Let me give you a quick breakdown of basically what my strategy is and how I philosophically view the market. This is the foundation of everything I teach inside the DTR community, and it's the same approach I've used for years to trade futures consistently.
Start With the Daily Trend
First things first — I want to view the market from a daily perspective and try to identify what the daily trend is. I do that in a couple of ways.
I'll look for long-term patterns of support and resistance using wedge breakouts, bull flags, double tops, head and shoulders — the classic technical patterns. These give me the big picture context before I ever think about placing a trade.
Then I'll use what I call the Three for Three system, which is my way of identifying how strong the previous day's price action was and what kind of momentum I have in the market.
Two Market States: Expansion and Compression
I think in general there are two market states. There are trending markets — either to the upside or to the downside — and there are compression or consolidation markets where we are waiting for a new trend to be established.
What my Three for Three pre-market prep system does is help me identify which version of the market we have. Do we have expanding markets, either to the upside or to the downside? Or do we have compression markets where we're seeing consolidation, waiting for that next breakout?
Here's the key insight: expanding markets lead to compressed markets, and compressed markets lead to expanded markets. It's a game of cat and mouse that consistently flip-flops from one to the other. Understanding which phase you're in changes everything about how you trade that day.
The DTR Opening Range Breakout Indicator
From there, I'm looking for my first short-term time frame to help me identify opportunities that match the daily trend. If I have trending price action to the upside, I'm looking for short-term daily signals that give me breakouts in the upside direction. And I'm looking to ignore all bearish price action, unless I can invalidate it.
The way I visualize setups is by using the DTR Opening Range Breakout indicator. What it does is identify the opening range of the market — essentially just the high and low of the first candle. The opening range on the 3-minute can be different than the opening range on the 5-minute, the 10-minute, the 15, 30, or hourly time frame. It's unique to that specific time frame.
I'm looking for the first one that gives me a strong indication of trending price action or a strong indication that the short-term time frame is telling me the same narrative as my daily, weekly, or monthly time frame.
How the Indicator Maps Your Targets
The indicator automatically maps out red lines at the high and low of the opening range. Those red lines are a base profit target determined by the size of the opening range.
For example, if the opening range is 8.25 points, the red target line below is two times whatever the size of the range from the low — so 16.5 points. It works the same way to the upside.
If I change to a different time frame — say the 5-minute — the size would now be 24.5 points away because the opening range on the 5-minute is 12.25 points. Different time frames give different profit targets and a different expectation over how volatile markets can be.
The Core Concept: Compression as Support and Resistance
The core concept here is to look for the first candle of the day to establish a zone of compression, and for that zone to then behave as support or resistance.
If you're looking for breakouts to the upside, you'd anticipate price to break above the first candle of the day, hold that zone, and then make the next leg higher in cooperation with the daily trend.
If the daily trend is to the downside, then it's the opposite — you'd anticipate the opening range to break down, show enthusiasm to the downside, and for that previous area of support to act as resistance for a further downside move.
What Happens When Price Exceeds the Targets
When price action exceeds the extremes of the red lines, I then look to target the next daily level that is immediately to my left. I'm constantly looking backwards to help identify those targets and I write them out on my screen during pre-market prep so I can much easier identify those areas without having to make that decision in the moment.
This is why the pre-market preparation matters so much. You do the thinking before the session starts, so during the session you're just executing the plan.
The Cheat Sheet: Visualizing Market Setups
When I have trending price action to the upside, I'm looking for the bullish expansion trade — either a low-vol fakeout or a high-vol breakout away from the opening range.
When I have that regression, I'm looking for high-vol breakdowns to the downside or low-vol fakeouts above the opening range — basically failed moves higher, then continuing lower.
This cheat sheet covers the variants you'll encounter, and it's a helpful reminder of how to visualize price action across different market conditions.
Putting It All Together
Here's the practical workflow:
- Identify the daily trend using long-term patterns and the Three for Three system
- Plot the opening range on your chosen time frame using the DTR indicator
- Wait for a breakout that aligns with your daily bias
- Target the red lines as your base profit targets
- If price exceeds the targets, look left for the next daily level
- Do your pre-market prep so you're not making decisions in the heat of the moment
My recommendation would be to join the live stream, spend a few days starting to learn and understand these core concepts, and you'll quickly be able to see how we execute these ideas both to the upside and to the downside.
Ready to Trade With a Plan?
The DTR strategy isn't about predicting the future — it's about having a repeatable framework that puts the odds in your favor. Every single day, same process, same discipline, same results over time.
If you're ready to put this strategy to work with real capital behind you, get funded with DayTrader Funding for just $249. One-time fee, no subscription, and you can pass your evaluation in a single day. Start trading with the capital your skills deserve.