Table of Contents
In this interview, trader Vincent DeSiano sits down with the Words of Wisdom team in Miami to unpack how he grew personal P&L toward the seven-figure mark. He’s a 100% technical, rules-first operator who shows up each day looking for one thing—the break-and-retest at key higher-timeframe levels—and he credits that focus (plus saner option structures) for turning consistency into outsized wins. If you’ve been bouncing between setups or getting whipsawed by noise, Vincent’s calm, repeatable process is exactly the antidote.
You’ll learn how to spot clean break-and-retest opportunities on the 4-hour and daily charts, align them with moving-average confluence, and size positions so intraday noise doesn’t sabotage your plan. We’ll cover why journaling builds conviction, how to avoid “shiny object” strategy-hopping, when to de-risk around macro events, and why scaling out into strength while honoring a final red day can maximize a trend without giving it all back—practical, beginner-friendly steps you can apply on your very next trade.
Vincent DeSiano Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Core Setup: Break & Retest on Higher Time Frames
This trader keeps it simple: he hunts for a clean break of a well-defined level and waits for the retest to confirm buyers or sellers. It’s slower, calmer, and far easier to risk-manage than chasing breakouts in fast tape.
- Trade only after a prior major level breaks (prior daily/4H swing high/low or multi-touch range edge).
- Do not buy the breakout; set alerts and wait for the price to fully retest the broken level.
- Longs: prior resistance → support; Shorts: prior support → resistance.
- Confirmation = retest holds with higher lows (long) or lower highs (short) and rejection wicks.
- If price pierces and closes beyond your retest level against you, stand down—setup invalid.
Level Selection: Daily Moving Averages + Prior Rejection Points
He anchors levels to daily-only moving averages and historical rejection areas. The idea is to stack reasons for a level to matter so your stop can be tight and logical.
- Track the 20/50/100/200 daily SMAs; treat them as potential bounce/reject zones only on daily context.
- Require confluence: the retest should align with at least one prior daily rejection/acceptance area.
- Prefer stocks respecting a given daily SMA multiple times over the last year (proven reaction history).
- If there’s no confluence (only a moving average), skip it—no single reason trades.
Market Context First: Index Futures Gatekeeper
Before touching a single name, he checks ES/NQ levels. If the market is slamming into supply/demand, your single-name trade is more likely to fail.
- Map S&P 500 (ES) and Nasdaq (NQ) daily/4H levels each morning; mark nearest supply/demand.
- Only take longs if ES/NQ are above or holding their own support; only take shorts if they’re below or rejecting.
- If your stock is long but ES/NQ are testing a heavy supply, pass or reduce size.
- Re-check futures context before adding or scaling—macro flow can flip your edge.
Execution Time Frame: Slow Setup, Fast Trigger
He frames the setup on daily/4H but triggers entries intraday for precision. That gives you HTF edge with LTF affordability.
- Build the thesis on daily/4H; drill to 2–5 minutes for entry timing.
- Enter on the first clean higher low (long) / lower high (short) at the retest level.
- Place a stop just beyond the retest structure (below swing low for longs, above swing high for shorts).
- Initial target = prior swing high/low that created the break; secondary target = measured move to next HTF level.
Sizing & Adds: Earn the Right to Be Bigger
He doesn’t go full-size blindly. Size grows as the trade proves itself, not before.
- Starter: 25–40% of planned risk at first touch that holds.
- Add #1 on the confirmation candle that closes in your favor off the level.
- Add #2 only after a higher low (long) / lower high (short) forms above/below the retest.
- Never widen stops on adds; total dollar risk must remain within your pre-set daily cap.
Risk Rules: Pre-Defined Invalidation and Time Stops
Trust comes from knowing exactly where you’re wrong and when to walk.
- Hard stop: one clear close beyond your retest level against the position.
- Time stop: if price chops around the level without directional progress for one full session, reduce or exit.
- News guardrail: flatten or cut the size into major catalysts if you don’t have cushion.
- Daily loss cap: stop trading for the day once hit—no “get back” trades.
What He Avoids: Breakout Chasing & Micro-Noise
He intentionally sidesteps the most common retail traps. Fewer A+ swings beat many C-grade scalp attempts.
