Table of Contents
Raja Banks—also known as Roger “Raja” Banks—is the outspoken trader, investor, and builder behind daily live trading streams, Magic Keys, and Dominion Markets. In this interview, he sits down to unpack how he grew from door-to-door sales and early trading setbacks into one of the most visible voices in the forex space, drawing huge audiences for NFP sessions and pushing a value-first approach over flashy marketing. If you’ve seen the clips, this is the full context: mindset, routine, risk, and why his brand endures.
In the next sections, you’ll learn the strategy pillars Raja actually uses: focusing on GU/EU, managing risk with partial closes, keeping losers smaller than winners, and scaling only when a playbook edge repeats. You’ll also see how he thinks about brokerage mechanics, why education and tools matter for longevity, and the routines that keep him consistent (gym first, business second, trades when conditions align). If you want a beginner-friendly blueprint to structure your own trading day and risk plan, you’re in the right place.
Raja Banks Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
What He Trades & Why It Works
Raja keeps his universe tight so he can recognize repeating patterns fast. This section lays out the instruments and contexts he focuses on, and how narrowing the scope creates a cleaner, more repeatable edge for retail traders.
- Focus pairs: GBPUSD, XAUUSD (Gold), GBPJPY; add EURUSD only if conditions are clean.
- Trade the London and early New York sessions; avoid low-liquidity chop between sessions.
- Prefer days with clear higher-timeframe (HTF) bias and aligned session momentum; stand down on mixed signals.
- Skip instruments when spreads spike or liquidity thins (holidays, rollover, odd-hours).
Timeframes & Bias
Before clicking anything, he builds a simple, top-down view. You’ll use HTFs to define direction and LTFs to time execution so you’re not guessing mid-move.
- Set bias on Daily → H4 → H1; execute on M15/M5 only with HTF alignment.
- A valid long bias: D/H4 making higher highs & higher lows and H1 closing above a key level.
- For shorts, invert: D/H4 lower structure, H1 closing below a key level.
- If D is sideways but H4 trends cleanly, you can trade H4 bias—but halve size.
Levels & Pre-Session Plan
The plan is written before the bell. This part shows exactly what to mark so your entries later are mechanical, not emotional.
- Mark HTF supply/demand and previous day high/low, Asia high/low, and session open.
- Draw the most recent clean consolidation box; expect a move away once a session opens.
- Identify imbalance (“fair value gaps”) or wide impulsive candles on H1/H4; target their fills.
- Define invalidations on the chart (wicks through level, full body close back inside range).
Entry Triggers (Clean Candle Logic)
Entries come from simple, repeatable candle behavior around your level—no indicator soup. You’ll wait for bodies, not just wicks, to confirm direction.
- Continuation buy: After HTF bullish bias, wait for M15 body close above the level, then buy the first shallow pullback; stop below the signal candle low.
- Break-and-retest: Break with a full-body close, then enter on the retest rejection; invalid if M15 closes back inside the broken level.
- Impulse leg + base + continuation: Enter on the first M5/M15 rejection off the base toward the HTF target.
- No entry if the candle that breaks also exhausts the range (huge candle into HTF supply/demand).
Risk Per Trade
Longevity beats bravado. This section sets fixed rules so a bad day can’t nuke your month.
- Fixed risk per setup: 0.5%–1.0% per A-setup; 0.25%–0.5% for B-setups or mixed HTF.
- Daily loss cap: -2R or -2%, whichever hits first; stop trading for the day.
- Max simultaneous exposure: Two correlated positions count as one for risk.
- Lot size derived from stop distance, not from vibes; recalc after every tweak to SL.
Trade Management (Partials & Break-Even)
Protect the downside, pay yourself on the way, and let the rest run toward the HTF target. These rules make wins consistent and losses small.
- First partial at +1R or the nearest pre-marked liquidity; move stop to break-even (BE) only after partials.
- Trail behind the last M15 swing if the trend is strong; else keep stop at BE and let structure decide.
- If M15 closes against your position at the key level, exit the remainder—no debate.
- Avoid over-managing: no trailing on M1/M3; decisions occur at M15.
News & Volatility Filters
Catalysts move price—but they can also shred sloppy entries. Here’s how to avoid getting clipped while still capturing big drives.
