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This interview features Jack Ricci—better known as RakeTrades—breaking down his path from painful losses to disciplined, repeatable execution. He’s candid, practical, and focused on what actually moves the needle for retail traders: structure, risk, and a clean read of price. If you’ve been stuck chasing alerts or overtrading, Jack’s no-fluff approach makes him the kind of trader worth listening to because he’s walked through the fire and built a framework that holds up under pressure.
In this piece, you’ll learn Jack’s core playbook: tight risk rules, simple price-action levels, a pre-market routine that filters noise, and the psychology tools he uses to avoid revenge trades. We’ll cover how he sizes positions, times entries and exits, and journals results so the strategy compounds—turning randomness into a system you can follow tomorrow morning. If you want a trader strategy that’s beginner-friendly yet battle-tested, this breakdown is your shortcut.
Jack Ricci (RakeTrades) Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Price First, Rules Always
Jack Ricci keeps the game simple: read price, define risk, execute the plan. He treats every session as a rules test, not a prediction contest, and lets structure—not opinions—decide what he does next.
- Trade only instruments and times you’ve journaled and proven (e.g., /MES 9:40–11:15 ET, /NQ 9:50–11:00 ET).
- Decide your bias from levels and the opening context; no bias = no trade.
- If price isn’t interacting with a pre-marked level or trigger, do nothing.
- One screen, one product, one setup at a time—no scanning once the bell rings.
Pre-Market Routine: Turn Chaos Into a Map
Before the open, Jack builds a clean roadmap so execution is just following directions. He marks key levels, outlines the main scenarios, and writes a short trigger plan so there’s zero guesswork later.
- Mark: prior day high/low (PDH/PDL), overnight high/low (ONH/ONL), open, VWAP, and one or two higher-timeframe levels.
- Define two scenarios (trend day vs. mean reversion) and what invalidates each.
- Pick one primary setup for the day (e.g., first pullback after range break) and shelve the rest.
- Write the trigger sentence: “If price reclaims ONH and holds above X on a 1–5m close, I buy pullback to X with stop below Y.”
Chart Setup & Levels: Keep It Minimal
The charts are stripped down so the story is obvious. Jack relies on raw candles, session levels, and a couple of context tools—anything more risks talking you out of good trades.
- Timeframes: 1m/5m for triggers, 15m/60m for context; daily only pre-market.
- Tools allowed: price, volume, VWAP, session high/low, and pre-drawn S/R; skip oscillators unless they’re in your backtested plan.
- Levels must be from obvious swing highs/lows or session references—no subjective trendlines after the open.
- If two levels are <0.25R apart, merge them into a zone to avoid false precision.
Entry Triggers: Break-and-Go or 3-Bar Pullback
He favors reactive entries: either take the first clean continuation after a level breaks, or trade a simple three-bar pullback that holds structure. Both are easy to spot and even easier to journal.
- Break-and-Go: after a level breaks on a close, buy/sell the first pullback that holds above/below that level; invalid if a candle closes back through.
- 3-Bar Pullback (trend): impulse candle → two-to-three smaller opposite candles → enter on break of the pullback high/low in trend direction.
- No limit orders “in space”: entries must be at a level or after a valid trigger close.
- If spread + slippage > 25% of planned risk, skip the trade.
Risk Per Trade & Stops: Protect the Account First
Jack’s turnaround hinged on codifying risk. Every position carries a small, predefined loss, and stops live where the idea is objectively wrong—not where it “feels” comfortable.
- Fixed risk per trade: 0.25%–0.5% of account (funded evals: risk to daily loss limit ÷ 8).
- Stop goes beyond the last structural pivot or beyond the trigger candle; never tighter than the structure.
- If the stop required >1.5x your standard R, either reduce the size or pass.
- Hard stops in the system; no “mental stops,” no widening, ever.
Daily Risk Guardrails: The Rule That Saves Careers
Session risk is capped, so one bad morning can’t wreck the month. When limits hit, he’s done—no exceptions, no “make-it-back” trades.
- Daily max loss: 1R–2R (or 40%–60% of the prop account’s daily drawdown limit).
- Max consecutive losers: 3; stop trading and review plan before the next session.
- First loss ≥ 1.5R? Reduce size by 50% for the rest of the day or stop.
- Up ≥ 2R on the day? Shift to half-size only—protect green days.
Trade Management: Move with Structure, Not Emotion
Management rules are mechanical, so emotions don’t get a vote. Jack scales out into logical targets, trails behind structure, and never lets a winner turn into a loser.
