Planning the Trade and Trading the Plan – Reversal Trend Trading Around Yesterday’s High

Most traders say “plan the trade, trade the plan,” then abandon the plan the moment price does something interesting. This lesson is about the opposite: building a specific reversal plan, refusing to improvise when the market doesn’t cooperate, and accepting missed moves without FOMO. The focus is a classic London-session scenario: price drives into yesterday’s high, but never gives the structured reversal you wanted.

Market Context & Setup

The environment is a typical London session on a relatively quiet news day.

The main reference levels are yesterday’s high, some prior intraday structure, and a descending trendline drawn in advance.
There is a scheduled news time, marked on the chart (Darren uses a vertical line, green in this case) so you know when volatility might pick up.
The working idea beforehand was simple:
- If news hits and reverses price from a known level, there might be a short.
- That short is only valid if price breaks a defined level, confirms on the lower timeframe, and offers a safe continuation move.

The reality

Price does not give the clean reversal expected around the news.
Instead, it bounces off the descending trendline and keeps pushing higher.
Eventually it drives straight into yesterday’s high and “smacks” it hard.

So you have a textbook “it moved, but not the way I planned to trade it” situation. This is where most traders abandon their plan and start chasing. Darren doesn’t.

Core Tools Used

Only the tools that actually matter in this session

1. Yesterday’s High as Structural Resistance

Definition: Yesterday’s high is one of the strongest intraday reference points. It’s where prior buyers ran out of steam or where sellers previously stepped in. Application here:

Marked before the session, it acts as the upper boundary of the day’s plan.
A strong drive into yesterday’s high can be:
- A continuation if higher time frame is bullish and pullbacks hold, or
- An area for a reversal trade if the day is overextended or news spikes into it.

Contribution to confluence:

It’s the ultimate “don’t chase” zone. If you’re not already long from the first clean reversal, you don’t initiate fresh longs at yesterday’s high.
It’s a potential shorting area, but only if price structure turns and your method says “yes”.

2. Time-of-Day and Reversal Candles (30-Minute / Hourly)

Definition: Darren calls himself a reversal trend trader. He trades reversals within the dominant trend around the busier parts of the session, typically using 30-minute or hourly candles to define those reversals. Application here:

In the London session, he is interested in:
- A 30-minute reversal early in the busy period.
- Later in the session, possibly an hourly reversal.
These reversals are not guesses. They’re specific candles and structures that tell you: “The push is over, a corrective or opposite leg is starting.”

Contribution to confluence:

The first proper reversal (confirmed by structure and closes) is his highest-probability continuation point.
Without that reversal, he does not switch bias mid-stream just because price moved.

3. Lower Timeframe Confirmation (M5 as Trigger)

Definition: Use a lower timeframe (usually M5) to refine entry once the higher-timeframe reversal is clear. That means

A break of a local line/level.
A small reversal pattern.
A “lower timeframe alert” from his usual toolkit.

Application here:

For the potential short after news, he wanted:
- A break of a specified level.
- A 5-minute reversal in the intended direction.
- Then a clear 5-minute break of the key line to validate the move.
Only after that sequence would he look to short toward the next logical support.

Contribution to confluence:

The lower timeframe is not a prediction engine. It’s a timing tool once higher-timeframe context says “this reversal is legitimate.”
It keeps him out of random noise and forces structure on every entry.

4. Trendlines as Analytical Guides, Not Triggers

Definition: Ascending and descending trendlines are drawn to visualise the path of price, but not to trade from directly. Application here:

A descending trendline from previous highs was on the chart.
Price bounced off that descending line andup.
He explicitly states he does not want to take trades purely off that line. Trendlines can become self-fulfilling props for traders trying to “ride the line.”

Contribution to confluence:

Trendlines help him see where price is traveling, not where to pull the trigger.
The fact that price reacted at a trendline is interesting, but insufficient without his structured reversal model.

5. News Awareness and Session Planning

Definition: Identify key news releases and pre-plan what you’ll do if and only if price reacts in a certain way. Application here:

The news time is marked with a vertical line.
Initial expectation: news might cause a sharp move and reversal, creating a short scenario.
When that didn’t happen as planned, he did not trade. The absence of the expected structure equals “no trade”.

Contribution to confluence:

News is a conditional trigger in the plan—not a reason to gamble.
It adds context to reversals (spike and reject) but does not replace price structure.

Trade Example(s)

Planned Short That Never Triggered

Pre-session idea:

Price is trading below a descending trendline.
There’s a key level and a scheduled news event.
The plan is: if news spikes price into the level and then reverses with structure, a short may be taken.

Required sequence for the short:

Break of a defined level after the news reaction.
A 5-minute reversal in the short direction.
A clean 5-minute break of the key line to confirm the move.
A realistic target, not fantasy:
- He’s not insisting price must go all the way to the next major line.
- The target is a reasonable intraday reaction zone—just a safe segment of the move “somewhere down here”.

Because the day is not extreme and there is no compelling reason price “must” go to a distant support, he keeps the objective modest. Less ego, more probability. What actually happened:

Price bounced from the descending trendline instead.
It never gave the required reversal + break structure for the planned short.
Instead, ithigher and hit yesterday’s high aggressively.

