How to Trade Futures

How to enter and exit positions using the Roadmap

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to effectively use the Roadmap in combination with other confirmation tools to make better trading decisions. The key insight is that the Roadmap should not be used as a standalone signal, but rather as a powerful tool to identify liquidity areas that enhance your existing trading strategy.

The Roadmap provides valuable information about liquid points in the market by showing you where price is likely to react. However, the most important principle covered is that you should never execute trades based solely on the Roadmap. Instead, you need a second confirmation from other tools like price action, the VIX (volatility index), or other indicators you prefer. The levels shown on the Roadmap are highly respected when looking to the left side of your chart, but they work best when combined with your personal trading approach.

A practical example demonstrates using the ES (E-mini S&P) with the VIX as confirmation. When the VIX moves down, the market typically moves up due to their inverse relationship. The lesson shows how to identify key moments like the CPI candle, map it out using Fibonacci levels, and look for breakouts from these areas. You can also use the candle high and candle low as reference points, and pay attention to timing factors like the hourly close where market shifts often occur.

The core trading philosophy emphasized is to use the Roadmap to get a better overview of the market and find liquidity areas to target, but always execute according to your own trading style and strategy. The Roadmap is described as a “nice add-on” that helps you understand market structure better and control risk, not as a magic solution that dictates exactly when to enter and exit.

Video Chapters

  1. 00:00 – Introduction and question about entering and exiting with the Roadmap
  2. 01:48 – Understanding Roadmap levels and why second confirmation is needed
  3. 03:56 – Using the VIX as second confirmation with ES example
  4. 09:30 – Analyzing the CPI candle with Fibonacci and price action
  5. 13:26 – Identifying breakout areas and liquidity zones
  6. 16:20 – How to integrate the Roadmap with your personal trading strategy

Key Takeaways

  1. The Roadmap should never be used alone but always with a second confirmation like price action or the VIX
  2. The VIX has an inverse relationship with the market—when VIX goes down, markets typically go up
  3. Use Fibonacci to map the CPI candle and identify candle high and candle low as key reference points
  4. The Roadmap helps identify liquidity areas to enhance your existing trading strategy and control risk
Video Transcription

[00:00:05.28] - Speaker 1
We got the next question. Okay, Fabian, I give you the. You can speak if you want. Yep. Welcome, my friend. Yep. Thank you. First of all, welcome to our crazy community. Nice team spirit. We are always helpful and welcome.

[00:00:28.06] - Speaker 2
Yeah, it looks so great here and wonderful levels and all from you.

[00:00:35.00] - Speaker 1
So, yeah, let me know what is your question? Go ahead, ask.

[00:00:38.18] - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. With these levels, like from where, how do you exit and enter positions, I get an idea. But you know, great that you can explain a little bit the thought process behind.

[00:00:53.17] - Speaker 1
Okay.

[00:00:54.11] - Speaker 2
What you are, what you follow.

[00:00:56.17] - Speaker 1
And okay, that's a great point because many, many people have the questions in the community. They're asking this question in the 6am I always say, no, no, no, it's not the time for this. So. And you can feel proud that you can ask this now. All right, so we have enough time. Okay. So first things first. Can we trust the levels? If you're looking into the roadmap. Yeah, so technical. If you're looking to the left side, we can, we can trade. We can trust the levels. But most of the time, as a trader, when we in the market, we are blind and. And we don't trust the levels no matter what. So the roadmap is simple and easy only. And, and roadmap. So they're giving us some, some nice idea from liquid points. I will not say like, okay, let's execute only based on the roadmap. This will make no sense. The roadmap first to understand is only there to have a better idea about the market. So the best case. So if you trade, let's say you trade nq. I understand, but let's, let's. Let's talk about your trade. The es, for example, to make it easier to explain.

[00:02:17.16] - Speaker 1
So what I will do is open and second chart from the es. Here we go. Type in the es. So what we have now is simple and easy. We can see here's our roadmap. Five minutes. And here's simple and easy price action. And I like to have simple and easy price action on my shot. But I want a second confirmation. What could be the second confirmation? The second confirmation can be our roadmap. We was learning as we're looking to the left, we was understanding that the levels are highly respected. But we want a better confirmation for this reason. Let's start again. Here we have our Es. And here we have, let's say, our Magnificent 7 index for the Es. I know it's a little bit stupid, but let's do it. You can also use the WIX as second Confirmation by the way, it's whatever you want. Let's use the wix, it's much easier. Okay, let's go to the wix. Here we go. Now we get the WIX here. So and now we get a much better overview how we can execute based on the levels. So let's look at 11. Basically let's, let's use 11.