- 15 minutes before to 5 minutes after major releases (CPI, NFP, rate decisions): flat unless trading a pre-planned, HTF-aligned continuation after the spike.
- If spread widens >2× normal, cancel pending orders and re-price after normality returns.
- If you must trade news, use half risk, wider stop, and pre-defined partials at logical liquidity.
The “No-Trade” Rules
Knowing when not to trade is a superpower. These guardrails keep you out of low-quality flips.
- Skip when HTFs disagree (e.g., D bullish, H4 bearish) and there’s no fresh catalyst.
- Skip when the range is tiny and the session opens inside the previous day’s chop.
- Skip the third attempt at the same level if the reaction weakens each time.
- Skip after two consecutive losses—review plan, return next session.
Targets & Exits
Targets are mapped before entry, so you don’t improvise mid-trade. This part shows how to set logical destinations.
- Primary targets: prior day H/L, session H/L, unfilled imbalance edges, and HTF supply/demand.
- If the price reaches the HTF level and M15 prints a reversal close, exit the remainder.
- For gold (XAUUSD), respect $5–$10 handles and round levels; partial near those magnets.
Playbook Qualifiers (A/B/C Setups)
Labeling setups makes sizing and expectations consistent. Use this checklist to grade trades before you click.
- A-Setup: HTF aligned, clean break-close-retest, normal spreads, clear target, session momentum—risk: 1.0% (or your top tier).
- B-Setup: Minor HTF conflict or less clean structure. Risk: 0.5% with faster management.
- C-Setup: Anything outside the rules. Pass.
Session Routine
Same routine, every day, to reduce randomness. This turns trading into operations, not entertainment.
- Pre-market (15–30 min): mark levels, define bias, set alerts, pre-write “if-then” entries.
- Live: take only pre-qualified triggers; log reasons before entry.
- Post-market (10 min): screenshot entries/exits with notes; tag setup type and emotional state.
Journal & Metrics (What to Track)
Data closes the loop. These metrics tell you what to do more of and what to cut.
- Record: setup type, HTF bias, R multiple, MAE/MFE, time of day, news context.
- Weekly review: top win contributors, worst drawdown contributors; delete one losing pattern per week.
- Aim for a win rate of 45–55% with avg win ≥ 1.2× avg loss; adjust partials if that skew slips.
Mindset & Discipline
The edge only pays if you show up the same way daily. These rules keep psychology from overruling the process.
- One idea per session: take the cleanest setup; skip the rest.
- No revenge trades after a loss—close the platform for 15 minutes.
- Protect confidence: follow the daily cap and no-trade rules religiously.
Tools & Execution Environment
Keep it simple, fast, and consistent so decisions are frictionless and repeatable.
- Charting with HTF + M15/M5 only; hide lower-value indicators during execution.
- Use one-click partials and fixed hotkeys for BE moves to remove hesitation.
- Keep a checklist visible: bias → level → trigger candle → stop → target → partials → exit plan.
Scaling & Withdrawal Policy
Growth comes from increasing size only when your data proves you’re ready—and paying yourself keeps the pressure low.
- Step size every 20–30R of net profit with stable drawdown; never after a single hot streak.
- Withdraw a portion monthly to de-risk and maintain a business mindset.
- If you hit a new max drawdown threshold, cut size in half until metrics recover.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, Scale Only After Verified Edge
Raja Banks keeps it simple: risk is the first decision, not the last. He sets a fixed R amount before he even thinks about entries, so every trade has the same dollar at risk regardless of stop size. That forces discipline—big winners move the needle, small losers barely dent the equity curve. With this approach, Raja Banks can judge performance by R-multiples instead of random P&L swings and avoid the trap of “feeling” safer just because a stop is tighter.
Scaling comes only after the edge is proven in cold data, not vibes. He waits for a batch of trades to show stable expectancy and tolerable drawdowns, then nudges size up in measured steps, never during a hot streak or after a single outlier win. When volatility expands, he widens the stop and reduces the lot size so the dollar risk per trade stays constant. If he hits the daily loss cap, he stops—because protecting the next session’s mindset is part of sizing risk first.
