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This interview features Navin Prithyani in Bangkok—senior trader, mentor behind Urban Forex, and a straight-talking price-action pro who’s obsessed with preparation, momentum, and focus. We dig into why “freedom” from trading isn’t a shortcut; it’s an all-in craft, from mindset to routine, that Navin lived through while moving from bank employee to full-time trader and teacher.
In this piece, you’ll learn Navin’s actionables: how to spot flow-of-money moves and ride trend pullbacks, the four phases that keep trades controlled (prep, entry, management, recap), and the mindset shift from “where can I make money?” to “where can I not lose?”. We’ll cover risk framing, using alerts instead of emotions, time-zone and travel discipline, and how simple tech (like a curated currency-strength workflow) supports clear, low-risk execution you can repeat.
Navin Prithyani Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Read the Flow, Not the Indicator
Navin builds decisions from raw price—structure, momentum, and where orders are likely stacked. Think “flow of money”: who’s in control, where they’ll defend, and where late traders get trapped. The goal is simple—enter where risk is tiny and the crowd is offside.
- Define market state first: trending or ranging; never mix the two playbooks.
- Map swing structure: mark the most recent higher high/low (uptrend) or lower high/low (downtrend).
- Identify decision points (DPs): prior origin of a strong impulse candle cluster or breakout.
- Favor trades from DPs back into trend, not mid-range “maybe” zones.
- If you can’t clearly state who’s in control on your chart in 5 seconds, skip the setup.
Daily Prep & Routine: Win the Day Before the Trade
Preparation replaces prediction. Navin pre-plans session windows, pairs, and key zones so the live chart is just execution. You should sit down already knowing what you want—and what you’ll ignore.
- Pre-select 4–6 instruments; drop anything choppy or news-whipsaw prone today.
- Mark HTF bias on H4/H1; operate on M30/M15 for execution; drop to M5 only for trigger.
- Draw zones before London/NY: DP supply/demand, prior day high/low, session high/low, VWAP/ADR extremes if you use them.
- Set alerts at zones; do not watch candles tick-by-tick.
- Note scheduled red-flag news; if within 15 minutes of your level, stand down.
Setup Selection: Impulse–Pause–Continuation
He prefers strong, impulsive legs that pull back in a controlled, corrective way to a DP. That’s where trapped traders bail and pros reload. No impulse, no trade.
- Require visible imbalance: a clean, one-sided push with range expansion and shallow wicks.
- Accept only corrective pullbacks: overlapping small candles or channels back to the DP.
- Confluence checklist (need ≥2): HTF structure, DP touch/retest, liquidity sweep, session open, round number.
- Skip “center-of-range” ideas; only act at edges (DPs, prior extremes).
- If the pullback erases >61.8% of the impulse or becomes impulsive itself, invalidate.
Entry Triggers: Confirmation Without Hesitation
Entries are simple: let price tag your zone, watch for who’s trapped, and pull the trigger with a defined stop. No indicator permission slip—just price behavior.
- Trigger types (pick one and stick to it):
- Rejection wick + close back inside the zone.
- Break of micro-structure (M5) in trend direction after the tag.
- Liquidity sweeps through the lev, followed by an immediate reclaim.
- Enton, the next marketable opportunity after the trigger; avoid chasing.
- If the level hits and drifts sideways >20–30 minutes without a trigger, cancel the idea.
- Never enter on the first spike caused by news; wait for the post-spike structure.
Risk Sizing: Small Fixed Risk, Big Survivability
Navin keeps risk boring, so the process can stay sharp. Fixed fractional risk ensures one bad day doesn’t erase a week.
- Risk 0.25%–0.75% per trade; cap total session risk at 1.5%.
- Stop goes beyond the structure that invalidates your idea (not an arbitrary pip count).
- Position size from stop distance; never widen the stop to fit a larger size.
- Hard rule: if spread/volatility enlarges stop >1.5× normal, reduce size or pass.
- No martingale. One add only if pre-planned and original stop remains intact.
Trade Management: Let Winners Breathe, Police the Losers
Management is mechanical: protect capital early only when the market proves you right. Let the trend do the heavy lifting and avoid over-handling.
- First management at +1R: move stop to entry only after a clean market structure break in your favor.
- Scale out 25%–33% at the first opposing DP or ADR band; let the rest aim for the next structure target.
- If the price stalls for an entire session at breakeven, exit and recycle the idea later.
- For ranges, take profits quicker (1.5R–2R); for trends, shoot for runners (3R–5R).
- If momentum dies and candles overlap back inside your entry zone, close—don’t hope.
Exits & Targets: Trade the Map You Drew
Targets come from the same story: where will participants react next? Use structure over dreams.
- Primary targets: opposite side DP, prior swing high/low, session high/low, and unfilled impulse origin.
- Trail behind new higher lows/lower highs once +2R prints; no trailing in chop.
- If a sharp counter-impulse prints against you and negates your market read, flatten immediately.
- End-of-session rule: close any open day trade before your hard cutoff time.
- Journal whether the exit was plan-based (A+), reactive (B), or emotional (C).
Session Timing & Pairs: Trade When the Tape Is Alive
Navin emphasizes session character: London brings discovery, New York continuation or reversal. Align pair choice with when they actually move.
- Focus on London and early New York for majors; avoid late NY drift.
- Favor pairs aligned with the active session (e.g., GBP/EUR for London, USD/CAD for NY).
- If the pair’s ADR is already consumed >80% before your entry, pass.
- Avoid overlapping correlated positions; treat them as one risk bucket.
- One to three trades per session max; quit after your daily risk cap or first A+ winner.
News & Liquidity: Respect the Hunt
Stop hunts are education, not malice. Price often sweeps obvious highs/lows before moving. Plan for it instead of being its fuel.
- Expect a liquidity sweep 5–20 pips beyond obvious equal highs/lows; place stops beyond the sweep zone.
- Do not pre-empt news moves; trade the second move after the initial spike if structure forms.
- If your level aligns with a major data release time, require extra confirmation or skip.
- Avoid entries at fresh mid-day lows of liquidity; wait for the next session’s influx.
- If spreads explode or your broker throttles, stand down—edge includes execution quality.
Tools & Workspace: Keep It Clean, Keep It Repeatable
His charts are uncluttered: structure, zones, and alerts. Anything that slows down reading the tape is out. Your environment should make discipline easy.
- Limit to candles, zones, sessions, ADR/VWAP if you use them, and an optional currency strength view.
- Pre-load templates: HTF map, execution template, journal screenshot hotkey.
- Create alert text with the plan (“Buy pullback at DP, stop below wick, 0.5% risk”).
- Use a daily checklist before first click; if any box fails (sleep, mood, news), reduce size or skip.
- Record screen during trades; tag moments of hesitation for review.
Review Process: Turn Reps into Edge
Progress comes from structured review. Navin’s focus: what did the market do, what did I do, and where did my reading diverge?
- After each session, log: bias, setup type, R multiple, management actions, and emotion spikes (time-stamped).
- Weekly, cluster wins/losses by setup; cut any type that underperforms across 30 trades.
- Tag avoidable losses (late entry, mid-range, news chase) and create a pre-trade “anti-checklist.”
- Revisit screenshots of A+ trades before each session to prime pattern recognition.
- Update your playbook rules only after 20–30 trade samples—not after one outlier day.
Mindset & Discipline: Professional Is a Schedule, Not a Feeling
The real edge is showing up with the same standards, travel day or not. Routine beats inspiration, and boredom is part of the job.
- Fixed trading windows; no “revenge sessions” outside your schedule.
- If you break a rule, log it and reduce next trade risk by half—immediately.
- Rate your state (1–5) pre-session; if ≤3, either trade half risk or don’t trade.
- Keep non-market distractions off the screen; alerts, not eyeballs, do the waiting.
- Define “done for the day” conditions: daily profit target hit, daily loss cap reached, or market quality drops.
Size Risk First, Then Trade: Fixed Fraction and Session Caps
Navin Prithyani starts every day by capping damage before chasing gains, and that begins with a fixed fractional risk per trade. Pick a small percent you can live with—think half a percent—and let the stop define position size, not your hopes. Your stop belongs beyond the level that kills the idea, never widened to fit a bigger lot. If volatility jumps and the stop must be wider than usual, cut size or pass altogether.
