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Trader library

Trader gurus

Learn the frameworks behind different trading styles, then bring the parts that fit your process into the strategy lab.

Linda Bradford Raschke portrait01

Short-term futures trader and market technician

Linda Bradford Raschke

A professional trader since 1981, Raschke moved from exchange floors to systematic money management and decades of active futures trading. Her work emphasizes preparation, trade location, market structure, and adapting tactics to the day type.

Core concepts

  • Separate trend, mean-reversion, and breakout conditions before choosing a setup.
  • Treat entry location and execution quality as part of the edge, especially on short timeframes.
  • Use defined risk and active trade management instead of relying on prediction.
Framework to explore

Day-type futures framework

Classify the session first, then choose either a continuation, failed-breakout, or mean-reversion setup. Define the invalidation level before entry and keep scalp exits decisive when noise is high.

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Al Brooks portrait02

Price-action trader, author, and educator

Al Brooks

Brooks left ophthalmology for professional trading and built a detailed bar-by-bar framework for reading markets. His approach treats every tick as information and asks traders to understand context before acting on an individual signal bar.

Core concepts

  • Read the market cycle as trend, trading range, breakout, or transition.
  • Judge signal bars by context, follow-through, and the strength of opposing traders.
  • Use second entries and failed breakouts to avoid chasing the first obvious move.
Framework to explore

Context-first NQ price action

On a 5-minute NQ chart, identify whether price is trending or ranging. In a trend, wait for a second-entry continuation; in a range, favor failed breakouts near the edges with risk beyond the signal structure.

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John Carter portrait03

Futures and options trader, founder of Simpler Trading

John Carter

A full-time trader since 1996 and author of Mastering the Trade, Carter combines technical setups with a broader market view. His best-known framework looks for volatility compression before an expansion move.

Core concepts

  • Use the Squeeze to identify compressed volatility before a possible directional expansion.
  • Confirm direction with the 34-period moving average and stacked averages across timeframes.
  • Plan exits with ATR-based invalidation, structural targets, and a written trading journal.
Framework to explore

Multi-timeframe Squeeze

Find compression on NQ or GC, then require price and moving-average alignment in the intended direction. Place risk beyond an ATR-based invalidation point and map targets before the breakout begins.

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Frank369 portrait04

Nasdaq futures trader and time-cycle educator

Frank369

Also known as Zeussy

Frank369 combines liquidity-based price analysis with nested time cycles. He first defines the higher-timeframe narrative, Draw on Liquidity, Point of Interest, and likely reaction window, then waits for lower-timeframe confirmation before entering.

Core concepts

  • Align weekly, daily, session, 90-minute, and 30-minute cycles before acting.
  • Define the expected Draw on Liquidity and Point of Interest before looking for an entry.
  • Use SMT, a Change in the State of Delivery, or a Zeussy Market Structure Shift for confirmation.
Framework to explore

Timed liquidity reversal

Price reaches an important location during a relevant time window, investigates liquidity, and confirms a change in delivery. The entry is refined through a lower-timeframe price array toward a predefined opposing liquidity target.

Concepts in detail10

Time cycles

Weekly, daily, session, 90-minute, and 30-minute structures create nested Times of Interest. A setup carries more weight when higher- and lower-timeframe cycles support the same narrative.

The 369 timing concept

Frank uses a proprietary 369 framework to interpret market timing. Its importance is public, but a complete mechanical formula is not, so fixed digit or minute rules should not be treated as verified.

Price cycles

Price is read through phases such as expansion, retracement, investigation, manipulation, continuation, and completion or reversal.

Higher-timeframe order flow

Direction is inferred from respected and failed structures, displacement, higher-timeframe liquidity, and the current weekly, daily, and session narrative.

Draw on Liquidity

The trade needs a destination: prior session or weekly extremes, equal highs or lows, major swing liquidity, an imbalance, or an opposing institutional range.

Points of Interest and PD Arrays

Fair Value Gaps, IFVGs, order blocks, breakers, mitigation structures, institutional ranges, and premium or discount zones matter only when they align with time, order flow, and the liquidity objective.

SMT divergence

Divergence between NQ, ES, and YM can reveal a liquidity event that a correlated market does not confirm. It supports an existing narrative rather than acting as a standalone signal.

Change in the State of Delivery

A CSD appears when the previous directional behavior loses control, opposing displacement emerges, short-term structure breaks, and a new price array forms and holds.

Zeussy Market Structure Shift

Frank's proprietary structure-shift pattern combines market structure with time-and-price context after price reaches an objective or Point of Interest. Its full mechanical criteria are not publicly documented.

FVG, IFVG, and five-second execution

After confirmation, entries may be refined through a Fair Value Gap, Inverse Fair Value Gap, or displacement range. Five-second charts are used for precision only after the larger narrative is established.

Strategy library10

  1. Timed Liquidity Reversal

    Wait for price to take liquidity at a higher-timeframe Point of Interest during a Time of Interest, then require SMT and a CSD or Zeussy MSS before targeting opposing liquidity.

  2. Market Maker Buy Model

    Bearish delivery reaches sell-side liquidity and a bullish Point of Interest, then bullish displacement and a retracement entry begin the move toward buy-side liquidity.

