Table of Contents
In this interview, Nick Bencino breaks down how he shifted from full-time forex to mostly crypto and why the move made sense: bigger upside, less reliance on leverage, and cleaner reactions at psychological round numbers. He’s candid, practical, and focused on what actually puts cash in a retail trader’s account—spot buys, basic support/resistance, and playing obvious levels on liquid names like BTC and ETH. You’ll also hear why he’s eyeing gaming tokens, how he manages the 24/7 grind, and the role of multiple exchanges and brokers in his workflow.
You’ll learn a dead-simple strategy you can copy today: buy/sell around big round numbers, place stops beyond the next “minor” level, and aim for the next obvious resistance or support. Bencino explains how he builds long-term positions while still trading around them, when he scales out to go “house money,” and the research checklist he uses for new coins (team, vesting schedules, utility, and community). If you’re new to crypto or coming from forex, this piece gives you a clean blueprint to manage risk without heavy leverage and a realistic way to capture momentum in a market that never sleeps.
Nick Bencino Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Market Focus & Timeframes
Nick keeps his universe tight and liquid, so execution is clean and slippage is minimal. He favors major crypto pairs with clear round-number reactions and supplements with a short list of high-volume alts. His charts are simple—one look tells him trend, levels, and risk.
- Trade BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT as primaries; keep 3–7 high-volume alts on a watchlist.
- Anchor analysis on the Daily and 4H; time entries on 1H/15m only if the HTF bias is clear.
- Skip illiquid coins; minimum average daily volume > $200M before considering a setup.
- Avoid news-only spikes on microcaps; if spread > 0.15% on majors, do not enter.
The Core Setup: Round Numbers & Structure
He builds his strategy around obvious levels that everyone sees—psychological round numbers and clean structure. This keeps decision-making fast and removes the need for fancy indicators.
- Mark round numbers in $500/$1,000 increments for BTC and $10/$50 for ETH/majors.
- Valid level = round number aligned with a prior swing high/low or 4H SR flip.
- Trade only in the direction of the most recent Daily close relative to the 20-EMA (above = long bias; below = short bias).
- If price is mid-range (not within 0.3R of a marked level), wait—no trade.
Entry Triggers: Retests, Wicks, and Closes
Nick wants confirmation that a level mattered. He waits for either a reclaim and retest or a decisive rejection with trapped traders on the wrong side.
- Break-and-retest long: price closes above the level on 1H, then retests and prints a higher low; enter on the next 15m close that holds.
- Rejection short: wick above level, fast close back below on 15m, plus rising volume; place entry at or just below the rejection candle’s close.
- If a retest extends >0.5R past the level, the pass—structure is weakening.
- Never enter on the first touch after a vertical move >2.5% in 15 minutes; wait for compression.
Risk Sizing & Stops
He sizes by volatility, so one bad candle doesn’t nuke the account. Stops live beyond the “next” logical level—not at the level everyone else uses.
- Define R = 1% of account per trade (max); risk 0.5R on chop, 1R on trend days.
- Place stops beyond the next minor swing: 0.25–0.5 ATR(14, 1H) past the invalidation.
- If stop distance > 1.2% on BTC or > 2% on ETH/majors, cut size so risk remains 1R.
- Hard rule: no averaging down. Add only if the initial stop would be unchanged (“add-with-house-money” rule).
Trade Management: Scale, Secure, Let Run
Nick scales out into strength to remove emotional noise. Once he’s on house money, he can let the trend do the heavy lifting.
- Take 30–50% at +1R; move stop to breakeven after partial.
- Trail remainder using 1H swing lows (for longs) or highs (for shorts); if three consecutive 1H closes against the trend, exit remainder.
- If price hits the next marked round number, auto-trim 20–30% regardless of R.
- If a candle closes beyond 2× ATR(14, 1H) in your favor, switch to a 15m trailing stop until momentum cools.
Spot vs. Derivatives: Build Core, Trade Around It
He prefers a core spot position for the bigger moves and uses light derivatives to trade around levels. This avoids forced liquidations and keeps him in the game during noise.
