// PLAYBOOK

Read the candles. Trade the volatility.

Pattern recognition, volatility regimes and battle-tested binary strategies — all in one playbook.

// 01 · CANDLESTICKS

Patterns that move price.

8 patterns · 90s expiry recommended

Bullish Engulfing

CALL

Large green body swallows prior red — momentum flip up.

Bearish Engulfing

PUT

Large red body swallows prior green — momentum flip down.

Hammer

CALL

Long lower wick after downtrend — buyers reject lows.

Shooting Star

PUT

Long upper wick at top — sellers reject highs.

Doji

CALL

Indecision candle. Trade the next confirmation.

Morning Star

CALL

Three-candle reversal at the bottom of a downtrend.

Evening Star

PUT

Three-candle reversal at the top of an uptrend.

Three Soldiers

CALL

Three consecutive green closes — strong continuation.

// 02 · VOLATILITY

Know the regime before you click.

IV < 30

Low volatility

Tight ranges, mean reversion works. Trade reversals at S/R.

best expiry · 5m – 1h
IV 30–60

Normal

Trend-following sweet spot. Use moving average crosses.

best expiry · 1m – 15m
IV > 60

High volatility

News and CPI prints. Short expiries, ride momentum.

best expiry · 30s – 1m

// 03 · STRATEGIES

Six setups. One contract.

Momentum breakout

trend · 1m

win 68%

Enter CALL on close above prior swing high with rising volume.

Expiry
60s
Trigger
Break + vol
Risk
1–2%

Mean reversion

range · 5m

win 61%

Fade extremes inside an established range using RSI confirmation.

Expiry
5m
Trigger
RSI < 25 / > 75
Risk
1%

News scalp

event · 30s

win 72%

Trade the immediate spike, exit before volatility crush.

Expiry
30s
Trigger
CPI / FOMC
Risk
0.5%

Pin bar reversal

pattern · 1m

win 64%

Trade rejection wicks against the daily pivot levels.

Expiry
60–120s
Trigger
Wick + S/R
Risk
1%

EMA stacking

trend · 15m

win 59%

Enter in direction of stacked EMAs on the 1m close.

Expiry
15m
Trigger
9 > 21 > 50
Risk
2%

Bollinger squeeze

volatility · 5m

win 66%

Bands contract then expand — trade the breakout direction.

Expiry
5m
Trigger
Band expansion
Risk
1%

S/R bounce

level · 5m

win 63%

Trade clean rejections at horizontal support or resistance.

Expiry
5m
Trigger
Wick at level
Risk
1%

MACD crossover

trend · 15m

win 60%

Enter on MACD line crossing signal line with histogram flip.

Expiry
15m
Trigger
Signal cross
Risk
1–2%

Stochastic divergence

reversal · 5m

win 62%

Price makes new high/low but stochastic fails to confirm.

Expiry
5m
Trigger
Hidden div
Risk
1%

Fibonacci retracement

pullback · 15m

win 65%

Trade pullbacks to golden ratio inside a trending market.

Expiry
15m
Trigger
61.8% bounce
Risk
1%

VWAP reclaim

intraday · 5m

win 67%

Enter when price reclaims VWAP and retests it as support.

Expiry
5m
Trigger
Cross + retest
Risk
1%

Order block retest

smc · 15m

win 69%

Trade rejections from institutional order blocks on retest.

Expiry
15m
Trigger
OB mitigation
Risk
1%

Tick momentum

scalp · 30s

win 58%

Ride micro-trends — enter on three consecutive tick direction.

Expiry
30s
Trigger
3 ticks same way
Risk
0.5%

Liquidity sweep

scalp · 1m

win 71%

Trade reversals after price sweeps obvious stop clusters.

Expiry
60s
Trigger
Stop hunt + flip
Risk
1%

Imbalance fill

scalp · 1m

win 66%

Enter into fair value gaps left by aggressive moves.

Expiry
60s
Trigger
FVG retrace
Risk
1%

Opening range break

scalp · 1m

win 63%

Trade breakouts of the first 15-minute range with volume.

Expiry
60s
Trigger
ORB 15m high/low
Risk
1%

Wyckoff spring

accum · 1h

win 70%

Enter CALL after a failed breakdown from an accumulation range.

Expiry
1h
Trigger
Spring + test
Risk
1%

SMC · BOS/CHoCH

structure · 15m

win 68%

Trade in the new structural direction after BOS or change of character.

Expiry
15m
Trigger
Break of structure
Risk
1%

Volume profile POC

profile · 1h

win 64%

Fade or follow the point of control on the volume profile.

Expiry
1h
Trigger
POC rejection
Risk
1%

Funding rate fade

perps · 4h

win 62%

Counter-trade crowded perp positioning when funding gets extreme.

Expiry
1h+
Trigger
Funding > 0.1%
Risk
1%

// 04 · SYNTHETICS

Playbook for synthetic indices.

Volatility, Boom/Crash, Jump, Step and Range Break indices behave differently from real markets. These setups are tuned for their statistical signatures.

Vol EMA stack

trend · 1m

win 67%

Trade in the stacked-EMA direction on Volatility 75 and 100 — consistent tick frequency makes EMAs reliable.

Market
Vol 75/100
Trigger
9>21>50 EMA
Expiry
60s

Vol mean reversion

range · 5m

win 66%

Lower-volatility indices respect Bollinger bands. Fade the extremes on Vol 10 and Vol 25.

Market
Vol 10/25
Trigger
RSI < 20 / > 80
Expiry
5m

Vol burst scalp

scalp · 30s

win 63%

Ride the burst on high-vol indices — exit before the inevitable mean reversion.

Market
Vol 100/150
Trigger
3 ticks same way
Expiry
30s

Boom spike follow

spike · 1m

win 71%

Boom indices spike up randomly then drift. Enter CALL right after a spike tick — momentum continues.

Market
Boom 500/1000
Trigger
Post-spike candle
Expiry
60s

Crash spike fade

spike · 1m

win 69%

Crash indices drift up then spike down. Time PUTs when tick count since last spike exceeds the average interval.

Market
Crash 500/1000
Trigger
Pre-spike pressure
Expiry
60s

Spike avoidance

scalp · 30s

win 74%

Trade only the first 30s after a spike — probability of another spike is near zero, so short expiries are safe.

Market
Boom/Crash 300
Trigger
Fresh spike reset
Expiry
30s

Jump breakout

breakout · 2m

win 64%

Jump indices include occasional 30x normal candles. Trade in the jump direction on the following bar.

Market
Jump 50/100
Trigger
Jump candle close
Expiry
120s

Jump momentum

trend · 1m

win 66%

Combine MACD crossover with a recent jump candle for high-conviction directional entries.

Market
Jump 25/50
Trigger
MACD + jump
Expiry
60s

Step flip

binary · 60s

win 58%

Step indices move +/- 0.1 with equal probability. Bet on streak reversal after 5 same-direction steps.

Market
Step 100/200
Trigger
Streak reversal
Expiry
60s

Step Kelly sizing

math · 60s

win 55%

Use Kelly criterion on small-edge step setups — sizing matters more than entry on near-50% strategies.

Market
Step 500
Trigger
Bias detector
Expiry
60s

Range break trigger

breakout · 3m

win 65%

Range Break indices stay in a range then break. Enter on the first close outside the range with momentum.

Market
Range Break 100/200
Trigger
Boundary breach
Expiry
180s

Range pre-break

anticipation · 2m

win 61%

Bollinger band squeeze inside the range signals imminent break — pre-position in the squeeze direction.

Market
Range Break 200
Trigger
Compression
Expiry
120s