Table of Contents
This interview features Kane—the prop-firm standout behind a $1,866,000 single payout and $2M+ on Apex—sitting down on the Words of Wisdom trading podcast to unpack how he went from tech sales and crypto losses to leading a futures trader. He’s also the co-founder of The Lab, and his story matters because it blends real risk, discipline, and repeatable process rather than hype. Expect candid notes on what it’s like to get “the text” that your bank balance just jumped seven figures, why he quit his job only recently, and how he rebuilt after FTX by focusing on clean markets and stricter routines.
You’ll learn the exact bones of Kane’s futures playbook: why he favors NQ for its clean CME data, how he limits himself to tight windows (London open and 9:30–11:00 EST), and the core model—liquidity sweep, reversal, then premium/discount targets—for quick, decisive trades. He lays out simple guardrails any beginner can copy today: one win and done, two losses and stop, trade less to avoid feeding losers, and keep a separate income so you don’t force setups. Beyond charts, Kane hits mindset hard—journaling bad trades, killing ego so being “right” never trumps protecting risk, and stepping away once the session edge is gone—so you can build a trader’s strategy that actually survives real life.
Kane Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
What He Trades and Why
Kane keeps his universe small, so decisions are fast and repeatable. He prefers clean, deep markets with consistent behavior, so he can run the same process every day without re-learning the wheel.
- Focus instrument: Nasdaq futures (NQ) as the primary “workhorse”; ES is a backup only if NQ is unusually choppy.
- Data venue: CME futures for centralized order flow; avoid fragmented CFD/crypto noise when making day-trade decisions.
- Charting stack: 1-minute and 5-minute for entries/exits; 15-minute for bias; hourly for key HTF levels.
- Session selection: London Open and New York cash open are the only windows he cares about; outside that, he’s flat.
- Max watchlist: ≤2 instruments per session to maintain A+ focus.
Daily Prep: Levels, Bias, and “No-Trade” Conditions
He shows up with a plan, not a prediction. Prep sets the “if–then” map so execution later is calm and binary instead of emotional.
- Mark the prior day high/low, overnight high/low, weekly VWAP, and the nearest clean swing high/low on the 15m/1h.
- Define directional bias: “Above prior day’s mid + holding premium zone = long bias; below and holding discount = short bias.”
- Write one sentence per scenario: “If we raid yesterday’s high and fail back inside → short to PD mid”; do the mirror for lows.
- Tag news landmines (pre-market and first hour): CPI, NFP, FOMC, PMI; if the release is within 10 minutes, stand down.
- Pre-commit a no-trade list: violent overlapping candles, five+ consecutive wick rejections, or spread widening out of norm.
Session Timing: Two Windows, Then Done
He compresses risk into the most statistically fertile times. Fewer decisions, higher quality, more energy left for tomorrow.
- London: first 60–90 minutes only; if no A+ setup prints, the session is over.
- New York: 9:30–11:00 ET; hard stop at 11:15 ET unless already managing a winner.
- “Green and gone”: If first trade hits TP, power down the platform; protect mental capital.
- If the first two trades are losses, the day ends immediately; no “fight back” attempts.
- Midday rule: No fresh entries between 11:15–13:30 ET; liquidity is thinner and trap rate climbs.
The Core Setup: Liquidity Sweep → Reversal → Target
This is the spine of his playbook. He lets price take obvious liquidity, waits for failure, then rides the mean-reversion/impulse to a measured target.
- Identify the pool: equal highs/lows, prior day extremes, session open, or a clean swing with clustered stops.
- Wait for the raid: wick through the pool with a fast rejection (impulsive wick back) or an immediate shift in micro-structure.
- Confirmation: break of minor structure on 1m/5m plus delta/footprint shift or momentum candle closing back inside the range.
- Entry: limit or stop entry on the first pullback into the origin of the rejection (last up candle before drop, or vice versa).
- Initial stop: beyond the sweep extreme by 1–1.5× the recent 1m ATR; no wider.
- First target: session VWAP or prior day mid; second target: opposite session extreme or measured move (range height x 1.0).
- If price fails to expand within 5–8 bars after entry, cut it; momentum should show up fast after a true sweep.
Risk Per Trade and Position Sizing
He treats risk like oxygen—limited and precious. The job is to survive the next 1,000 trades, not win this one spectacularly.
- Fixed dollar risk per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5% of account) with a max daily loss of 1–1.25% including fees.
- Contracts scale from risk, not conviction: size = (dollar risk) ÷ (stop distance in ticks × tick value).
