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This interview from Words of Rizdom spotlights TJR Trades—a focused, straight-talking trader sharing how he built a repeatable process from the ground up. In a short, practical conversation, he explains what actually moved the needle for him: tightening risk, structuring routines, and treating the craft like a business rather than a bet.
Read on to learn the strategy takeaways TJR uses daily: how he defines A-setups, sizes positions without second-guessing, journals trades to spot patterns, and keeps emotions in check when markets get loud. You’ll also get his notes on passing prop challenges the smart way—prioritizing survival, consistency, and execution over flashy win rates—so newer traders can copy the process, not the outcome.
TJR Trades Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Philosophy: Skill First, Money Second
TJR Trades treats trading as a craft you build—not a lottery ticket. He separates the excitement of quick gains from the daily discipline of repetition, screen time, and review. The focus is on sharpening a repeatable process so profits become the by-product.
- Commit to a minimum daily screen-time block (e.g., 90–120 minutes) focused on one market and one playbook.
- Track process KPIs: % of sessions you followed your plan, % of A-setups taken, and % of rules obeyed.
- Define success as “followed plan” rather than “made money” for the first 90 trading days.
Risk Management: Guardrails That Keep You in the Game
He leans heavily on risk discipline because emotions spike when money is at risk. Your rules must make bad days survivable and good days repeatable. Keep the downside small and known so you can return to trade the next session.
- Risk a fixed fraction per trade (e.g., 0.5%–1% of equity); never exceed a hard daily risk cap of 2%–3%.
- Pre-commit to stop trading for the day if you hit your daily loss limit or 2 consecutive full-loss trades.
- Set stops where the trade idea is invalidated, not at round numbers; do not widen stops after entry—ever.
- Take partials at 1R–1.5R if volatility is choppy; move to break-even only after structure confirms.
- No add-ons unless the trade is in profit and the structure (HH/HL or LL/LH) continues in your favor.
Set up Qualification: Only “A” Trades Get Capital
TJR emphasizes that chasing every move is emotion-driven. Filter hard so only clean, high-probability ideas survive. If the setup isn’t obvious, it’s a pass.
- Predefine an A-setup checklist (e.g., trend alignment on two timeframes, fresh level, clean risk box).
- Require confluence: higher-timeframe bias + key level + trigger (break/retest, engulf, or rejection wick).
- Enforce a minimum reward-to-risk (≥1.5R) and skip anything with crowded levels or mid-range chop.
- If you can’t explain the idea in one sentence, you don’t have a setup—stand down.
Execution Rules: Kill Hesitation, Kill Impulse
He draws a sharp line between plan and impulse. Enter decisively when the trigger hits, then let the rules work. No moving targets because of fear or greed.
- One shot per level: if stopped, do not re-enter unless a brand-new structure forms.
- Use alerts for level-to-trigger sequences to reduce FOMO clicks.
- After entry, touch stops and targets only according to your pre-written plan—no “gut” edits mid-trade.
- If you find yourself wanting to “just extend TP,” reduce the size next time and stick to the original exit logic.
Psychology & Emotion Control: Make Calm Your Edge
TJR’s biggest early battle was greed and the chase. He reframed the game around process, not outcome, to stabilize emotions. Your job is to keep your nervous system quiet enough to follow rules.
- Start each session with a 60–120 second breathing/reset routine; end with a 3-line debrief (What I planned / What I did / What I’ll fix).
- Trade a size that barely moves your heart rate; if you feel tilted, cut the size by 50% for the next 10 trades.
- Ban revenge trading: a “cool-off” timer (15–30 minutes) auto-triggers after any loss.
Investing vs. Trading: Different Games, Different Rules
He separates long-horizon investing (e.g., crypto exposure) from short-horizon trading. Mixing them blurs risk and fuels emotional decision-making. Use different accounts and mental models.
- Maintain a separate long-term account; no active trades in that account—DCA or structured rebalances only.
- In the trading account, flatten exposure by session close unless your plan explicitly includes swing criteria.
- Never let a trade become an “investment”; if invalidated, exit—no exceptions.
Journaling & Review: Turn Reps into Edge
TJR highlights journaling and reflection as the accelerator. Writing clarifies what’s working, what’s not, and where emotions slipped in. Keep it simple and brutally honest.
- Log every trade with: setup name, screenshots, R-risked, exit reason, emotional state (1–5), and rule breaks.
- Weekly, tag wins/losses by setup to find the true win-rate and average R for each pattern.
- Cut or rework any setup with <1.2 profit factor after 30+ trades; double down on what’s empirically working.
Prop-Firm Reality Check: Pass Smarter—Or Skip It
He’s candid that only a tiny fraction get paid out and that many beginners aren’t ready. If you do it, treat it like a professional risk exercise—not a jackpot. Survival and compliance beat flash.
- Build a 30-trade sample on demo/live micro before any challenge; require ≥55% rule adherence and positive R.
- Optimize for drawdown compliance first: use lower risk (0.25%–0.5%) and focus on A-setups only.
- Aim for steady base hits (1R–1.5R) rather than home runs; let compounding of small wins carry the target.
- If you fail, record exactly which rule(s) broke; do a 10-trade reset at reduced size before retrying.
Daily Playbook: What TJR’s Process Looks Like in Practice
He keeps it simple: a short routine, a tight watchlist, and a small set of triggers. Fewer decisions equal fewer mistakes—so the same steps repeat day after day.
- Pre-market (10–15 min): mark HTF bias, two best levels, and your single A-setup trigger for each pair.
- During session: wait for trigger only; if no trigger, no trade. One position at a time to reduce decision load.
