The One Document That Ties Everything Else Together
One document that ties everything else together — how we read the market.
Before you start: None — this is meant to be your starting point for the whole system.
Part of the MY EDGE framework — refined through thousands of hours of chart study.
Every trader reaches a moment when they realize they don't need another concept — they need a single document that states how they look at the market. Everything else (every concept, every strategy, every playbook on this site) is built on the seven pillars in this document. Without it, every individual concept is just an isolated fact without context.
The Trading Framework answers one question that most traders never formally write down: in what order do I actually think about the market?
- Core Idea
- Why It Exists
- How Professionals Read It
- Practical Application
- Common Mistakes When Applying the Framework
Picture seven pillars that every decision on this site rests on — liquidity, market structure, time, market environment, zones (PD Arrays), execution, and risk management.
This document isn't another concept — it's the map that tells you in what order to even think about the market. Without it, every individual concept is just an isolated fact with no context.
That's why this is the true first step, not the last — something you read at the start and come back to whenever two concepts seem to contradict each other.
Advanced explanation⌄
Core Idea
Everything else on this site rests on seven pillars:
Liquidity — determines where price is most likely seeking a path. Every directional bias begins with identifying the most probable liquidity target (see Draw on Liquidity). Execution without understanding this substantially lowers your probability of success.
Market structure — clarifies how price is currently delivering toward liquidity. It provides context for continuation, reversal, or transition, but never overrides higher-timeframe objectives. Structure is always read relative to liquidity, never in isolation.
Time — determines when a setup has the highest probability of success. Market behavior changes throughout the day, week, and month. Context, liquidity, and PD Arrays gain or lose significance depending on the timeline.
Market environment — determines the current conditions of price delivery. It affects the probability of different models, the reliability of PD Arrays, and the degree of confirmation you need before execution.
PD Arrays — identify locations where price might react during delivery. Their significance depends on timeframe, context, time, and surrounding liquidity. No PD Array is, on its own, an entry signal.
Execution — happens only once context, liquidity, time, scenarios, and confirmation align. Execution is the last step of the process, never the first goal.
Risk management — exists to preserve your ability to participate in future opportunities. No single trade is important enough to jeopardize long-term consistency. Preserving capital always comes before participating in the market.
⚠️ Ignoring risk management until it's too late. The "Risk Management" pillar isn't an administrative add-on at the end — it's a condition that runs in parallel with all six others from the first minute of the day.
Why It Exists
Every trading decision must answer five questions, in exactly this order:
- Where is price most likely going? (Liquidity)
- How is price delivering? (Market Structure)
- When is execution most likely? (Time)
- What is the current context? (Market Environment)
- Where should execution occur? (PD Arrays)
Only once these questions are answered do you begin building scenarios, assessing confirmation, and thinking about execution.
How Professionals Read It
Every completed trade contributes to the knowledge base. Observations become research. Research becomes a validated model. Validated models improve the trading framework — this is the loop that this entire site is built on.
Practical Application
Say you're watching the chart at 08:45 New York time. Price has just formed a beautiful bullish Order Block on the 5-minute chart. Instinct says "enter now." The seven pillars say otherwise — let's see what actually happens when you frame each one as a question:
- Liquidity — where was Asian/London liquidity taken before this Order Block? If there was no sweep, it's just a pretty candle, not context.
- Market structure — was this Order Block created during a move that actually changed structure (MSS), or is it just part of the existing trend?
- Time — is 08:45 even within the New York Kill Zone (07:00–10:00)? If not, you need to know it's outside the primary window and lower your confidence accordingly.
- Market environment — is today LRLR (low resistance, runs succeed quickly) or HRLR (high resistance, lots of false moves)? The same Order Block on an HRLR day requires stricter confirmation.
- PD Arrays — does this Order Block overlap with a higher timeframe (1H/4H), or does it stand alone, without support?
Only once you can answer all five questions concretely (not "I think so" but "yes, because...") do you move on to building the scenario and looking for confirmation. If you can't answer the first question, stop right there — all the following questions are meaningless until it's clear where price is even headed.
Common Mistakes When Applying the Framework
- Jumping straight to PD Arrays. The most common mistake is that a trader immediately spots a nice pattern (FVG, Order Block) and skips the first four questions. PD Arrays are deliberately the fifth pillar — without the first four, they have no context.
- Confusing market environment with market structure. These are separate pillars. Structure tells you how price is currently delivering; environment tells you how much (LRLR/HRLR) you can trust that delivery.
- Treating execution as the goal. If your first impulse in the morning is "where will I enter today," you've reversed the sequence. The first impulse must be "where is price headed today."
How to Use It
The Trading Framework isn't something you read once and forget — it's the filter through which you pass every other concept on this site before applying it in a live market.
In practice:
- Before you open the chart, answer the five questions of the core principle out loud (or in writing) — in exactly this order. If you can't answer the first one (liquidity), don't move on to the next.
- Place every concept or strategy you buy on this site under one of the seven pillars before adding it to your process. Order Block, FVG, Breaker Block — all belong under "PD Arrays." Kill Zones belong under "Time." If you don't know which pillar a concept belongs under, you probably don't yet understand it well enough to use it.
- Use this document as the court of appeal whenever you're torn between two conflicting models — which pillar supports which model more strongly at this moment?
Don't stop here — see how this fits with the rest of the framework.
Continue to Decision Engine →What Traders Say
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Trading Framework document?⌄
It's the single document that ties every other concept and strategy on this site together into seven pillars — liquidity, market structure, time, market environment, PD Arrays, execution, and risk management — establishing the order in which the market is actually read.
How do I apply the Trading Framework to a live setup?⌄
Answer five questions in order before considering execution — where is price likely going, how is it delivering, when is execution most likely, what's the current environment, and where should execution occur — only then build scenarios and look for confirmation.
What's the most common mistake when using this framework?⌄
Jumping straight to PD Arrays — spotting a nice Order Block or FVG and skipping the first four pillars (liquidity, structure, time, environment) that are supposed to give it context.
Do I need the Trading Framework if I already own individual concept documents?⌄
Yes — every individual concept is built to sit under one of the seven pillars (Order Block and FVG under "PD Arrays," for example), so without this document each concept is an isolated fact rather than part of a process.