How Trading Becomes Simple Once You Master One 9

Video: Once You Master This Strategy, Trading Becomes Incredibly Simple

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Oct 26, 2026 · based on the channel Scarface Trades

Key takeaways

The strategy is built around the 9:30 AM New York open and the first minutes of regular-session price action.
Step 1 is marking premarket high and low plus the prior day's high and low as reference levels.
Step 2 is waiting for price to break a level and then retest it instead of chasing the breakout candle.
Step 3 is a 1-minute entry trigger with a stop beyond the retest, giving a tight, defined risk.
The method favours one or two clean setups per session over dozens of indicator-driven signals.

Trading becomes simple when you stop hunting for signals all day and instead trade one repeatable sequence around the 9:30 AM New York open: mark the key levels, wait for a break and retest, then enter on a 1-minute trigger with a stop that defines your risk before the trade starts. That is the core idea behind the three-step opening-range approach broken down by the Scarface Trades channel, and the free Simple Trader Playbook course walks through the same framework step by step.

The appeal is not that the setup wins every time. It is that the rules are few enough to follow under pressure, which is exactly where most traders fall apart.

Why most traders make trading harder than it needs to be

Most traders fail not because they lack strategies but because they stack too many of them on top of each other. A typical session involves a moving-average cross, an RSI reading, two indicators, a trend line and a news headline all pointing in different directions, and the trader freezes or forces a trade to resolve the tension.

A viewer made the point sharply: when two indicators said sell and a single trend line said sell, the trend-line trade was the winner, and that contrast is the whole argument for keeping the toolkit small. The more inputs you require before pulling the trigger, the later you enter and the worse your risk-to-reward becomes.

The second problem is chasing. Beginners see a strong candle close through a level and jump in at the worst price, then get stopped out when price pulls back to the level it just broke. The fix is mechanical: let the breakout happen without you, and trade the retest.

Step 1: mark the levels before the bell

The first step happens before any trade is considered. On the chart, mark the premarket high and premarket low, plus the prior day's high (PDH) and prior day's low (PDL). These four lines are the only map you need for the first hour.

The logic is straightforward. Premarket extremes are where overnight positioning gets tested, and the prior day's high and low are where swing traders and longer-timeframe participants have orders resting. When price approaches those levels after the open, the reaction is usually sharper and the follow-through cleaner than in the middle of the range.

One practical caveat raised by a viewer matters here: if price opens in the middle of PDH and PDL, there is no edge in forcing a trade. The middle of the range is noise; the levels are the trade. Sitting out until price reaches one of your lines is part of the strategy, not a failure to find a setup.

Step 2: wait for the break and the retest

The second step is the one that separates disciplined traders from everyone else. Once price breaks through one of your marked levels, do not buy the breakout candle. Wait for price to come back and retest the level from the other side.

A break followed by a hold on the retest tells you the level has flipped from resistance to support, or the reverse. A break that fails the retest and closes back through the level is information too: the move was a liquidity grab, and you stay out.

This is where patience does most of the work. A viewer noted that these setups look obvious in hindsight and that waiting for the retest instead of chasing the breakout is a patience problem rather than a strategy problem. That is accurate. The rules are simple; executing them when a candle is ripping through your level is the hard part.

Step 3: use a 1-minute entry trigger with defined risk

The third step turns the idea into an actual position. After the retest holds, drop to the 1-minute chart and wait for a trigger candle in the direction of the break. Enter on that candle, and place your stop on the other side of the retest zone, not at an arbitrary dollar amount.

Because the stop sits just beyond the retest, the risk per trade is small and the distance to the next level is comparatively wide. That is where the reward-to-risk comes from, and it is why the same setup can produce a large multiple on a single trade without a huge position size.

A common question is exactly where the entry happens: on the close of the trigger candle, at the start of the next candle, or mid-candle. The practical answer is to define it in advance and keep it consistent. Entering on the close of the trigger candle is the most repeatable option because the candle has confirmed the reaction; entering mid-candle means acting on incomplete information. Whichever you choose, backtest it before risking money so you know what the entry rule actually produces.

What the strategy does not solve

This framework does not remove losses, and it does not work on every chart. It is a filter for the first hour of the US session, built around levels that exist because other participants are watching them.

Several practical objections come up repeatedly. Traders on other instruments ask whether the same logic applies to forex pairs such as EUR/USD; the concept of session highs and lows and prior-day levels transfers, but the timing anchor shifts to the London open and the behaviour around those levels differs. Traders who dislike the 1-minute chart can use a 5-minute trigger, accepting fewer setups and slightly wider stops. And position sizing matters: on a large, liquid name the stop distance may be small in percentage terms, which is precisely why sizing is calculated from the stop rather than guessed.

Two other details are worth pinning down before you trade this live. First, set your chart to New York time so that 9:30 AM means the actual cash open; a viewer asked about time zones for good reason, since a mislabelled chart shifts every level. Second, decide in advance how many instruments you follow. Concentrating on a small watchlist such as a couple of liquid, high-volume names produces better pattern recognition than rotating through a long list of tickers every morning.

A realistic way to test it before going live

Backtesting is the step most people skip, and it is the only way to know whether the break-and-retest rules fit your temperament. Pick one instrument, scroll back through several weeks of 1-minute data, mark the premarket and prior-day levels each morning, and log every valid setup: whether the retest held, where the entry triggered, where the stop sat and what the result was in R multiples.

After 30 to 50 logged setups you will see the real distribution of outcomes, including the losing streaks that no strategy avoids. If the numbers hold up, trade the smallest size your broker allows for a few weeks before scaling. If they do not, you have lost nothing but time.

Useful links

Final thoughts on keeping trading simple

The value of this approach is that it replaces a screen full of indicators with four price levels and one entry rule. Mark the premarket and prior-day extremes, wait for a break and a retest, enter on a 1-minute trigger with a stop that defines your risk, and skip the middle of the range entirely. None of that guarantees a winner, but it makes every trade explainable in a single sentence, which is what separates a process from a gamble. The Scarface Trades channel is the source of this breakdown, and the free Simple Trader Playbook course is the natural next step if you want the framework laid out in order.

Questions & answers

Where exactly do you enter on the 1-minute chart?

After the retest of the broken level holds, wait for a trigger candle in the direction of the break and enter on its close, with the stop on the other side of the retest zone. The key is to pick one rule and apply it every time rather than improvising mid-candle, then backtest it so you know what that entry actually produces.

Does this strategy work on forex pairs like EUR/USD?

The mechanics of session highs and lows, prior-day levels and break-and-retest behaviour carry over, but the timing anchor changes. For EUR/USD the relevant reference points come from the London and New York sessions rather than the 9:30 AM US cash open, so the levels and the hours you mark will differ from the equity-index version.

What if price is stuck between the prior day's high and low?

That is a no-trade condition. When price sits in the middle of PDH and PDL there is no level to react to, and the movement is mostly noise. The strategy only offers an edge when price reaches one of your marked extremes, so waiting is part of the plan rather than a missed opportunity.

Do you need a large position size for this to be worth trading?

No. Because the stop sits just beyond the retest, the distance risked per share or contract is small, which is what allows a meaningful reward-to-risk multiple. Position size is calculated from that stop distance and your account risk, not chosen to make the trade feel big enough.

Source: Once You Master This Strategy, Trading Becomes Incredibly Simple · Markdown version