# Trading with a simple 9

Trading gets simpler when you drop indicator stacks and trade a three-step 9:30 AM plan: mark levels, wait for the retest, enter on confirmation.

Source: https://srzf.top/trading-with-a-simple/ · based on the channel [Scarface Trades](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI7bfebbOWLqw3m4zW7XjIg) · Video: [Once You Master This Strategy, Trading Becomes Incredibly Simple](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AXhoDnnSWw) · 2026-10-19

![Trading with a simple 9](https://srzf.top/trading-with-a-simple/trading-with-a-simple.webp)

## Key takeaways

- The strategy is built around the 9:30 AM New York open and the first move of the session
- Three steps: mark key levels (premarket high/low, prior day high/low), wait for a break and retest, enter on a confirmation candle
- The entry model relies on the 1-minute chart, which is the main point of friction for beginners
- Risk is defined by the level, not by a fixed share count, so small accounts can size positions around a tight stop
- Backtesting and patience on the retest matter more than adding indicators

Trading becomes simpler when you stop stacking indicators and trade one repeatable setup around the 9:30 AM New York open: mark the key levels, wait for price to break and retest one, then enter on a confirmation candle with a stop behind the level. That is the core of the three-step framework Scarface Trades walks through in the video "Once You Master This Strategy, Trading Becomes Incredibly Simple", and the free [Simple Trader Playbook course](https://events.scarfacetrades.com/the-simple-trader-playbook-waitlist) is where the channel puts the written version of that process.

## Why most traders make trading harder than it needs to be

Most traders lose not because they lack strategies but because they collect too many of them and never test any single one. The video opens on exactly this problem: a chart covered in moving averages, oscillators and trend lines gives conflicting signals, and the trader freezes or flips direction mid-trade. A viewer summed up the argument neatly by describing a session where two indicators said sell while a single trend line produced a 6R winner — the simpler read was the profitable one.

The second failure mode is chasing. A breakout looks obvious in hindsight, so beginners buy the first candle that clears a level, get filled at the worst price, and then watch price pull back to the level they should have waited for. Waiting for the retest is less a strategy problem than a patience problem, which is why the framework below puts the retest at its centre rather than treating it as an optional extra.

## Step 1: set up the trade before the bell

Setup happens before any order is placed, using levels the market has already printed. The relevant reference points for a 9:30 AM session are:

1. Premarket high and premarket low — the range built between roughly 4:00 AM and 9:30 AM New York time.
2. Prior day high and prior day low (PDH/PDL) — the previous session's extremes, which often act as magnets and rejection zones.
3. The opening range — the high and low of the first few minutes after the bell, which frames the first real decision of the day.

Mark these on the chart, then decide in advance what would make each level interesting: a clean break with follow-through, or a failed break that traps breakout traders. If price is stuck in the middle of the prior day's range with no level nearby, there is no setup — that is a valid outcome, not a missed opportunity.

## Step 2: the strategy itself — break, retest, reaction

The strategy is a breakout-retest model: price breaks a marked level, then comes back to test it, and the level either holds as new support (for longs) or new resistance (for shorts). What matters is the reaction at the retest, not the speed of the initial break.

A practical sequence looks like this:

- Price breaks the premarket high or PDH with momentum.
- Price pulls back toward the broken level instead of running away.
- The level holds — buyers defend a former resistance level on the retest, or sellers defend a former support level.
- Only then does the trade become live.

This is where the framework diverges from indicator-based systems. A moving-average cross can fire in the middle of nowhere; a retest of a level that was already visible to every participant gives you a place to put a stop that means something.

## Step 3: the entry model and where the stop goes

The entry model is built on the 1-minute chart: after the retest, you wait for a confirmation candle — a rejection wick, an engulfing bar, or a strong close back in the direction of the break — and enter as that candle completes. The stop sits just beyond the level or beyond the wick of the confirmation candle, whichever gives the cleaner invalidation.