- First scale at +1R (take 30%–50% off); move stop to entry only after structure confirms (e.g., HL/LH forms in your favor).
- Second target at next session level or measured move (range height projected from the break).
- If price closes back through the breakout level, exit remainder—no hope holds.
- News protection: flatten 2 minutes before tier-1 releases (CPI, NFP, FOMC) unless your plan explicitly trades them.
A-/B-/C-Setup Filtering: Only Swing Big at A’s
Not all trades are equal. Jack tags setups by quality and scales risk accordingly so the P&L compounds on the best hands, not the mediocre ones.
- A-setup: aligned HTF bias + fresh break/retest + clean trigger; risk 1.0x baseline.
- B-setup: one element missing or messy structure; risk 0.5x baseline.
- C-setup: any doubt, any chop, any news risk—skip.
- If you log two B-setups in a row, require the third to be A-quality or stand down.
Open & First Hour: Let the Market Show Its Hand
The open is where traps happen. Jack lets the first rotations set the tone so he can trade with real information, not predictions.
- No trades first 2–5 minutes unless an A-setup from the plan appears at a major level.
- If the first 15 minutes set a wide range, prefer break-and-retest; if narrow, prepare for a trend day.
- Use opening drive direction + VWAP relationship to set bias; fades against strong drive are C-setups.
- If you don’t have a read by 10:15 ET, cut your session risk in half.
Prop/Funded Rules Translation: Play the Account You’re In
He adapts the same system to prop firm constraints by converting drawdown rules into sizing rules. The strategy stays the same; the math gets tighter.
- Compute “prop R”: (daily loss limit × 0.6) ÷ planned stop dollars = max contracts.
- Never place a trade that risks >25% of the trailing drawdown buffer.
- If you’re one trade from violating daily loss, stop and trade the next session only.
- Withdraw profits per milestone (e.g., every +10R) to reset emotional risk.
Psychology & Pace: Fewer, Better, Cleaner
Discipline is a speed limiter. Jack uses scheduled check-ins and simple breathing resets to slow the hands when the market speeds up.
- Set 30-minute alarms: “Am I following the plan? Is the next trade A-quality?”
- If heart rate spikes or you’re clicking fast, step away for 3 minutes—hands off the mouse.
- No adding to losers. Ever. Only add once at +1R with a tightened stop to preserve R.
- Quit while green rule: if the first trade is +2R, allow at most one more A-setup, then stop.
Journal & Metrics: Make the Edge Obvious
The journal is where the edge compounds. Jack tags every trade by setup, market condition, and mistake class so improvements write themselves.
- Log immediately after exit: screenshot, setup tag (A/B), reason to enter, reason to exit, emotion 1–5.
- Weekly review: top 20 screenshots, best/worst three, rule you broke most, rule you’ll enforce next week.
- Track expectancy by setup; cut any setup with negative expectancy over 30 samples.
- Build a “do-more list” (top two setups) and a “do-less list” (everything else).
Scaling Up: Size Follows Proof, Not Hope
He only sizes up after proof of edge at the current size. The ramp is slow, mechanical, and tied to drawdown rules, so growth doesn’t break discipline.
- Requirement to size up: 20R net over last 60 trades, max drawdown <6R.
- Increase size by 20% every qualifying cycle; if a -4R week occurs, revert to prior size.
- Keep the weekly risk budget constant while sizing up contracts—reduce the number of attempts if needed.
- Add a second instrument only after 3 months of profitability on the first.
Playbook Example: Long Reclaim at ONH
This is a bread-and-butter continuation that keeps you on the right side of momentum. It ties together the level, the trigger, and the management rules in a single simple pattern.
- Context: HTF up, ONH near PDH, strong opening drive above VWAP.
- Trigger: five-minute close above ONH → pullback holds ONH on 1–5m → enter on reclaim close.
- Risk: stop below pullback low (or one tick under ONH if that’s farther).
- Targets: +1R partial, next session level/PDH, trail under higher lows until a closing break.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, Hard Stops, Zero Wiggle Room
Jack Ricci starts every trade by sizing the loss, not dreaming about the win. He fixes R before entry, anchors the stop where the idea is objectively wrong, and refuses to widen it—ever. That discipline keeps emotions out and position size honest, so a bad tick doesn’t become a bad day. If the stop requires too much heat, he simply passes and waits for the next clean setup.