- No “widening stops”; if volatility expands, reduce size instead.
- If slippage exceeds normal by 2× on entry, halve the size on the next attempt or skip the session.
- Cap total attempts per setup narrative to two; the third attempt is a rule violation.
Trade Management: Mechanical First, Discretion Second
He lets math earn the first paycheck and uses discretion only to protect it. The idea is to be predictable to yourself.
- Move stop to break-even only after partial at TP1 or a clean market structure shift in your favor.
- Trail behind 1m swing lows/highs only during strong trend candles; otherwise, keep the original plan.
- If a strong opposite impulse prints (wide close against your position) at a key level, exit the remainder—don’t “hope.”
- Time stop: if the price chops for 20–25 minutes post-entry without making a new favorable swing, close it.
- News proximity: flatten 2–3 minutes before tier-1 releases unless already partialed and risk-free.
A+ Filter: When to Pass
Not trading is a skill. He treats pass signals as performance wins, not missed opportunities.
- Skip first pullback entries if the sweep was micro (two-tick poke) rather than meaningful (clear stop run).
- Skip if spread/DOM is abnormal, iceberg behavior is erratic, or tape speed is inconsistent with your playbook.
- Skip when the setup forms directly into a higher-timeframe supply/demand that contradicts your direction.
- Skip the second session if you already hit the day’s goal in the first; compounding discipline outperforms compounding wins.
- Skip the day after a large P&L spike or drawdown; edge degrades when emotions are amplified.
Journaling: Turn Pain into Parameters
He treats journaling like changing the oil—boring, necessary, and what keeps the engine alive. Notes become rules; rules become edge.
- Log every trade with screenshots: HTF bias, the pool swept, entry candle, stop distance, and targets.
- Tag the reason for exit (TP1/TP2/structure break/time stop/news) and whether the move followed the playbook.
- Add a “should I have passed?” checkbox tied to your A+ filter; review those weekly to tighten filters.
- Weekly audit: sort by session/time, stop size, and structure type; cut the worst 10% pattern variants for the next week.
- Convert repeated mistakes into binary rules (e.g., “no entries within 3 minutes of NY open wick”); enforce with platform alerts.
Psychology: Keep Edge Bigger Than Ego
He builds emotional rules that are as explicit as his chart rules. The goal is to protect decision quality under stress.
- Morning priming: write the day’s risk cap, target, and one sentence of the plan by hand before opening the DOM.
- “One and done” or “two and through” to eliminate revenge loops; the platform auto-locks after rule triggers.
- If heart rate spikes or you feel hurry/anger, take a 5-minute walk—no exceptions.
- No P&L on screen during the trade; only price, levels, and structure matter.
- After a win, enforce a 10-minute cool-down before even considering a second setup.
Scaling and Payout Mindset
Big days come from normal days done well. He treats scaling like changing gear, not a personality change.
- Size scales only after 20+ trades at the current risk with >55% win rate and >1.4R expectancy.
- Increase risk by 10–15% increments, never doubling; maintain the same stops and targets.
- Withdrawals/payouts are scheduled (e.g., biweekly/monthly) regardless of streaks to reset attachment.
- Keep a separate income stream so trading decisions never hinge on “needing” today’s profit.
- Any week that hits max drawdown triggers a size cut by one step until stats recover.
The Two-Rule Failsafe (In Case Everything Else Slips)
When stress is high, simple wins. He uses a hard guardrail that catches almost all damage before it snowballs.
- Rule 1: Stop trading for the day after two consecutive losses or −1% equity—whichever comes first.
- Rule 2: Stop trading immediately after the first full TP winner; review, journal, and protect confidence for tomorrow.
Size Risk First: Fixed Dollar, Volatility-Adjusted Position Counts
Kane starts by fixing risk in dollars before even thinking about entries, and it shows in how clean his execution is. He treats stop distance as a variable and position size as the lever, so each trade risks the same cash amount regardless of volatility. That means a wider stop on a volatile session simply gets fewer contracts, while a tighter stop earns more. By keeping the dollar risk constant, Kane makes outcomes comparable and removes the urge to “feel” conviction into size.
He then layers volatility into the equation, measuring recent range or 1-minute ATR to translate market noise into position counts. If volatility doubles, size halves—no debate—so his equity curve doesn’t hinge on the wildest days. Kane also sets a hard daily loss cap that includes slippage and fees, stopping the bleeding before psychology unravels. The result is a durable sizing framework that lets skill—not randomness—drive P&L over hundreds of trades.
