Table of Contents
In this interview, the Titans of Tomorrow host sits down in Toronto with a Montreal-based trader and coach known for blending hard technicals with pragmatic trading psychology. The conversation cuts through the usual self-help fluff and ad-driven hype, focusing on what actually moves the needle for a working trader—how to execute under pressure, deal with prop-firm constraints, and keep your edge when life is messy, not a lab. It’s a grounded back-and-forth that matters because it shows how real-world context—not a vacuum—shapes performance over months and years.
You’ll learn a beginner-friendly strategy for marrying rules with mindset: why “follow the plan” breaks down without a plan you can actually follow, how to size and pace trades so psychology doesn’t spiral, and how to think in probabilities when prop-firm deadlines tempt you to force setups. Expect clear takeaways on loss streaks, identity traps, and staying power—plus practical tweaks like journaling, objective data checks, and session-based frequency that make discipline doable day-to-day.
Abdu Trades Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Market Thesis & Setup Selection
Before any chart work, get clear on what you’re trying to exploit—trend continuation, mean reversion, or a catalyst-driven impulse. This section lays out how to build a simple, falsifiable thesis so you’re never guessing once the session opens.
- Start each week with a one-line bias per market (e.g., “GU bullish above 1.2900; buy pullbacks into prior day’s value”).
- Only trade two playbook setups: trend pullback (with structure) and failed breakout (mean reversion). Ignore everything else.
- For trend pullbacks, require: higher-high/higher-low structure on H4/H1, pullback to a prior day level (PDH/PDL, VWAP, value area, or 20/50 EMA cluster), and a momentum pause on M5.
- For failed breakouts, require: sweep of a key swing or Asian high/low, quick reclaim back inside range, and a first pullback to the breach level.
- If you can’t state the invalidation in one sentence, you don’t have a setup—skip it.
Timeframes, Levels & Tools
Your tools should make decisions faster, not louder. Use higher timeframes to define context and a single execution timeframe to trigger.
- HTF map: Weekly/Daily for direction and key swing levels; H4/H1 for structure and value zones.
- Execution: M5 for entries, M1 only for fine-tuning stops—never to create new bias.
- Mark exactly three types of levels: previous day high/low, session VWAP, and last impulse base. No more than 8 lines on the chart.
- News filter: if a high-impact release hits within ±15 minutes of your signal, stand down unless your stop is already at breakeven.
Risk & Position Sizing
Sizing is how you survive long enough for edge to show up. Keep risk constant, let R multiple do the heavy lifting.
- Fixed fractional risk: 0.5% per trade when conditions are normal; 0.25% on NFP/CPI weeks; 0.75% only after two green weeks in a row.
- Hard daily loss stop: 1.5% or three trades—whichever comes first. Shut down platforms when hit.
- Max exposure: two concurrent positions total; correlated pairs count as one.
- Initial stop goes beyond the invalidation structure (e.g., below last higher low for longs) plus a small buffer (0.5× ATR(14) on M5).
- Never widen stops. If structure breaks, exit—no exceptions.
Entry Triggers & Timing
Entries should be boring and repeatable. This section keeps you from improvising when price gets noisy.
- Trend pullback trigger: bullish/bearish engulfing or break-retest on M5 at your pre-marked level; no candle, no entry.
- Failed breakout trigger: sweep → close back inside range → first pullback to the breach. Enter on limit at the level or on the first inside bar break.
- If price runs 1R before tagging your level, cancel the order—don’t chase.
- Only take the first or second valid signal per setup per session; pass on the third.
Trade Management & Exits
Good trades are managed, not micromanaged. Define exit logic before you click buy/sell.
- First scale at +1R (25–33% off) when structure is still intact; move stop to entry only after the first scale.
- Target zones: opposing HTF level, prior day value edge, or measured move equal to the last impulse.
- If momentum stalls and prints a two-bar reversal against your position at a pre-marked level, take another 25–50% off.
- Trail using structure: move stop under/over each newly confirmed swing once price makes +1.5R.
- If a surprise high-impact headline hits and spread widens beyond average, flatten to core (25–33%) and re-assess.
Session Planning & Frequency
Frequency kills more traders than bad analysis. Fewer, higher-quality reps lead to consistent curves.
- Two sessions per day max (London and/or NY); if you trade London, skip the first 5 minutes to avoid opening noise.
- Daily trade cap: three attempts total; if first trade wins ≥1.5R, you may take one more only if A+ quality.