Let Volatility Decide Allocation: Wider Stops, Smaller Size, Same R
Raja Banks treats volatility like a dial for position size, not a reason to avoid good setups. If ranges expand, he widens the stop to a logical structural level and cuts the lot size so the dollar risk (R) stays unchanged. That way, the strategy’s edge isn’t distorted by random market tempo—fast or slow, each trade still risks the same fixed amount. He measures recent range behavior first, then picks stops that survive normal chop instead of hoping price won’t wiggle.
When markets calm down, Raja Banks does the opposite: tighter structural stops, slightly larger size, same R. This keeps expectancy consistent across regimes and prevents the silent killer—overexposing during wild sessions. He won’t let spread spikes or news bursts change the risk per trade; they only change how far the stop needs to breathe. If the needed stop becomes unreasonably wide for the setup’s expected reward, he passes and waits for a cleaner structure.
Diversify by Instrument, Strategy, and Timeframe—Not Just More Trades
Raja Banks doesn’t “diversify” by jamming more tickets; he diversifies by spreading edge across uncorrelated buckets. That means mixing instruments that don’t move in lockstep, pairing a breakout playbook with a mean-reversion entry, and separating intraday scalps from structured swing holds. If GBPUSD and GBPJPY are firing, he counts them as largely correlated and limits stacking; gold might be the offset if the macro drivers differ. The goal is smoother equity, not more noise.
He also diversifies through time: London momentum setups are not the same as New York continuation trades, so they live in different risk buckets. Raja Banks pre-allocates risk to each bucket, ensuring one idea can’t drain the whole day. He keeps journals by playbook and session, cutting the worst offender rather than the entire system when drawdowns cluster. In practice, that’s fewer but better trades—each with a distinct edge, timeframe, and instrument profile.
Trade the Mechanics: Levels, Session Flows, Candle Closes—Not Predictions
Raja Banks builds his plan around what price is doing, not what he hopes it will do. He marks the prior day’s high/low, Asia range, and clear supply/demand, then waits for a session to push away cleanly. Confirmation is a body close through a level, not a wick poke, and the entry is the first controlled pullback back into the structure. If that structure breaks—like an M15 close back inside the range—he’s out, no storytelling.
He treats sessions like distinct playfields: London for expansion, New York for continuation or reversal at mapped liquidity. Raja Banks won’t fade momentum just because something feels “overbought”; he wants a mechanical signal that buyers actually paused or failed. Targets are pre-drawn magnets—prior highs/lows, imbalance edges—so exit decisions are procedural, not emotional. The mechanic’s mindset keeps him consistent: build the setup, test the fit, execute the checklist, then let the math play out.
Choose Defined Risk Setups; Journal Process, Cap Daily Losses Relentlessly
Raja Banks prioritizes defined risk above everything else—if he can’t see the invalidation on the chart, he won’t take the trade. He sets the stop where the idea is objectively wrong, sizes the position to a fixed R, and writes the exit plan before entry. If price structure changes—like an M15 close back inside the broken level—he’s out without debate. This keeps every loss pre-priced and prevents one mistake from becoming a disaster.
He couples that discipline with ruthless journaling and a hard daily loss cap. Raja Banks screenshots entries and exits, tags the setup type, and records MAE/MFE so he can refine stops and partials with data, not memory. When the daily cap is hit, he shuts it down to protect the next session’s mindset and the equity curve. The feedback loop is simple: define risk, execute the checklist, log the outcome, and adjust only what the data proves needs changing.
In the end, the playbook from Raja Banks is disarmingly simple: size risk first, let volatility set the stop and position size, and only take trades where the invalidation is obvious on the chart. He treats sessions like distinct arenas, waits for bodies to close through levels, and pays himself on the way to pre-marked targets. The rest is business discipline—fixed daily loss caps, tight execution with tools that remove hesitation, and a journal that forces improvements based on data, not memory.
Equally important is the operating model behind the trades. Raja Banks runs lean, prioritizes clean withdrawals over flashy screenshots, and separates life cash flow from trading risk so pressure doesn’t hijack decisions. He diversifies by instrument, strategy, and timeframe (not by spraying tickets), scales only after the edge proves itself over dozens of trades, and steps aside when spreads or conditions go weird. If you adopt just these habits—mechanical entries, defined risk, volatility-based allocation, session structure, and ruthless review—you’ll trade less like a guesser and more like a professional operator.
