Table of Contents
This interview features London-based trader James Harte on the Desire To Trade podcast, where he breaks down the practical, real-world process that took him from scattered experimentation to consistent results. James has led countless webinars and trade ideas for major platforms, and he’s refreshingly candid about what actually moved the needle for him: mastering clean price action, reading support/resistance like a pro, and ditching the clutter. If you’re tired of indicator soup and want a trader who explains the “why” behind entries and exits in plain English, this is it.
You’ll learn James Harte’s core strategy pillars: map weekly key levels, trade retests with the dominant trend on higher timeframes, and hunt clean breakouts on intraday charts—always anchored to support and resistance. He spells out the day-to-day routine (from filtering news risk to managing correlation), plus the risk rules that keep him in the game—think 0.5–1% per trade and a tight cap on total account heat. Most importantly, you’ll see why mindset beats any single setup: adapt fast when price action proves you wrong, stop moving stops “just this once,” and let winners reach their full targets instead of grabbing comfort profits too early.
James Harte Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Market Focus & Weekly Prep
James keeps the universe tight and the prep simple, so decisions are fast and consistent. The idea is to zoom out first, mark the big levels, and only then drill down to find clean opportunities. This section shows how he builds a weekly map that guides every trade for the next few days.
- Build a watchlist of 6–12 liquid markets (major FX pairs, gold, indices; avoid thin stuff).
- Every Sunday, mark weekly swing highs/lows and the most recent weekly close for context.
- On the daily chart, draw only the clearest support/resistance zones and trendlines that touch the price 3+ times.
- Tag each market “up,” “down,” or “range” by daily structure (higher highs/lows, lower highs/lows, or contained swings).
- Set an alert 5–15 pips/points before each key level so you don’t babysit charts.
Structure First: Trade With the Dominant Bias
He doesn’t predict tops/bottoms; he trades with structure until it breaks. Your job is to align with the path of least resistance and stop fighting the tape. Here’s how to codify bias so entries are obvious.
- Only look for longs when the daily is making higher highs/higher lows and the price is above the 50-EMA; only shorts in the opposite case.
- If daily is ranging, plan mean-reversion trades only between the range edges—no breakouts in ranges.
- Stand down after a strong news impulse until the next H1 candle closes back inside your structure.
- If two timeframes disagree (daily up, H4 down), pass unless H4 flips back in line with daily.
Levels That Matter: Support/Resistance Done Cleanly
James centers his strategy on clean horizontal levels that institutions respect. Fewer lines, better decisions, stronger trades. Use these rules to keep your chart crisp and your confluence real.
- Draw levels at obvious reaction points where bodies, not wicks, clustered.
- Keep at most 3 active levels per market (nearest support, nearest resistance, and one stretch level).
- Refresh levels only when the daily candle closes beyond them—intraday pokes don’t count.
- Treat round numbers (00/50) as context, not as levels, unless they coincide with real reactions.
Triggers: How He Enters
The trigger is always a simple price action confirmation at a pre-planned level. No indicator soup—just a clean pattern signaling involvement of bigger players. Execute one of the following, or don’t trade.
- Retest + rejection: wait for price to tag the level, print a rejection candle (pin/engulfing), then enter on the next candle’s break.
- Break-and-retest: take the first pullback to the broken level; enter when a lower-timeframe candle closes back with trend.
- Pullback to dynamic support/resistance: in trends, allow a touch of the 20–EMA/H1 and a structure hold for continuation.
- Do not chase a move that runs more than 1R from your intended entry; let it go.
Risk: Position Sizing & Portfolio Heat
Survival is the edge most traders ignore. James caps per-trade and total exposure, so a bad session can’t wreck the week. Follow these numbers to stay safe tomorrow.
- Risk 0.5%–1.0% per trade; default to 0.5% if volatility is elevated (ATR above its 20-day average).
- Total “portfolio heat” (sum of open risk) must not exceed 2.5R; if adding pushes you over, reduce size or skip.
- Correlated positions (e.g., EUR/USD long and DXY short) count as one trade for heat purposes.
- Stops go beyond structure: for longs, below the rejection candle low or the level—whichever is farther.
- If spread/commission > 10% of stop size, skip the trade; costs will skew the R: R.
