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Beyond A Decade of Setups
The technicals, the probabilities, the execution, and the trader.
---THE TECHNICALS---
For me, technical improvements came from being able to read the market in real time and understand what was likely happening underneath the surface at inflection points: the flows, the positioning, and the reaction at a level.
That’s where microstructure started to matter.
The signs of price failure. The shift in momentum. Tape speed and volume being supported by flows. Understanding price and flow mechanics when the same conditions kept showing up again and again.
I saw it enough times that eventually it stopped feeling like noise. It became data I could interpret and reason about.
Once I could define the structure, understand the pattern, and recognise the flows behind it, I knew I could read the market in almost real time and identify a possible execution trigger.
But from experience, that was still only a small part of the game.
---THE PROBABILITIES---
One of the questions I started asking myself was: how do I grade my performance if I don’t even know how to measure or quantify what I’m actually trading?
For example, placing a stop at some random swing high. How do I measure that over 100 trades? What parameters am I actually tuning? How do I know what’s improving and what’s just noise? Are my MAE/MFE stats meaningful at all?
That was a big realisation for me. How could I really perform at a high level if parts of my process were still random and carrying a high degree of variance?
Maybe I could do okay.
But was okay good enough?
The real question became whether I could trade this with a measurable probability in my favour.
Not perfectly.
But consistently enough to know I wasn’t just operating from randomness.
I was operating with purpose and probability.
---THE EXECUTION---
The deeper work, for me, has been myself as the trader and the process - not just the technicals alone.
I spent a long time obsessing over price action, order flow, and technicals, while neglecting the part that was actually affecting my performance.
I realised I could study price charts all I wanted.
Technical skill alone wasn’t going to move the needle.
I got better technically, but the same flaws in my game kept resurfacing because I hadn’t dealt with them properly.
For me, the strategy in isolation was never really the issue. It was executing when emotion was at its highest.
In my own trading, the problem often wasn’t that I lacked a setup. It was the execution around it - entering too early, exiting too late, cutting too soon, sizing poorly, or freezing when the decision actually mattered.
So I had to ask myself...
Could I explain one of my execution strategies in detail, beyond just saying “look for an SFP”?
Could I explain the logic behind it?
Why it works?
Where it should work?
What I’m actually trying to capture?
Because “look for an SFP” isn’t a strategy.
It’s a label.
Second-guessing, hesitating, cutting too early, oversizing, and letting fear, frustration, or ego influence the decision-making process.
I’ve dealt with all of it for years. And if I’m not fully locked in, it can still creep back in.
For me, the struggle hasn’t always been finding opportunity. Opportunities always exist.
The challenge is executing cleanly when it matters.
The entry. The management. The exit. The full trade life cycle and the statistics around it.
That’s the part I obsess over most now. It serves as a constant feedback loop - the quality of which depends on how honest I’m willing to be with myself.
I know what I’m looking for. The countless hours spent testing, reviewing trades, studying price, and collecting data are all part of turning that into a real strategy.
So the focus is simple: better preparation, better review, better sizing, more patience, and cleaner execution.
Small improvements, repeated consistently.
The 1% changes that compound - think Atomic Habits.
---THE TRADER---
At some point, trading became less about proving I was right and more about executing what I said I would execute.
Not forcing trades. Not reacting emotionally. Not needing to be right. Not caring as much about what everyone else is doing on X.
Just trying to execute a defined process with purpose.
Variance will always exist. Losses will always be part of the game. But with enough data, review, and self-awareness, I started to move away from randomness.
I started narrowing the window of variance - which, in my opinion, is one of the hardest parts of becoming a better trader.
Because if the parameters I journal aren’t quantifiable, what am I really journaling?
Dogshit data.
Randomness.
This matters with things like stop placement, sizing, and trade management.
By bringing more systemisation into my execution - whether that’s structured sizing, defined risk, Kelly Criterion, or whatever framework suits the way I trade - I can narrow the window of variance and trade with more intent.
Let the process do its work.
That’s what it comes down to for me:
Building the structure.
Refining the performance.
Becoming the trader capable of executing it.
Because performance isn’t just the setup.
Performance is how I execute the setup and manage the entire trade life cycle - from strategy creation, to initiation, to execution, to performance review.
Not really giving a flying f**k what anyone else says or does.
Just me against me - sharing my experiences and own journey... mainly talking to myself but hope someone finds it insightful.
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