Trading and Crypto

7 Steps I Use to Find High-Probability Trading Entries

How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

Video: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

Need articles like this for your video? They help promote it on YouTube and Google — order them in the Telegram bot @sat_sit_bot. Articles with your video embedded are written and posted by the bot itself — on popular topical sites (no ads). Your first 50 articles are free.

· based on the channel SCI

Key takeaways

  • Entries are taken only after structure, not before: bias first, trigger second.
  • The ICC concept (Indication, Correction, Continuation) is the core pattern behind the setup.
  • XAUUSD and forex majors are the instruments used to demonstrate the process.
  • Confirmation on a lower timeframe is required before risking capital.
  • Stop placement and risk per trade are decided before entry, never after.

Most traders do not lose because they pick the wrong direction — they lose because they enter at the wrong moment. Finding a trading entry means waiting for price to show you a specific, repeatable pattern, then executing with a predefined stop and size. In this breakdown of the SCI trading course episode "How I Find My Trading Entries", the entry process is reduced to seven concrete steps you can apply to XAUUSD, forex majors and indices; the channel's own hub for updates and trade recaps is Trades By Sci on Instagram.

Why Entry Timing Decides Whether a Trade Works

A correct bias with a bad entry still produces a losing trade, because the stop gets hit before the move develops. Entry timing is the skill that converts an idea about direction into a position with a defined risk-to-reward ratio. Traders who struggle with consistency usually have a working read on the market but no fixed trigger — they enter on impulse, on a candle that looks strong, or after the move has already extended. The fix is not a new indicator; it is a checklist that forces the same sequence every time. That sequence starts with the higher-timeframe story and only ends when price confirms on the lower timeframe.

Step 1 to Step 3: Bias, Structure and the Indication

The first three steps answer one question: where is price allowed to go? Step one is setting a directional bias from the higher timeframe — is the market making higher highs and higher lows, or lower highs and lower lows. Step two is marking the key levels where that bias was created: the last swing high, the last swing low, and the origin of the most recent impulse. Step three is the indication, the first leg of the ICC concept. An indication is a strong, one-directional move that breaks a previous structure point; it tells you the market has chosen a side. Without an indication there is no setup, only noise, and the correct action is to wait. Marking these three things takes minutes and removes the temptation to trade every candle.

Step 4 to Step 5: Correction and the Confirmation Trigger

The correction is the pullback that follows the indication, and it is where most entries are either taken too early or missed entirely. After the impulse, price retraces into a zone — typically a previous consolidation, an order block, or a Fibonacci retracement area between 50% and 79% of the impulse. The correction must be a controlled pullback, not a full reversal: if price closes back through the origin of the indication, the setup is invalid and the bias is in question. Step five is confirmation on a lower timeframe. Instead of buying into a falling market, you wait for a lower-timeframe shift in structure — a break of a minor swing high inside the correction zone, or a decisive engulfing close. Confirmation is what separates a prediction from an entry.

Step 6 to Step 7: Stop Placement, Size and Execution

Once the trigger appears, risk is defined before the order is placed. The stop goes beyond the extreme of the correction, not at an arbitrary number of pips; if that stop is too wide for the account, the trade is skipped rather than resized to an uncomfortable level. Position size is calculated from the distance between entry and stop so that a single loss stays within the planned percentage of the account — a common range among disciplined traders is 0.5% to 1% per trade. Targets are set at the next structural level: the previous swing high for longs, the previous swing low for shorts, with partial profit taken at the first logical level. Execution itself is mechanical: no moving the stop, no adding to a loser, no re-entering out of frustration after being stopped out.

Common Questions Traders Ask About Entries

Several recurring doubts come up around this process. The first is whether entries require a specific session — the answer is that the framework works in any session, but liquidity matters, so London and New York hours on forex and XAUUSD typically give cleaner indications than thin overnight ranges. The second is how many setups appear per day: on a single instrument, a valid ICC sequence may form only once or twice, which is why patience is part of the edge rather than a personality trait. The third is what to do when the correction is deep — if it exceeds roughly 79% of the impulse, the probability drops and the trade is best skipped. The fourth is the role of risk management after a losing streak: reducing size, not increasing it, is the standard response, because the same setup performed at a larger size during a drawdown turns a normal losing run into an account-ending event. Traders who review their own journal against these seven steps usually find that their losses cluster around skipped confirmations and widened stops.

Final Thoughts on Building a Repeatable Entry Process

Entry finding is a process, not a talent: bias, structure, indication, correction, confirmation, risk, execution — in that order, every time. The value of the SCI trading course series is that it turns a vague idea of "good entries" into a checklist that can be reviewed, journaled and improved. If you take one thing from this breakdown, take the sequence: no confirmation, no trade. Follow Trades By Sci on Instagram for the ongoing course episodes and live trade recaps, and treat every entry as a test of the process rather than a bet on the outcome.

Source: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003 · Markdown version

Questions & answers

How do I know when a correction is finished and an entry is valid?

You do not guess — you wait for a lower-timeframe confirmation, such as a break of a minor swing high inside the correction zone or a strong engulfing close. If price closes back through the origin of the indication, the setup is invalid and you stand aside.

How much should I risk on a single trade using this entry model?

Risk is calculated from the distance between entry and stop, with the stop placed just beyond the extreme of the correction. A common disciplined range is 0.5% to 1% of the account per trade; if the correct stop is too wide, skip the trade instead of shrinking the stop.

Does this entry method work on XAUUSD and which session is best?

The framework is instrument-agnostic and is frequently applied to XAUUSD and forex majors. London and New York sessions usually produce cleaner indications because of higher liquidity, while thin overnight ranges tend to generate false breaks and messy corrections.

What should I do after a losing streak with this setup?

Reduce position size rather than increase it, and review whether you skipped confirmation or widened your stop. The same setup traded larger during a drawdown turns a normal losing run into a serious account problem, so risk control comes before revenge trading.

Related articles