- Do not buy/short raw breakouts at the level—wait for the pullback.
- Avoid 1–2 minute “micro” reads for decision-making; they create fake confidence.
- Skip names with erratic, one-off spikes that don’t respect levels on daily/4H.
Trade Management: Trim Into Strength, Let a Core Ride
This lets you harvest gains while still participating if the move extends.
- Take 1/3 off into the first target; move stop to breakeven on remainder.
- Trail stop under/over newly formed swing structures as the trend builds.
- If momentum stalls at a major index level, trim proactively and reassess.
- Final exit if the trend structure breaks (lower low after a series of higher lows for longs, and vice versa).
Daily Process & Journaling: Make the Setup Repeatable
Consistency is built outside market hours. He systematizes the routine to reduce in-session decision fatigue.
- Pre-market: mark 3–5 tickers with HTF break-and-retest potential + their exact levels.
- Write the plan: entry trigger, invalidation, targets, add conditions, and max risk $.
- Post-trade: screenshot levels, note whether confluence held, and whether the futures context aligned.
- Review weekly: keep only the filters that best predicted follow-through; delete the rest.
Options Variant (When Using Calls/Puts Instead of Stock)
He’s aware that options add slippage and decay, so he keeps them simple and close to the stock’s behavior.
- Use liquid weeklies, 0.30–0.45 delta, closest expiration with sufficient volume/oi.
- Enter options only if the stock trigger fires at your retest level; avoid pre-trigger lotto entries.
- Risk per trade stays the same in dollars; don’t “size up” because contracts look cheap.
- Take partials faster on options (theta/vega risk); keep a runner tethered to the stock’s structure.
Event & Volatility Handling
Big catalysts can scramble levels. He plans around them instead of reacting in the moment.
- If a major catalyst is within 24 hours and you’re not in profit, pass the setup.
- If already green pre-event, trim to a core and re-establish post-print on fresh retest signals.
- Widening spreads or SSR/pause conditions? Step back—no hero entries during micro-structure breaks.
Start With Risk: Size Trades by ATR and Max Account Heat
Vincent DeSiano opens every trade by capping downside first, not by hunting upside. He defines a strict “max account heat” (how much total capital is at risk across open positions) and refuses to exceed it. From there, he measures current volatility with ATR so stop distance reflects what the market is actually doing, not what he wishes it would do. The result is a position size that adapts to volatility: wider stops on faster names, smaller size; tighter stops on calmer names, larger size.
His sizing math is simple: choose a fixed dollar risk per trade (a slice of your max heat), divide by the stop distance in dollars (ATR multiple), and that’s your share count or contract size. If ATR expands after entry, he doesn’t widen the stop—he trims or exits because the premise changed. He also enforces a daily loss cap to kill revenge trades and keeps correlation in check so multiple positions don’t blow through the same risk bucket. Start with risk, and profits become a by-product of good defense rather than a miracle of timing.
Let Mechanics Lead: Trade the Setup, Not Your Predictions
Vincent DeSiano builds every trade from a rules-first checklist, not from a hunch about where price “should” go. He waits for his setup to complete—break, retest, confirm—before committing size, even if that means missing a move. Entries fire only when the trigger prints; if the candle doesn’t meet the criteria, there is no trade. This keeps emotion out of the workflow and prevents him from front-running a level on vibes.
Once in, Vincent manages purely by structure: invalidate on a close back through the level, add only on a higher low/lower high, and trim into predefined targets. He never massages rules to fit a narrative; if the market changes character, he steps aside rather than forcing prediction to win. The scoreboard is process adherence, not calls made. When mechanics lead and predictions follow, discipline scales—consistency becomes the alpha.
Diversify Smart: Spread Exposure Across Underlyings, Strategies, and Durations
Vincent DeSiano avoids loading the same risk factor five different ways; instead, he spreads bets across uncorrelated underlyings, a couple of strategy archetypes, and staggered holding periods. If one sector or theme is driving everything, he caps exposure and looks for names with different catalysts or volatility signatures. He’ll pair a clean daily break-and-retest swing with a shorter intraday continuation in another ticker, so one timeline doesn’t dictate his whole P&L. Diversification here isn’t about owning “more”; it’s about owning “different.”