- Weekly quota: 8–12 total trades. If you hit 12 before Friday, you’re done for the week.
- Mondays are scouting days: half size on all trades until one clean read confirms your weekly bias.
Prop-Firm & Rule-Bound Adjustments
If you’re trading with daily drawdown limits or equity trailing rules, you need extra guardrails.
- Reduce per-trade risk by 30–50% on accounts with daily drawdown; extend targets to keep the same weekly R goal.
- No same-candle re-entries on prop accounts; wait for fresh structure to form.
- If equity drawdown approaches 60% of daily max, stop for the day—protect the account status over the trade idea.
- Schedule verification phases on low-vol weeks (no major central bank decisions).
Psychology: Pressure-Proof Execution
You won’t out-willpower your nervous system; you’ll out-process it. Make actions binary and pre-decided.
- Pre-commit: write the entry, stop, target, and conditions for scratch before placing the order. If any change mid-trade, flatten.
- Two-breath reset before each click: inhale 4s, hold 2s, exhale 6s—then execute or cancel.
- After two losses in a row, step away for 15 minutes and re-mark levels; only resume if the HTF thesis still stands.
- No PnL on screen during execution; show only R multiple and price.
Data, Journaling & Review
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Keep a lightweight journal that forces honest stats.
- Log for each trade: setup type (trend pullback or failed breakout), session, level used, R planned, R realized, reason for exit, screenshot before/after.
- Weekly review: compute win rate, avg win/loss, expectancy, and most profitable hour. Kill the bottom 20% of patterns by expectancy.
- Tag emotions (calm, rushed, hesitant) and correlate to outcomes; if “rushed” tags exceed 10% of trades, drop to one session/day next week.
- Build a 20-trade sample before changing any rule; then change one variable at a time.
Playbook: Trend Pullback (Continuation)
This is the bread-and-butter move in a trending market—simple rules, clean structure.
- Context: D1/H4 uptrend with higher lows; price pulls back into prior day value edge or 20/50 EMA cluster.
- Confirmation: M5 prints a pause (inside bar or small doji) then an engulfing in trend direction.
- Entry: on break of the engulfing high/low or limit at the retest of the level.
- Stop: below/above last M5 swing + 0.5× ATR(14).
- Targets: first scale at +1R; final at next HTF swing or measured move equal to the prior impulse.
- Invalidation: loss of structure on H1 (lower low for longs/ higher high for shorts).
Playbook: Failed Breakout (Mean Reversion)
When price fakes out beyond a key level and snaps back, exploit the trapped side.
- Context: range-bound day or grind trend with obvious prior high/low.
- Trigger: sweep of the level → close back inside the range on M5 → first pullback to the breach.
- Entry: limit at the swept level or market on the first inside-bar break back into range.
- Stop: beyond the extreme of the sweep + buffer.
- Targets: VWAP, mid-range, or opposite range edge; scale at +1R, trail behind M5 swings.
- Invalidation: acceptance (two M5 closes) outside the swept level.
Risk-On/Risk-Off & News Play
Handle macro impulses without gambling on them. The goal is survival, not hero calls.
- Pre-label days with major releases; if trading them, cut size in half and widen stop by 1.2× while keeping R constant by reducing position.
- If already in a winner pre-news, take a partial and lock to entry; if flat, trade only the post-news first pullback into a level, never the spike.
- Avoid opening fresh positions within 5 minutes before/after tier-1 releases unless it’s a verified A+ playbook setup.
Personal Ops & Environment
Your environment should remove friction from following rules. Make it easy to do the right thing.
- Pre-market checklist done 30 minutes before session: bias line, levels marked, news times, risk set, alerts placed.
- One screen for charts, one for journal; hide social feeds and PnL.
- End-of-day: export screenshots, tag trades, update stats, and set alerts for tomorrow’s levels—15 minutes, non-negotiable.
- Sleep 7+ hours on trading days; if <6 hours, trade half size or skip London entirely.
Size Risk First: Let Position Sizing Drive Every Trade
Abdu Trades hammers home that edge dies without fixed risk. He starts every idea by locking the loss—never the gain—so his emotions have nothing to negotiate with mid-trade. Before looking for entries, he chooses a standard R (like 0.5% of equity) and commits to it for the entire session. That way, good days compound cleanly and bad days stay survivable.
