Trading and Crypto

How to Find Trading Entries That Actually Work by Reading Structure First

How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

Video: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003

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· based on the channel SCI

Key takeaways

  • Entries are found in three steps: mark up structure, wait for confirmation, then execute at a pre-defined level.
  • The best entries come from one repeatable setup, not from a dozen indicators stacked on a chart.
  • Session timing matters: XAUUSD and forex pairs move most during London and New York hours.
  • Risk per trade should be fixed before entry — position size is calculated, never guessed.
  • Sitting on your hands when no setup appears is part of the entry process, not a break from it.

Finding a trading entry means marking up the chart's structure first, waiting for price to confirm a level, and only then executing at a level you defined before the market moved. The process is mechanical, repeatable, and boring on purpose — which is exactly why it works. The breakdown below follows the logic SCI teaches in the third part of his trading course, and you can follow his live trades and daily markups through his Instagram page.

Most traders lose money not because they pick the wrong direction, but because they enter at the wrong moment. Direction can be right and the trade can still fail if the entry is late, oversized, or taken during dead volume. This article covers what actually goes into an entry decision: structure, confirmation, timing, risk, and the discipline to skip trades that do not qualify.

What a trading entry actually is

An entry is a decision point, not a prediction. You are not guessing where price will go; you are defining a level where the odds of a move in your favor are high enough to justify a fixed risk. That definition has three parts: the level, the trigger, and the invalidation point where you are simply wrong and exit.

If any of those three is missing, you do not have an entry — you have a feeling. Traders who describe their entries as "it looked strong" or "I felt it was going up" are usually the same traders who move stop losses and average into losers. A written entry rule removes that improvisation.

A workable entry rule looks like this:

  1. The level is identified before the session, not during it.
  2. The trigger is a specific price action event, such as a reaction off a marked zone.
  3. The invalidation is a price that, if hit, proves the idea wrong.
  4. The size is calculated from the distance between entry and invalidation.

That is the whole framework. Everything else — indicators, alerts, chat rooms — is optional decoration.

Marking up structure before you look for entries

Structure markup is the foundation of every entry. Before you consider buying or selling anything, mark the levels where price previously reacted: swing highs, swing lows, and the zones where aggressive moves started. These are the places where orders were left behind, and they are where future reactions are most likely.

A simple markup routine:

  • Start on the higher timeframe to see the dominant direction.
  • Drop to a lower timeframe and mark the most recent impulse and the correction that followed it.
  • Highlight the zone where the correction began, not the entire range.
  • Leave the chart alone once marked — re-marking mid-trade is how entries turn into hope.

When structure is clear, entries become obvious in hindsight and, with practice, in real time. When structure is messy — overlapping candles, no clean impulse, choppy ranges — the correct answer is usually no trade at all.

Confirmation: the difference between a level and an entry

A level alone is not an entry. Price can reach a marked zone and slice straight through it, and traders who buy or sell the moment price touches a line get run over repeatedly. Confirmation is what separates a level from a trade.

Confirmation usually takes one of three forms:

  1. A reaction candle closing away from the zone, showing that buyers or sellers defended the level.
  2. A failed break, where price pushes through a level and immediately snaps back.
  3. A lower-timeframe shift in structure, where the first sign of the opposite side taking control appears.

None of these guarantees the trade works. They simply stack the odds. The trade-off is real: waiting for confirmation means you enter further from the level and your stop is wider, so your position size shrinks. Traders who skip confirmation get better prices and worse win rates. Pick one approach and stay consistent, because switching between them mid-week is how a strategy stops being measurable.

Timing entries around the session, not the clock

Entry timing is one of those skills that looks simple until you actually start trading. The same setup behaves completely differently at 3 a.m. and at 9:30 a.m. New York time. Liquidity, spreads, and follow-through all change with the session.

Practical timing rules:

  • London and New York overlap produces the cleanest moves in XAUUSD and major forex pairs.
  • The first hour of a session often produces a false move before the real direction appears.
  • Low-volume hours can be tradable, but setups need more confirmation because follow-through is weaker.
  • News releases distort structure for several minutes — either wait or accept wider stops.

If your schedule only allows trading during quiet hours, adjust expectations rather than forcing the same setup. Fewer valid entries is a normal outcome of trading a thinner session, not a sign that your strategy broke.

Risk and position size are part of the entry

An entry without a defined risk is incomplete. The moment you know your entry price and your invalidation price, the distance between them determines your position size. A fixed percentage of account equity risked per trade — commonly 0.5% to 1% — keeps a losing streak survivable.

The calculation is simple: risk amount divided by stop distance equals position size. If your account is 10,000 and you risk 1%, you are risking 100 per trade. If your stop is 20 points away, your position size is 5 units of that point value. If the stop must be 100 points away because structure demands it, your size drops to 1 unit. The setup does not get worse — it just gets smaller.

This is where most blown accounts come from. The entry was fine, but the size was chosen by emotion rather than by the stop. Traders who survive long enough to get good almost always have a hard risk cap they never override, even on a setup they love.

Common questions traders ask about entries

Several recurring doubts come up whenever entries are discussed, and they are worth addressing directly.

"I understand the concept but still hesitate when the moment comes." Understanding and execution are separate skills. Hesitation usually means the setup was never written down, so the brain has to invent a decision in real time. Write the rule, backtest it, and execute it on demo until it stops feeling like a choice.

"My entries are good but my results are not." Check exits and risk before touching entries. A good entry with a moved stop or an oversized position produces the same loss as a bad entry.

"How many setups should I trade?" One, mastered, beats five traded badly. Most consistently profitable traders run a single primary setup with a small number of variations.

"Do I need to trade every session?" No. Skipping sessions with no valid setup is a core part of the process. The market pays for patience, not for activity.

Final thoughts on building a repeatable entry process

Entries are not found by staring harder at a chart; they are produced by a process that decides in advance what qualifies and what does not. Mark structure, wait for confirmation, respect session timing, and let your stop distance set your size. Do that consistently and the entry stops being the stressful part of trading. The SCI channel walks through this framework step by step in its trading course, with live examples on XAUUSD, and the Instagram page linked above is the fastest way to see how the markup translates into real trades. Follow along, copy the routine, and judge it on a hundred trades rather than on one.

Questions & answers

How do I know when a level is good enough to trade from?

A level is worth trading when it was created by a clear impulse move and price has not already chopped through it multiple times. If the zone has been tested repeatedly and each reaction is weaker, the orders behind it are likely used up. Mark the level before the session and only act if price reacts there with a visible rejection.

Should I enter as soon as price touches my marked zone?

Touching a zone is not a signal by itself, because price can pass straight through it. Most traders wait for a reaction candle closing away from the zone, a failed break, or a lower-timeframe structure shift. Waiting costs you a better price but improves the odds, so pick one approach and stay consistent.

What percentage of my account should I risk on one entry?

A common range is 0.5% to 1% of account equity per trade, with the position size calculated from the distance between entry and invalidation. If the stop has to be wide because of structure, the size gets smaller rather than the risk getting bigger. A fixed cap keeps a normal losing streak from ending your account.

Does session timing really change how an entry performs?

Yes. The same setup behaves differently in London and New York hours than it does during thin overnight volume, because liquidity and follow-through change. The first hour of a session often produces a false move before the real direction appears, so many traders wait for that shakeout rather than trading into it.

Source: How I Find My Trading Entries | Trading Course 003 · Markdown version

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