For this episode I sat down with Jason Sen, a trader who has been in the markets since 1987. That is 37 years, starting at 19 on the London Stock Exchange, then the futures pits at LIFFE, and later the move to screen trading.
We talked about routines. Not just charts and risk, but the physical and mental side that sits underneath every trade. Here is what stuck with me.
Key takeaways
Jason treats sleep, exercise and diet as part of the job because consistent profitability is hard and you need every possible edge.
He risks the same amount on every trade and warns that betting bigger on your favourite ideas is the fastest way to blow up consistency.
He does about two hours of analysis across roughly 30 markets, presets stop and target, and removes the emotion before entering.
The calmest traders he knew took the least real risk because their exit was predetermined and they trusted themselves to take it.
Overconfidence after a winning run is when you are most dangerous, so step back before a good streak turns into a big hole.
Fundamentals lag, so Jason leans on technical analysis to spot low risk levels and let the chart tell the story first.
The routine starts before the charts
Jason is 56 and he is careful about what he eats, barely drinks, does not smoke, and exercises regularly. He frames it plainly. If you want to trade well, you have to give yourself every possible edge.
In practice this lines up with how athletes prepare. His son plays football at 18 and uses visualisation the night before a match, seeing the game and how he will react.
Jason does not visualise himself, but he told new traders to try it. That said, his own edge comes from preparation and a fixed morning routine. He wakes without an alarm, and the first thing he does is check where gold, the S&P, the dollar and the yen closed.
“You have to do everything you can to be the best person you can be.”
Risk the same amount every time
This was the most honest part of the chat. Jason admitted that after 37 years he still bets more when he strongly believes in a trade, and he still gets caught out by ideas that do not work.
His advice is the opposite of what he does. Risk exactly the same capital on every trade, say 1 or 2 percent, and just stick with it.
The maths is simple. If you normally risk 1 percent and then throw 5 percent at a trade you love, one loss means you need three or four winners just to get back to flat. However confident you feel, it is not worth it.
Plan your trade, trade your plan
Jason spends about two hours each morning covering roughly 30 markets and cherry picks maybe 15 low risk levels. On an average day only three or four of those actually trigger, and he is fine with that.
Once he enters, the stop loss and target are already in the account. The trade is emotionless, robotic and boring by design. A bad day costs him 3 or 4 percent, a good day might be up 5.
He was clear that a real plan is more than entries and exits. It also covers position sizing, trade management, account management, and how you handle a losing streak. And you cannot improve any of it without a data set of trades to review.
“Plan a trade for each trade and a plan for each day.”
Stay flat, and know when the market changes
Jason is a trend follower who buys at support in an uptrend or on breaks above resistance. However markets spend a lot of time going sideways, and there Fibonacci levels and moving averages stop working, so he leans on trend lines, candles and patterns.
On emotions he is blunt. If losses are hurting you mentally, you are doing something wrong. He points to Formula One drivers like Hamilton and Verstappen who stay ice cool under real pressure, and asks why a trader should be any different.
News is where this gets tested. When the Fed cut 50 basis points, gold spiked then closed down at a shooting star off a record high, and the dollar held firm. That is why Jason trusts the technicals, because the speculators are often already positioned and the unexpected happens.
If you want to build a routine around firms that fit how you actually trade, compare prop firms side by side on Propvator.