He also keeps size responsive to market volatility, not his confidence. If ATR or implied volatility expands, Abdu Trades cuts contract size to keep the same dollar risk per trade. When conditions are quiet, he scales size up cautiously but never exceeds the preset daily loss cap. The goal is boring consistency: same risk, same playbook, repeatable outcomes—no hero trades, no death spirals.
Use Volatility Buckets To Allocate, Not Your Feelings
Abdu Trades groups the market into simple “volatility buckets” so allocation is mechanical, not emotional. He checks ATR or a comparable range metric each morning, tags the day as Low, Medium, or High vol, and assigns a predefined position fraction to each bucket. That means a Low-vol day might allow closer stops and slightly bigger size, while High-vol days force smaller size and wider protection. The key is that the bucket decides, not the mood of the moment.
Abdu Trades also ties targets and management to the same buckets, so expectations match the tape. In High vol, he looks for faster partials and accepts slippage as the cost of staying alive; in Low vol, he lets winners breathe and avoids overtrading chop. If the bucket shifts mid-session—say, volatility spikes on a surprise headline—he instantly reclassifies and adjusts size on new trades. This keeps his equity curve stable and his decision-making calm when others are guessing.
Diversify By Instrument, Strategy, And Timeframe To Smooth Equity
Abdu Trades spreads risk across instruments and setups so no single market can wreck his week. He rotates among a small basket—like majors, gold, and indices—only when each offers a clear A+ setup, so correlations don’t blindside him. He pairs a continuation playbook with a mean-reversion one, ensuring he has something to do in both trending and ranging conditions. This diversification isn’t random; it’s pre-planned so his overall exposure reflects opportunity, not boredom.
Abdu Trades also staggers timeframes to smooth the equity curve. He might frame bias on the daily, structure on H1/H4, and execute on M5, while keeping a separate, slower swing book with independent rules. If one book hits drawdown, the other can still perform, reducing emotional overreaction. The result is a portfolio of edges—different markets, different mechanisms, different clocks—working together so variance stays tolerable and consistency stays possible.
Trade The Mechanics: Rules, Checklists, And Repeatable Triggers
Abdu Trades treats execution like a pilot—no checklist, no takeoff. He pre-writes entry, stop, and target before clicking, then waits for a repeatable trigger at a pre-marked level. If the market doesn’t print the trigger, he passes without debate. The point is to trade conditions, not predictions, so the rules do the heavy lifting when emotions spike.
He limits himself to the first or second valid signal; the third is auto-skip to avoid chop. If price runs a full R without tagging his level, the order is cancelled—no chasing. Stops sit beyond structural invalidation and are never widened mid-trade; partials and trails are pre-defined. After two consecutive losses, Abdu Trades steps away, re-marks levels, and resumes only if the higher-timeframe thesis still stands.
Favor Defined Risk; Avoid Undefined Risk In Volatile Regimes
Abdu Trades is ruthless about keeping risk capped when markets get jumpy. He never enters without a hard stop beyond structural invalidation and forbids widening it—if structure breaks, he’s out. No martingale, no averaging down, and no “it’ll come back”; he sizes the position so the pre-set loss is tolerable and then lives with the outcome.
When volatility expands, Abdu Trades tightens the playbook further. He cuts size, widens stops only to fit structure (not to “survive”), and takes quicker partials to bank realized R. He avoids undefined-risk behaviors like chasing gaps, holding through tier-1 news without room, or selling naked optionality; if he can’t cap the downside in dollars, he doesn’t take the trade. The guiding principle is simple: survive first, compound second—defined risk is the only way to do both.
In the end, Abdu Trades makes trading feel simple because he forces it to be simple: size first, structure second, execution third. He caps downside in dollars before thinking about upside, buckets volatility so allocation is automatic, and treats levels as decisions—not predictions. When the tape expands, he shrinks size and accelerates management; when it compresses, he lets winners work. Across instruments and timeframes, he spreads risk so no single idea can hijack the week, and he refuses to chase anything that hasn’t printed his trigger at a pre-marked level.
What ties it all together is a pilot’s discipline: checklists, first-or-second signal only, never widen stops, and step away after two losses to reset. He journals in R, not dollars, and kills weak patterns by expectancy, not opinion. Prop rules or not, he guards the account first and compounds second—defined risk in, undefined risk out. If you take one thing from Abdu Trades, make it this: build a playbook that your future, stressed-out self can still follow. That’s how you stay in the game long enough for the edge to show.