  3. Market Maker Sell Model

    Bullish delivery reaches buy-side liquidity and a bearish Point of Interest, then bearish displacement and a retracement entry begin the move toward sell-side liquidity.

  4. High or Low of Day

    Look for a session extreme to form where higher-timeframe liquidity, a relevant cycle, a Point of Interest, and confirmed opposing delivery converge.

  5. Trend Continuation

    When the higher-timeframe liquidity target remains open, use a failed countertrend structure, displacement, or IFVG to rejoin the existing delivery.

  6. IFVG Continuation Entry

    A failed Fair Value Gap flips into support or resistance and provides a retracement entry when it agrees with the active order flow, time cycle, and liquidity objective.

  7. Time-Cycle Expansion

    Read the active profiles and market phase, then wait for price to reach the planned location during a Time of Interest before confirming expansion through a lower-timeframe array.

  8. Five-Second Precision Entry

    After the higher-timeframe setup is complete, use micro liquidity sweeps, displacement, CSD or MSS, and a small FVG or IFVG to refine entry and invalidation.

  9. SMT-Confirmed Reversal

    Use divergence between NQ and ES or YM at a planned Point of Interest as confirmation, then require displacement and a CSD before entering.

  10. Power of Three / AMD

    Map accumulation, manipulation beyond one side of the range, and distribution toward the intended liquidity objective across sessions or smaller cycles.

This is a discretionary framework. Cycle anchoring, Point of Interest selection, confirmation, and the 369 concept are not fully mechanical public rules; this summary does not imply verified performance.

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Stoic Trader portrait05

Nasdaq futures trader and market-structure educator

Stoic Trader

Also known as StoicTA

Stoic Trader reduces price action to repeatable structural sequences. His process maps higher-timeframe swings and objectives first, then uses lower-timeframe breaks, sweeps, Move Origins, and Fibonacci geometry to define execution, invalidation, and targets.

Core concepts

  • Distinguish a confirmed break and retest from a liquidity sweep and reclaim.
  • Map higher-timeframe swing objectives and Move Origins before using a lower timeframe for entry.
  • Define the thesis, invalidation, position size, and target before emotion enters the trade.
Framework to explore

Swing Breakout Sequence

Classify price as either breaking and retesting structure or sweeping liquidity into a Move Origin. Wait for the corresponding confirmation, refine the entry with structure or Fib Geometry, and target the next swing objective.

Concepts in detail7

Candle Swing Theory

Confirmed candle highs and lows define meaningful structure. A bullish swing is established when price closes above a prior high; the bearish sequence is mirrored below a prior low.

Break versus sweep

A break accepts beyond a structural level and favors continuation on a retest. A sweep crosses the level, takes liquidity, and returns, creating the conditions for a reversal sequence.

Move Origin and UMO

A Move Origin is the area where an impulsive move began. An Unmitigated Move Origin has not been meaningfully revisited and can become a location for mitigation, a liquidity sweep, or a new structural sequence.

Fib Geometry

Fibonacci levels refine an already valid structural setup rather than create one. Public examples use pullback entries, structural invalidation, and extension levels to plan targets.

Higher- and lower-timeframe structure

Large swing objectives provide context while smaller swings provide timing. The lower timeframe is read inside the current higher-timeframe path, not as an independent market.

First and second pullbacks

The first pullback may create an initial reaction and attract early entries. A later pullback can sweep that liquidity and offer a more structured continuation entry.

Execution discipline

The current Stoic Trader process emphasizes preparing a thesis, committing to defined rules, executing and managing risk, then reviewing the outcome separately from luck.

Strategy library8

  1. SBS Model 1 — Break and Retest

    Price closes beyond a confirmed swing, returns to the broken area, and confirms continuation. A sweep of the first retest can provide the later entry before price moves toward the next objective.

  2. SBS Model 2 — Sweep Into Move Origin

    Price returns to the origin of an impulsive move, sweeps liquidity there, and confirms back in the intended direction before an entry is planned toward opposing liquidity.

  3. Daily Candle Framework

    Mark the prior daily high, low, and close, then classify interaction with those levels as either a clean break-and-retest continuation or a failed-break reversal.

  4. Fib Geometry Continuation

    After a valid SBS confirms direction, use a later pullback and Fibonacci alignment for entry, place risk beyond structural invalidation, and map extension targets in advance.

  5. Opening Range

    Let the session establish its initial range, then trade either an accepted breakout or a failed move that reclaims the range, provided the larger structure agrees.

  6. Turtle Soup

    A prior high or low is breached, the breakout fails, and price reclaims the level. The liquidity trap supplies the location while the structural sequence supplies confirmation.

  7. 1-2-3 Sequence

    Separate the higher-timeframe map, lower-timeframe timing, and final execution trigger so that context is established before an entry is considered.

  8. 20/200 Moving-Average Bias

    Use the 20 and 200 moving averages as a directional filter, then require an SBS, opening-range, or other structural setup for the actual trade.

This is an independent educational summary of public StoicTA material. The framework includes discretionary choices around swings, Move Origins, confirmation, and Fibonacci placement; it is not endorsed by StoicTA and does not imply verified performance.

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