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In this interview, we sit down with trader John Jost—yes, the chiropractor-turned-forex swing trader—sharing his journey on the Desire To Trade podcast. From early days chasing indicator stacks to trading clean daily-chart price action, John explains how he built a routine he can run in 15 minutes a day, why he treats trading like risk management, and how that mindset helped him qualify for a prop firm. His story matters because it’s the blueprint many retail traders want: simple charts, strict rules, patience over adrenaline, and real accountability.
You’ll learn how John ditched indicator overload for clean support-resistance, why fewer zones mean better decisions, and the practical steps he uses to kill FOMO and wait for A-setups. He breaks down risk like a pro—tiny position sizes (often around 0.2%–0.5% per trade), cutting risk in half during drawdowns, and trailing stops to let winners breathe—plus the habits that made prop-firm evaluation feel like just another trade. Expect actionable takeaways on journaling, backtesting, and building a routine that survives life’s chaos so your edge actually shows up in P&L.
John Jost Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Market & Chart Setup
You can only be consistent if your workflow is simple and repeatable. John keeps his charts clean, focuses on a few liquid FX pairs and indices, and works mostly from the daily timeframe, so decisions aren’t rushed.
- Trade a small basket: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, XAUUSD, plus 1–2 indices (e.g., US100, US500).
- Primary timeframe: Daily for signal; 4H only for fine-tuning entries and stops.
- Use a minimalist template: naked candles, horizontal S/R zones, 20/50 EMAs (visual structure only).
- Mark weekly levels every Sunday: prior week’s high/low, obvious swing highs/lows, and untested zones.
- Set TradingView/terminal alerts at key levels; do not stare at screens intraday.
Support/Resistance Mapping (The Foundation)
Price reacts at obvious places. John draws fewer, more meaningful zones and waits for the price to prove those zones matter before committing risk.
- Draw zones only where price reversed with momentum (long wicks, clean pivots, displacement).
- Keep zones “fat”: use rectangles, not razor lines; include wick extremes plus a bit of buffer.
- Maximum 3–5 active zones per chart; delete clutter weekly.
- Confirm zone relevance: if a level has been chopped through 3+ times this month, drop it.
- Only plan trades near zones; ignore mid-range prices where risk/reward compresses.
Signal & Entry Triggers
Entries are built around simple price-action confirmations that can be checked in minutes. If the candle doesn’t close the way you need, there’s no trade—no “feel” trades.
- Long bias: At the support zone, wait for a daily bullish rejection (pin bar, engulfing, or strong close above open).
- Short bias: At the resistance zone, wait for a daily bearish rejection (pin bar, engulfing, or strong close below open).
- Entry on next candle’s break of the signal bar high/low; skip if a gap ruins R multiple.
- If the price closes deep inside the zone but with a small body and long wick away from it, it requires follow-through on the next session before entry.
- No entry within 30 minutes of major scheduled news on the instrument’s primary currency (NFP, CPI, central bank).
- If the signal forms against the 20/50 EMA slope on the daily, either reduce the size by 50% or skip.
Risk Sizing & Position Construction
Risk is the part you control. John sizes small, adapts during drawdowns, and never lets one idea dent the account.
- Base risk per trade: 0.25%–0.5% of equity; cap daily risk at 0.75% and weekly risk at 1.5%.
- In a live drawdown of -3R or worse, cut risk per trade in half until back to equity highs.
- Hard stop always in the book: below support wick (long) or above resistance wick (short) with a small ATR buffer (e.g., 0.25×ATR(14) on the entry timeframe).
- Do not widen stops after entry—ever. If invalidated, exit and replan.
- Maximum open risk across all positions: 1% of equity; stagger entries if multiple setups trigger.
Trade Management & Exits
The goal is to protect downside while letting the occasional runner expand your equity curve. John uses mechanical rules so the plan survives emotions.
- First scale at +1R: close 50%; move stop to breakeven only after a solid H4 close beyond the zone.
- Trail using swing structure: for longs, ratchet stop under each higher swing low on the H4; for shorts, above each lower swing high.
- If price returns inside the original zone and closes there, exit remainder—setup failed.
- Time stop: if a trade hasn’t reached +0.5R within 3 full daily candles, close it and free up risk.
- For major scheduled news, consider taking an additional 25% off if open profit ≥1R.