- Post-session (5–10 min): journal, tag the setup, rate emotions, screenshot chart with entries/exits.
- If zero A-setups appeared, log a “no-trade win”; consistency of restraint is part of the edge.
Risk Scaling & Growth: Earn the Right to Size Up
TJR frames growth as the reward for consistent execution. You don’t “deserve” size—you prove you can handle it first. Size increases follow data, not feelings.
- Increase risk by 25% only after 20 consecutive trades with ≥80% rule adherence and positive expectancy.
- If a drawdown of 4R occurs, auto-reduce risk by 50% and run a 15-trade “rebuild block” before scaling again.
- Withdraw or transfer profits on a schedule (e.g., monthly) to keep account size aligned with your emotional tolerance.
Minimalist Watchlist & Time-on-Task: Depth Beats Breadth
He avoids spreading attention too thin. Specializing in a couple of instruments speeds pattern recognition and calms the mind. Mastery lives in repetition.
- Limit to 1–3 instruments that fit your playbook volatility and session hours.
- One timeframe for triggers (e.g., M15/M5) and one for bias (H1/H4); avoid fractal hopping mid-trade.
- If you feel compelled to “find” trades, cut the list further and lengthen alert distances to reduce noise.
Size Risk First: Fixed R, Daily Loss Cap, No Revenge
TJR Trades hammers one truth: your first edge is position sizing. He treats risk like a fixed bill—paid upfront—so emotions never get to rewrite the plan mid-trade. Before any entry, he decides the exact R to risk, where the idea is invalidated, and the daily stop that pulls the plug automatically.
He keeps the math boring and the outcomes consistent: one fixed R per trade, a hard daily loss cap that ends the session, and zero re-entries at the same level after a full stop. If volatility expands, he shrinks size; if markets compress, he keeps targets realistic and banks’ base hits. No widening stops, no “just one more” after two consecutive losses, and absolutely no revenge trades—because survival is the only way to compound.
Trade Volatility, Not Opinions: Adjust Position Size to Market Rhythm
TJR Trades sizes positions based on what the price is doing, not what he thinks it should do. When ranges expand and candles travel faster, he cuts size and widens stops to keep R constant. When markets compress, he tightens stops and may allow slightly larger size, but only if clean structure and reward-to-risk remain intact. His view: volatility decides risk; your job is to obey.
He watches ATR and session range as his speedometer, then aligns entry triggers to that “road condition.” If ATR jumps 30–50% above his baseline, size drops automatically, and profit targets emphasize base hits over home runs. If volatility reverts to average, he restores normal size but never exceeds his fixed R or daily cap. Opinions are optional; volatility math is mandatory.
Diversify by Playbook, Instrument, and Timeframe—Not Random Setups
TJR Trades builds diversification by design, not by collecting tickers. He runs a small set of defined playbooks—each with its own trigger, stop logic, and profit-taking rules—and pairs them with instruments that naturally fit the behavior. Instead of juggling twenty charts, he mixes two or three instruments across complementary sessions and a couple of distinct playbooks to reduce correlation without diluting focus.
Time diversification matters, too. He keeps a higher-timeframe bias for structure and a lower-timeframe trigger for execution, so he’s not taking the same bet twice in disguise. If two setups share the same driver or level, he treats them as one risk and sizes accordingly. The goal isn’t “more trades”; it’s non-overlapping edges that can carry the week even when one lane goes cold.
Mechanics Over Prediction: Triggers, Stops, and Pre-Planned Exits Only
TJR Trades treats forecasting as a distraction and mechanics as the edge. He defines a trigger before the session starts, sets the stop where the idea is objectively wrong, and writes the exit logic in plain language. When the market tags his trigger, he executes without debate; when the invalidation hits, he’s out—no edits, no heroics.
He pre-commits profit-taking rules—partials at defined R multiples, trail only after structure confirms—and refuses to move targets just because price “looks strong.” If a level breaks cleanly but the checklist isn’t met, he passes, because a missed trade is cheaper than a broken rule. Every decision is binary: either the plan happened or it didn’t. Prediction is for opinions; mechanics are for P&L.
Discipline That Pays: Journal, Tag Setups, Scale Size After Consistency
TJR Trades turns journaling into a scoreboard, not a diary. Every trade is tagged by setup name, market condition, R multiple, and any rule breaks, so the data exposes what actually works. After 20–30 samples, he keeps only the playbooks with positive expectancy and trims the rest without emotion. The message is simple: discipline is measured, not felt.
He scales size only after the numbers prove he can execute—never before. A stretch of ≥80% rule adherence with a positive profit factor earns a small size bump; a 4R drawdown forces an automatic size cut and a rebuild block. That rhythm—measure, refine, then scale—lets compounding come from consistency rather than luck.
In the end, TJR Trades makes a simple, unglamorous case for how traders actually get good: do the reps, watch the market daily, and let intuition grow from screen time—not from endlessly chasing “one more” course or indicator. He credits early luck in crypto for pulling him into markets, but he’s clear that staying power came from routine, journaling, and building a small set of repeatable playbooks. Skill first, money second. Keep the craft boring and the rules bright-line: fixed R per trade, hard daily loss cap, and no re-entries after a clean stop.
He’s equally blunt about prop firms: most traders won’t get paid because they treat challenges like jackpots instead of risk exercises. His antidote is process math—size to volatility, pre-write triggers and exits, and accept failure as the cost of an attempt, not a personal verdict. Separate investing from trading so emotions don’t bleed across accounts, diversify by playbook and instrument rather than by impulse, and scale size only after the data proves consistency. If there’s a single takeaway, it’s this: prediction is optional, but mechanics are mandatory—and discipline is the edge that compounds.
