---
title: 'Market Mechanics Ep 25: How I Find A+ Setups'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=V4Unokfrqjw'
video_id: 'V4Unokfrqjw'
date: 2026-08-14
duration_sec: 1515
---

# Market Mechanics Ep 25: How I Find A+ Setups

> Source: [Market Mechanics Ep 25: How I Find A+ Setups](https://youtube.com/watch?v=V4Unokfrqjw)

## Summary

In this lesson, the presenter shares a systematic five-point checklist for identifying high-probability 'A+' trading setups. The core message is that traders lose money not from poor entries but from taking subpar setups, and that discipline and patience are the keys to profitability.

### Key Points

- **The Real Reason Traders Blow Accounts** [00:02] — Traders fail not because they don't know how to enter trades, but because they can't filter trades. They take B and C setups out of boredom or a desire for action, trading for adrenaline rather than profit.
- **The Hardest Part: Saying No** [00:58] — The hardest part of trading isn't spotting A+ setups, but saying no to B setups that past experience might have mislabeled as A+. Discipline in filtering is crucial.
- **The Five Golden Rules** [01:13] — The presenter introduces his 'five golden rules'—a checklist of entry triggers he requires before every trade. If any single box is unchecked, it's a no-trade.
- **Golden Rule 1: Bias Alignment** [01:53] — Your trade idea (buy or sell) must align with the immediate bias and, ideally, the higher time frame trend. If lower and higher time frames contradict, beginners should stay out or wait for clarity.
- **Golden Rule 2: High Probability Point of Interest** [04:57] — The setup must be at a strong supply/demand zone, order block, or flip zone. Not all zones are equal; high-probability zones are aligned with the trend and have liquidity nearby (e.g., a liquidity sweep).
- **Golden Rule 3: Price Must Be Inside the Zone** [10:06] — Price must be situated within the high-probability point of interest, not just near it. Trading in the 'middle of nowhere' is low probability because price can go either way.
- **Golden Rule 4: Liquidity Shift and Market Structure Shift** [11:26] — Before entering, look for a liquidity shift (e.g., sweeping highs) and a market structure shift (e.g., breaking a higher low) to confirm the direction is changing as expected.
- **Golden Rule 5: Timing (Q Zones)** [13:14] — Only trade within your optimal time window (Q zone), such as the London session (3-6 PM Singapore time). Timing provides the 'ignition' for liquidity to move price in your direction.
- **Golden Rule 6: Asymmetric Risk-Reward** [16:16] — The trade must offer at least a 1:2 risk-reward ratio. If the ratio is below 2, pass on the trade regardless of other confluences. Place stop loss at a point that invalidates the idea.
- **When NOT to Trade** [18:19] — Knowing when not to trade is more important than knowing when to trade. Avoid trading when bias is not aligned, price is not at a point of interest, no confirmation, outside Q zone, or risk-reward is poor.
- **Bonus: Setup Definitions and Sizing** [21:26] — A+ setups meet all five triggers; A setups meet most. B and C setups are no-trades. Advanced traders can size up (e.g., 1% risk) on A+ setups and down (0.5%) on A setups, but beginners should use fixed risk.
- **Non-Negotiables** [23:45] — Never size up to make back losses or because you feel good. Always protect downside with stop losses and respect your guardrails (max daily loss, max streak rule).

### Conclusion

The key to consistent trading is not hunting trades but waiting for A+ setups that meet all five criteria. By following this checklist and knowing when not to trade, you can improve your standards and results.