[00:03:56.18] - Speaker 1
It's, it's simple if you're not live in the market and explain this is simple. So this is why we will have in the future 100 live trading. Okay. We get a market shift here on the rigs to the upside. 12 6. So let's look here. What was on 126 first 510 plus 5. Okay, that's a good one. Plus 5. You see first what you can see we see we get the market shift from the wicks to the upside and we get here our downside. It's what it is, it's technical. And second confirmation. So if we have now also our levels here, then we get maybe an another good confirmation. But I have not the levels there at the moment. But this is a second confirmation. Now we're going to the road. 12, 6. Here we go. 5, 12, 6. Oh, this is 12 10, 12 6. So and here we can start now how we can execute the trade, how we can execute the roadmap. So we not execute based on the. On the roadmap as a single one. It makes no sense. Yeah, but makes really no sense, my friend. The roadmap is only the roadmap.

[00:05:29.26] - Speaker 1
They're giving us a nice idea about how the market is looking like. But we need a second confirmation. Second confirmation price action. Or you can say you really like the SMA, use the 20 and use the SMA. I don't know, 200 for only, for example, maybe you like it. And then you have this also as confirmation. But we want only price action. So we see that volatility index came to the upside. It's an information we are now here breaking out on this area. So now what we can do is now we can now look what happens if we break down truth the, the area here. So we go not into the market because we have here our, our roadmap will say okay, this is a liquid area. So we wait until we break down on this area and then we can execute based on this Boom. So but we're using a second confirmation volatility index. Yes. So we can also say what was happened at 9:30 when the market was open. Let's do it again. 9:30 and, and the biggest key if you be in the market is have patience, wait for the right moment, wait for the confirmation, a second confirmation, for example, on the wigs.

[00:07:09.05] - Speaker 1
So we was looking at 9:30. What was the Wix telling us at 9:30? Here we go. 946. Technical here. So what was the price action telling us? All right, here we go. So based on the wix, the WIX was a little bit misleading. So the VIX was, was saying us. Okay, we're going now to the upside. But if you look into the bigger picture, we see that the VIX came all the way down. If you only looking now on, on the time frame from 9:30, then we will say, okay, the VIX is a little bit misleading. But if you're looking to the bigger time frame, the VIX was coming all the way down. So this is a clear. In these four, never fighting the wicks. So it could be possible that the market came also down, but the WIX goes always to the upside, to the upper side, you know, Fabian. So if the WIX goes up, the market goes down.

[00:08:37.29] - Speaker 2
Yeah, that inverse relationship.

[00:08:39.14] - Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. This is not normally the relationship, but in this case you can see if we go now all the way down and the market is, is, is doing some, some other. Say we came also. Also all the way to the upside. Yeah, we came all the way up. That's right. But in this moment, I would say if you're looking now to this one. Here we go. This is our time. So we're using the Fibonacci again. This is our CPI card. Here we go. This is our Fibonacci candle. Yeah, you see it? This was the CPI candle. So now we was mapping out the bullish candle. Here we go. So, and we have the same principle what we have with our roadmap. So we're using the Fibonacci and we take out the Fibonacci 930. So we came down here from this area here. We came down. You see it? We break this area 930. We're breaking also this area here. Second confirmation. You see it? Yep. So you're looking always for second confirmation. And then if we see, we break here from this area, the, the CPI candle. We was measuring the CPI candle and we're breaking down from this area.

[00:10:22.21] - Speaker 1
And now you can see, okay, the WIX is coming all the way down. Technical. We must go to the upside. And if you're looking to the bigger picture, we came to the upside. But in this moment we get a little tiny correction to the upside. A little tiny correction. Nothing big. A little tiny. So could be some confirmation. Yeah. In this moment, we see we're breaking out from the CPI candle. We're breaking out on this area here. Boom. So what we can target, we can target our next liquidity area. So here, what is the next liquidity area? So 930 was this candle. So we can technically target this area here. We get the support, little tiny support from the wicks and we breaking out from this area here from the CPI candle. If I would be a smart trader, and I be a smart trader, I would highlight the high and the low from the candle. So something like this. And now you can see. You will stop at the candle week low technical. Here I would be go out. I would be go out at 10. Why I would be go out at 10.

[00:12:00.20] - Speaker 1
It's also really nice because we have the hourly close. Hourly close. 30 minutes. So the market is done most of the time. We get some, some nice market shift at the hourly close. All right, so that's the number one. 10. What was happened on the roadmap at 10? Here we go, 10. Yeah. So we was coming near this area here. I take this out as that. You can see this much better. So we came near the liquid area here and was a good point to go out. So you have the confirmation based on the CPI candle. It's a little bit tricky, little bit technical. Analyzers use the Fibonacci. Map out the candle high, the candle low. Look to the wicks. The wix is coming all the way down. Technical. The market must came up. Oops, sorry. Two minute. I want going to here one hour. So once the market came all the way up. Yeah, look at this. We came all the way up. The WIX is right here, Michael. So technically, maybe you're not looking for a short because you say never fight the vix. The WIX is coming down, the market is strong.