Trade What’s Liquid: Diversify by Underlying, Strategy, and Timeframe
Kane keeps his core in highly liquid markets, so fills are clean and slippage is predictable. He diversifies horizontally by underlying—NQ first, ES as backup—not to “chase variety,” but to avoid single-instrument regime risk. Kane also runs a simple playbook of setups instead of dozens of half-baked ideas, so each strategy has data behind it. When one instrument goes into grind mode, he shifts focus rather than forcing signals where they don’t exist.
He diversifies vertically by timeframe: a higher-timeframe bias, an intraday trigger, and a tactical entry give him three chances to be wrong without blowing the trade. Kane treats diversification as correlation control, not collection; anything that moves together is counted as one risk. He limits concurrent exposure so two trades that echo each other don’t double his danger. Most importantly, Kane only presses size when liquidity, volatility, and his setup all align—otherwise, he’s flat and patient.
Rules Over Predictions: Entry Triggers, Time-Stops, and Max-Loss Cutoffs
Kane doesn’t guess direction; he obeys rules. His entries fire only after a clear trigger—like a liquidity sweep and structure break—so he’s reacting, not forecasting. Each setup is prewritten as an if–then statement, which makes the decision binary in live conditions. If the exact criteria don’t show, he passes without negotiation. That keeps him from “averaging into a feeling” and preserves his best weapon: patience.
Once in, Kane hands control to time-stops and price-stops so he can’t rationalize staying in dead trades. If momentum doesn’t appear within a handful of bars, he exits; if a hard max-loss hits for the day, he powers down. He never widens stops or seeks redemption; the platform rules shut him off before emotions take the wheel. By letting rules police behavior, Kane ensures edge comes from repeatable mechanics—not from being right about the future.
Define Your Risk: Spreads, Stops, and No-Martingale Scaling Ever
Kane starts every trade by defining the worst-case dollar loss and locking it in with a hard stop. He places stops just beyond the sweep extreme—typically 1–1.5× recent 1-minute ATR—so randomness has room but disaster doesn’t. Targets are pre-mapped in R-multiples, which makes every decision after entry mechanical. If the structure invalidates or momentum fails to appear within a few bars, Kane cuts it—no explanations needed.
He treats spreads and slippage as part of risk, not afterthoughts, sizing down when the tape gets jumpy. Scaling is never a martingale; Kane only adds after TP1, when the trade is effectively risk-free and structure strengthens in his direction. If a big opposite impulse prints at a key level, he’s out—no “it might come back.” A strict daily loss cap and platform lockout backstop the plan so one bad idea can’t snowball into a bad day.
Daily Process Discipline: Two Sessions, Two Strikes, Then Power Down
Kane runs a tight daily routine because structure beats mood. He limits himself to two windows—London and the New York cash open—so he’s never hunting in dead zones. If he takes two losses, he closes the platform and walks; the day is done by rule, not by feelings. When he hits TP on the first trade, he’s “green and gone,” preserving confidence and focus for tomorrow.
He bakes in small rituals to keep execution sharp: pre-market mapping, a one-sentence plan, and a hard stop at 11:15 ET. Kane journals screenshots immediately after each session to turn mistakes into new filters before they repeat. He hides P&L during live trades so decisions follow the playbook, not the scoreboard. And he enforces a cool-down after winners to avoid the “bonus round” impulse that ruins great mornings.
Kane’s core lesson is that process beats prediction. He fixes dollar risk first, sizes by volatility, and only trades when his prewritten if–then conditions trigger after a clear liquidity sweep. That one-two of defined risk and mechanical entries removes “feel” from the equation, so his edge comes from repetition, not hero calls. Add a tight session box—London and the first 90 minutes of New York—and his day becomes a simple game: find one A+ setup, get paid, and step aside.
He treats diversification as correlation control, not a collection hobby. NQ is the workhorse, ES the relief pitcher, and each setup is the same model across timeframes: sweep, reversal signal, then measured targets like VWAP, prior day mid, or the opposite extreme. Management is equally rule-driven: if momentum doesn’t show within a few bars, he’s out; if a daily loss cap or two-strike limit hits, platforms lock, and the day ends. The punchline is boring in the best way—journal every trade, turn mistakes into binary filters, scale slowly after a proven sample, and protect mental capital by being “green and gone.” Follow those guardrails and you don’t need to predict tomorrow—you just need to show up and execute the same profitable behaviors again.