## Transcript

else. Most traders do not blow their trading accounts because they don't know how to enter a trade. Like we all know how to enter for a buy and enter for a sell. But they blow their accounts because
they cannot filter trades. They take B setups when they are bored. They take C setups when they want action. They want adrenaline. And they are trading for the sake of action rather than the sake of making
money. And they call it experience, which is not true. And remember, in trading, especially in trading, boring pays. Okay, so it's all about waiting for the A plus setup that checks off every single box and saying
no to anything subpar in the meantime. Right? It's always going to be the boring, repetitive task that actually allow you to get competent at trading, which actually allow you to make money from this market itself.
the hardest part about trading isn't spotting A plus setups, but rather saying no to the B setups that the past me would have called A plus. Anyways, in this lesson, I'm going to give you my exact A plus checklist right
here. These are what I call the five golden rules. Okay, these are the five entry triggers that I check for before every single trade, right? Which means that if I don't check off every single one of these box right here, that's a no
trade. I will not enter for the trade itself. If I miss just one, just like this, that is not A plus setups. Okay, that is just a A setup. Or it might not even be a A setup to some people's um definition.
review each one of these entry criteria review each one of these entry criteria step by step. The first entry criteria, step by step. The first entry criteria, the first golden rule is bias alignment.
Now, what do I mean by bias alignment? What I'm pretty much talking about is your immediate bias, which is your trade ideal, which is whether you're entering for a buy or entering for a sell. Okay, so your trade ideal must align
with the immediate bias. So, for example, in this case right here, price is clearly bearish, right? So, if this is the case, I want to be trading in alignment with this internal structure, with this lower time frame
And if possible, I also want to be trading with the higher time frame trend because that dictates the institutional flow of money. Okay, so if the lower time frame trend is bearish,
the higher time frame trend is also bearish as well, which signify to us that price is clearly going down, then my trade ideal needs to be bearish in order for me to trade with the immediate bias, with the higher time frame and the
lower time frame trend. Okay, so ideally, I want to look for So, if I want to enter for a buy maybe somewhere around here, then this is me going against the lower time frame trend and going against the higher time frame
trend. And I'm not saying it's not going to work out, it could work out, but it's lower probability compared to you entering for sells because that is actually in alignment with the overall structure of the market itself.
And a general rule of thumb is that if you find that the lower time frame disagrees with the higher time frame, it's probably not the right trade, going to work out in the way you envision it to work out. So, for
frame trend is bearish, cool, you want to enter for a sell. But the thing is, trend, you realize that we are actually bullish. time frame trend is contradicting the higher time frame trend. One is saying
saying that you should buy. One is saying that it's bearish, one is saying that it's bullish. So, when there's such a contradiction, right? If you're a beginner, I would advise you to either stay out of the market or just wait for
clarity. Wait for both of these trends to actually align. Right? Wait for the lower time frame trend to align with the higher time frame trend. So, that's the first thing. Okay? So, if price is bearish and enter for sell,
price is bullish, I want to enter for longs. As simple as that. Check. This is where if I look at a higher time frame trend, we are actually heavily bullish. Okay? But, if I go down to the lower time frame trend, this is actually
bearish. So, depending on your trading style, if you're more of like a view this as a higher time frame trend, right? So, this would be a easy sell position for you. But, if you're swing trader, which you are capitalizing on
the higher time frames, then ideally you want to wait for price to get to a point of interest that you can look for longs to trade in continuation with the higher thing. Now, the second criterion for me to deem
this setup as a high probability setup is that it needs to be situated at a high probability point of interest. Now, you might be wondering, what is a Brent? So, if you have some form of trading
experience or if you have watched any of my videos, you would probably know how to identify your supply and demand zones. Okay? Supply and demand zones, I'm not going to go through to in-depth in to them like in this particular
lesson itself, right? So, if you need help with that, please go through my lessons on YouTube. But, anyways, if you have went through those lessons, you will understand how to draw your supply and demand zones, how to identify them,
if that's the case, you'll probably see say that this is a supply zone, and then this is also a supply zone, and then this is also a supply zone. Right? And many different supply zones. And then similarly there there's so many
up right here. The fundamental principle you must understand is the fact that not all supply and demand zones are created Which means that there are certain zones which is much more stronger than the
other zones. Which means that price is most likely going to respect those zones. And price is most likely going to disregard those zones which is not strong. Right, so for example in this case if this supply zone is deemed as