[00:13:26.06] - Speaker 1
You will not looking for a short. All right, I will accept it. So what you can use, you can look for now for. For a rebound from the market that the market bounce back the upside. And you can use this also, you will not go technical in the market before I would say, yeah, if the market is open, you will not be technical. Go in the market before you break the the wick here. So the CPI week and let's go shoot this area. So 15 minute. Here's the CPI rig. So the CPI wick was also our liquid area here. So normally I would not go long before I going through this area. So my first long candle Would be this can the bullish candle. Here we go. This would be. This would be my area where I will be go long or I can go long here but I don't know it could be possible that I will go long here but the CPI was a little bit flippy here so the week. Sorry. So this is something what you can looking also there are many ways so there's no right, there's no wrong. So at the end what I want telling you how you should execute the the roadmap.

[00:15:06.20] - Speaker 1
You should execute the roadmap only based on your trading style. Don't look to the roadmap as magic key. Look to the roadmap basically as. As some nice add on what gives you areas where we have liquidity where we should be target. But at the end use your trading strategy. Use what you using. Use the levels, use whatever you feel good with. What I was showing you is like more my trading style that I'm going more deeper in this that I'm looking for this that I draw again with the Fibonacci. But at the end this roadmap will help me to understand the market much better. This is why I'm going so crazy when you often asking me Patrick when when I should be execute trades on the roadmap when not blah blah blah. Champ at the end trade your own trading style. But you must be agri Fibin. It's. It's nice to have the roadmap on your side and then other wind and other trading windows to get a better idea how the market is looking like.

[00:16:20.28] - Speaker 2
Yeah, I got. It's more like come up with some sort of controlling your risk around around this roadmap.

[00:16:30.20] - Speaker 1
Right? Yeah. And that's it. So at the end it's all about your trading trading style. All about your trading strategy. It's not not about how you should execute the trading roadmap. That's not the key. The key is only you should use your trading strategy. But the roadmap helps you to become a better overview from the market to find areas, liquidity areas and then use this maybe a second confirmation with your trading strategy and that's it.

[00:17:06.22] - Speaker 2
So you kind of always use weeks for confirmation. Am I getting it correct or you kind of use other tools as well for the confirmations?

[00:17:17.03] - Speaker 1
Yeah. So Dean, can you speak?

[00:17:23.13] - Speaker 3
Yes sir.

[00:17:24.14] - Speaker 1
All right. So what I was teaching about timing, location and setup. Nice reminder. Can you say something about this maybe in your mind?

[00:17:34.07] - Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. So what Patrick is driving trying to drive home is that as you develop your trading style, you have to look for the cor. The timing, location and setup. 1. What's the best time for you to enter. Enter a trade. So as you understand your. The ES1 Mini, you're going to find those windows in those areas that give you the best time. Like for me, when I trade crude, I know the hours between 8 and 10 o'. Clock. Best timing for me locations. I always go from swing high to swing low. So if I see the price action coming down into a zone. So here on Patrick's screen he has, you know, these. The price action coming down to key zones. Boom. I know that that's a great location for me. And as you were saying, you want to look for other confirmation, but you can see right here that you know the candle. I can't really tell the timing, but there are some candles here that give you great locations. And then the setup. Setup is absolutely perfect. And he, you know, as he reiterates, wait for the setup and you can see like over and over again that the setup will always come.

[00:18:59.10] - Speaker 3
You just have to be patient. So I drilled this into when I first started trading with Patrick. He drilled this and to myself and my training partner Sean's head. And we say this to each other all the time. Timing, location, setup.

[00:19:14.20] - Speaker 1
If.

[00:19:14.29] - Speaker 3
If our trades do not meet those three criteria, we do not enter a trade at all. We just sit back and wait until we see the right timing, the right location and the perfect setup. And do we hit all the time? No, but we do. Our percentages have gone up because now we always keep this in mind. So when you're going in, setting up your trades, that's all I kept on ringing in my head for your trading plan. Yours alone. Timing set up and location are.

[00:19:56.09] - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's a good reminder. Yeah. Y. Yeah.

[00:20:00.07] - Speaker 2
All right.

[00:20:00.26] - Speaker 1
Yep.

[00:20:01.11] - Speaker 2
Thanks for that.

[00:20:03.25] - Speaker 1
Yeah. And. And this is, this is the master key answer to how to execute the trading roadmap. So the trading road map gives you only an idea about the locations, about the timing. So as you can see now. So you can say technical. Yeah, we're making now lower highs. Yeah, making. We breaking out now from this area. Yeah. Nice. Could we execute this? We could, but did we have one second confirmation? No, we have no second confirmation. For this reason, I will, I will highly advise to anyone looking for second confirmation. It's good. It's. It's. It's looking like it could be work. It's look like we can target now maybe the 50 level. Yeah, we can do this. If we, if you would be execute the trading roadmap we can also say, okay, our. Our risk is like we go if it should not going above this area. All right, so then you can execute maybe the trading roadmap. But this is a good advice. No, because you should. You should use your trading concept where you be good and that's it. And the roadmap is for. For you to execute based on your trading style.

[00:21:26.03] - Speaker 1
But it's nice to have a really nice roadmap on your end.