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In this interview, Riz sits down with Shabs—an Astro trading team lead known for her psychology-first approach—to unpack how she went from juggling two jobs to trading full-time while mentoring students worldwide. Filmed as a candid conversation, it highlights why Shabs matters to newer traders: she blends real execution experience with teaching chops, demystifying the “behind-the-scenes” work it actually takes to build consistency and make smart decisions under pressure.
In the next sections, you’ll learn exactly how Shabs structures study time around a busy life, the mindset shifts that let her leap into full-time trading, and why risk management is more than “lot sizes.” You’ll also see how patience, communication, and adapting a strategy to your personality can unlock progress faster—plus her perspective on thriving in a male-dominated industry without changing who you are.
Shabs Fazl Playbook & Strategy: How She Actually Trades
Market Framework: Top-Down First
Before any execution, map the playing field so you’re reacting to context, not candles. A quick top-down read keeps you aligned with the dominant flow and stops you from forcing trades on noise.
- Start on the daily: mark the last swing high/low, trend direction, and obvious supply/demand zones.
- Drop to H4/H1: draw session highs/lows and the prior day’s high/low; note where liquidity is likely resting.
- On M15/M5: only hunt in the higher-timeframe direction or inside clearly defined ranges.
- If daily is unclear (chop), cap risk at half normal size and favor mean-reversion scalp rules only.
- No bias = no trade: if HTF context isn’t obvious within 90 seconds, stand down.
A+ Setup Criteria: Confluence Over Hopes
You want a repeatable pattern that tells you “now.” Confluence keeps you out of mediocre trades and focuses you on asymmetric moments.
- Require at least 3 of 5: (1) HTF level, (2) session high/low, (3) VWAP/AVWAP reaction, (4) structure break (BOS/CHOCH), (5) clear liquidity sweep.
- For trends: buy pullbacks into demand after a BOS with M15/M5 higher-low; sell rallies into supply after a BOS with lower-high.
- For ranges: fade extremes only after a stop-run into a marked zone, plus a reversal candle close.
- If spread > 20% of stop or news in <15 minutes, skip the setup.
- Screenshot every A+ setup before entry; if you can’t annotate the confluence in 30 seconds, pass.
Risk & Sizing: Survive First, Scale Second
Consistency isn’t magic; it’s math and discipline. Small, fixed risk keeps your head clear and lets the edge show up across samples.
- Fixed risk per trade: 0.25R–0.5R when not fully aligned; 1.0R only on top-tier confluence.
- Daily max loss: 1.5R; hit it and you’re done—close platform.
- Max open risk: 1.5R across all symbols; no stacking beyond that.
- Hard stop always placed; no widening. Reduce the size if the stop needs to be larger than your normal ATR allowance.
- If the first trade is a loss, the second trade must be equal to or smaller in size unless a higher-timeframe catalyst appears.
Entry Triggers: Let Price Prove It
You don’t predict; you verify. Make the market confirm intent before you deploy risk.
- For continuation: wait for a micro pullback to the decision candle 50%–61.8% and a one-minute close back with the trend.
- For reversals: demand/supply tap + sweep + engulfing close; enter on retest of the engulf origin.
- Time filters: focus first 2 hours of London and first 90 minutes of New York; avoid mid-session unless catalyst prints.
- Use limit only if the level is pre-planned and touched during the active session; otherwise, use stop orders above/below the trigger candle.
- If price hesitates >3 bars at entry level without follow-through, cancel the order.
Stop Placement: Protected by Structure, Not Feelings
Stops go where your idea is wrong, full stop. Structure-based risk keeps outcomes consistent.
- Trend pullback: stop beyond the swing that created the BOS (not just the signal candle).
- Range fade: stop beyond the stop-run wick plus 0.2× ATR(14) of the execution timeframe.
- News-adjacent trades: widen by 1.25× normal or skip entirely if that exceeds your size rules.
- If stop > 0.8× ATR(H1) for the pair/index, the setup is invalid for your plan—pass.
Trade Management: Mechanical, Then Adaptive
Manage winners like a system so emotions don’t hijack them. Adapt only when the market structure genuinely changes.
- Partial at +1R (25–33% off), move stop to break-even only after a clean HL/LH forms in your favor.
- Trail behind swing structure on the execution timeframe; no bar-by-bar micromanagement.
