Table of Contents
Raja Zahoor sits down in this YouTube interview to break down how he evolved from a small account and early “revenge trades” into a disciplined day trader who treats markets like a business. Known for trading the pre-New York window and favoring clean, indicator-light charts, Raja explains why most losses come from over-risking and over-trading, how a mentor and strict session times reshaped his results, and why focusing on just a couple of instruments (think gold and GBP pairs) sharpened his edge.
In this piece, you’ll learn Raja’s simple, repeatable playbook: define a daily time block, read structure on 30-minute and 1-hour candles, wait for price to make a high/low, let it pull back, and only enter once the next candle flips in your direction. You’ll see how he scales with small, consistent wins, secures partials, avoids swing-trade surprises, and aligns strategy with personality so part-time screen time can still produce full-time progress.
Raja Zahoor Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
Session, timing, and market selection
Raja focuses on the windows where liquidity and follow-through are most reliable, so he doesn’t waste screen time or force trades. He keeps his universe tight to learn the “personality” of each instrument and how it behaves at specific times.
- Trade the pre–New York window (~6:30–9:00 a.m. ET); treat it as your primary session.
- Only trade when your session is open; stay flat outside the window (no “just checking” trades).
- Specialize first: gold (XAUUSD) and one or two GBP majors are enough to build consistency.
- Skip low-volume times (late NY, Asia drift on gold) unless your data shows an edge.
- If a high-impact event lands inside your window, either stand down or halve your risk.
Chart setup and timeframes
His charts are clean: just price. He reads structure from higher timeframes, then times entries on the same frames to avoid noise that invites second-guessing.
- Naked charts (no indicators) with clear session times marked.
- Primary structure lenses: 30-minute and 1-hour; confirm with 4-hour when needed.
- On your chart, mark current session high/low and nearest HTF support/resistance.
- Keep one template per instrument (consistent zoom and levels) to reduce bias.
- Hide lower-timeframe clutter if it conflicts with the 30m/1h read.
The entry model: high → pullback → flip
Raja’s core pattern is simple: wait for the price to make a move, pull back, and only join when momentum turns back in your direction. This avoids top-picking and fighting active candles.
- Identify a fresh session high/low aligned with the 30m/1h trend.
- Wait for a pullback to form a micro base (small HL/LH) near structure.
- Enter only when the next candle “flips” and closes in your direction (no guessing mid-candle).
- Entries are valid only inside your pre-defined window; if it triggers late, pass.
- If the pullback erases the prior structure (higher-high on shorts / lower-low on longs), invalidate the setup.
Stop placement and invalidation.
Risk is defined by the idea, not by comfort. Stops go where the setup is wrong, and he accepts that some slips and quick scratches are part of the business.
- Longs: stop below the pullback base or below the trigger candle’s low if tighter and logical.
- Shorts: stop above the pullback base or above the trigger candle’s high if tighter and logical.
- If a news spike tags your level during the entry candle, flatten and reassess—don’t widen.
- If HTF breaks invalidate the trend context, exit immediately; don’t wait for “hope” candles.
- Predefine a time stop (e.g., 15–20 minutes for scalps) if price stalls at entry.
Position sizing and daily targets
He approaches trading like a business: planned risk, modest daily goals, and strict limits to prevent spiral behavior. Growth comes from compounding, not lottery wins.
- Risk fixed % of equity per trade (e.g., 0.25–0.5% for new consistency; size down during drawdowns).
- Define a daily target and daily max loss (e.g., target ~1% day / max loss 1–2R); stop trading once hit.
- No adding to losers; scale only if your plan includes clear add-on triggers after progress.
- If you book a large outlier win, consider reducing the next trade size to neutralize post-win euphoria.
- Keep all sizing in a pre-trade checklist so emotions can’t “negotiate” it live.
Trade management: partials and exits
He takes profits like a professional—systematic and boring. The idea is to bank progress while leaving room for the move to be completed.
- First partial at 1R or at the nearest intraday level; move stop to breakeven after partials.
- Trail behind swing lows/highs on 30m/1h or use a fixed R multiple (e.g., 1.5R/2R) if you prefer mechanical.
- If momentum dies at a session boundary (e.g., NY open → mid-morning), consider flattening the remainder.
- Don’t let a winner turn into a loser; once +1R is printed, the worst outcome should be flat or green.
- If spread/volatility widens abruptly, tighten the stop rather than hoping conditions normalize.
Pattern filters that keep you out of trouble
Most losses come from over-trading and over-risking. A few simple filters eliminate low-quality bets and preserve mental capital.
- No counter-trend trades during strong 30m/1h impulse candles—wait for structure to form first.
- No entries mid-range; you want break-and-retests or pullback-and-flips near levels.
- One instrument at a time; avoid splitting focus during the entry window.
- If you miss the A-setup, do not chase—the next one is coming.
- Three-strike rule per session: after 3 trades or max loss, call it.
Building consistency and scaling
Raja scaled by doing the same simple thing repeatedly and letting math do the heavy lifting. When equity changes, size changes—method stays the same.
- After a material equity increase (e.g., +10–15%), raise the lot size proportionally in your plan.
- After a drawdown of 5–10%, step down size and run a 10-trade recovery block before scaling back up.
- Use a rolling 20-trade log to track win rate, average R, and session adherence.
- One change at a time (instrument, timeframe, or rule); test for at least 2–4 weeks before adopting.
Daily routine checklist
Routine removes decision fatigue and makes performance repeatable. Treat the session like a gym appointment you never miss.
