I specialize in day trading gold, with XAUUSD being my primary asset for 80% of my trades. Over the years, I've become intimately familiar with its movement patterns and behavior. It's no surprise that nearly all of my $2 million in active funding and payouts can be attributed to successful XAUUSD day trades.
It is my opinion that trading into or out of heavy supply and demand levels is the most sustainable technical trading approach long term. Strategies that rely heavily on indicators will sometimes run hot but also run into long periods of painful drawdown. Indicators are a result of lagging data of previous price action. While we can use some as a tool for creating context of the current price, we should use them to blindly enter and exit trades.
Due to my focus on 1:1 to 1:2 RRR trades, I don't need to overthink my setups. In fact, the simpler they are, the better they tend to work out. While not strictly necessary, I always aim to trade with the higher timeframe trend. If 70-80% of my trades align with the trend, I'm satisfied.
I will look at the 1 hour chart for overall trend and momentum to consider a valid short or long bias on my day trade setups.
When considering a trade setup, I look for the following key factors: