Table of Contents
On the Words of Rizdom podcast, Faizal—Prime FX mentor and long-time market structure nut—talks candidly about blowing student finance, grinding at Sainsbury’s, and rebuilding into a trader who actually executes. He shares why he left the hype cycle, how he teaches with a no-nonsense voice, and what makes his approach repeatable for everyday traders who want clarity over clout.
In this piece, you’ll learn Faizal’s core playbook: priming your mindset each morning, reading your own journal before charts, and trading like a program—detached and systematic. We’ll unpack his time-of-week timing (Tue–Wed for day trades; Wed–Thu for weekly highs/lows), adaptive stop-loss sizing with reduced lots, and his big lever—lowering trade frequency so one clean setup can carry the week.
Faizal Banks Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Market Framework
This is the big-picture lens Faizal uses before he goes hunting for entries. It keeps you from forcing trades and makes your decisions repeatable when the market speeds up or goes quiet. Read this before you open a chart—then let price prove it right or wrong.
- Define the active regime each morning: trending, balanced, or transitioning; only run strategies that fit that regime.
- Mark the weekly high/low and prior day’s high/low; treat them as decision zones, not automatic fade levels.
- Build a bias from higher timeframes first (W → D → H4) and only then drop to H1/M15 for execution.
- If regime clarity is <70% (your confidence score), trade half-size or sit out until a session range breaks.
The Setup Shortlist
Faizal doesn’t try to trade everything—he narrows to a few repeatable patterns so execution is automatic. Your win rate improves when you remove “maybe” trades.
- Keep a list of 2–3 A-setups only (e.g., trend pullback to HTF level, failed breakout reversal, session VWAP reclaim).
- Pre-write entry, invalidation, and profit-taking for each setup; if the market doesn’t print the ingredients, no trade.
- Tag each setup with volatility conditions (e.g., ATR above/below 20-day) so you don’t force a play in the wrong environment.
- If you log two consecutive C-quality trades in a week, you’re done trading until you review the journal.
Timing & Sessions
Good timing beats good opinions. Faizal stacks odds by trading when liquidity and participation are highest.
- Focus on London open to NYC lunch for FX/indices; avoid minutes around Tier-1 data unless it’s part of the plan.
- Prefer mid-week (Tue–Thu) for swing initiation; let Monday set the map and Friday manage exits, not fresh risk.
- Allow 15–30 minutes post-news for spreads and direction to stabilize before considering entries.
- If ADR is already 1.2× by noon local market time, shift from breakout ideas to mean-reversion or stand down.
Risk, Size, and Invalidation
This is where staying power comes from. Faizal sizes to the stop, not to a feeling, and treats invalidation as a binary line.
- Pre-define risk per trade (e.g., 0.5R–1R); never increase size to “make back” losses.
- Place stops where the idea is objectively wrong (structure break, VWAP cross with close, or HTF level loss), not at round numbers.
- Adjust position size so the distance to invalidation equals your risk budget; never drag stops closer just to fit size.
- If price tags your level and closes beyond it, exit without debate; only re-enter on a fresh signal, not revenge.
Entry Triggers & Execution
Ideas don’t pay; executions do. Faizal uses simple, confirmable triggers so entries are clean and repeatable.
- Use one of three triggers: (1) reclaim/loss of a key level with close, (2) pullback to value (VWAP/AVWAP) with reaction, (3) momentum shift (higher low/lower high) after a stop-run.
- Enter on the candle close, not mid-bar, unless your plan explicitly uses limit orders at pre-marked levels.
- If slippage exceeds your tolerance band (e.g., >20% of stop distance), pass—the trade’s math changed.
- Never “average down” on failures; scale only into strength after partial profits lock in risk-free.
Trade Management & Exits
Faizal’s edge compounds by banking partials and letting the rest work. Exits are scheduled, not improvised.
- Take first profits at 1R–1.5R to pay risk; move stop to breakeven only if structure confirms (e.g., higher low forms).
- Trail behind swing structure or a session VWAP band; avoid trailing so tight that normal noise kicks you out.
- If the market stalls at your first target with slowing tape, trim again rather than “hope” for the runner.
- Hard rule: no new ads after New York lunch unless a higher-timeframe breakout is in progress.
Weekly Workflow & Journaling
The journal is an operating system, not a diary. Faizal reviews before he trades, so he doesn’t repeat last week’s mistake at full size.
- Sunday: map HTF levels, note catalysts, set A-setup alerts; delete any level not touched in 30 days unless HTF.
- Daily pre-market: 10-minute review of yesterday’s trade images and notes; write one fix for today.
- After each trade: screenshot entry/exit with reasons, grade setup quality (A/B/C), and record R-multiple and slippage.
- Friday close: score the week (process score first, P&L second) and choose one behavior to improve next week.
Psychology & Frequency Control
Less can be more. Faizal protects his equity curve by limiting decisions when his edge is thin.
- Cap weekly trades (e.g., 5 tickets). If you hit the cap, shift to study mode; your best trades will survive scarcity.
- Use a “state check” scale (1–5). At 1–2, only manage existing risk; at 3–4, new trades allowed; at 5, stop for the day.
- If you break a rule, impose a same-day timeout; the point is to cut compounding errors, not to punish.
- Keep a “do nothing” button visible—passing is a valid, profitable action when the tape is messy.
Instruments & Conditions
Faizal favors instruments where his patterns are most reliable and costs are predictable. You don’t need 20 markets—just a few that behave.
- Maintain a focused watchlist (e.g., 2–3 FX majors or 1–2 indices + 1 commodity) with known session behaviors.
- Avoid low-liquidity hours and exotic pairs where spreads distort stops and targets.