Set up Quality Filter (A, B, C)
Not all trades are created equal. Tagging quality keeps you patient and skews size toward cleaner opportunities.
- A-Setups: Fresh zone (untouched in 20+ sessions), strong rejection candle, confluence with weekly level and EMA slope agreement → allow full risk.
- B-Setups: Zone touched recently but not broken, decent rejection, mixed confluence → use 75% of base risk.
- C-Setups: Choppy context, weak candle, conflicting EMA slope → pass unless exceptional R multiple (>3R) and then use 50% risk.
Weekly Routine & Checklist
Consistency is a routine game. John’s edge shows up because the process is baked into his week, not improvised.
- Sunday mapping: refresh weekly levels, prune zones, and prewrite scenarios (“If price tags X and prints Y, I’ll do Z”).
- Daily 15-minute window at the same time: scan, log, set alerts, and walk away.
- End-of-week review: export closed trades, tag A/B/C, record whether rules were followed, and note any discretionary drift.
- Rule: no new discretionary rules mid-week—only after the weekly review.
Backtesting & Validation
Belief comes from data. John validates ideas on historical charts before risking real money.
- Choose one pair and one setup type; collect 50–100 historical samples on the daily chart.
- Record entry trigger, stop placement method, R multiple outcomes, and time-in-trade.
- If win rate <35% but average winner >2.5R, keep; otherwise, refine entry/exit rules.
- Forward-test 20 trades at tiny size (≤0.1% risk) before promoting to full risk.
Psychology & Discipline in Practice
You don’t need perfect emotions—just airtight rules. John designs his process so discipline is the easy path and impulse is inconvenient.
- Trade only during your scheduled window; disable mobile trading outside it.
- Pre-commit: write the exact invalidation level before entry; if price tags it, exit without debate.
- Use a “cool-off” rule: after any rule violation, no trades for 24 hours, and risk per trade halves for the next 3 trades.
- Celebrate process wins (perfectly executed losers) the same way you note big winners.
Prop-Style Evaluation Adjustments
If you’re trading evaluations, the objective is smooth equity, not hero trades. John tweaks risk and trade count to fit that reality.
- Lower base risk to 0.25% and cap concurrent positions at two.
- Prioritize A-setups only; pass on everything mid-range or news-sensitive.
- Bank partials earlier (+0.8R to +1R) to reduce variance and protect trailing objectives.
- Pause trading for the day after hitting +1.5R realized or -0.75R loss.
Playbook for Trend vs. Range Conditions
Regime matters. John separates rules so he isn’t forcing trend tactics into a range—or vice versa.
- Trend filter: daily 20 EMA above 50 EMA and price making higher highs/lows (or the reverse for downtrends).
- In trends: enter on pullbacks to prior breakout levels or EMA “kiss,” use wider initial stops (ATR(14) × 0.5), let runners work.
- In ranges: fade clean rejections at clearly defined boundaries; tighter stops (ATR × 0.25) and quicker partials at mid-range.
- If regime uncertain, reduce risk by 50% or sit out until structure clarifies.
Emergency Rules (Capital Protection)
Bad days happen. The job is to ensure they don’t become bad months.
- Platform or data issue: immediately close all new orders and manage existing trades with hard stops only.
- Two consecutive full-risk losses in a day: stop trading for 24 hours.
- Any breach of max weekly risk (1.5%): mandatory flat week—observe and journal, no new entries.
- If you’re deviating from the plan, switch to demo for the next 10 trades and re-qualify your discipline before going live again.
Size Risk Small, Survive Drawdowns, Let R Multiples Compound
John Jost hammers one theme: tiny risk keeps you in the game long enough to see your edge. He would rather take five clean shots at 0.25–0.5% than one hero swing that wrecks the week. When equity dips, he cuts size, not corners—drawdown is a signal to slow down, not speed up. That restraint buys you time for the math to work, because a handful of 2R–3R winners outpaces a string of small, controlled losses. The goal isn’t to be right more; it’s to lose small, win bigger, and let the winners do the heavy lifting.
Jost also treats compounding like a job, not a hope. He protects capital with hard stops, takes partial profits when structure confirms, then trails to let a runner stretch the equity curve. If price invalidates the idea, he’s out—no widen-the-stop drama, no “just one more candle” excuses. Over months, that discipline stacks R the same way savings stack interest. Small risk keeps you alive; compounding R makes the account grow.