He also treats consistency as a math problem: same R, same process, repeat. Jack Ricci uses hard platform stops, adjusts contracts to fit the predefined risk, and won’t stack trades that overexpose the daily limit. Winners scale out by rule; losers get cut without debate. The result is a predictable curve where survival comes first and compounding has a chance to do its job.
Let Volatility Lead Position Size, Targets, And Trade Frequency
Jack Ricci lets the tape’s temperature set his risk, not the other way around. When realized intraday range expands, he cuts the size and widens stops to keep R constant; when the range contracts, he does the opposite and demands cleaner structure. This way, a 30-point NQ morning and a sleepy chop session don’t get the same aggression. Volatility also decides whether he hunts multiple A-setups or takes a single high-quality shot and logs off.
Jack Ricci builds targets from what the market is actually paying, not wishful thinking. He maps measured moves from the opening range or prior swing distance and only expects what recent volatility has delivered. If the ATR drops, he scales expectations and exits earlier; if it spikes, he gives winners room but reduces frequency to avoid overtrading. The principle is simple: volatility is the throttle—he just drives the plan at the speed the road allows.
Diversify By Underlying, Strategy, And Hold Time To Smooth P&L
Jack Ricci avoids letting one market mood dominate his month by diversifying the way he expresses edge. He mixes a primary product with a secondary that behaves differently, rotates between continuation and mean-reversion plays, and varies hold time from quick scalps to session swings. That blend keeps him from force-fitting every open into the same template. If the trend is messy, he leans on fades at defined levels; if momentum is ripping, he switches to break-and-go with scaled targets.
Jack Ricci also spreads risk across time instead of stacking the same exposure. He limits concurrent positions in correlated names, staggers entries across different triggers, and keeps a cap on total open R. When volatility compresses, he reduces the number of strategies in play; when range expands, he allows a second, uncorrelated setup to run. The goal isn’t more trades—it’s smoother equity, built from different edges that don’t all win or lose together.
Rules Over Predictions: Trade Mechanics, Level Reclaims, And Structured Exits
Jack Ricci doesn’t try to guess where the market “should” go—he waits for it to prove it. His bread and butter is the level reclaim: if the price closes back above a key level and holds, he buys the first clean pullback; if it loses and retests from below, he sells. The mechanics are tight—entry on confirmation, stop where the idea is objectively wrong, and no limit orders “in space.” By letting the market tip its hand first, he turns opinions into optionality and keeps risk defined.
Once in, Jack Ricci manages by structure, not by feeling. He scales at +1R into the next logical session level, then trails behind higher lows or lower highs until a closing violation kicks him out. If price closes back through the breakout level, he’s flat—no hope, no heroics. The result is a repeatable loop: level, reclaim, trigger, structured exit, next.
Choose Defined Risk When Messy; Cap Undefined Risk With Strict Limits
When the tape is choppy or news-heavy, Jack Ricci flips to defined-risk structures so a single wick can’t ruin the day. If he can’t anchor the idea to a clean structural stop, he simply prices the risk upfront—small size, fixed R, and an exit plan that survives slippage. In his world, uncertainty isn’t a green light for hero trades; it’s a signal to pre-package the downside and wait for clarity. That keeps him trading, not firefighting.
When he does take on any form of undefined risk, Jack Ricci boxes it in with hard guardrails—reduced size, tighter time-in-trade, and a strict daily draw cap. He won’t average down, won’t move stops, and won’t let correlated positions stack the same exposure. If volatility jumps mid-trade, he cuts to preserve R rather than hope the market calms down. The rule is simple: control the loss on entry, enforce limits in real time, and let the market prove you right before you scale.
Jack Ricci’s message is simple and relentless: protect the downside, earn the upside. He sizes every trade to a fixed R, anchors stops where the idea is objectively wrong, and never widens them. Volatility sets the tempo—when range expands, he trades fewer, wider, smaller; when it contracts, he tightens expectations and waits for clean structure. The first hour is a truth serum: let levels, VWAP, and the opening drive define bias, then act only when price confirms with a reclaim or break-and-retest. No predictions, just mechanics.
He builds smoother equity by diversifying how the edge shows up—different underlyings, both continuation and mean reversion, and varied hold times. Management is rule-driven: scale at +1R, trail behind evolving structure, and exit on a closing violation of your level. Daily guardrails prevent spiral days, while a ruthless journal turns screenshots into expectancy and cuts dead-weight setups. In messy conditions, he defaults to defined risk and caps any undefined exposure with strict limits. The net lesson from Jack Ricci: keep the plan minimal, the rules non-negotiable, and let price—not ego—decide what happens next.