- Match strategy to instrument microstructure: trend-pullback for clean movers, mean-reversion for range-bound pairs.
- If an instrument’s average spread > 10% of your typical stop, it’s off the list for that session.
Metrics That Matter
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Faizal tracks a handful of stats that directly link to edge and discipline.
- Process: % of A-setups taken vs. total trades; aim >60%.
- Quality: average R per A-setup vs. B/C; cut B/C if they dilute >30% of weekly R.
- Risk: max intraday drawdown (keep <1.5R) and weekly drawdown (keep <3R).
- Consistency: win rate by day-of-week and session; concentrate size where your data proves an edge.
Playbook Rules of Engagement
This is the “carry card” that keeps the whole approach tight in real time. When in doubt, read this and act accordingly.
- No bias, no trade: if HTF bias is unclear, reduce size or stand down.
- One setup, one trigger, one exit plan—decide before entry.
- Protect first, grow second: pay yourself at 1R and let structure guide the remainder.
- End the day green in process, not just P&L: if rules were followed, it’s a good day—size up next time, not this time.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, adaptive stops, never average losers
Faizal keeps the math front and center: pick a fixed R per trade and defend it like a goalie. He starts from invalidation, not hope—size comes after the stop, never the other way around. If the stop needs to be wider because volatility is up, Faizal simply reduces position size to keep R constant. That way, a bad read costs the same whether the day is quiet or wild.
He’s ruthless about “never average losers,” because adding to pain turns a dent into a crater. When the thesis breaks, Faizal exits, logs it, and waits for a fresh signal instead of negotiating with a red number. Partial profits pay the risk early, but only after the structure confirms—no premature tinkering. The result is consistency: the downside is capped, the upside compounds, and discipline becomes the edge.
Trade the Regime: Match strategy to volatility, not predictions.
Faizal starts every session by asking one question: what regime is the market in right now—trending, ranging, or transitioning? He doesn’t guess direction; he classifies conditions and picks the play that fits. In a trend, Faizal waits for pullbacks to HTF levels or VWAP reclaims; in ranges, he favors fades back to value. When volatility expands, he widens stops and cuts size; when it compresses, he tightens risk and expects smaller targets.
He treats regimes as temporary, not permanent, so rules shift the moment the tape changes character. If ATR spikes midweek, Faizal ditches mean-reversion ideas and rides momentum; if ranges shrink, he stops chasing breakouts. News events can flip regimes fast, so he pauses 15–30 minutes after releases to let spreads normalize. The goal is simple: align your tactics with the current environment so your edge isn’t fighting the market’s mood.
Diversify by Edge: Underlying, time frame, and strategy, not ticker.s
Faizal doesn’t spread himself thin across twenty symbols; he spreads his edge across different ways to win. That means choosing a small basket he knows well, then diversifying by playbook—trend pullback, failed breakout, or mean-reversion—across multiple time frames. He’ll hold a swing on the higher chart while harvesting a day-trade in the same direction on the lower chart, treating them as separate bets with separate rules. The point isn’t more markets; it’s more independent shots that don’t all fail for the same reason.
He also diversifies by duration, so one bad intraday read doesn’t sink the week. When volatility is high, Faizal leans on momentum setups; when it’s calm, he favors range plays with tighter targets. If costs or spreads make an instrument awkward, he drops it instead of forcing correlation into the book. This way, the risk budget works harder: multiple small, uncorrelated edges stacking into a smoother equity curve.
Mechanics Over Opinions: Predefined entries, exits, and management beat narratives
Faizal Banks treats opinions like background noise and mechanics like the main event. Before the session, he writes the entry trigger, stop location, first take-profit, and add/trim rules for each setup. When price hits the trigger, he executes on the candle close—no “wait and see” edits. If the stop prints, he’s out instantly and logs the reason without rewriting the plan mid-trade.
He manages winners by schedule, not vibes: partial at 1R–1.5R, stops to structure only after confirmation, and trails behind swing points or VWAP bands. If slippage or spreads change the math, he cancels the order rather than force a compromised fill. News, Twitter, and chat room narratives never override the card; only price action can upgrade or kill the idea. That’s how Faizal keeps the edge intact—rules first, storytelling never.
Process Discipline: Journal, review, and limit trades to protect psychology
Faizal Banks treats the journal like an operating system, not a diary. He reviews screenshots and notes before he opens charts so yesterday’s mistakes don’t sneak into today’s decisions. If he breaks a rule, he forces a same-day timeout to stop error compounding. Weekly, Faizal grades process first and P&L second, so size only increases when behavior deserves it.
He also caps the number of tickets per week to prevent “idea sprawl” and decision fatigue. When his state-of-mind score is low, Faizal manages existing risk but won’t initiate new positions. One clean A-setup beats three B-setups, so he engineers scarcity to keep quality high. The net effect: calmer execution, fewer forced trades, and an equity curve driven by discipline instead of dopamine.
In the end, Faizal Banks’ edge isn’t a secret indicator—it’s a tight operating system. He sizes every position to a fixed R, lets volatility dictate stop distance (not hope), and refuses to average into pain. Sessions and timing matter: he does his best work when London hands the baton to New York and the market is actually moving, with mid-week often providing the cleanest reads. When conditions change, he changes with them; regime first, tactics second.
His execution is deliberately boring: predefined triggers, binary invalidation, scheduled partials, and structure-based trailing. The journal is the engine—review before the open, annotate after the close, then grade process over P&L so size only grows when behavior deserves it. He diversifies by edge—setup, timeframe, and duration—rather than piling into more tickers, and he caps weekly tickets to keep quality high. Put simply: protect downside with rules, compound upside with patience, and let one A-setup do more work than five B-ideas.
