3R space
Is a 3R target realistic against the liquidity map at all? ✓ when the target sits inside the furthest opposing pool — the previous day's extreme, today's, an H4 swing, the Asian or the weekly. ✗ when it overshoots everything.
The system
How the system decides
The whole model is one question: does a trade exist today or not. The indicator answers it, not my opinion. Here is the complete set of rules that decision runs on — including the ones I only added after a loss.
Two ranges that never get mixed
The system works with two ranges and doesn't mix them. The daily range () gives context and bias — it decides which side I may take today. The Asian range gives the trigger: a of its high or low during the London session is what an entry is hunted after. When that same sweep also takes the previous day's liquidity (PDH/PDL), the setup is markedly stronger; that's confluence, not a condition. Liquidity doesn't stop when Asia does, either — if a higher high or lower low forms in the gap between the Asian close and the London open, that real extreme is what counts.
When trading happens
An entry only exists inside the London killzone. Outside it a sweep doesn't create an order block, however identical it looks. The New York session is drawn by the indicator but isn't traded systematically — the backtest showed no edge there.
- Asian range
- 20:00 – 00:00
- London killzone
- 02:00 – 05:00
- Timeframe
- M15
- Pairs
- GBPUSD / EURUSD
Times in New York time.
The signal core
Seven rows the indicator reads top to bottom. If one of them isn't lit, there is no trade that day — regardless of what I happen to think about the market.
- D1 biasThe previous day's daily close against the 20-day average decides which side I may take today. It gets written down before the session, not during it. It also has a third state: when the dollar index already confirms direction, it greys out to “not relevant” and the bias stops being an obstacle — this page used to say trades never go against the bias, which is no longer true.
- Sweep = order blockThe candle that takes liquidity inside the and after which the market leaves in the opposite direction. The last candle against that move is the order block. Outside the killzone it isn't an order block at all — time matters more than price here.
- PDL/PDHDid that same also take the previous day's high or low? Previous-day liquidity is the strongest filter I have. The Asian extreme on its own isn't enough.
- ConfirmationA following candle has to close beyond the Model -1 level — the far edge of the order block. That close is the cue to place the limit. Without confirmation there is no entry; anticipation doesn't count.
- MODEL-1The trigger itself. “limit @ M-1” means confirmed and waiting for the retest; “✓ TRIGGERED” means the retest filled the limit and the trade is live. An unfilled limit is cancelled when the ends.
- DXYThe dollar is the quote currency, so a short needs a rising dollar index and a long a falling one. The mirror Model -1 on has to confirm the opposite direction.
- A+ SETUPLights up gold when every row above it is green. It grades the signal only — deliberately separate from the context below, which is why A+ can sit next to a middling context score.
Context — what surrounds the trade
Three checks that don't decide whether the signal is valid, but what I'm stepping into. When two of the three fail, the trigger is downgraded to “TRIGGERED (filtered)” — the signal was valid, the surroundings weren't.
Draw
Where liquidity is pulling price. Only PDL taken and not PDH means a pull upward and favours longs; the reverse favours shorts. Both or neither is neutral. Red when it points against the signal.
Rel. strength
Relative strength against the other major, measured from the daily open. The cleaner trade is shorting the weaker pair and buying the stronger one — this row flags when I'm doing the opposite.
QUALITY
How many of the three checks passed, shown as “2 / 3”. It isn't a setup grade or a second A+ scale; it's a count of context conditions met.
Execution and position size
From confirmation onward I compute nothing in my head. It's all on the chart.
Entry
A limit at the Model -1 level, the far edge of the order block. The retest fills it, or it's cancelled when the ends.
Stop-loss
Beyond the extreme of the whole liquidity grab, not just the candle. A grab is often two or three candles; when a neighbour of the order block pushes a wick further out, the stop belongs beyond that — otherwise it sits inside the structure meant to protect it.
Target
Fixed at 3R. Nowhere else, and it never gets moved.
Position size
The indicator computes the stop in pips and the position size in lots that goes with it. Risk isn't a number I work out mid-session.
The MODEL-1 indicator
The tool has its own page: what it does, how I work with it, and how to read every row of the dashboard — line by line on a real trade.
Risk management
Fixed risk turns results into statistics — which is why results are kept in R, not in currency. At a 1:3 ratio a win rate above 25% would in theory be enough, except that calculation assumes every win reaches the full target, and it doesn't. What the backtest actually says — including what I had wrong on it and corrected — lives on its own page. It doesn't stand here next to the live numbers, because it tested an older version of the system.
The backtest and its numbers →- Risk per trade
- 0.3%
- Risk : reward
- 1 : 3
- Trades per day
- max 1 / strategy
- Timeframe
- M15
I lowered the risk per trade from 0.5% to the current 0.3% on 20 July 2026. Older case studies on the Trades page correctly show 0.5% — that's exactly what I risked at the time. Historical numbers don't get rewritten.
What the system never allows
Rules with no exception — and the indicator doesn't have one either.
- More than one trade per strategy per day
- Entry without a confirming close beyond the Model -1 level — anticipation doesn't exist
- Touching a live position: no breakeven, no partials, no moving stops
- A target anywhere other than 3R
- Sizing up to recover a loss
If I break one of these, it's marked in the journal — even if the trade made money. A trade that won outside the rules is a failure in the journal, because it can't be repeated.
Where the system ends
Three things this model can't do and doesn't claim to. It doesn't decide whether the market has an edge — only whether a setup formed today under the rules. It doesn't trade outside the London , so most of the day is none of its business. And it doesn't know the news: I check the macro calendar by hand before the session, the indicator has no idea it exists. The context checks, on top of that, aren't a filter that forbids a trade — they only label it, and the decision stays with me.
Discipline is part of the model
Every journal entry has a "followed the plan" field. A trade that made money outside the rules counts as a failure in the journal — because it can't be repeated. A model without measured discipline isn't a model, it's a mood.