I don’t open a trade because I “see an opportunity”; I open one because it “passes the checks.” Five gates—fail any one, and I don’t trade.

Gate 1: Location
Is this entry near one of the lines I’ve drawn?
At a key support/resistance/trend line → pass.
In the middle of a range, just because I “feel like it’s going up” → fail; delete it immediately.
Gate 2: Direction
Does the direction on the higher timeframes (4H/daily) match this trade?
Yes → pass.
Countertrend bounce trades → may pass, but only with a small position and a nearby target.
Gate 3: Signal
Is there a “confirmation candle”?
What counts as confirmation: a long lower wick, an engulfing candle, or a close back above a key level—any one of the three.
“I feel like it’s about time” doesn’t count as a signal → fail.
Gate 4: Risk/reward
How far is the stop loss from entry? How many times that distance is the entry-to-target distance?
Less than 1.5x, no trade. Your win rate can’t possibly be high enough to make 1:1 trades profitable over the long term.
Gate 5: Emotions
Am I trying to make money right now, or trying to break even?
Trying to make money → pass.
Trying to break even, prove myself, or avoid missing out → fail. This is the most important gate, and the one where it’s easiest to fool yourself.
Only after passing all five gates do I get to place a trade.
The order can’t change: check the location first, then the direction, then the signal, then calculate the risk/reward, and finally check your emotions.
Many people do it backwards—they start with an emotion, then look for a reason.
Two additional rules
At most two trades a day. Not two trades opened at most, but two trades you “allow yourself to open” at most. Once you’ve used them up, shut down.
After two consecutive stop-outs, stop for the day. It’s not the market; you’re not in the right state today.
The value of this approach isn’t that it increases your win rate, but that it reduces the number of trades.
You’ll find that over the course of a month, there are actually only a handful of opportunities that pass all five gates. And it’s precisely those dozens of trades you didn’t take that kept your account alive.
In a word:
Your trading skill isn’t reflected in the trades you place, but in the trades you turn down.$BTC $ETH #CPI数据前瞻 #October nonfarm data in focus