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In this interview, trader and educator Etienne Crete breaks down his approach inside the Desire To Trade podcast. He’s known for making strategy simple and repeatable, focusing on practical steps you can test and run without guesswork. If you’ve ever felt lost between price action, indicators, and market phases, this chat puts it all in plain English and shows why Etienne’s perspective matters for everyday traders trying to get consistent.
You’ll learn how Etienne builds confluence for sideways markets, when to fade ranges vs. ride breakouts, and how to keep indicators like Bollinger Bands and RSI in their proper lane. He lays out a clean process—identify the market phase, read price behavior, add one simple indicator—and explains why testing your trader strategy beats copying anyone’s rules. If you want a beginner-friendly blueprint for spotting extremes, timing entries, and avoiding common traps, this piece gives you the exact thinking framework Etienne uses to trade with confidence.
Etienne Crete Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Structure First, Signals Second
Etienne Crete builds everything on a simple structure: identify the market phase, define the playing field, then take only the signals that fit. This keeps decisions clean, repeatable, and stress-free. You’re not trying to catch every move—you’re executing a tight playbook.
- Trade only when the market phase is defined as a range or trend on your anchor timeframe.
- If the phase is unclear after two full scans, skip the session—no trade is a valid trade.
- Keep the playbook to one primary setup per phase; avoid mixing rules mid-week.
Timeframes & Market Selection
He favors a higher-timeframe read to avoid noise, then executes with a clear intraday trigger. This gives you context for direction and clean entries without staring at charts all day. Consistency comes from looking at the same timeframes in the same order.
- Anchor on the 4H or Daily for phase (range vs. trend); execute on 1H or 15M.
- If the 4H and Daily disagree on phase, defer to the Daily and cut risk by 50%.
- Focus on 3–6 liquid FX pairs you know well; rotate only if volatility dries up.
The Range Confluence Setup (Primary Play)
This is Etienne’s bread-and-butter when markets go sideways: define the box, then stalk mean-reversion entries at the edges with simple confirmation. It’s built to be patient, selective, and highly testable.
- Define a range when the price touches both sides at least twice and closes back inside.
- Mark the midline (range mean) and both extremes; no trades in the middle 40% of the box.
- Use one confirmation tool only (e.g., RSI divergence or Bollinger Band touch)—never both.
- Short near the top third only after a rejection candle closes back inside; long near the bottom third after a similar rejection.
- If the price closes outside the box and holds for two bars on the anchor timeframe, treat the range as broken and stand down.
Fine-Tune Filters for Ranges
Small filters remove the worst trades and keep you focused. These are mechanical and easy to backtest.
- Avoid fresh entries within 30 minutes of a high-impact news event; widen stop by 1× ATR if already in.
- Require at least 1.2× ATR (anchor timeframe) of room to the midline before taking a fade.
- If spread > 20% of stop size, skip the trade—execution quality matters.
Trend Continuation (Secondary Play)
When the box finally breaks and holds, Etienne shifts to continuation with a moving-average structure and pullback logic. The goal is to enter where the crowd hesitates—on clean retracements into value.
- Define trend when the 20EMA > 50EMA (uptrend) or < 50EMA (downtrend) on the 4H or Daily, and price respects the 20EMA on pullbacks.
- Enter on a pullback into the value zone (between 20EMA and 50EMA) with a bullish/bearish rejection candle in trend direction.
- Skip a setup if the pullback closes beyond the 50EMA and fails to reclaim the 20EMA within two bars.
Breakout Continuation Rules
Breakouts are only valid if the market proves it. Confirmation replaces prediction.
- Treat the initial close outside the range as “stage 1”; do nothing yet.
- Enter only after a retest of the broken level holds and the next bar closes in the breakout direction.
- If the retest pierces back into the range by more than 25% of the box height, invalidate the breakout idea.
Entries: From “Maybe” to “Yes”
Entries are binary: they either match the checklist or you pass. Etienne keeps it minimal to prevent tinkering during live markets.