- Build spot positions at HTF levels only (Daily/Weekly SR); add on clean 4H retests.
- For derivatives, cap gross leverage so liquidation is >8% away on majors.
- Do not hedge with perps if your spot basis is near a fresh breakout; instead, trim spot and re-add on retests.
- Convert to “house money” by trimming 50–70% when spot gains >30% from entry.
Playbook for Alt Rotations
When majors range, Nick rotates into a few strong alts with catalysts and liquidity. The same rules apply—levels first, then confirmation.
- Only trade alts that show relative strength vs. BTC on the Daily (higher highs while BTC ranges).
- Demand alignment: alt at 4H support + BTC above its 4H 20-EMA.
- If BTC loses its 4H 20-EMA and your alt is extended, cut to a runner immediately.
- Position size on alts = 50–70% of BTC size; wider stops require a smaller size.
Daily Routine & Checklist
Consistency beats brilliance. Nick runs the same simple loop: mark levels, wait for the price to come to him, and protect mental capital.
- Pre-London: update Daily/4H levels, delete clutter; mark only three best zones per pair.
- Pre-NY: set alerts ±0.15% around levels on majors, ±0.4% on alts.
- Two scenarios written down before entry: “If we reclaim, I…” and “If we reject, I…”.
- If three consecutive alerts trigger without entry, step back—the market is likely whipsawing.
News, Events & Session Effects
Crypto is 24/7, but volatility still clusters around known events and session overlaps. Nick respects timing to avoid avoidable pain.
- No fresh positions within 15 minutes before/after top-tier events (Fed, CPI, ETF flows) or major exchange outage rumors.
- Expect higher follow-through during NY + London overlap; reduce expectations in late Asia.
- If funding on perps moves beyond ±0.05% and OI spikes >10% intraday, cut size by 30%—crowding risk.
Tools, Charts & Minimalism
He keeps the chart minimal to make faster, cleaner decisions. If a tool doesn’t directly improve entries, stops, or targets, it’s gone.
- Default template: clean candles, 20-EMA (trend cue), ATR(14, 1H) (stop math), volume.
- Use two colors for levels only: HTF (Daily/Weekly) and intraday (4H/1H); delete levels after they break decisively.
- One alert per level per direction; no duplicate alerts within 30 minutes.
Mindset & Rules You Don’t Break
Nick treats rules as guardrails, not suggestions. The edge is in discipline and selective aggression, not prediction.
- Maximum two concurrent positions unless both are majors; otherwise, one at a time.
- Missed move = ignored. Do not chase; set the next level and wait.
- Three-strike rule: three plan violations in a week trigger an automatic size cut to 0.25R until two green weeks.
- Weekly review: log top three level reads (win or lose) and one change to make next week; then leave it alone.
Size Each Trade by Volatility, Then Scale Only With House Money
Volatility is your position-size dial, not your vibe check. Nick Bencino sizes every trade off the instrument’s recent range, so one random candle can’t torpedo the week. When BTC is calm, he allows a larger size; when it’s whipping, he cuts size automatically so risk per trade stays fixed in dollars, not feelings. This keeps losers small, prevents revenge sizing, and makes a string of trades feel the same regardless of market drama.
Once the price moves his way, Nick Bencino scales out to reduce risk and let the “house money” principle take over. He pays himself at the first logical target, moves the stop to breakeven, and only adds if the original invalidation wouldn’t change—so the worst case is flat, not a new loss. That simple sequence—vol-adjusted size, partial at target, stop to flat—turns a decent entry into a campaign that can breathe. It’s disciplined, boring, and exactly why the account survives long enough to catch the big runners.
Trade Round Numbers and Structure, Not Predictions—Let Levels Do The Work
Markets reward reacting to price, not forecasting the news. Nick Bencino builds his plan around obvious round numbers and a clean swing structure that everyone can see. He marks levels like $1,000 increments on BTC or prior 4H swing highs and waits for the price to come to him. If the price is mid-range with no nearby structure, he does nothing and preserves mental capital.