He also diversifies the mechanics: defined-risk entries with tight invalidation in fast movers, plus slower, wider-stop structures in steadier names. Vincent watches calendar risk, spacing positions around earnings or macro prints so a single event can’t nuke the book. Correlation gets treated like a position—when it rises, he reduces the size or trims overlapping names. By mixing underlyings, strategy variants, and durations, he keeps drawdowns shallow and lets edge compound without a single point of failure.
Clear Rules, Fewer Decisions: Entry, Add, Trim, Exit Checklist
Vincent DeSiano keeps his playbook tight so the market can’t bait him into hesitation or improvisation. Entry requires the full sequence—break, clean retest, and confirmation candle—printed at a pre-marked level on the higher time frame. If any piece is missing, he doesn’t “anticipate”; he passes. Adds only come after a higher low (long) or lower high (short) forms at or above/below the level, so he’s scaling into strength, not hope.
Trims are mechanical, too: first trim into the nearest logical target (prior swing), then trail stops under/over fresh structures as momentum persists. If price closes back through the retest level or breaks trend structure, Vincent exits—no “give it a little room” negotiations. He also hard-stops trading for the day when his loss cap hits, cutting off the feedback loop that leads to revenge trades. With this checklist, decisions are pre-made, stress stays low, and execution stays fast.
Keep Drawdowns Small: Daily Loss Caps, Time Stops, No Revenge Trades
Vincent DeSiano treats capital like oxygen—protect it first, or nothing else matters. He sets a firm daily loss cap before the open and honors it like a margin call; once it’s hit, he’s done for the day, no exceptions. That single rule prevents spiral behavior and preserves the psychological edge he needs tomorrow.
He also uses time stops to kill dead money: if a setup stalls around the retest level for a full session without directional progress, he reduces or exits. Correlation risk gets the same scrutiny—if multiple positions start moving as one, he trims to keep total drawdown contained. And when a trade breaks structure, Vincent DeSiano exits, not negotiates; no doubling down, no “one more try,” no revenge trades. Small drawdowns compound into survivability, and survivability is what lets skill show up over a thousand trades.
In the end, Vincent DeSiano’s edge isn’t a magic indicator—it’s a repeatable system that protects capital and lets clean trends do the heavy lifting. He frames trades on the higher time frames, waits for the break-and-retest to actually confirm, and sizes by fixed dollar risk against ATR-based stops so volatility, not ego, dictates exposure. He keeps a running gate on market context with ES/NQ, diversifies across underlyings, strategies, and holding periods, and scales only when the structure proves him right. When the thesis breaks—close back through the level, correlation spikes, or time stops trigger—he exits without debate.
What makes this truly teachable is the discipline around it: a daily loss cap that ends tilt before it starts, prewritten checklists that bake decisions in ahead of time, and journaling that promotes trust in the playbook over FOMO. The result is a strategy that both beginners and experienced traders can follow: clear levels, concrete invalidations, mechanical trims, and runners that ride the trend. Vincent DeSiano shows that if you put defense first, let mechanics lead, and collect only the A+ retests, consistency is not luck—it’s the natural outcome of a good process repeated a thousand times.
Related posts:
- Download Auto Break-Even Expert Advisor – Move Stop Loss to Break-Even MT4 & MT5 EA
- How a Veteran Trader Thinks: The Strategy Behind Staying in the Game
- Trader Strategy Breakthrough: From $30K to Eight Figures with Ariel Hernandez
- Trader Psychology Strategy: Rande Howell’s Playbook
- Anchored VWAP: A Trader’s Strategy for Truth in Price
- The Trader’s Strategy Playbook: JJ Kinahan on Risk, Discipline, and Edge
- Inside a Trader’s Strategy: Scarface Trades on 1-Minute Precision
- Inside the Trader Mindset: Strategy Lessons from an Elite Trio
- Trader Strategy Breakdown with Jack Schwager: Lessons from the Market Wizards
- Trader Strategy Deep-Dive: Steven Dux on Turning $27k into Tens of Millions
- Market Wizard Trader Strategy: Larry Benedict on Risk, Discipline, and Consistency
- A Trader’s Trading Strategy Playbook: Why Tom Sosnoff Says “Trade Small, Trade Often”
