Table of Contents
This interview features Saul Lokier—longtime forex trader and operations lead at The5%ers—digging into what actually gets traders funded and keeps them funded. He explains why their programs prioritize risk control over flashy targets, why tight time limits push traders into bad behavior, and how realistic leverage and consistency metrics separate durable pros from lucky streaks.
In this piece, you’ll learn Saul Lokier’s practical playbook: start small with your own capital to build accountability, then scale into prop funds; focus on risk first, not “must-hit” profit targets; use sensible leverage; and track performance with habits that compound—community, accountability, and meticulous journaling. You’ll also see how The5%ers’ evaluation favors steady performance (e.g., position counts and drawdown-aware goals) over gimmicks, plus Saul’s candid take on scaling psychology as numbers grow, so you can stay consistent when it matters.
Saul Lokier Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Why Saul’s approach works
Saul Lokier runs a prop-firm trading group and has spent years analyzing thousands of trader accounts. His edge isn’t a flashy indicator—it’s a system for staying consistent under rules that most traders find suffocating.
- Aim for steady equity growth over “big win” spikes—your track record should look like a staircase, not a cardiogram.
- Cap risk per idea at 0.25%–0.5% of account; only stretch to 0.75% when volatility and your stats justify it.
- Predefine maximum daily drawdown (e.g., 2%) and a weekly loss stop (e.g., 4–5%); when hit, you’re done for that period.
- Keep average winners at least equal to average losers; prioritize win-rate stability over chasing extreme R multiples.
- Trade fewer, better setups; no “quota trading” to fill a day.
The risk framework he expects funded traders to follow
Prop accounts live and die by drawdown control. Saul’s framework bakes in conservative per-trade risk, hard daily stops, and consistency checks that mirror evaluation rules.
- Per-trade risk: 0.25% baseline; never exceed 0.75% without statistical proof.
- Daily loss limit: 2% hard stop; once reached, flatten and log the day.
- Overall max loss: size so that three losing days in a row can’t breach firm limits.
- Position sizing: compute lots/contracts from stop distance; never “fit” stops to size.
- No trading during major red-flag news if your plan shows performance degradation there.
Set up selection: A+ only
Saul filters hard for quality. If your past 50 trades show two setups carry the account, you don’t dabble in the other five. Track, prune, and concentrate.
- Maintain a live leaderboard of setups (win rate, avg R, drawdown stretch).
- Trade only top-2 setups during funded challenges; treat the rest as “research” offline.
- Require three confluences minimum (trend condition, level, trigger) before any order.
- If the stop must be abnormally wide, reduce the size—do not widen the risk.
- When in doubt, pass; “not losing” preserves more funding than “maybe winning.”
Execution: the “scale-in with control” technique
Saul teaches controlled scaling, so size comes from confirmation, not hope. Add when price proves you right and keep total risk inside the original plan.
- Start with half-size on the initial trigger; risk equals your normal per-trade cap.
- Add one third of size after first structure confirmation (e.g., break-and-hold); move stop to blended level to keep total risk unchanged.
- Add final tranche only if momentum persists and R: R stays ≥ 1:1 from blended entry.
- Never add to a loser; scaling is a reward for confirmation, not a rescue.
- Trail under/over the last confirmed swing; partials at 1R and 2R, let the remainder run to structure.
Trade management: mechanical, not emotional
Funding dies from hesitation and meddling. Saul’s rules keep management objective and pre-programmed.
- One-minute pre-trade checklist (trend, level, trigger, stop, size, news, correlation).
- Hard stops are always in the book; if slipped, reduce next trade’s risk by half for the day.
- If trade goes −0.5R immediately, reassess context; if thesis is invalidated, exit—don’t “hope.”
- Bank partials at predefined R levels; never pay yourself randomly.
- If you take three trades in a row off-plan, terminate the session and journal.
Passing and keeping funding: build for the rulebook
Prop evaluations reward consistency, minimum active days, and position discipline—not home runs. Build a plan that meets those metrics by design.
- Work backward from the firm’s daily and total drawdown to set your per-trade risk.
- Hit a modest daily profit cap (e.g., 1–1.5%); stop trading once reached to preserve edge and psychology.
- Meet minimum trading-day rules with micro-risk days when conditions are poor; don’t force size.
- Keep concurrent positions correlated ≤ 1.5 (e.g., don’t load EUR-heavy baskets).
