Unit 2 · Level 5 · The Engine Room
Execution: the hidden edge
A strategy earning +0.4R per trade can be destroyed by 0.2R of sloppy execution. Masters treat entering and exiting as a SKILL: limit orders at levels instead of chasing, splitting size into tranches, avoiding illiquid hours, and never market-ordering size into thin books. Boring? The journal says it's worth whole R's per month.
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What you get asked
Why do pros enter with LIMIT orders at pre-chosen levels rather than market orders on signals?
The trade begins with an edge instead of a cost. The cost: sometimes the bus leaves without you. Pros accept missed trades as the price of never overpaying, because expectancy math says the discipline wins.
Match the execution tactic to its purpose
Execution is where the paper edge meets physical reality. Every tactic is friction removal.
Your REAL cost per round trip = spread + fees + ___. Measure it from your journal, not the fee page.
Compare average fill vs intended level across 30 trades. Most traders have never computed their true friction. You will, and you'll trim strategies whose edge is thinner than it.
3 AM Sunday, spreads triple normal, and your setup triggers. Master's call:
The friction tax at that hour can exceed the setup's whole edge. WHEN you trade is an execution decision. Illiquid hours are where good setups go to get taxed.
The execution mindset in one line:
League 1 taught costs exist; League 5 makes you their accountant. Boss next. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Order flow, market makers, sweeps and execution: the market below the candles.