- If a fresh opposing HTF zone is tapped and momentum stalls, exit remaining at market.
- One add-on is allowed only after a BOS in profit and a pullback into fresh demand/supply with the same invalidation as the core.
- If trade returns to break-even twice, abandon the idea for that session.
Exits: Pre-Plan Targets Like You Pre-Plan Entries
Targets aren’t vibes; they’re logical destinations of price. Map them before you click.
- Primary target: next liquidity pool (equal highs/lows, session extremes, or untested HTF zone).
- Secondary target: measured move (range height projection) or VWAP/previous day high/low tap.
- Time-based exit: if not at +1R within 30–45 minutes in active session, reduce by 50%.
- Into high-impact news in <5 minutes: flatten unless you explicitly sized for the event.
News & Events: Respect the Tape Bombs
Catalysts can create your A+ move—or destroy it. Plan around them, not through them.
- No new positions 10 minutes before red-flag releases; reopen hunting 5–10 minutes after the first impulse stabilizes.
- If already in profit pre-news, scale to runner size or close fully—decide at least 15 minutes ahead.
- Only trade post-news if the HTF zone aligns and the first impulse leaves a clean imbalance to trade into.
Journal & Review: Turn Reps Into Edge
Documentation is how you compound skill. Fast, structured notes make patterns obvious.
- Log for every trade: HTF context, confluence count (0–5), entry trigger, stop logic, management actions, R result, and a screenshot.
- Tag outcomes: “With Trend Pullback,” “Range Fade,” “News Reversal,” etc., to spot the true win-rate drivers.
- Weekly: calculate expectancy per tag; only scale size on tags with ≥30-trade sample and positive expectancy.
- Delete one rule per month that isn’t pulling its weight; add one only after 20 live observations.
Routine & Mindset: Protect the Operator
Process beats mood. A simple routine keeps you consistent and reduces impulse.
- Pre-market (10–15 min): mark levels, write one-line bias, list the two setups you’ll take and two you’ll ignore.
- During session: timer on—check charts every 5 minutes; no infinite scrolling or new symbols mid-session.
- Post-session: 5 screenshots (best, worst, missed, textbook, weird) with one-line lessons each.
- If you break a rule, log it and reduce next-session max risk by 50% as a penalty.
Scaling & Funding: Earn the Right to Size
A bigger size only makes sense when the process is stable. Scale with rules so you never outpace your skill.
- Increase unit size by 10–15% after two consecutive green weeks and rule compliance ≥90%.
- Add markets slowly: master 1–2 instruments; only add a third after 100 logged trades with positive expectancy.
- For prop/funding style accounts: cap daily draw at 40–50% of the program’s daily limit to avoid soft breaches.
- Withdraw or bank profits after every +8–10R net month to anchor gains and reset risk psychology.
Playbook at a Glance: Your A-Day Checklist
When everything lines up, execution should feel almost boring. Use this mini-check to keep it tight.
- HTF bias clear? Yes/No. If No, pass.
- Confluence ≥3/5? If No, pass or half-risk.
- Valid trigger candle and clean invalidation? If No, pass.
- Risk within limits (per-trade, daily, open)? If No, adjust or skip.
- Targets pre-planned and news window clear? If no, wait.
Size Positions by Volatility: Let ATR and Session Range Set Risk
Shabs Fazl keeps sizing simple: she lets the market’s own movement tell her how big to go. Instead of guessing stops, she anchors them to the current ATR and the active session’s typical range, then backs into position size so each trade risks a fixed R. That way, when volatility explodes, her size naturally shrinks; when the tape is quiet and cleaner, size can tick up without breaking risk rules. It’s a calm, mechanical way to keep emotions out of the sizing decision.
In practice, Shabs Fazl measures ATR on the execution timeframe and places the stop where the idea is objectively wrong, not where it “feels” safe. She’ll then divide her planned dollar risk by the stop distance to compute units, and she won’t round up if it pushes risk over plan. If the stop needs to be wider than a set multiple of ATR or the session’s average range, she simply passes and waits for a better spot. The result is consistent R-multiples across trades, which lets the edge show up without a few wild swings wrecking the week.
