Trading & Crypto

7 Steps I Use To Find High Probability Trading Entries

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 the last decision in a trade, not the first: bias and structure come before any click.
  • The ICC concept breaks a move into three phases: Indication, Correction, Continuation.
  • A valid entry needs a clear level, a reaction at that level, and a trigger that confirms intent.
  • Timing matters more than the pattern: the same setup behaves differently in Asia, London and New York.
  • Risk is fixed before entry: position size, invalidation level and target are decided in advance.

Finding trading entries is a repeatable process, not a moment of intuition: you first establish directional bias from market structure, then wait for price to reach a level where the odds favour a reaction, and only then look for a trigger that confirms the move. In practice that means the entry is the last decision you make in a trade, not the first — the setup, the level and the risk are already defined before you consider clicking. The full walkthrough of this approach is what SCI lays out in the trading course episode "How I Find My Trading Entries" (Trading Course 003), and you can follow the trader's day-to-day breakdowns through his Instagram.

Why entries are the last decision, not the first

Most losing trades are not caused by a bad entry trigger; they are caused by entering in the wrong place in the market cycle. Before any entry decision, three things have to be settled: the higher timeframe bias, the level you are trading from, and the invalidation point that tells you the idea is dead. If any of those three is unclear, the best trade is no trade.

A useful mental model is to separate the market into two states: trending and ranging. In a trend, you are looking for continuation entries at pullback levels. In a range, you are looking for reaction entries at the edges, with a much tighter target. The same candlestick pattern means opposite things depending on which state you are in, which is why pattern-hunting without context produces inconsistent results.

This is also why so many traders report that entries "look simple until you actually start trading" — the difficulty is not recognising a setup on a chart after the fact, it is executing it in real time while price is moving and your bias is being tested.

The ICC concept: Indication, Correction, Continuation

The framework SCI teaches under the ICC label describes a move in three phases. Indication is the first impulsive move that shows intent — a strong displacement candle or a break of a level that had been holding. Correction is the pullback that follows, where the market retraces part of that impulse and traps traders who chased the first move. Continuation is the leg that resumes in the direction of the original impulse, and that is where the entry is taken.

The practical value of splitting a move this way is that it tells you where you are in the sequence. If you are entering during the indication phase, you are chasing and your stop is far away. If you are entering during the correction, you are guessing where the pullback ends. If you are entering on the continuation, you have a defined level, a defined invalidation point and a market that has already shown its hand.

Typical signs that a correction is ending rather than deepening include a slowdown in bearish or bullish momentum, a return into a previously broken level, and a rejection wick at the level you marked. None of these is a guarantee on its own; the point is that they stack the odds in your favour before you commit capital.

7 steps for finding a trading entry

  1. Mark the higher timeframe structure. Identify the most recent swing highs and lows on the daily and 4-hour charts, and decide whether the market is making higher highs and higher lows, lower highs and lower lows, or neither.
  2. Set your directional bias. Only take entries that agree with that structure. If structure is unclear, drop to a lower timeframe for execution but keep the higher timeframe as your filter.
  3. Mark the level, not the pattern. Draw the zone where you expect a reaction: a prior swing point, a broken level that now acts as support or resistance, or a supply and demand area. Levels are objective; candlestick names are not.
  4. Wait for price to arrive. Most of the work is waiting. An entry that requires you to move your level to fit the price is not a setup, it is a rationalisation.
  5. Look for the correction to lose momentum. On the execution timeframe, watch for the pullback to slow down, print rejection wicks, or fail to make a new extreme.
  6. Take the confirmation trigger. This can be a break of the correction's internal structure, a close back above a short-term level, or a lower timeframe shift in momentum. The trigger defines the exact moment of entry and keeps your stop small.
  7. Define risk before you click. Set the invalidation point behind the level, size the position so the loss is a fixed percentage of the account, and identify the next level where you will take profit.

Timing and session context

Entry timing is one of those skills that looks trivial on a chart and becomes difficult in a live market. The same setup that produces a clean continuation during the London session can chop sideways during the quiet hours and stop you out twice before going anywhere.

For XAUUSD and major forex pairs, the practical takeaway is to match your execution window to the session where your pair actually moves. London and New York overlap usually delivers the cleanest displacement and follow-through; late Asia is often range-bound and better suited to marking levels than to entering. If you work shifts and can only trade at night, the honest adjustment is to trade smaller size and lower frequency, not to force the same number of setups.

Timing also applies to news. Entries taken minutes before a high-impact release are not entries, they are bets on a coin flip, regardless of how good the chart looks.

Common questions traders ask about entries

One recurring theme in the comments under the course episodes is the gap between understanding a concept and being profitable with it. Traders say they can see the structure, the correction and the continuation on a historical chart, but hesitate or oversize when real money is on the line. That gap is usually closed by process, not by more indicators: a written checklist, a fixed risk per trade, and a review of every entry against the original plan.

A second theme is risk management. Several viewers describe having had a working method and still blowing up an account through poor sizing and emotional decisions. The lesson is that an entry edge and a risk framework are two separate skills, and the second one determines whether the first one ever compounds.

A third theme is patience. The most common self-reported mistake is taking a trade before price reaches the level, because waiting feels like missing out. In the ICC sequence, that is entering during the indication phase — the phase where your stop is widest and your reward is smallest.

What to take away from this breakdown

Entries are a downstream decision: bias, level and risk come first, and the trigger only times the execution. The ICC sequence — indication, correction, continuation — gives you a way to locate price inside a move so you are not entering blind during the impulse or guessing at the end of a pullback. Combine that with session awareness and a fixed risk per trade, and the same setup stops being a coin flip. SCI presents this material as part of an ongoing free trading course, and the channel is worth following if you want the concepts explained step by step rather than as isolated signals. Start with the Instagram page to see how the entries are applied in live conditions.

Questions & answers

What is the ICC concept in trading?

ICC stands for Indication, Correction, Continuation. It describes a move in three phases: an impulsive indication of intent, a corrective pullback, and a continuation leg in the original direction. Entries are typically taken during the continuation, after the correction shows signs of losing momentum.

How do I know when a pullback is finished?

There is no single signal, but traders look for a combination: slowing momentum, rejection wicks at the marked level, a failure to make a new extreme, and a break of the correction's internal structure. The confirmation trigger defines the entry and keeps the stop tight behind the level.

Does entry timing matter more than the setup itself?

Both matter, but timing decides whether a good setup is tradeable. The same pattern can produce clean follow-through during the London or New York session and chop sideways in quiet hours. Matching your execution window to the session where your instrument moves is part of the edge.

Why do traders understand entries but still lose money?

Understanding a concept and executing it under pressure are different skills. The usual causes are inconsistent risk sizing, entering before price reaches the level, and emotional decisions after a loss. A written checklist and a fixed risk percentage per trade address most of these problems.

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