Trade Management: Let Winners Work, Cut Losers Fast
He manages trades by rules, not feelings. The goal is to remove improvisation and let statistics play out. These management steps are simple enough to follow under pressure.
- Set initial target at 2R; only move it if higher-timeframe structure justifies a level beyond 2R.
- Move stop to breakeven only after price closes past the mid-point to target (≈ +1R) and structure confirms (higher low for longs).
- If price violates the most recent swing against your trade on the execution timeframe, exit—no debate.
- Trail with structure, not fixed pips: ratchet stop under successive higher lows (longs) once beyond +1.5R.
- Never widen stops. If volatility expands, scale out 25% at +1R, keep the rest to target.
Playbook Setups: Trend Continuation & Range Reversal
He runs two primary setups—one for trend, one for ranges. Having only two helps you get reps and data fast. Pick the one that matches your market map.
Trend Continuation (TC)
- Daily trend confirmed, H1 pullback into level/20-EMA.
- Trigger: rejection candle or H1 engulfing with trend.
- Stop: beyond pullback low/high; Target: 2R minimum at prior swing, then trail.
- Skip TC if the daily ATR has already been traveled by the current day’s move.
Range Reversal (RR)
- Daily clearly ranging with 3+ touches on both sides.
- Trigger: strong rejection at range edge plus divergence in momentum or failure test (wick through, close back).
- Stop: just beyond the range boundary; Target: mid-range first, opposite edge second.
- Skip RR during major data releases or if candles are wide and erratic.
News & Session Filters
James respects timing: certain hours and events distort price action. Filtering keeps you out of low-quality trades and fake volatility. Use these timing rules to protect your edge.
- Trade London and early New York for FX/indices; avoid the last 60 minutes of New York unless managing an open runner.
- Flat 15 minutes before high-impact data on your instrument; resume only after a full H1 candle closes.
- If the day’s range exceeds 1.25× its 20-day ATR by mid-session, take only A+ continuation with tiny size—or stand down.
Daily Routine & Review
Consistency comes from a small number of actions done every day. The routine builds discipline and a feedback loop that compounds skill. Here’s the simple checklist.
- Pre-market (20–30 min): update bias tags, mark levels, set alerts, and write one sentence per market: “If X at level Y, I do Z.”
- During market: wait for alerts; only open the chart to validate triggers; log every decision in real time.
- Post-market (10–15 min): screenshot winners and losers, annotate what confirmed/failed, and tag mistakes (late entry, FOMO, moved stop).
- Weekly: update stats—win rate, average R, max heat, and session performance—to adjust risk between 0.5% and 1.0%.
Mindset Rules That Save Accounts
The edge dies when rules bend. James treats mindset as risk management in disguise and keeps a few bright-line policies to stay sharp. Keep these posted near your screen.
- Two-strike rule: two consecutive rule-breaks end the session—no exceptions.
- No “get back” trades: after a loss, wait for the next alert and full checklist pass before touching the mouse.
- Trade count cap: max 3 A-setups per session; anything beyond is usually boredom or revenge.
- Process over P&L: grade your day by rule adherence and R multiple, not dollars.
Map Weekly Levels, Trade With Structure, Not Gut Predictions
James Harte keeps it brutally simple: start on the higher timeframes and map the levels that actually matter. Weekly swing highs, lows, and closes become your guardrails so you’re reacting to structure, not impulses. When price revisits those zones, you already know whether you’re hunting continuations or fade setups—no guessing. This top-down map filters noise and makes every intraday decision faster. It also keeps you honest when markets whip around after news; structure tells you when to stand down.
With the weekly map in place, James Harte drops to daily and H4 to confirm the trend and build a plan for the week. If price is above key support and printing higher lows, he looks for long triggers at retests; if structure flips, he flips with it—no hero calls. The result is a clear bias, a shortlist of A-levels, and predefined behaviors at each level, so emotions can’t hijack the trade. You’re not trying to be early; you’re trying to be right according to the map. That shift—from prediction to structure—cuts false starts and lets winners breathe.
Size Risk Small, Cap Portfolio Heat, Survive Ugly Volatility
James Harte treats risk like oxygen—use just enough to stay alive and keep moving. He recommends keeping per-trade risk small, typically around 0.5% to 1% of equity, so a cold streak doesn’t crush confidence or capital. When volatility spikes, he scales down rather than up, letting ATR guide stop distance and sizing. The aim is durability first, performance second.
