Tactical mindset — the process to determine before entering a trade

Core idea

Before every trade you must finish setting three layers in the right order: knowledge (what shape is the market in) → mindset + tactics (what you're allowed to do) → psychology (expectation or caution). The psychology and tactics layer must match the timeframe you're actually trading, not the timeframe you're dreaming about. Trading M5 while holding onto 1D-level expectations is already broken at the mindset stage, before you even get to the technicals.

Details

The 5-step process before entering a trade

Step 1 — Determine the market's shape on the higher timeframes. Trend (agreement + momentum from 1D up) or range (higher timeframes out of phase)? If it's a range, then which timeframe's range is it? → Identifying the range zone (identifying the range zone)

Step 2 — Find the timeframe currently DECIDING the market. Whichever timeframe has RSI expanding away from the two moving averages + has a slope + breaks above 60 (or below 40) and holds it → that timeframe (or that cluster of timeframes) is running a wave and deciding price.

• Check "does this timeframe already have its own buying force": RSI must rise and HOLD above 60. Touching 60 then dropping back doesn't count yet.
• A range timeframe = "the fence-sitter," don't use it to make decisions. If, within a group of 3 timeframes, 2 are fence-sitters and 1 has a pattern → follow the one with a real opinion.

Step 3 — Determine the timeframe YOU will trade, and lock your mindset into it.

• NECESSARY condition: that timeframe has a pattern.
• SUFFICIENT condition: there's permission from the larger timeframe and support from the smaller timeframe (the smaller timeframe is pushing in buying/selling force, ideally creating momentum).
• Whichever timeframe you trade, only pay attention to the timeframes right next to it. Trading M5/M15 → watch 30m, H1, H2. Trading H1/H4 → watch H12, 1D.

Step 4 — Set your psychology by the phase relationship, not by the general context. This is where most students get the answer wrong:

• Context: 1D→1W agree on up, H4 has upward momentum and a healthy correction → psychology is EXPECTATION, go long and hold.
• Same context, but only M15 has upward momentum while 30m/H1 are out of phase → psychology is CAUTION, close whatever you capture as you go.
• Answering "expectation" for both cases is 100% wrong: the M15 wave has nothing to do with 1D at all.

Step 5 — Determine the target, the SL, and the exit scenario before clicking the button.

• A wave that's out of phase with the neighboring timeframe → by default treat it as a bounce wave, with a short target, no expectation of breaking the high; win probability drops from ~80% to ~60%. Alden says it plainly: trades against the neighboring timeframe's phase aren't his taste, he doesn't trade them.

An anti-emotion tool: DRAW THE TABLE

When signals conflict with each other, draw a two-column table (supporting up / supporting down) and WRITE IT OUT.

A real example from session 40:

→ Clearly the up side has more → no basis to close the long.

Why you have to write it out: emotion can't fool reason when reason is forced to work. If you only think it in your head, you'll only see the one signal that's scaring you (m30 crossing down) and ignore all the rest.

The principle "an exit decision = an entry decision"

Before closing a long, ask yourself: "If I didn't have a trade open right now, could I short here? Is there any factor supporting a short?" If the answer is no → there's also no basis to close. Apply it the other way around for a short trade.

RSI must always be read TOGETHER WITH PRICE

The most repeated mistake among students: exiting a trade just because a small timeframe's RSI crosses below the two moving averages.

• If that timeframe itself has no pattern (no slope, no expansion of the two MAs, RSI hovering below 60) → the cross-down signal is almost worthless, just noise.
• If price is still respecting support, each low still higher than the last, the nearest support hasn't broken → selling force hasn't appeared yet → no reason to close.
• The final conclusion must always be the answer to "what are the buying and selling forces doing right now", not "is RSI above or below."
• A cross-up/cross-down signal only has value when there was already an accumulation pattern heading up or down beforehand.

NECESSARY vs SUFFICIENT conditions when calling a top/bottom

Example: wanting to short the top on the 1D:

• NECESSARY: price fails to break the resistance zone + 1D has a pattern + the small timeframes fail their upward momentum (fully resetting the buying force).
• SUFFICIENT: the small timeframe shows genuinely increasing selling force. Increasing selling force comes in several shapes; don't be mechanical about a single mold:
  1. The small timeframe's highs and lows getting progressively lower, and the higher timeframes agreeing on down.
  2. There's a down-wave, then a bounce wave up that fails to break the previous high → that's the shorting moment.
  3. A weakening pattern: highs keep rising, then stop rising further, price draws an arc, then breaks the low and starts making progressively lower highs.
• If price drops too fast (news-driven) without meeting the necessary conditions → accept staying out.

The three sensitive points of an RSI trend

• Point 1 — the start of the trend: RSI expands away from the two MAs, with a slope → corresponds to price running a wave.
• Point 2 — narrows for the first time, then expands again.
• Point 3 — narrows/crosses in again.