When a level breaks and holds, he looks for a retest that creates a higher low for longs or a lower high for shorts. Targets are the next marked level, and stops live beyond the “next” swing, so noise can’t shake him out. He refuses to chase candles after vertical moves, preferring compression near the level to prove acceptance. The edge isn’t clairvoyance; it’s letting levels do the heavy lifting while he manages risk with mechanical triggers.
Diversify By Underlying, Strategy, and Duration To Smooth Your Equity Curve
Nick Bencino doesn’t bet the farm on one idea or one timeframe. He splits risk across majors like BTC/ETH and a rotating shortlist of strong alts, then further diversifies by setup type—break-and-retest, range reclaim, or failed breakout fade. That mix makes the equity curve less spiky because different underlyings and strategies fire at different times. If BTC goes dead, an alt rotation or a mean-reversion setup can still carry the week.
He also diversifies by duration, so not everything depends on intraday timing. A core spot swing can run for weeks while he trades around levels on lower timeframes with smaller size. Nick Bencino caps correlation by limiting concurrent positions and avoiding stacking trades that share the same driver. The result is fewer all-or-nothing days and a steadier path to compounding, even when any single idea underperforms.
Define Invalidation Before Entry, Place Stops Beyond The Next Logical Level
Nick Bencino treats invalidation as the first step, not an afterthought. Before he clicks buy or sell, he marks the exact price that proves his idea wrong and calculates the size backward from that distance. If the required stop is too wide for his risk, he passes—no forcing it. He sets stops past the next logical swing high/low or key round number, so random wicks don’t tag him out. The goal is simple: survive noise, get paid on structure.
Once in the trade, Nick Bencino won’t move the stop closer without new information from price action. He’ll only tighten after partial profits or a fresh structure shift that reduces risk without changing the idea. If price hovers at his invalidation, he accepts the loss instead of “giving it a little room,” because that’s how small losses turn big. When a candle closes beyond the invalidation level, he exits immediately and logs the reason. Clear invalidation and stops beyond real structure keep him mechanical, calm, and consistent.
Write Two Scenarios Before Entry, Follow The Plan, or Do Nothing
Before he enters, Nick Bencino writes two simple paths: “If we reclaim the level, I do X” and “If we reject the level, I do Y.” This pre-commitment kills hesitation and FOMO because the decision is made while calm, not during a spike. With both scenarios on paper, he either executes instantly when the price hits his trigger or he stands down—no improvising in the heat.
Nick Bencino also sets a timeout: if neither scenario triggers within a defined window, the setup is shelved until the next session. He never lets a third, unplanned path creep in, because that’s how random trades sneak onto the blotter. When the market does something unexpected, he records a new scenario for next time instead of forcing a trade today. The rule is strict and liberating: follow one of the two scenarios exactly, or do nothing and protect capital.
In the end, Nick Bencino’s edge is brutally simple: trade where everyone is looking and manage risk like a professional. He builds plans around psychological round numbers and clean swing structure—think BTC at big figures or ETH near prior highs—and waits for breaks, retests, or sharp rejections before acting. Position size flexes with volatility, stops sit beyond the next logical swing, and profits get paid at the next obvious level so the campaign can breathe on “house money.” When majors stall, he rotates into a short list of liquid alts that show relative strength, always respecting the higher-timeframe bias and avoiding impulsive entries after vertical moves.
Equally important is how he divides his book between a core, longer-term spot posture and shorter-term trades around those same levels. The goal isn’t to predict the headline—it’s to react mechanically to price and let structure do the heavy lifting. Two prewritten scenarios (“reclaim, do X; reject, do Y”) kill hesitation, while a strict invalidation-first mindset keeps small losses small and prevents “just a little more room” from snowballing. Put together, the playbook reads like a checklist for durable compounding: simple levels, volatility-based sizing, defined stops, disciplined scaling, and a routine that makes every decision feel calm—no matter how loud the market gets.