That structure answers the most common objection in the comments: that such setups would need a huge position to be worth trading. Because the stop is tight, risk per trade is defined by distance to the level rather than by share count — position size is calculated from the stop distance, so a small account can take the same trade with fewer shares. The trade-off is real: tight stops on the 1-minute chart get hit more often, and the win rate depends heavily on how cleanly the level was respected.

## What the sceptics get right about this setup

The most useful criticism of any 9:30 AM strategy is that it looks easy only after the fact. Setups that read perfectly on a finished chart involve ambiguity in real time: the break may be a wick, the retest may never come, and the confirmation candle may close against you. Anyone who has actually backtested this style knows the win rate is not the 90% that thumbnails imply.

Two practical fixes follow from that. First, backtest the exact rules — which levels, which confirmation candle, which stop — over a few hundred sessions before risking money, because the edge lives in the details, not in the concept. Second, accept that some sessions produce no trade. A choppy day that grinds between the premarket high and low without a clean break is a day to sit out, and the framework is designed to make that obvious rather than to force activity.

## Timeframes, markets and the 1-minute objection

The framework is timeframe-flexible but was demonstrated on intraday charts, and the 1-minute entry is the part beginners resist most. The compromise is to keep the level selection on a higher timeframe — 5-minute or 15-minute structure, or the daily levels above — and use the 1-minute chart only for timing the entry. That preserves the tight stop without forcing you to read noise all session.

On instruments, the same logic transfers to liquid futures such as ES and NQ, to large-cap stocks, and to major forex pairs like EUR/USD, though spreads and session hours change how cleanly levels behave. Whatever you trade, keep the list short: a handful of instruments you know intimately beats rotating through a dozen tickers and never learning how each one respects its levels. Check your platform's time zone setting too — levels drawn in the wrong zone silently invalidate the whole plan.

## Useful links

- [Simple Trader Playbook — free course waitlist](https://events.scarfacetrades.com/the-simple-trader-playbook-waitlist)
- [The Accelerator — private Discord community and live trading](https://whop.com/scarfacetrades)
- [Scarface Unscripted — live trade breakdowns](https://www.youtube.com/@ScarfaceUnscripted/videos)
- [Scarface Trades on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/scarfacetrades_)
- [Scarface Trades on X](https://twitter.com/ScarfaceTrades_)

## The bottom line

A three-step 9:30 AM framework — mark the levels, wait for the break and retest, enter on a confirmation candle with a stop behind the level — replaces indicator guesswork with a repeatable process that can be tested and sized. It will not make trading effortless: the retest requires patience, the 1-minute entries demand discipline, and the real win rate only shows up after honest backtesting. What it does remove is the paralysis of conflicting signals, which is where most beginners lose money before their strategy ever gets a fair trial. This breakdown was put together following the approach shared by the Scarface Trades channel; if the framework fits how you read charts, start with the free [Simple Trader Playbook course](https://events.scarfacetrades.com/the-simple-trader-playbook-waitlist) and paper-trade the rules before committing capital.

## Questions & answers

**Do I have to trade the 1-minute chart to use this strategy?**

No. The levels and the break-retest logic work on any intraday timeframe. Many traders mark levels on the 5-minute or 15-minute chart and drop to the 1-minute only to time the entry, which keeps the stop tight without forcing them to read constant noise.

**What if price is stuck in the middle of the prior day's high and low?**

That is a no-trade condition. With no nearby level to break and retest, there is nothing to define the entry or the stop, so the correct action is to wait for price to reach a marked level or to skip the session entirely.

**Which time zone should the 9:30 AM open be measured in?**

The reference is the New York cash open, so 9:30 AM Eastern Time. If your charting platform runs on a different zone, shift the session markers accordingly — levels drawn in the wrong time zone will not line up with the actual opening range.

**Does this work on forex pairs like EUR/USD or only on stocks and futures?**

The mechanics transfer to any liquid market, including major forex pairs, but session hours and spreads change how levels behave. Test the rules on the specific instrument and session you intend to trade rather than assuming identical results across markets.