These three points are where price moves sharply. But they're only valid if there's a genuine trending stretch between them (RSI expanded, with a slope). If the stretch in between is just a range, then that's not "point 2" at all — a very common identification mistake.

Caution ≠ being gun-shy

• Correct caution: still enter the trade, but watch closely; manage by support/resistance zones; if the zone is lost, exit; if the zone holds and the wick retracts quickly, re-enter.
• Being gun-shy: exiting the instant you see a noisy signal, then regretting it, then re-entering off-beat.
• The reverse also has to be remembered: in a range, when price suddenly runs 300–500 points (a bigger magnitude than the whole previous week), greed gets triggered very strongly — the mindset still has to be caution, even though the price step has changed.

Putting it into practice

A template to fill out before every trade (by hand or in your journal):

1. Market shape: trend / range of timeframe ___
2. Timeframe deciding the market: ___ (RSI expanded, sloped, holding above 60/below 40)
3. Timeframe I'm trading: ___   | Permitting timeframe: ___  | Supporting timeframe: ___
4. In phase or out of phase with the neighboring timeframe? → growth wave / bounce wave
5. Psychology set: EXPECTATION / CAUTION
6. Up–down table:  [list them]
7. Entry point ___ | SL ___ (by which structure) | Target ___ | Exit condition ___

Monthly review (mandatory): at the end of the month, list out every losing trade and find the cause of each one. Any losing trade where you don't know where you went wrong, you have to ask — because if you don't know where you went wrong, you'll definitely repeat that exact mistake next time. This is the only way to improve: the foundation of knowledge is common to everyone, but psychology – timeframe – each person's personality creates its own variables, and only your own journal can point those out.

What the teacher stresses / common traps

• Getting the mindset wrong = a ruined trade, even if the technicals are right. "No matter how good the knowledge, if you don't apply the right mindset and psychology for each phase, you still die."
• Don't identify yourself with your psychology. Saying "I'm someone with weak psychology" nails a belief into your brain: belief → thought → action → result → circumstance. Replace it with: "my psychology is in the process of training, today is better than yesterday."
• Don't blame yourself for not being good yet; only blame yourself if you refuse to improve. Persistence is the only difference between someone who achieves results and someone who doesn't.
• Once you've chosen a timeframe, stick to it. If you've decided to only trade from M15 up, let the M5 wave run without you — regret is exactly the psychological pattern you need to drop. The market still has countless cycles and countless opportunities left.
• Experience can't be shortcut. The psychological phase-switch between range and trend only becomes smooth after going through a few real phase switches + doing reminder exercises yourself. Reading a few books and becoming a Master is not a thing.
• Volume also has to be examined: an up-wave with no volume breakout is "still nothing worth talking about" — don't rush to follow the crowd's cheering.
• A warning about socializing within the group: people who get results early can easily make you anxious → skip stages → take on risk → get discouraged; people who are slower can easily pull you into the mindset of "maybe this trade just isn't for me." Trading is an independent path — you have to get used to being alone.

R:R doesn't live in the indicator — It lives in mindset & tactics

This is the answer to the classic question, "which indicator do I use to get a 1:10?"

• RSI / MACD / Stochastic / Ichimoku / Wyckoff / Elliott all share the same nature: the price line + the buying-selling force differential + average thresholds. Once you truly understand one system, jumping to another one is very fast — no system is "better" in the sense of giving a higher R:R.
• With the same bounce signal, the same entry point, but:
  • Sticking to a single timeframe only (SL and TP on the same timeframe) → R:R is only around 1:1.5 – 1:2.
  • Taking SL on the small timeframe + TP on the big timeframe (a wave within a wave) → pulls it up to 1:6 – 1:7, sometimes even more.
• ⇒ R:R is the product of multi-timeframe mindset + tactics, not of the analysis method. A method only answers three questions correctly: which side's force is winning? / has that force run out yet? / is there a structure yet?

When a wave has already run past the nice entry point: there are only two correct choices — (a) skip it, or (b) find a small wave inside that wave to enter with a tighter SL. Absolutely never abandon the 1% risk mark just because "this trade feels like a sure thing."

See the technical execution in tim diem vao bang rsi (finding the entry point with RSI) and Multi-timeframe (multi-timeframe logic) (multi-timeframe).

Related lessons

• Range vs trend tactics (range vs trend tactics) — the mindset/tactics/psychology playbook for each market shape
• Identifying the range zone (identifying the range zone) — step 1 of the process
• Taking profit in a range (taking profit in a range) — applying this process to the exit decision
• Risk wave vs profit wave (the 80/20 rule) (risk wave vs profit wave) — filtering waves before setting your mindset
• Multi-timeframe (multi-timeframe logic) (multi-timeframe) — permitting timeframe / supporting timeframe, in phase–out of phase
• Rising momentum / falling momentum (QTT – QTG) (RSI up/down momentum) — momentum, patterns, the three sensitive points
• Entry point (entry point) — the final step once the mindset is fully set
• The Psychology Switch (the psychology hand-off switch) — proactively switching psychological phase