He also sets a hard session loss cap so one bad morning can’t wreck the week. Once that cap is hit, he’s done—no “one more try,” no revenge click. Winners get room to breathe, but losers are clipped quickly to preserve firepower for the next A+ setup. This simple math-first routine keeps emotions quiet and lets Navin Prithyani trade with clarity.
Read Price Mechanics, Not Predictions: Identify Flow And Decision Points
Navin Prithyani focuses on what price is doing, not on what you think it should do. Start by reading structure and momentum: who’s in control, where they’ll likely defend, and where late entries get trapped. Decision Points are the origins of strong impulses or breaks that reveal intent. If you can’t see that story in seconds, you’re forcing a forecast.
Mark the most recent swing high and low to define the trend or range, then map the Decision Points created by those moves. Wait for the price to return to a Decision Point and prove rejection or reclaim before acting. Trade at edges where risk is smallest and the crowd is exposed, not in the mushy middle. If the pullback is impulsive or structure flips, stand down and look for the next clean read.
Trade Impulse–Pullback–Continuation: Enter At Edges, Not Mid-Range
Navin Prithyani waits for a clear impulse first—an obvious, one-sided push that shows who’s in charge. Then he wants a controlled, corrective pullback to a decision point, not a fast, violent drop that screams reversal. The edge comes from buying or selling at that boundary where trapped traders exit and fresh orders reload. Mid-range entries are avoided because risk balloons while conviction shrinks.
He looks for a simple confirmation at the level: a rejection wick, a quick reclaim, or a tiny break of micro-structure. The stop sits beyond the decision point that invalidates the idea, never inside the noise. If the pullback eats too deep into the impulse or flips momentum, the setup is off. Patience is the weapon—let the market return to your edge and make you act, not the other way around.
Diversify By Pair, Session, And Setup; Avoid Correlated Risk
Navin Prithyani treats correlation as a hidden leverage multiplier, so he diversifies across pairs, sessions, and setup types. Two USD trades at once often behave like one big bet, so he counts correlated positions as a single risk bucket. If London already consumed most of a pair’s ADR, he looks elsewhere instead of forcing a late entry in the same theme. The idea is simple: spread your edge across different tapes, not clones of the same move.
He also diversifies by setup quality and time window, favoring one A+ idea over three B- copies. If GBP and EUR are moving together, he picks the cleaner chart and ignores the echo. When New York opens, he’s ready to rotate to instruments that actually wake up in that session. This way, Navin Prithyani keeps drawdowns shallow and lets winning themes compound without sneaky, correlated hits.
Discipline Over Drama: Preplan Levels, Alerts, Reviews, And Cut Losses
Navin Prithyani keeps theatrics out of the chair by front-loading decisions before the bell. He marks levels, writes the plan, and sets alerts so execution becomes a yes/no checklist. When an alert fires, he verifies the story at the level instead of scrolling for reasons to act. If the story isn’t there, he cancels and moves on.
During the session, he enforces cut rules the moment the setup breaks—no debate, no “one more candle.” After the session, he reviews screenshots and tags mistakes to tighten the next play. The next morning starts with those notes, not fresh hopes. This loop keeps Navin Prithyani consistent while everyone else rides the emotional rollercoaster.
In the end, Navin Prithyani’s edge isn’t a magic indicator—it’s a professional operating system. He treats trading like a craft with guardrails: protect capital first, plan the day before it starts, and only act when price mechanics line up at clear decision points. He’s ruthless about time zones and energy management because “freedom” comes from consistency, not convenience. If he’s not on his A-game, he stands down. If a setup devolves into noise, he walks. The phone is for alerts and oversight, not spur-of-the-moment entries that feel exciting and pay poorly.
What you can steal from Navin is a repeatable loop: map the flow of money, set alerts at the real levels, and wait for the market to prove your idea right before you commit. Risk stays small, sessions are capped, and winners get space while losers are cut without debate. He even widens his situational awareness by watching related pairs as a group—when the whole USD block hits a wall, he’s thinking exits before the bounce hits his chart. Put together, Navin Prithyani’s lessons are simple but powerful: show up prepared, read price like a story, take trades only at edges, and let discipline—not prediction—compound your account over time.
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