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The Trader Who Took Only A+ Setups (Story)

A composite story based on patterns many traders experience. Names are illustrative.

Let's call him Bolu. For a long time, he took every setup that looked decent. His journal showed about 120 trades in three months, with mixed results and a lot of stress.

One evening he graded each trade from A+ to C, based on his checklist. Then he calculated the average result of each grade. The picture was revealing.

- A+ trades (fewer than 20): strong positive results
- B trades: roughly break-even
- C trades: consistently negative

Most of his activity was in B and C trades, and they were canceling out the gains from his best ones.

Bolu made a decision: only A+ setups from now on, even if it meant trading far less. He expected to feel bored. Instead, he felt relieved. The pressure to find trades disappeared.

Over the next three months, he took about 25 trades. His win rate and average reward were noticeably better, and his stress dropped.

He summarized it to a friend: "I didn't improve my strategy. I just stopped trading the parts of it that don't work."

You may already have an edge hidden inside your results. The question is whether you've measured it.

Grade your trades for a month, then cut what loses. The best improvement is often subtraction.

For anyone wondering how Bolu decided what counted as A+, the trick was being boring about it. He took his best 20 trades from the journal and listed what they had in common. Only setups that ticked every box from that list got taken. It wasn't fancy, just honest.

Fairman wrote: A+ trades (fewer than 20): strong positive results

Fewer than 20 is a small sample to build a whole approach on, so I'd add one safeguard to Bolu's method: grade the trade before entry, in writing, not afterwards in the review. When the grade is assigned after the result is known, winners tend to get promoted to A+ and losers drift down to C, and the subtraction ends up removing trades by outcome rather than by quality. A grade written into the journal at entry time keeps the comparison honest.

Something people don't expect with fewer trades: the waiting is harder than the trading. Bolu said the first month felt like doing nothing. Having a list of other things to do during the session, like journaling or marking levels, helped him not take the B setups out of boredom. Setting alerts at the A+ levels and walking away from the screen helped even more. If price gets there, the phone tells you, and you come back to check the full checklist calmly. Sitting and watching every candle is what makes a B setup start looking like an A+ after a couple of hours.