Skip to content
Vega Trades logo

Playbooks

A strategy is an entry, an exit, and a size — written down.

Clever entries without a stop are hobbies. Vega Trades walks through the playbooks traders actually run, and the risk that keeps them solvent.

Strategy · range breakout
Sample
Range · 30 bars2REntryStopVolume
Entry on closeStop = range lowTarget = 2R
EMA 9 / 21 cross

Trend following

Enter after structure confirms (break of a range, moving-average cross, or higher high). Trail a stop under swing lows (or above highs if short). Cut when the trend fails — not when a news headline is loud.

  • Works on stocks, indices, FX, and liquid crypto pairs.
  • Expect many small losses and a few large wins.
  • Skip it in tight, mean-reverting ranges.
Range → breakout

Breakout and pullback

A breakout strategy buys the leave of a well-watched level. A pullback strategy waits for the first dip back to that level. Both fail on false breaks — so volume, time of day, and a failed-break plan matter.

  • Define the level: prior day high, range high, or a round number.
  • Invalidation is usually a close back inside the range.
  • Size smaller when the level has already been probed twice.
Fade the band, exit the mean

Mean reversion and swing

Fade stretched moves toward a mean, or hold a swing for days when the daily trend agrees. Swings need overnight risk. Mean reversion needs a hard stop when the stretch becomes a new trend.

  • Use ATR or a band as the “too far” line.
  • Do not average a loser without a written cap.
  • Earnings, FOMC, and crypto unlocks can gap through the mean.
Tight stop, quick target

Scalping

Scalps last seconds to minutes. They demand a liquid book, tight spreads, and mechanical exits. Most people lose to fees and hesitation, not to the idea.

  • Trade only the most liquid names or pairs.
  • If the spread is your whole target, skip the trade.
  • One session, one playbook — not five timeframes at once.
Net +3.5R · 4 of 10 wonR-multiples, 10 trades

Risk is the strategy

Position size, max daily loss, and correlation beat a clever entry. Two “independent” trades on Nasdaq futures and a mega-cap tech stock are often the same bet.

  • Risk a small, fixed fraction of equity per idea (many use 0.25–1%).
  • Stops go where the idea is wrong, not where the pain feels small.
  • A written kill switch (daily, weekly, or bot-level) is part of the system.