Result: No short trade. The plan didn’t trigger, so there is nothing to execute. That’s not a failure; that’s the plan doing its job.

The Missed Long and Why He Doesn’t Care

Could you have made money just buying the bounce off the trendline and holding into yesterday’s high? Yes. Many traders would. Darren’s approach

He is not interested in getting long up at the top after the move has played out.
He wants to be long from the first proper reversal within the trend, earlier in the session.
That “first reversal” trade (he mentions it as the second ride of the day in his broader sequence) is typically:
- A 30-minute or hourly reversal in the direction of the main trend.
- Confirmed by lower timeframe structure.
- Taken at a sensible location with room to a logical target.

By the time price has ramped up and slammed into yesterday’s high

The first, clean opportunity is gone.
New longs here would be chasing the move, buying from latecomers and liquidity seekers.

So he simply watches

No revenge trade.
No “I knew it would go up, I should be in.”
Just an observation: the market moved, but not with the pattern he trades.

What He’s Actually Looking For Now

Once price has hit yesterday’s high

His attention shifts to a potential short, but again, only if structure aligns.
He explicitly refuses to:
- Short just because price is “higher than before”.
- Trade purely off the ascending or descending line.
He wants:
- A higher-timeframe reversal (30-minute/hourly) from that area.
- A lower timeframe confirmation (break of level, proper reversal pattern).
- A trade that can be described ahead of time, not invented on the fly.

Until that happens, he’s content to have coffee, keep one eye on the chart, and let the market do whatever it wants.

Practical Rules & Checklist

Concrete takeaways from this session

1. Define the trade before the move.
“If news does X and the 30-minute/5-minute structure does Y, I will do Z.” No structure, no trade.
2. The first clean reversal in the trend is your highest-probability entry.
Focus on catching that first well-formed 30-minute or hourly reversal, not the third or fourth continuation leg.
3. Yesterday’s high/low are do-not-chase zones.
If you’re not already in, assume you’re late. Do not initiate fresh trades at those extremes without a full method-based reversal setup.
4. Trendlines are visual aids, not entry triggers.
A bounce off a line is not enough. You still need breaks, closes, and lower timeframe confirmation.
5. News is a filter, not a casino.
Mark news, anticipate volatility, but only act if price reacts in the way your method requires.
6. Stop trying to be “right”.
The goal is not predicting every move. The goal is to take only those moves that fit your predefined structure, even if that means skipping others.
7. One or two good trades per session is plenty.
Build the day around a couple of high-quality setups, not a random collection of impulses.
8. When the plan doesn’t trigger, the correct action is “do nothing”.
No trade is a valid outcome. Accept it without immediately hunting other charts out of boredom.
9. Targets should be realistic reaction zones, not heroic projections.
When in doubt, take a solid partial move into the next logical level instead of demanding a full swing.

Darren’s Mindset

This lesson is pure psychology disguised as structure. He describes himself as a reversal trend trader. That phrase matters. He isn’t trying to catch tops and bottoms against the main direction. He’s trying to catch the first meaningful shift inside the trend, then ride the continuation. That implies an almost boring level of patience. He has no interest in being a “clever dick” who calls every swing correctly in hindsight. There is zero ego in this approach. If the market doesn’t give the reversal he planned for, he simply doesn’t trade that idea. He doesn’t flip from planned short to improvised long just to be able to say “I caught it.” Discipline, in his world, is not about white-knuckling trades with wide stops. It’s about not taking trades that don’t match the method, even when they look tempting. This includes ignoring trendline bounces, ignoring “it would have worked” moves, and ignoring the urge to force the day to pay you. Finally, he keeps his environment simple: a plan written from the morning, one main pair to watch, one eye on the chart while doing other things. No frantic scrolling through six symbols trying to manufacture setups. The simplicity is intentional; it protects him from himself.

How to Apply This Lesson

Turn this into a daily routine

Start from the higher timeframe (H1/H4).
- Mark yesterday’s high and low, key swing highs/lows, and any obvious directional bias.
- Note the main news times that overlap with London.
Define your “first reversal” plan.
- Decide what a valid 30-minute or hourly reversal looks like to you (engulfing bar, pin bar, break and close beyond a level, etc.).
- Write: “If I see X reversal at Y level, I will look for a trade in Z direction.”
Execute on a lower timeframe trigger (M5).
- After the higher-TF reversal appears, wait for:
  - A local level break.
  - A small, clear reversal pattern or alert.
- Only then consider an entry.
Set modest, logical targets.
- Aim first for the nearest reasonable reaction zone: prior structure, mid-range, or a conservative distance inside the next big level.
- Anything extra is a bonus, not the plan.
Accept no-trade outcomes.
- If news doesn’t create the move you planned for, close the script for that idea.
- You are allowed to end the session with capital intact and no trades taken.

When this routine is followed consistently, your P&L starts reflecting something deeper: not how often you guessed direction, but how consistently you acted only when real structure, time-of-day, and your method lined up. That’s the core of planning the trade and actually trading the plan.

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