- Avoid restricted behaviors (e.g., certain news spikes, grid martingale, hedging rules) outlined by your firm.
Psychology and scaling up
As size grows, the same setup “feels” different. Saul’s answer is pre-commitment—automated limits, smaller clip size, and process rituals that don’t scale anxiety.
- When scaling account size, cut per-trade risk in half for the first 20 trades; restore only after equity makes new highs.
- Use a fixed pre-market routine (review, visualize, simulate one trade) to normalize pressure.
- Cap number of live decisions per session (e.g., three A+ attempts max).
- If equity is 3-3Ron the week by Wednesday, implement a “defense mode” playbook (half risk, A+ only).
- Schedule a weekly no-trade day for deep review; growth comes from the notebook, not extra clicks.
Journal and metrics: how Saul measures “pro trader”
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. He focuses on drawdown depth, recovery time, and setup-level performance rather than vanity stats.
- Track three core curves: balance, drawdown, and risk-utilization (risk taken vs. allowed).
- Record setup ID, context, confluences, stop distance, size, R multiple, and management notes.
- Flag any day you broke a rule; subtract 0.5R from the weekly score per violation.
- Compute “consistency score”: (profitable days ÷ total active days) with target ≥ 55–60%.
- Review losers first; write the specific rule that would have prevented each.
Build your playbook like a funded desk.
Saul’s background running a prop brand means he thinks in playbooks, not tips. Treat your trading like a small desk with enforceable rules and auditable logs.
- Keep a one-page Playbook: market conditions you trade, setups you allow, risk ladder, and kill-switches.
- Maintain a “Do/Don’t” annex for firm-specific restrictions (news windows, EAs, hedging, VPN).
- Version your plan monthly; change one variable at a time and test for 20–30 trades.
- Require proof (10–20 tradesamples) before promoting any new setup to live risk.
- Treat evaluation phases as production—same size rules, same checklist, same stop discipline.
Size Risk First, Trade Small, Let Consistency Compound Your Edge
Saul Lokier drills this in from the start: risk is the only lever you fully control, so size it first and everything else follows. Instead of chasing big wins, he wants traders to survive the learning curve by keeping per-trade risk tiny and repeatable. When you trade small, losses become tuition rather than trauma, and your process gets the oxygen it needs to improve. That steady approach compounds faster than sporadic home runs because it protects the equity curve you’re building on.
Lokier’s litmus test is simple: if your risk feels exciting, it’s too big; if it feels almost boring, you’re in the right zone. He treats consistency like a habit stack—same risk unit, same checklist, same stop logic, every single day. The goal is to make outcomes predictable enough that execution becomes automatic and reviewable, not a coin flip fueled by adrenaline. Over time, the small, controlled decisions pile up into a durable edge that no single loss can erase.
Volatility-Based Position Sizing: Adjust Lots, Not Stops, For Survival
Saul Lokier pushes a simple rule that keeps traders alive: volatility sets your size, not your stop. Decide the technical stop where the trade is wrong, then compute position size from that distance so your risk stays constant. When ATR or average daily range expands, you cut size; when volatility contracts, you can scale it back up—always within your fixed risk per trade. This keeps your edge intact across quiet and wild markets without turning every candle into a heart attack.
Lokier warns that widening stops to “fit” a preferred lot size is just sneaky over-risking. He prefers using a volatility filter before entries, throttling down during news spikes, and only restoring size when ranges normalize. A practical routine is to tie size tiers to ATR multiples—normal size at 1× ATR, half size at 1.5×, and micro size at 2× until conditions calm. By letting volatility dictate exposure, Saul Lokier keeps the same playbook working whether markets drift or rip, and that steadiness compounds over time.
Diversify By Setup, Underlying, And Holding Duration—Avoid Correlated Pain
Saul Lokier frames diversification as a shock absorber for your equity curve—not a buzzword. He spreads risk across a small basket of A-grade setups, different underlyings, and mixed holding durations so that one bad theme can’t torch the week. If EUR strength is the day’s story, he avoids stacking EUR-heavy trades that all live or die on the same narrative. Diversification here is intentional: a momentum breakout, a mean-reversion fade, and a news-avoidance swing can coexist without moving in lockstep.