Beyond single trades, James Harte caps total “portfolio heat” so a cluster of positions can’t nuke the account. He counts correlated trades as one risk unit, trimming size or skipping the add if exposure bunches up. Stops live beyond real structure, not arbitrary numbers, and they never get widened. If costs eat more than a tenth of the stop distance, he leaves it—because bad math ruins good setups.
Diversify By Underlying, Strategy, And Duration To Smooth Equity
James Harte spreads bets so one theme can’t decide his month. He rotates across a small basket of uncorrelated markets—major FX pairs, an index, and a metal—so a single macro driver doesn’t dominate results. He also mixes setups: a trend-continuation playbook plus a defined range-reversal module, each with clear triggers and separate stats. By running different edges that win in different regimes, he reduces equity swings and avoids overfitting to last week’s market.
Duration matters too, and James Harte staggers holding periods so not everything breathes the same volatility at once. He pairs quick intraday rotations with swing holds that target higher-timeframe levels, capping total portfolio heat across both. Correlated trades get treated as one risk unit, and he throttles size if exposures cluster around the same driver (e.g., USD or rates). The result is a portfolio that climbs more like a staircase than a rollercoaster. Diversification becomes a rule, not a vibe, and that rule preserves both capital and headspace.
Use Clean Support-Resistance Triggers, Skip Trades Without Confluence
James Harte keeps entries brutally simple: plan the level first, then wait for price action to confirm it. He prefers clean horizontal zones where bodies clustered before, then looks for a decisive rejection or engulfing candle to prove bigger players are active. If the move is already extended more than 1R past the level, he lets it go—no chasing. Spreads and slippage matter too; if they distort the stop beyond structure, he passes.
Confluence is the green light, and James Harte won’t trade without it. He wants at least two elements agreeing—level plus trend, level plus rejection candle, or level plus session flow. Break-and-retest setups only count after a proper close back through the level, not just a wick. If confluence is thin or messy, the correct action is to wait for the next alert, not invent a trade.
Let Mechanics Rule Management; Predefine Exits, Avoid Undefined Risk
James Harte treats management as a checklist, not a negotiation. Before entry, he writes the exit: where the stop lives beyond structure, where the first target prints at 2R, and what must happen to the trail. At +1R, he considers a partial and a stop to breakeven only if structure confirms, never just because the P&L feels good. If price closes back inside the broken level or takes out the last swing against the trade, he’s flat—no stories, no hoping. News spikes don’t get special treatment; the rules already account for volatility.
Undefined risk is simply not allowed in James Harte’s world. No moving stops, no adding size to losers, no holding through calendar bombs without a plan. He trails under higher lows (for longs) once beyond +1.5R and lets winners push into higher timeframe levels instead of grabbing comfort profits early. If spread or slippage widens enough to distort the plan, he cancels the setup and waits. The goal is boring repetition: the same entries, the same exits, the same math—because mechanics win long after motivation fades.
James Harte’s message lands the same no matter where you are on the curve: build a clean, repeatable process and let structure—not feelings—drive every decision. He starts with the technicals that actually move the needle for retail traders—support and resistance, simple trend structure, clean trendlines, and Fibonacci, where it clearly lines up—and he insists you combine them for confluence instead of throwing everything on the chart. Entries are planned at levels, confirmed by price action, and managed by structure: he’ll consider breakeven around one-to-one only if the market confirms, then trail behind successive swings rather than negotiating with a loser. Whether he’s trading intraday or holding swings, the map comes first, and he won’t force trades just to be active.
He also keeps a hard eye on timing and exposure. James Harte avoids the chaos around major data, respects sessions where his instruments actually flow, and refuses to stack correlated risk just to feel busy. Trade count flexes with conditions—some days three or four, some weeks just a handful—because quality trumps quotas. Above all, he hammers mindset: no strategy rescues a trader who can’t follow rules under pressure. Your edge is a small risk per idea, patient selection at obvious levels, and the discipline to let statistics—not impulses—play out. That’s the playbook he runs, and it’s the one most traders need: simple tools, strict mechanics, and a mind that doesn’t get punched out when the market swings back.
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