- One pattern per phase: rejection at range edge or pullback in trend—no hybrids.
- Entry only at level, never mid-move; place stop first, then size the trade, then click.
- If you hesitate for more than 10 seconds, pass and log “late/uncertain” as the reason.
Risk Sizing & Position Management
He sizes small, survives cold streaks, and lets the math work over many trades. The objective is longevity first, returns second.
- Risk 0.25%–0.5% per trade; max 1.0% only after three consecutive green weeks.
- Initial stop always beyond structure: outside the range by 0.25× ATR or beyond the swing that defines the pullback.
- Cap total correlated exposure at 1.0% across pairs with USD or JPY overlap.
- Move stop to breakeven only after 1R is hit and a new micro-structure swing forms in your favor.
Exits: Planned Before Entry
Exits are pre-planned, so you don’t improvise. Targets reflect the setup’s logic—mean in ranges, extension in trends.
- Range targets: first target = midline; second target = opposite third of the box; scale 50/50.
- Trend targets: first target = prior swing high/low; second target = 1.5–2.0R or trailing behind 20EMA on execution timeframe.
- If price stalls for three bars at your level and fails to progress, reduce by 50% and trail the rest.
Trade Review & Data Feedback
Etienne treats journaling like a weapon. The review loop is short, objective, and tied to the actual rules you trade.
- Log phase, setup type, confirmation used, R multiple, and reason for exit every time.
- Tag “avoidable” losses (late entry, traded the middle, broke news filter) and aim to cut them by 50% over the next 20 trades.
- Run a weekly hit-rate and expectancy check per setup; pause any setup with expectancy < 0.1R over the last 30 occurrences.
Psychology & Daily Routine
The routine is built to remove emotion: a fixed scan, a fixed checklist, and predetermined actions. You’re either following the plan or you’re done for the session.
- Pre-session: mark ranges/trend bias on 4H/D, draw levels, set alerts; no social/phone during scan.
- During session: two passes per hour max; if no alert, don’t touch charts.
- Post-session: screenshot entries/exits, record learnings in one sentence, and schedule the next day’s alerts.
Tooling & Templates
Keep tools boring and consistent so you can measure results. Fewer inputs make the playbook easier to trust.
- Chart package with templates: “4H/D Phase,” “1H Execution,” “15M Trigger”—same indicators, same colors, every day.
- Indicators: 20EMA & 50EMA, ATR(14) on anchor timeframe, and exactly one confirmation tool (RSI or Bollinger Bands).
- Alerts at range edges, trend pullback zones, and breakout retest levels—no alerts for mid-range price.
Codify Your Playbook: Mechanics First, Predictions Last
Etienne Crete is big on turning trading into a checklist, not a guessing game. He wants you to write your routine in plain steps—scan, bias, setup, trigger, risk, exit—so you know exactly what to do before a candle even prints. When the mechanics are clear, you stop “feeling it out” and start executing the same way every day. That repeatability is what trims bad decisions and makes your results actually analyzable.
Crete’s rule is simple: prediction is optional, process is mandatory. Define the market phase, define the entry criteria, define the stop and size, then let the trade run without mid-flight tweaks. If a condition isn’t met, you skip—no “maybe” trades, no exceptions. Over time, this discipline compounds into fewer dumb losses, cleaner data, and confidence that comes from following a proven playbook.
Risk Small, Size by Volatility, Survive Losing Streaks Intact
Etienne Crete hammers home that small risk keeps you in the game long enough to get paid. Instead of fixed lot sizes, he urges sizing the position to the market’s current volatility, so the same idea has consistent risk no matter the mood. That means wider stops in wild conditions with a smaller size, and tighter stops with a larger size when things are calm. The goal is durability—your worst day should feel like a paper cut, not a surgery.