Lokier also diversifies time. He’ll pair intraday clips with slower swing attempts so P&L isn’t tied to a single timeframe’s noise. The rule is to cap total correlation: if two positions rhyme too closely, he treats them as one and cuts the combined size. He prunes overlapping exposure during high-impact news and rotates toward the setup that historically performs best in that regime. By engineering independence across setup, market, and duration, Saul Lokier reduces drawdown “clumps” and keeps the account grinding forward.
Mechanics Over Predictions: Predefine Entries, Exits, Adds, And Killswitches
Saul Lokier treats prediction as a distraction and mechanics as the real edge. Before any click, he wants the entry trigger, invalidation level, and first scale-out written down in plain language. That way, the trade is either happening or it isn’t—no hunches, no “let’s see one more candle.” He also predefines where ads can occur, so size increases only when price proves him right. The result is less energy spent guessing direction and more energy spent enforcing rules.
Exits get the same treatment: if thesis A breaks, he’s out; if structure B holds, he trails; if momentum C stalls, he takes partials. A killswitch ends the session after a rule-break or a daily loss limit—no revenge trading, no “one last try.” He insists that a mechanical checklist beats a brilliant forecast because it’s repeatable on Monday, Wednesday, and during NFP. When your mechanics run the show, emotions shrink to background noise, and consistency finally has room to compound.
Defined Risk Always: Daily Loss Caps, Weekly Max Drawdown, Hard Stops
Saul Lokier keeps it brutally simple: you survive by defining the worst case before you touch the keyboard. He sets a hard daily loss cap that ends the session the second it’s hit—no exceptions, no “one more.” A weekly max drawdown guards the bigger picture, so three bad days can’t nuke the account. Hard stops live on the order, not in your head, and they never widen to buy hope.
Lokier ties behavior to those limits. If the day’s loss cap is breached, he flattens, journals the mistakes, and comes back with half risk until equity makes a new high. If a trade tags the stop, he doesn’t “re-enter to get it back” unless the original setup resets with all criteria. He scales down during tilt, avoids stacking correlated positions that could blow the cap in one move, and treats any rule break as a session-ending event. By making risk definitions non-negotiable, Saul Lokier keeps the account eligible to win tomorrow, which is the only edge that compounds.
Saul Lokier’s core message is simple and hard to fake: build consistency first, scale later. He pushes traders to start with their own small account so they actually feel accountability, prove they can grow while managing risk, and only then seek more capital—prop funding becomes a force multiplier, not a crutch. He rejects the obsession with win rate or reward-to-risk as funding criteria; what matters is controlled drawdown and steady profitability, delivered by a strategy that fits your lifestyle and trader profile.
Lokier frames the journey as a process where early failures are normal, and progress is measured by better habits: tight stops, lower leverage, and deliberate practice. He stresses that second-attempt success rates climb because traders learn, adjust, and try again with improved discipline. The infrastructure matters, too: plug into a focused community for accountability and keep a written trading plan and journal so your strengths and mistakes are visible and fixable.
From a firm perspective, Saul draws a sharp line between fee-driven outfits and those aligned with traders’ P&L, arguing the latter model creates healthier, longer-lasting performance. He pairs that with a promise to provide a supportive environment—capital, resources, and a strong community—so traders can execute their process without gimmicks. In short, Saul Lokier’s playbook is built on accountability, risk control, and habit formation—the compounding trio that actually keeps you funded.
Related posts:
- Saul Lokier’s Trader Strategy: High-Win Scalps, Real-World Risk
- Steve Miley Trader Strategy: Futures, Prop Firms, and Safer Funding
- Trader Strategy Roundtable: Three Proven Pros on What Actually Works
- Trader Strategy with Jason Graystone: How Pros Really Build Freedom
- Kathy Lien Trader Strategy: How a Pro FX Trader Uses Fundamentals for Consistent Pips
- Trader Strategy Spotlight: From Saving Habits to Consistent Execution
- John Kurisko’s Trader Strategy: How He Uses Stochastics for Consistent Profits
- Keyflow’s trader strategy: 4-Hour PO3 Precision for Consistent Futures Trades
- Chris Vermeulen Trader Strategy: The Asset Revesting Playbook for Consistent Growth
- Trader Strategy Spotlight: How a Simple, Rule-Based Approach Built a Consistent Edge
- Casey Stubbs Trader Strategy: Simple Weekly Setups, Real Rules, Consistent Results
- Trader Strategy Breakdown: Lessons from Funding Talent’s Jessica
