Read the Market

The zones you enter from

The previous three chapters tell you where price is going and when to look. This one tells you what price to get in at. You never enter just anywhere in a move: you enter at zones marked in advance.

Four kinds of zone are enough, and they’re marked before the open.

Order blocks and rejection blocks, on the 1-hour and 4-hour. The heart of the method. You keep only the ones that haven’t been revisited yet.
15-minute structure levels. Prices where structure turned recently, often labeled MSNR.
The daily open. A frequent pivot during the day, around which manipulations are built.
The 0.5 of a leg. Not a zone in itself, but the filter that refines all the others.

The order block: the last opposite candle before the move

OBThe last bearish candle before the bullish move that breaks structure. The zone takes the whole candle, wicks included.

returnPrice comes back into the zone later. It’s that return you buy, not the original move.

Two conditions, or it isn’t an order block: the move that follows must be impulsive, and it must break structure. An opposite candle followed by a limp little rally is just an opposite candle.

The rejection block is its close cousin, and the difference fits in one word: you keep only the wick. A candle leaves a long wick, then a big body moves the other way; the zone is that wick, with its 50%.

The rejection block: the wick only

RBA candle with a long wick, then a big body moving the other way. The rejection block is the wick alone, with its 50%.

OBFor comparison: an order block would have taken the whole candle, wick and body.

The wick says price tried to go further and was turned away hard. That refusal is what the zone remembers, not the body that followed.

The sequence from chapter 01 plays out in exactly the same way there. Here’s a trade taken from a 4-hour rejection block, with the real entry, stop and target prices.

NQ: a trade from a 4-hour rejection block

1. The 4-hour wick becomes the zone

On the 4-hour, a candle leaves a long lower wick, then a big body. The wick becomes the zone: the rejection block, with its 50%. Inside it, a 5-minute order block formed earlier in the day serves as the refined zone.

The 0.5: halfway up the leg, nothing more

0.5The exact midpoint between the high and low of the leg. Also called equilibrium.

premiumAbove the 0.5: expensive. A place to sell rather than buy.

discountBelow the 0.5: cheap. A place to buy rather than sell.

The 0.5 isn’t an entry signal, it’s a price filter. It never tells you to enter, only that an entry above it would be overpaying.

Option 1: the direct limit order

The default mode when the read is clear. Price hasn’t reached the zone yet, direction is established, the target is identified. You place the order and let it work.

Option 1: the limit order placed in advance

OBThe zone marked on the higher timeframe, before price gets there.

EThe limit order, placed at the zone’s 0.5. It waits on its own, unattended.

SLBelow the zone, with room to spare: 15 to 20 points on NQ.

TPThe opposing internal structure, or the liquidity targeted in the morning.

Everything is decided before price arrives. That’s this mode’s strength and its cost: if the zone gives way, the loss is taken with no discussion.

This mode needs a wider stop, because you’re entering without proof. On NQ, allow 15 to 20 points below the zone: enough to absorb the wick that pokes through, which is common.

Option 2: the reaction entry

The mode for when the context is less clear: high volatility, a release coming up, or simply a read you’re not sure of. Here you don’t anticipate, you wait for proof.

Option 2: the reaction, read on the 1-minute

OB 5'The zone, marked in advance. Its first contact mustn’t reach the 50%.

INDUCEMENTThe low left by that first contact.

PROTECTED LOWThe low created by sweeping the inducement. It’s the pivot: you buy to move away from it.

SLJust below the Protected Low: 6 to 10 points on NQ, versus 15 to 20 for a direct entry. Entry E at the zone’s 50%.

You trade a better price for proof: you only enter once the Protected Low has formed. The stop is tighter, so the R multiple is better, but some zones take off without ever leaving an inducement.

The stop here fits in 6 to 10 points on NQ, versus 15 to 20 for a direct entry. That’s the whole point of this mode: the same target, reached with half the risk, so an R multiple twice as good.

The sequence is fixed, and the order of the steps matters:

Price reaches the zone marked on the higher timeframe.
You switch to the 1-minute and watch the reaction, doing nothing else.
First contact: price touches the zone without reaching its 50%, then moves away. The low it leaves is the inducement from chapter 01.
Price comes back and sweeps that low. The new low is the Protected Low. Without that sweep, you don’t enter, even if the zone seems to be holding.
You get in at the zone’s 50%, with the stop just below the Protected Low. As long as it holds, the read holds.

Choosing between the two

Direct limit order

When the read is clear and the target written down.

CONDITION: Clear narrative, AMD cycle identified, zone untouched.
ENTRY: Limit at the zone’s 0.5, placed in advance.
STOP: 15 to 20 points beyond the zone on NQ.
UPSIDE: No decisions to make live. The better price of the two.
COST: You enter without proof. The zone can give way immediately.

Reaction entry

When the context is uncertain or volatile.

CONDITION: First contact short of the 50%, then a sweep: the Protected Low is in.
ENTRY: At the zone’s 50%, once the Protected Low has formed.
STOP: Just below the Protected Low: 6 to 10 points on NQ.
UPSIDE: You have proof, and the R multiple is better.
COST: You have to be at the screen, and some zones take off with no inducement.

A real case, start to finish

The earlier diagrams isolate one mechanism at a time. Here are all four together on a single trade, with its real prices: a long on NQ on September 3, 2026, during the New York session.

NQ, September 3, 2026, New York session

1. The wide zone is marked before the open

An untouched 1-hour order block is drawn in the morning, calmly. It’s far too wide to put a stop behind, and that’s not its job: a higher-timeframe zone tells you where to look, never where to enter.

The proportions matter more than the numbers. Ten points of risk for a hundred and four points of gain isn’t luck: it’s what a stop placed behind the Protected Low allows, rather than one placed under a whole zone.

Where to exit

The exit isn’t about greed, it’s about direction. The same pattern doesn’t deserve the same target depending on whether you’re going with the underlying trend or against it.

The same trade, two targets depending on the trend

nearAgainst the trend: exit at the first opposing internal structure. A 5-minute OB is enough.

farWith the trend: aim for external liquidity, the previous day’s or week’s high or low.

It’s not about ambition but probability. A counter-trend bounce has a short life, and asking it for four times your risk means handing back what it gave you.

Counter-trend trade. The market is bearish on the higher timeframe and you’re buying a bounce. Target: the first opposing internal structure, a 5-minute order block or a mitigation zone. Take it and leave.
With-trend trade. Target: external liquidity, the previous day’s or week’s high or low. That’s where you let it run.

Position size

None of the above matters if the size is wrong. The stop sets the size, never the other way round.

First decide how much you’re willing to lose on this trade, as a percentage of the account. That number doesn’t change from one trade to the next.
Put the stop where the structure requires it, without looking at what it costs.
Work out the number of contracts from that. If the answer is less than one contract, this trade isn’t for you today.

The zones you enter from#

Option 1: the direct limit order#

Option 2: the reaction entry#

Choosing between the two#