety with discipline: more chances to see the setup, zero tolerance for diluting the rules.
Choose Process Over Prediction: Backtest 200 Samples, Journal, Refine Weekly
Samuel Plesnik treats edge as something you prove, not something you feel. He builds conviction by collecting 200+ clean, tagged samples of his setup so he knows the real win rate, average R, and drawdown profile before risking meaningful capital. That history turns every trade into a simple question—does this meet the rules I tested?—instead of a prediction about where price “should” go.
After the bell, Samuel Plesnik journals like a coach reviewing game tape. He grades rule adherence, screenshots each phase, and writes one concrete tweak to test the following week—never midweek, never mid-trade. The weekly cycle is sacred: sim test, promote to small size if stats hold, demote or delete if expectancy slips. Over time, that loop compounds skill: fewer variables, tighter rules, and a calm confidence that comes from measured reps, not market guesses.
Samuel Plesnik’s story closes on a simple truth: durable trading comes from rules you can actually follow. He built from the downside up—tight risk management that kept him in the game even when results lagged—so setbacks never turned into blowups. That discipline bought him the time to iterate properly: test, log, adjust, and come back with cleaner execution rather than a new shiny tactic.
The centerpiece of his approach is a Bollinger Bands reversal refined through heavy, methodical backtesting. Samuel didn’t just “try the bands”; he learned exactly what qualified as a true pierce and what didn’t, and that small definition shift flipped a struggling idea into a viable edge. He insists on added confluence instead of catching every touch, waits for the price to prove re-acceptance, and takes base hits consistently rather than swinging for home runs.
Equally important is how he pairs mindset with skill set. Samuel Plesnik treats mentorship and review cycles as non-negotiable guardrails—he changes rules only after a full testing block, not mid-trade and not mid-week. He accepts the style that fits him, resists strategy-hopping, and celebrates what he can control: following the plan, recording outcomes honestly, and showing up for the next session with slightly better rules than the last.
In the end, the lessons are practical and repeatable: protect capital first, define your setup in plain language, verify it with real reps, and only then scale your conviction. For Samuel Plesnik, consistency isn’t a motivational poster—it’s the compound interest of small, verified improvements applied to one setup, day after day.