high probability, price is most likely going to get a reaction from it. Right, so the minute price mitigate that supply zone, price is actually going to start shifting bearish. Okay, it's going to respect that supply zone. But then if
interest, which means that price is not going to respect it, price is just going to blast right through it just like this and just continue going up. Okay, so that's what I mean when I say high probability point of interest. It's
simply a supply and demand zone or order block or flip zone, whatever other names you like to call it, that price is most likely going to respect. The next question becomes how do we identify these high probability zones?
there's a few criteria, right? The first criteria is that it needs to be aligned with the trend itself. So if I'm looking at this right here, Is this let's say like this is a extreme supply
zone. And then let's say there is another demand zone like let's say right here, okay? So we will just put this as like green color to signal like a demand zone. Okay, so in this particular case itself,
a high probability zone, the first criteria is that it needs to be aligned with the trend. Right, similarly to like what we mentioned just now on the alignment of the buyers, the point of interest needs to be aligned with the
immediate trend direction for us to deem it as high probability. So if the immediate trend right here is bearish, right? We can clearly see price is going down, creating lower highs and lower lows, just like this. Then, we
lower lows, just like this. Then, we will know that a supply zone, right? Is aligned with the lower time frame trend, which means that price is most supply zone, just like this, and continue going down even further.
However, if there's a demand zone in a downtrend, just like this, price is most likely going to blast right through it, because the internal trend right now is heavily bearish. Okay, so in this case, a high probability zone would be supply
demand zone, right? Because the demand zone is not aligned with the immediate Okay? Now, another criteria that I want to advanced, so once again, I would highly recommend you to check out my videos on
my YouTube channel, The Trading Geek, where I talk more about this. But, the next criteria is that it needs to have liquidity, or it needs to have available liquidity near it. Okay, so in this case,
if I compare this point of interest to this point of interest right here, you can see that in this point of interest, price actually go up, pulls back, goes up, swept liquidity, and then comes down even further, right? So, this right here
this is a supply zone with liquidity sweep. Compared to this one right here, sweep any liquidity, and it just reversed. So, this is the ordinary supply zone. So, this supply zone that swept liquidity is going to be much more
high probability, much more stronger than this supply zone, in theory. Okay? And, if there is available liquidity near it, that'll be even better. What I mean by available liquidity is that when price goes down,
was formed, it did not go down straight. Instead of going down straight, it just like this, creating a lower high, which means that there is going to be available liquidity, stop orders, stop losses, sitting above these highs right
here, right? So, the next time price comes up to this supply zone, it's most above these highs, use this available liquidity to cause price to go down even All right. So, it'll be good if we have available
liquidity near the the point of interest itself. So, anyways, that's what point of interest, uh institutional zone. It's one in which is aligned with the trend direction, and it's also one in which we have some form of liquidity
sweep or some form of available liquidity sitting near it. here is that price needs to be sitting at the hype of the point of interest, not near it just like this, okay? Not almost
reaching it just like this. It needs to actually be in it. actually be in it. Okay. So, if I'm trading and I saw my my setup, you know, I want to enter for a buy or enter for a sell,
I need to ask myself, is price in a high probability point of interest? Because if it isn't, then my friend, you are trading in the middle of nowhere, and if it's incredibly low probability because price can go both ways. It can either go
up or it can either go down. So, ideally, I want to see price situated within the high probability point of interest. So, in this case, I want to see price enter into this supply zone, and it needs to be in here, okay? If
box. If it's over here, I cannot check off this box. But once it goes inside this box, then I can check off this box. Right. Now, we see that price is within a high probability point of interest.
And to me, that is the location in which you want to be trading. All right. you want to be trading. All right. Success equal location plus timing. Okay. It requires you to take the right trade ideal at the right place at the
Okay, those are the three criteria. I'm on. Now, the next step, or rather the next golden rule, is liquidity shift and market structure shift. All right. So,
this is what I call market shift. It's something that signaled to us that the right? So, obviously I've already covered liquidity shift, so I'm not say in this particular case, this is the higher point of the point of interest in
which we want to be trading from. And right now price has pretty much created like this, okay? And then it's approaching this supply zone over here. zone, there's a few things that I want to look out for.
for some form of liquidity shift, right? So, ideally, you know, I want to see above this highest right here, or create some form of shift that high, and then comes down just like this, okay?
for liquidity shift before I enter. No that. The next thing is that I want to see a to me that the structure is shifting bearish. Because at this point of time
