This is Lucas’ equity curve over the last few months. He started trading in December 2022 (!).
I know that the year has been tough for many, and I’m sending a lot of love to everyone. Lucas’ story will motivate some of you as he has been killing it.
The goals of this interview are:
Share Lucas’ approach that is, in my opinion, perfect for people who just get started in trading.
To show you how quickly someone can become profitable with a proper framework.
Since I coached Lucas, we could be biased and make things look better than they are, but I assure you that everything in this interview is as honest as it can be.
Hi Lucas, thank you so much for doing that interview with us today.
Q) First of all, could you post a picture of your trading setup and one of your trading charts to show the readers your trading environment?
This is my intraday chartbook and it’s the only thing I watch when I’m in the session
For charts I like to keep it simple, one tick chart with 3 or 4 levels that I use as pivots, sessions ORs1, profile of current and previous day and that’s it. The bottom chart is with some delta filtering and helps me execute. The DOM is where I place and move my orders, I do not watch the flow on the DOM.
Q) You’ve started trading very recently and went ‘all in’ directly. You were doing prestigious studies to become a doctor. What motivated you to take such a big leap of faith and how did you become in love with trading so fast?
I love trading because I always loved statistics, probabilities, and competitive spaces. My experience with trading is quite unusual. I started following some French guy on YouTube scalping futures on DOM when I was still in high school, back in 2015.
My 1st real experience with markets was during the ‘17 crypto bull run, mainly gambling on altcoins when I was 19. Made 25k and managed to lose most of it, and to be honest, I didn’t care because I was willing to lose my investment. Then 5 years later in late ‘22, I decided to open an account to trade futures, because I always had this in mind since high school.
I wasn’t satisfied with my studies and I wanted change in my life. I made a pause, giving myself 1 year, knowing I could resume my studies if I wanted to ( this was only a few months after opening the futures account).
The first months of trading were hard because I had too much pressure on my shoulders and lacked the structure of normal life. I started having more consistent wins around May and June, thanks to replaying a ton of hours on Sierra and simplifying my workspace. This was the first step of improvement.
Then later in the summer, I got a full-time job with hours outside of RTH session, and this is when my trading started improving drastically. Also, the time I started the coaching with you. Kind of funny, that my trading took off when I stopped looking at the chart 8 hours a day. I have a lot less pressure on me now because I have a steady income on the side. I stopped being in a rush. I accepted that it takes years to become relevant as a trader.
Q) What does a typical day of grind look like for you?
Nothing fancy, Prep before open, I look at news + update levels, look at basic intraday stats, and I write hypos for the session. If it’s a bid day (CPI, NFP, etc) I go a bit deeper with stats. Then I look at NQ from open until 11 AM EST and execute if trades show up. No more than 3 or 4 trades per session on average. Usually, I don’t stay much longer because I can’t look at charts actively for more than 2 hours. I do my DRC at the end of the day.
Q) Could you describe your trading style in a few words to us?
Pure intraday trading based on asymmetric R:R trades. Focusing on AMT, liquidity, and positioning. No price model is perfect, AMT is a good enough model to approach the market. So I use AMT concepts to map the market ( structure, value, volume nodes). Most of the intraday trading is about how much range we have left for the session & adapting to the context of the day so I look at the average range for RTH & 24h session. I like to apply liquidity concepts too, especially in thin markets like NQ. Take liquidity to initiate a move, or target liquidity to end a move. Then the last thing I watch is positioning with deltas. Identify the strength of aggressive participants, or spot them when they are underwater.
Q) Can you show the evolution of your equity curve since you started trading?
Dec 22 to May 23 mainly flat with up and down because I had no edge but decent risk management. Then I switched to another broker, and this curve is from mid-summer until now.
Q) With everything that you achieved in 2023, what is your plan for 2024?
Keep the same process without changing the core. Collect stats on my trades so I can be better at bet sizing. Also looking to implement a timing element & regime filter, to increase odds in my favor when taking a trade, and also to avoid taking lower probability setups. If you have a good model for price, time can be the thing that takes you to the next level with better sizing. Going for a breakout at 10 AM isn’t the same as going for it much later in the session.
Q) Do you have a mentor or someone you look up to in your progression as a trader?
I looked at so much content from different people this year and now that I have my process I’m slowly stopping to watch so much trading content. But the best traders I look up to are probably @lesgouh, showing execution & equity curve, and a very good understanding of structure & liquidity. I respect people showing real execution.
Also emmonspired, showing the equity curve and the reality of this business. macrotactical for intraday ranges work and the overall process. I avoid people posting levels and tweeting “Oh look it bounced at my line here” imo these people provide 0 value. By default, I assume they are clowns.
[Personal note: couldn’t agree more on Macro and Dan, amazing follow full of knowledge and experience.]
Q) Do you remember your worst and best trading day ever? What did it look like?
I didn’t have horrible days since started trading because I always had a daily loss limit. So my worst days are when I hit my DLL2, and usually, it’s when an idea isn’t working and I get stubborn. It happens rarely, but it’s this kind of tunnel vision effect, where you start to lose your objectivity and execute badly.
My best day was a trend day during November, entered long 5mins after opening, added on the way up, and held almost until RTH close.
Q) Finally, do you have one piece of advice for the readers who are just starting their trading journey?
If you are going to trade intraday on equity index futures, know that the edge is tiny and you are not going to reinvent the wheel. The good point is that the intraday edge is fairly scalable.
Start with a simple process to know when to interact with the market and stick with it for 3 months. Review every day, then get rid of what’s not working and refine. Have a systematic Daily Loss Limit and Max position size that is set up with your broker. No mental DLL or set in your platform that you can disable. Do not rely on your willpower and discipline for risk management. I also want to add that people come into this space with unrealistic expectations ( and so do I) and that there are very few examples of what are actually realistic expectations because almost no one is showing their stats. So look at profitable traders that show their winrate, profit factor, and all the other execution stats, so you know what is achievable. ( yes it’s more than 1 advice )
Folks, in case it wasn’t clear enough, Lucas is an outlier. He had a very short learning curve before profitability, and his curve isn’t due to luck. His biggest strengths are his Risk management skills and his patience. I’ve seen it live and it’s impressive, especially for someone who started less than 12 months ago.
If you have any questions, I’ll meet you in the comment section.
I hope that you enjoyed this interview. Lucas is an outlier, and I deeply believe that he will be a 7-figure trader in the next 2 years (no pressure Lucas). His work ethic leaves no place to chance. There’s a lot to learn from him, and it’s the best reminder than a framework + hard work + patience are some of the most important ingredients to success.
Happy holiday season, and I’ll see you soon!
Cheers
RC
Opening Range
Daily Loss Limit
This was a great interview and I'm about to re-read it again. Really enjoyed Lucas's perspective on stats and his way of simplifying things, and the importance he gives to systematizing things. It becomes very obvious after discretionary trading for 2 years that it is crucial to have some type of systematic process.
Inspiring, thanks!