Trade Mechanics Over Predictions: Wait For A-Setups At Key Levels
John Jost doesn’t forecast headlines or guess tomorrow’s candle; he builds a repeatable checklist and follows it. He marks a few clean support and resistance zones, sets alerts, and then does nothing until the price comes to him. When it does, he waits for a proper confirmation candle—engulfing, pin, or strong close—so the market proves the level, not his opinion. The mechanic is simple: if the signal forms at the level, trade it; if not, pass. No level, no signal, no trade.
Jost’s “A-setup” filter keeps him patient and protects his weekly risk budget. He’d rather skip three marginal looks than force one mid-range entry that chops his P&L. The emphasis is on execution quality—entry, stop, and management—rather than storytelling about where EURUSD “should” go. When the setup hits, he executes fast and clean; when it’s off, he’s already on to the next alert. That’s how mechanics beat predictions over an entire month.
Use Volatility-Based Stops And Position Sizing To Control Noise
John Jost builds every trade around volatility, so random wiggles don’t kick him out. He sizes positions using an ATR-based stop buffer, making the distance from entry to invalidation reflect current market noise. If ATR expands, size shrinks; if ATR contracts, size can modestly increase—risk in dollars stays constant while position size adapts. This keeps stop placement logical: beyond the wick and outside the average daily fluctuation, not arbitrarily tight.
Jost also ties management to volatility, so exits aren’t emotional. He won’t move to breakeven until price clears the zone and a lower timeframe closes beyond it, confirming momentum over noise. Trails ratchet under/over swing structure rather than fixed ticks, letting winners breathe when volatility is high and tightening naturally when it compresses. The result is fewer premature stop-outs, steadier R multiples, and a smoother equity curve that respects what the market is actually doing, not what you wish it would do.
Diversify By Pair, Strategy, And Timeframe To Smooth Equity
John Jost spreads risk across a small basket of instruments so one stubborn pair can’t hijack the week. He mixes trend-pullback plays with range rejections, ensuring he’s not relying on a single market regime to make money. Daily charts drive the signals, while the 4-hour helps refine entries and stop placement without turning it into scalping. This blend cuts correlation spikes and reduces the odds of three identical losses landing back-to-back.
Jost also staggers exposure over time instead of stacking trades at once. If EURUSD and GBPUSD flash similar setups, he’ll take the cleaner one first and let the second prove it’s genuinely independent. He measures results by total R across the basket, not pair-by-pair ego, so capital flows to what’s working now. That way, diversification isn’t randomness—it’s a deliberate structure for calmer drawdowns and steadier equity.
Define Risk Precisely; Avoid Undefined Exposure And Mid-Range Chop
John Jost treats risk like a line in the sand, not a suggestion. Every trade has a predefined stop, position size, and maximum account impact before he clicks buy or sell. No averaging down, no “I’ll just widen it a bit,” and no adding until the initial risk is reduced. If price lives in the mid-range between levels, he simply passes—unclear structure equals unclear risk.
He also bans undefined exposure like grid adds, martingale tactics, or holding naked positions through major news without a plan. The stop sits beyond the wick with a volatility buffer, and size scales to keep the dollar risk constant. If the structure breaks, he exits first and analyzes later—ego never funds slippage. That’s how Jost keeps losses small, avoids chop tax, and lets clean setups speak for themselves.
John Jost’s journey is the classic evolution from indicator-chasing to clean, rules-based price action—and it’s packed with practical lessons. He ditched the “eight indicators must align” routine for a daily-chart workflow built on a few meaningful zones, patient alerts, and simple confirmation candles. He trades small and consistently, treats drawdowns as a cue to cut size (not to force trades), and keeps stops where the idea is actually invalidated—beyond the wick with a sensible buffer. Fewer zones, clearer structure, and no mid-range guessing make his decisions fast, repeatable, and calm.
What stands out is how that discipline translates into outcomes. John spread risk across a tight basket, favored A-setups only, and managed winners by scaling and trailing structure—an approach that helped him clear a prop evaluation requiring roughly 7% with a 4% max drawdown while keeping his own drawdown near 3%. It didn’t happen overnight; it took years of refining, journaling, and ruthless honesty about mistakes. The takeaway for any trader is simple: make the plan obvious, size tiny, wait for the price to prove the level, and let the R do the heavy lifting. When you remove prediction and ego from the equation, you give your edge room to show up month after month.
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