- Pre-market (15–20 min): mark HTF levels, session high/low, calendar checks, pick one instrument.
- During session: wait for high/low → pullback → candle flip, execute only if risk and timing match plan.
- Post-trade: record entry reason, risk, management, and any violation; screenshot chart.
- Session end: stop trading; review one improvement for tomorrow and reset charts to template.
Fix risk per trade using volatility-based position sizing, cap drawdown
Raja Zahoor keeps it simple: the account survives or dies by how you size. He fixes a small percent risk per idea and lets recent volatility decide the lot size, so the same idea costs the same, no matter how wild the market gets. That means measuring the current range—like the last 14 candles or the session’s average wave—and scaling position so a logical stop equals that fixed risk. When volatility expands, positions shrink; when it contracts, positions grow—risk stays constant.
To put this into practice, pick a risk number first (for many traders, 0.25%–0.5% works) and never negotiate it mid-trade. Define the stop where the idea is invalid, then back-solve size using the recent range or ATR so the dollar loss matches your fixed risk. Add a daily max loss and a weekly circuit breaker to cap damage when the tape gets nasty. Above all, follow Raja Zahoor’s lead: treat sizing as a rule, not a feeling, so drawdowns remain shallow and recovery stays quick.
Trade pre-New York only: one instrument, one play, no distractions
Raja Zahoor frames his edge around the pre–New York window when liquidity starts to build and moves actually complete. By committing to this slice of time, he avoids the chop and boredom trades that creep in during slower sessions. He shows up with a plan, trades the plan, and closes the platform when the window shuts. That guardrail forces patience and makes every decision compare against a known playbook. If the setup isn’t there by his cutoff, it’s a pass, not a project.
The second part of the rule is focus: pick one instrument and one piece to play for the day. For Raja Zahoor, that’s often gold or a single GBP pair, paired with the same break–pullback–flip sequence. No scanning ten charts, no adding symbols mid-session, no “maybe” trades to fill time. Fewer decisions mean cleaner execution and a measurable edge that compounds over weeks, not minutes.
Wait for high–pullback–flip; enter on close, never mid-candle
Raja Zahoor treats entries like a checklist: first, a clear session high or low, then a controlled pullback, and only then a candle that flips and closes back with the trend. This sequence filters out the excitement of the first move and the trap of buying tops or selling bottoms. Waiting for the close confirms that momentum isn’t just a wick or a news twitch. If the pullback pushes through the level that defined your idea, the setup is dead—no debate, no “just a quick try.”
On execution, mark the session high/low and the nearest structure, then let the pullback test that zone without panic. When the next candle flips and closes with your bias, that’s your entry; stops go beyond the pullback base, targets at the next logical level. Raja Zahoor avoids guessing mid-candle because it invites whipsaws and emotional averaging. Trade the close, not the hope, and you’ll find fewer trades—but far better ones.
Balance exposure across gold and GBP; diversify by setup and duration
Raja Zahoor keeps his book simple but not singular: he splits attention between gold and a GBP major, knowing they often move differently to macro catalysts. The goal isn’t more trades; it’s fewer correlated bets, so one idea can win even if the other stalls. He also diversifies by how he engages—trend continuation vs. range break—and how long he intends to hold, so not every position depends on the same condition.
In practice, cap exposure per instrument (e.g., no more than 1R total live risk on gold or GBP at once). Avoid stacking two trades that are the same setup and timeframe; pair a continuation play on gold with a cleaner range break on GBP, not two clones. If gold and GBP both hinge on the same USD impulse, pick the cleaner read and pass the other. Define a “session hold” rule: intraday trades close by your cutoff, while only an A+ structure can be held into the next window. Raja Zahoor’s filter is simple—diversify intelligently or don’t deploy—and that keeps equity curves steadier when markets get moody.
Process over prediction: journal, three-trade limit, stop after target
Raja Zahoor runs his day like a checklist, not a crystal ball. He journals each trade in plain language—why he took it, where the stop lived, what the candle looked like at entry—and tags it with a simple win/loss and R multiple. That record is how patterns show up: which setup prints most, which time slice underperforms, which emotion keeps sneaking in. Prediction fades; process compounds.
He also hard-caps decision fatigue with a three-trade limit per session and a rule to stop trading once the daily target is hit. No “one more” after a win, no revenge clicks after a loss—platform closed means edge preserved. If he violates a rule, Raja Zahoor writes the violation first and trades second the next day, so the behavior gets corrected before another entry. Over weeks, the journal plus limits create consistency that no forecast can match.
Raja Zahoor’s interview boils down to a few brutal truths that make trading simpler, not harder. You only bleed when you over-trade or over-risk, so he fixes risk first, then lets volatility decide size. He narrowed his universe to gold and a single GBP pair, which shows up in the pre–New York window, reads 30-minute and 1-hour structure on clean charts, and waits for a high or low to form before doing anything. The moment that changed his results was stopping the guesswork: let price pull back, then enter only when the next candle flips and closes with your bias. If structure breaks, he’s out—no negotiation, no averaging, no “one more try.”
The bigger lesson is that consistency is a behavior, not a forecast. Raja Zahoor ditched the spaghetti of methods and stuck to one repeatable sequence, with stops where the idea is wrong and with modest, businesslike daily targets. He respects session boundaries, avoids stacking correlated bets, and understands that missing a move is cheaper than forcing one. Over weeks, that combination—fixed risk, time discipline, a simple entry model, and ruthless invalidation—turns randomness into a process you can actually run.