Build Balanced Risk Buckets Across Underlying, Strategy Type, and Trade Duration
Shabs Fazl doesn’t let one idea or one market dominate her week; she spreads risk across clear buckets. She breaks exposure by underlying (e.g., GBPUSD vs. indices), by strategy type (trend continuation vs. range fade), and by duration (scalp vs. intraday swing). Each bucket gets a capped share of total risk, so a cold patch in one lane can’t sink performance. This keeps her equity curve steadier and prevents overconfidence after a single big winner.
Practically, Shabs Fazl assigns a max of X% of daily risk to any one symbol, Y% to any single setup type, and Z% to any holding duration. If a bucket is “hot,” she allows normal size but never lifts the caps; if it’s “cold,” she scales down or turns it off until the stats recover. She won’t stack multiple trades that all belong to the same bucket just to “diversify” entries—that’s still the same risk. By auditing results by bucket each week, she shifts focus to the lanes with proven expectancy and starves the ones that drift into mediocrity.
Trade the Mechanics, Not Predictions: Trigger, Invalidation, and Pre-Planned Targets
Shabs Fazl treats opinions as noise and mechanics as law. She defines a clear trigger—like a break-and-retest or a liquidity sweep plus engulf—and takes action only when the pattern is printed on the chart. Before clicking, she marks the invalidation level where the idea is objectively wrong, not merely uncomfortable. With the loss defined, she sets targets at obvious liquidity pools or prior session extremes so exits are as rules-based as entries.
During the trade, Shabs Fazl manages decisions against those pre-written lines, not against fear or FOMO. If the market tags invalidation, she’s out without negotiation; if it reaches the first target, she executes the plan and reassesses the structure for any runner. When price meanders without progress, time becomes a fail condition, and she reduces or scratches in line with the playbook. The net effect is a repeatable process that survives being wrong and compounds when right.
Prefer Defined Risk in Volatile Tape; Reserve Undefined Risk for A+ Setups
When the market is whipping around, Shabs Fazl defaults to defined-risk structures so a single spike can’t nuke the day. She wants the worst-case known upfront, so she sizes cleanly, accepts a capped loss, and lets the edge play out without drama. In calmer stretches—or when structure is crystal clear—she’ll consider discretionary spot entries, but only with tight invalidation and pre-committed R.
Shabs Fazl treats undefined risk as a privilege earned by confluence, not a baseline. If spread widens, news is near, or wicks are erratic, she keeps it strictly defined-ris,k, or she simply passes. If she does take an “open” stop, it’s on an A+ setup with a fast fail: one hard line in the sand, one retest allowed, and then she’s gone. That way, volatility becomes an opportunity to express edge—not a shortcut to outsized drawdowns.
Discipline Beats Drama: Daily Loss Limits, Session Windows, and Journaled Reviews
Shabs Fazl builds her edge around boundaries that keep her out of trouble. She starts each day with a hard daily loss limit and pre-set session windows, so there’s no “one more trade” spiral after a red start. If she hits the loss cap, platforms close, and she shifts to review mode—no exceptions, no revenge entries. Those constraints make her results boring in the best possible way: steady, repeatable, and scalable.
After each session, Shabs Fazl journals like it’s part of the trade, because it is. She logs context, confluence, execution quality, and R-result, then tags the setup so she can spot which patterns actually pay her. The next morning, those notes become a micro playbook: two setups to take, two to ignore, and one specific behavior to avoid. Over weeks, that routine compounds into better filters, faster decisions, and fewer avoidable losses.
In the end, Shabs Fazl’s edge isn’t a single pattern—it’s a lifestyle of structure. She built her trading around real-life constraints, turning small, consistent habits into durable skills: study blocks carved out of dead time, top-down prep that keeps her aligned, and volatility-based sizing that protects her on wild days. She treats each session like a shift with start/stop windows, prewritten plans, and a hard daily loss cap, so one impulsive click can’t hijack the week. That discipline is what allowed her to transition from juggling jobs to trading and mentoring with confidence.
What stands out most is how ruthlessly practical she is about risk and mechanics. Shabs defines invalidation before entry, sizes off ATR and session range, and aims for obvious liquidity targets—then lets the stats do the heavy lifting. She buckets risk across markets, setup types, and durations so no single lane can sink her, and she journals outcomes in a way that exposes which plays actually pay. It’s a repeatable blueprint: respect volatility, trade the plan, not the prediction, and turn every session into data you can act on tomorrow.
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