One thing I’ve learned pretty quickly while studying trading:

People spend a lot of time asking:

“What’s the best strategy?”

But that’s usually the wrong question.

A better question is:

“What kind of trader am I actually becoming?”

Because every strategy asks something different from you:

• different emotional tolerance

• different pace

• different decision-making style

• different levels of structure and ambiguity

This series is designed to help you explore those differences thoughtfully instead of randomly strategy-hopping every time a YouTube thumbnail promises “95% accuracy.”

Which, to be clear, is apparently all of them.

The Four Levels

Foundations

This section covers:

• Support & Resistance

• Trend Following

• Range Trading

• Candlestick Reading

These are the building blocks.

Every other strategy in this series either:

• builds on these concepts

• modifies them

• or reframes them entirely

If you’re new, start here.

And honestly, even experienced traders benefit from revisiting foundations because trading has a funny way of making simple concepts seem “too basic” right before you realize they matter enormously.

Intermediate

This section includes:

• ORB

• VWAP

• EMA Trend Systems

• Supply & Demand

This is where strategies become more structured and specialized.

These frameworks assume you already understand:

• basic chart behavior

• price structure

• support/resistance

• and market context

This is also probably where most retail traders spend the majority of their time.

You start moving from:

“What is price doing?”

to:

“How do I interact with it systematically?”

Advanced / Institutional

This section covers:

• SMC

• ICT

• Liquidity Concepts

• Market Structure Shifts

These are the frameworks that have absolutely taken over trading YouTube and Twitter over the last several years.

And honestly?
Some of them are fascinating.

Also occasionally overwhelming.

I’ll cover these frameworks honestly:

• why they’re compelling

• why people become obsessed with them

• why they’re controversial

• and what they actually demand cognitively and emotionally from the trader

Because this is the point where trading starts becoming less about:

“spotting patterns”

…and more about:

interpreting market behavior contextually

Which some people love.

And some people find mentally exhausting.

Both are valid.

Specialized

This section includes:

• Scalping

• News Trading

• Options Flow

• Session-Based Strategies

These strategies are specialized enough that they don’t fit neatly into the earlier categories.

They’re not necessarily:

• harder

• smarter

• or “more advanced”

They’re just solving different problems.

For example:

• News traders care deeply about volatility and reaction speed

• Scalpers care about execution precision and momentum

• Session-based traders care about timing and participation

Different environments.
Different skill requirements.

How Each Strategy Is Structured

Every strategy in this series follows the same six-part framework.

Mostly because structure makes learning easier.
My UX and EdTech brain refuses to organize this any other way.

Part 1 — What It Is

This is the neutral overview.

We cover:

• core concepts

• terminology

• philosophy

• and what problem the strategy is trying to solve

The goal is:

understand how practitioners think

before worrying about entries and setups.

Part 2 — How It Works

This is the mechanics section.

We get into:

• setups

• entries

• confirmations

• timeframe preferences

• stop placement

• risk management

This is usually where:

• charts

• replay examples

• and practical walkthroughs

start appearing.

Part 3 — Why It’s Popular

Honestly, this is my favorite section.

Because trading strategies don’t become popular purely because they work.

They spread because they:

• fit certain personalities

• appeal to certain thinking styles

• create emotional excitement

• or work extremely well on social media

This section explores:

• adoption patterns

• trader psychology

• community culture

• and why certain strategies explode online

This is probably the most “UX” part of the entire series.

We’re basically analyzing:

human behavior around trading systems

Which feels very familiar to me.

Part 4 — Legitimate Learning Resources

This section exists because trading education online is… complicated.

I’ll cover:

• books

• YouTube channels

• websites

• tools

• communities

And just as importantly:

who the strategy is NOT good for

That honesty matters.

A strategy can be legitimate and still completely mismatch your personality.

Part 5 — My Experience Testing It

This is the “field notes” section.

Not:

“guru content”

I’ll document:

• replay sessions

• simulated trades

• emotional reactions

• frustrations

• strengths

• weaknesses

• cognitive load

• and unexpected observations

The goal is not:

proving a strategy is universally superior

The goal is:

understanding what it actually feels like to interact with the framework repeatedly

Very different thing.

Part 6 — Backtesting & Metrics

This section develops over time as I accumulate data.

Eventually I’ll track things like:

• win rate

• reward

• market conditions

• session performance

• consistency

• psychological difficulty

Not to crown a “winner.”

But to gather:

structured observations over time

Because context matters.

A lot.

How To Use This Series

Don’t feel like you need to read everything in order.

Honestly, I’d recommend starting with:

the Trader Fit Profile for each strategy

Pay attention to your reaction.

Some strategies will immediately feel:

• intuitive

• calming

• exciting

• structured

Others may feel:

• exhausting

• confusing

• emotionally chaotic

• cognitively overwhelming

That reaction is data.

Seriously.

Trading is not just technical.
It’s psychological and behavioral.

You Do NOT Need To Master All 16 Strategies

This is important.

You are not trying to become:

The Avatar of Trading

You do not need mastery of every framework simultaneously while floating above your desk surrounded by indicators.

You probably only need:

• one or two strategies

• that genuinely fit how you think

• and that you can execute consistently

That’s enough.

The goal is not:

collecting strategies

The goal is:

developing an approach that works with your personality, lifestyle, and decision-making style

That takes experimentation.
And patience.

Which, inconveniently, are not very marketable concepts online.

Closing Thought

Most trading content focuses entirely on:

• performance

• entries

• outcomes

• “winning”

This series is more interested in:

• learning

• fit

• psychology

• systems thinking

• and how different traders interact with uncertainty differently

Because the longer I study trading, the more convinced I become that:

strategy fit matters more than strategy hype.