price is going up just like this, and price can just continue going up, right? That is why we need confirmation to tell us that price is going to shift bearish. If not, we cannot enter for a sell, and that requires you to look out for a
market shift. So, in this case, price goes up, comes down creating like this last lower high, last higher low before it goes up even further. So, I want to see price comes down, take out the last higher low, breaking structure, giving
me a market shift, confirming to me that now the structure has shifted in my desired direction. Right, price has officially shifted up from bullish, right, to bearish. And right now price is reversing.
Okay, so the minute I got a liquidity shift, and also got a market shift just like this, then that is where we can check off this next criteria itself. which is timing. I only want to enter for a trade when
it's within my Q zone window. Okay, this is something that you can do if you're be if you're watching this. You can actually customize your trading window. Right, you can specify what time you want to be trading.
And ideally you want to be trading within what we call Q zones, right, as trader, you probably do not know what I'm talking about, but if you're a Forex trader and you have some form of experience, you would know exactly what
essentially the best time to trade throughout the day. Okay, because the Forex market is open 24 hours a day, but that doesn't mean you should be trading 24 hours every single day. There are certain pockets of time within the day
of trading opportunities, and that's what we call Q zones, right? Once again, zones. You can do more research about this or you can check out my other videos on this, but basically these are the best time to trade.
So, for me I like to trade during the London Q zone, which is around 3:00 p.m. Singapore time to around like 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Singapore time. So, that means that I want to see my setup appear during that window itself.
If the setup appear before that window or after with that window and it's not within any Q zone, then I personally will not enter for the setup itself. It provides the ignition that I need in order for price to move in my
desired direction. What I basically mean by that is that liquidity is the fuel, okay? Liquidity is the fuel, the rocket fuel that price needs to move in the But, fuel requires ignition. Fuel requires
fire to light it up, and timing is that fire. And to me, the timing is usually during some form of Q zone, right? So, at 3:00 p.m. that is where institutions start trading the London session. Huge amount of buy or
sell orders start entering to the market and that caused price to move very very fast in my desired direction. Right? So, yeah, that is why ideally I want the setup to appear during Q zone. So, in this case, I want to see this exact
entry model during, let's say, like 3:00 p.m. to around like 6:00 p.m. Singapore time, which is the London Q zone. And zone, I'm not saying that it cannot play out. It could play out, right? The same
trade idea could play out perfectly if it's at the right place at the is the right trade idea, but I'm saying that there's a lower chance of it playing out and there's a higher chance for price to take longer for it to go down to your
take profit level. And there's also more randomness. There is more unpredictability, right? There there's more uncertainty in the market. So, that this is your when filter, right? This is the filter that allows you to know
itself. Now, last but not least is a asymmetric risk reward. I do not care how good the setup is. I do not care how many entry
confluences the setup has if it does not have an asymmetric risk reward ratio. is that I want to make sure that if I'm entering for a trade, it needs to have a much more smaller downside compared to
the upside. I need to get back twice as much as I'm risking. All right? So, in short right here at this point of interest, I'm placing my stop loss above this high or above this supply zone and I'm placing my take profit at this area
random area right here. In this case, this is a 1:5 risk reward ratio trade, which means that I'm risking $10 to get back $5.56 worth it, right? Because you're literally getting back five times in
return of what you're risking. But, if you actually base it like something like this, right? You place a stop loss above the high, place a take profit below like this low right here or something. In this case, you can see a risk to reward
ratio just swing to one, right? Which means that you are literally risking $10 to get back $10, which means not worth it, right? Ideally, I wanted to have I want to get back at least twice compared to what I'm risking in the first place.
calculate your risk to reward ratio, you want to make sure that you place a stop loss at a price point which invalidate the trade idea, right? Where you are profit at where you are targeting. If you are completely new, I would highly
suggest you to just stick to like a fixed risk to reward ratio trade set up time, you just After you place a stop loss, you just try to target 2R just like this. All right? So, my personal rule is that if the
trade idea presents a risk to reward ratio of less than two, right? One or 0.5 just like this, no matter how many confidences I have, no matter how confident I am, I'm going to be passing on the trade itself.
trading, okay? It's important to know when to trade, but it's even more important to know when not to trade. Charlie Munger famously said, "The only thing I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I never go there."
concept of inversion. So, instead of asking, "How do I succeed at trading?" you should be asking, "What guarantees I fail?" Instead of asking,
"What are the entry criteria that I should look out for so that I win?" you should be asking, "What are the conditions that I should be staying away from so that I do not fail?" Right? So, that's pretty much the concept of