Crete also treats losing streaks as a math problem, not a mindset crisis. When your equity dips or variance spikes, you cut size automatically and keep trading the process until the stats stabilize. He caps total exposure across correlated instruments so one theme can’t wreck the week, and he predefines a daily loss limit that ends the session without debate. By keeping risk tiny, letting volatility set the size, and respecting hard stops, you prevent one mistake from turning into a spiral and give your edge the runway it needs.
Range Confluence Entries: One Confirmation, Clean Levels, No Chasing
Etienne Crete treats ranges like hunting grounds with clear borders. First, you mark the box with multiple touches on both sides, then you wait for the price to tag an extreme and reject. Your job isn’t to predict the break—your job is to fade the edge when the market proves it’s still a range. One simple confirmation is enough, like a rejection candle closing back inside or an RSI divergence right at the boundary.
Once confirmed, Crete wants entry at the level, not halfway back to the mean. Stops live just beyond the range edge, so the idea is invalidated quickly if the box fails. The first profit target is the midline, with the rest left to reach the opposite third if momentum cooperates. If the price closes outside and holds for a couple of bars, you stand down and switch to trend logic. No chasing, no “almost entries,” and absolutely no trades in the mushy middle of the range.
Trend Continuation: Pullback To Value, Let Winners Run
Etienne Crete treats trends as a sequence of higher highs and higher lows that keep respecting a “value zone.” He waits for price to pull back into that zone—typically between a fast and a slow moving average—then looks for a clean rejection in trend direction. No breakout guessing, no impulse buys at highs—just buying fear in uptrends and selling relief in downtrends when value is on sale. The focus is on location first, trigger second.
Once in, Crete lets the market do the heavy lifting. He places the stop beyond the swing that defines the pullback and only trails if structure advances, never because he’s nervous. First target is the recent swing extreme, then he aims for an extension while trailing behind the fast average or fresh structure. If the price closes decisively beyond the slow average and fails to reclaim it quickly, he steps aside and reassesses. The rule set is simple: wait for value, execute at value, and let winners breathe long enough to pay for the losers.
Diversify By Pair, Setup, and Timeframe To Smooth Equity
Etienne Crete doesn’t try to squeeze every pip from one pair—he spreads edge across multiple, uncorrelated opportunities. That means running the same playbook on a small basket of liquid pairs, but never stacking highly correlated themes at once. He also diversifies by setup: range confluence when markets are boxed in, trend continuation when breaks hold, and standing down when structure is messy. The goal is to avoid the “all your eggs in one narrative” problem that wrecks equity curves.
Time diversification is part of his edge, too. Etienne Crete aligns big-picture bias on the higher timeframe, executes on a clear intraday chart, and lets alerts do the heavy lifting so trades aren’t clustered by boredom. If one timeframe is choppy, another often cleans the rea, so you still get signals without forcing them. By spreading risk across pairs, setups, and timeframes, the variance drops, the drawdowns feel manageable, and consistency becomes a byproduct of process instead of luck.
Etienne Crete’s through-line is simple: define the market you’re in, then run the setup built for that environment. When price is boxed in, he wants you trading ranges with clean borders—mark the extremes, ignore the mushy middle, and wait for price to tag an edge and reject. Build confluence with one tool, not a Christmas tree of indicators: a rejection candle back inside the box, an RSI/Stochastic shift at the boundary, or a Bollinger touch at extremes. If price closes outside and holds, stop fading and switch gears—structure always outranks opinion. The message is repetition over prediction: same scan, same levels, same trigger, every day.
When ranges break and trends take over, Etienne Crete shifts to continuation—buy pullbacks into value on uptrends, sell relief rallies on downtrends, and let structure lead the exits. Stops live beyond the swing or just outside the box; targets are logical—midline, opposite third, swing extremes, or a measured extension. Keep the risk tiny, respect confirmation, and never stack conflicting signals. Most of all, measure what you do: track the phase, the entry rule that fired, and how the trade behaved at your levels. Over time, that combo of phase-first thinking, one-confirmation entries, and rules-driven execution turns scattered “good ideas” into a durable playbook you can trust.
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