stuff that is not going to work, and then just don't do those stuff, right? It's the same exact idea in trading. You don't need to find some magical trick to win more trade. You just need to stop doing the dumb stuff that guarantee
losses. Things like trading outside your time window, trading without a trade plan. Right? If you do have a trade plan, ignoring your plan and taking random setups because you want action, because you want
adrenaline, because you want to make money rather than executing your process. All right. So, to me, when not to trade is when your bias is not aligned. Okay? When your bias is not aligned, highly
recommend you not to trade. And another place that you should probably not trade is when price is not at a point of interest yet. Right? So, if price is in the middle of nowhere, okay, you probably shouldn't be trading.
And then if there's no sweep or no market shift, this just tell us that, you know, there is no confirmation, there is no entry trigger, then once confirmation before your entry. And when it's outside your Q zone,
outside the best time that you should be trading within. And also, most importantly, your risk to reward is not asymmetric or you cannot determine where take profit. Like if you don't know exactly where to get out, then you
probably shouldn't enter for the trade itself. conditions. Right? If any one of these is present in the market, I'm not going to be trading. No matter how confluent
how confident I am, no matter how much I want to make money in the market, okay? All right. So, that's basically how you actually identify A+ setups. Basically, you don't want to be hunting trades, you don't want to be chasing trade, you want
to wait for price to come to you. Right? Because remember, whatever you chase runs away. And that applies not just in trading, but also in money as well. You don't chase money, you attract money. And I pretty much just gave you the
for in order for you to attract the right setups. And it's in this point of interest, your sweep plus market shift, your timing, and your risk to reward. As long as you follow this order, you'll be fine, right? If any box
fails, right? If you fail to find any one of these entry criteria, entry triggers, you do nothing. You stay out the market. That's it. Remember, the most profitable position in the market is waiting. That's it.
it'd be pretty good if I give you some bonus tips, right? So, the first thing I want to go through is the definitions, right? Let me just put this in, right here. These are the definitions of the different sort of
setups that will probably be available to you in the market itself. And A+ setup is basically a setup where all five of these triggers are checked. And the mere A setup, not A+, A setup, is
the trade idea which meets the entry criteria within my active trade plan, but it may not hit all five A+ triggers. Okay, so sometimes everything is checked off. If everything is checked off, cool, right? I don't
actually enter for the trade, because if I'm always looking for A+ setups only, I'm going to be under trading very often, right? So, I actually allow A+ setup as well, right? And then for B's and C setups, no trade whatsoever,
right? If a setup is low probability, I don't want to be wasting my money on it. As simple as that. And this is, once again, like a bonus right? This is some This is what some professional traders do, and that is to
size your trades according to the criteria, not according to vibes, not your confidence, your fake little confidence. So, you could take 0.5% risk on A setup,
and you could also take 1% risk on A+ setup, which means that 1% risk on A+ setup, which means that you size up a little bit more based on in the market and since there's more
higher chance that price is going to play out. And you want to make sure that you are milking as much money as possible from this win itself. Once don't have sufficient data, if you don't know what you're doing, I would suggest
you to stick to like a consistent fixed risk per trade. Whether it's A setup or A+ setup, you just stick to 0.5% or 1%. That's it. But if you want to be a little bit more advanced, a little bit more professional, right? This is
something that you can consider doing. I would always advise you to just make the correct judgment based on data. Right, you can test this out and if it works doesn't, you can just go back to sticking to a consistent risk per trade.
And here are also some non-negotiables, right? Like no matter how lucky you are, no matter how much of a winning streak you are in right now, no matter how much losses you incurred, please always make sure you follow these
And that is never size up to make back losses, never size up because you feel good, right? Like I said, you follow the entry criteria, you follow your risk management. Anything else is just noise. And you only size up when your checklist
setup, then you can consider ramping up your lots a little bit. And at the end of day, no matter how confident you are, always protect your downside by placing a stop loss, by respecting your guardrails, right? By,
loss, the max daily profit, the max streak rule, whatever guardrails that you have set inside Edge Flow. Okay? So that's pretty much it. Just understand all of this stuff that I just shared and you just internalize it and
you start implementing it and you build it into your trading routine, now you are improving your standards. Now you're operating at a higher standard. And when you're operating at a higher standard, guess what? Your results is going to be
results will automatically improve when you start doing all of these actions, all of these um stuff that I just talked about right here. Okay? So, in the next lesson, we're going to go through how to execute your trades properly, and how to
use the trade gods, and to like just boost your execution, right? To allow you to execute much more faster and much more precise.