In this instructional video, George Linfield explains how he reduces his daily trading time to under two hours by using a mechanical, rules‑based approach centered on a data‑backed edge that occurs in the first two hours after the market opens (approximately 7:00‑9:00 am). He outlines the audience that benefits most—beginners, busy professionals, and anyone who dislikes constant chart watching—then details his workflow: he trades only GBP/USD and EUR/USD, sets precise entry, stop‑loss, and take‑profit levels, and relies on platform alerts to notify him only when a predefined price trigger (X) occurs. After receiving an alert, he follows a short confirmation model (Y) before placing a trade, then sets alerts on the stop‑loss and take‑profit to avoid further monitoring. The entire process typically consumes 30‑45 minutes of chart time per day, with occasional longer sessions for analysis. Linfield cites a recent 8 % weekly return achieved with roughly 2.5‑3 hours of chart work, emphasizing that the combination of clear mechanical rules and efficient alert usage dramatically cuts time while preserving performance. He concludes by encouraging viewers to test the method, engage in the comments, and notes his intention to post weekly videos.
Chapters
What's up, troops? I hope we are all well. I hope you've all had a fantastic week. Now, in this video, I wanted to talk about the sneaky little tricks that I use to cut my trading down to really less than 1 to 2 hours per day. Quite considerably less, to be fair. Now, these tricks are something that I've been using for, for a very, very long time, but who might they be useful for, who might want to implement these tricks. And I've been thinking, I mean, really there's a number of people, but I think these can be super beneficial for, for a lot of people actually. I mean, first I guess it's the people that are getting into trading. They haven't got a whole lot of time to, to be staring at the charts all day. They haven't got the time to just sit there and watch things moving from market open to market close. You might have a busy job, you might have an hour or so in the morning to get things done before you go to work. I mean, heck, even an hour or so in the afternoon that you might need to sort of focus your trading on. As well as that, also the people that just don't want to be— they don't want to be trading, right? The people that don't want to sit there and basically watch paint dry, like it is sitting and watching the charts, and they really want to be efficient with what they're doing. I mean, I personally don't want to be sitting here and just staring at the charts. I've got better things to do with my life than watch candles go up and down. And listen, I think it takes a— obviously it takes some time to get to that stage, and I think you only ever have that ease of trading from experience in the market. But these little tricks that I use can definitely make that, that a lot easier for you. So let me share my screen and I'll talk about the first one. So I am what may be classed as a mechanical trader. So I trade mechanical rules-based edges. Now, essentially what that means is I have a— I have an edge developed. And I mean, really, the edge that I trade is really about focusing on, on that sort of first 2 hours of the market open. I have gone away and sort of collected the data on, on this edge. And really, the best setups for me are sort of between 7 and 9 o'clock or half past 7 and half past 9. I mean, we have like a 2 or so hour window where the best setups that we're going to see is sort of within that window. And again, I've, I've collected the data on this. I've got over, really over 10 years, or just under 10 years worth of data to really back up this edge. So from that data, I can very clearly see that all of the best setups and all the best trades that I take are going to fall within this window. So that's kind of something that I like to focus on. Now with that edge, I've then got a clear set of mechanical rules that guide me to those trades. And within those rules, it very, very clearly gives me that step-by-step process to find those positions. So for example, when X happens, I will then enter at Y with my stop loss here, my take profit there, and then I will just walk away. So for me, I really have no business being in the market or even watching things until until X happens. Again, there's absolutely zero point in me being anywhere near, near the chart until this happens, because I know that if this hasn't happened, then, then I'm not being guided to the right trades. So what I then do is I will then use these mechanical rules to build out essentially an efficient process to follow them. So if I don't need to be anywhere near the markets until X happens, then I will set something up in place to allow me to only check back when that happens. So let me just go down here ever so slightly. So again, really following the, the edge that I trade in the mechanical rules that I follow. For example, we will have in place that X is something like this. So I'm really not interested in trading until we run below one of these areas of liquidity here. So whilst we're sort of slowly bleeding to the downside, or doing anything else for that matter, none of this matters to me. None of this has any bearing on what I'm going to be trading because again, I have not seen that trigger. Okay, I've not— I have not seen X happen yet. So what I will do is I will use what we call an alert. Okay, so if I'm not interested in trading until we get down to here, I do not need to be checking the charts until we get down to here. So what I will do is I will use an alert So if you press Ctrl and click— I mean, it might be a right-click or whatever you're on— you will see this menu coming up. And this menu, you'll then see a button there that says add alert on GBP/USD at 1.26652, again, or whatever price you're looking to, to trade from. Now what I'll do is I'll set this up. So again, it'll be at the exact price I'm looking to trade from, and this will essentially give me an alert to say George, we have now run past the area that you're looking to trade from. So X has happened now, therefore leading me to come back onto the markets. So with an alert, you can set your, your custom notification so you can be notified in the app. So if you've got the app on your phone, you're going to get a notification through, you'll get a pop-up on, on your desktop, or you'll get an email. So for example, if I'm working on something else, I've got another project that I'm working on, I will get a notification that will pop up on my screen and I'll then know to go back and check the charts, right? Because I can then move on and follow the rest of my rules. Or if I'm away doing something else, I'm not at the charts, I'm not at my computer, I'm— maybe I'm out and about, I will then get a notification up on my phone. So I am then really being efficient, because if, if I'm not interested in being in the market still, X happens, then if I can only come back when X happens, then I'm really aligning myself with the right opportunities. So what I will then do is I will have the alert set up. And once I'm notified that X happens, I can then begin following my mechanical rules. I can then move on to these rules here. Okay, I can then wait in the markets. I'm gonna have my confirmation model that I'll be looking for. So for example, waiting for Y to happen, or waiting for my confirmation model might take 10 or 15 minutes or so. Once I've then seen that happen, I'll get my order set with my stop loss and my take profit level marked out. And then again, that is my day done, okay? So once the trade has been placed, I can then do nothing else to influence what is going to happen with that position, right? It's either going to hit my take profit or it's going to hit my stop loss. So all in all, I mean, if I'm looking at the total time elapsed to do this, I will wake up in the morning again. Typically, well, I'll wake up before, but I'll be on the charts for about half past 6, quarter to 7. I will identify any key areas that I might be looking to trade from. Again, you can see a lot of these key areas have been sort of marked out on my charts, and I will simply set alerts of these regions. Okay, I'll set alerts, alerts, all of these regions, um, so then I'm alerted to when I need to be on the market, right, when X happens. So again, that is maybe a, a 5 to 10 minute process. I've built my mechanical edge around just 2 currency pairs, so I purely trade GBP/USD and EUR/USD. So very low maintenance. I know exactly what I need to see on these two pairs. I'm not having to go through a list of 10, 12, 15 different pairs and mark them all up and having this long process to getting prepared for the day. It's very, very quick. I've only got maybe— I mean, some days I've got one area, some days I've got four areas that I might be looking to trade from. So I just mark out my alerts and then that's, then that's day done for me for that portion of the day. Then I can get on and do whatever else I want with my day, right? I don't have to sit there and wait for, for something to happen because I've got these alerts set in the market. And then again, simply I will come back, I will follow the rest of my rules. Again, another 10 or 15 minutes or so to wait for them to develop. Yes, they might develop and I'll actually have a trade to place. If they don't, then I might leave again if I've been invalidated, and I will wait for the next alert to go off. Okay, so I'm not here at any point just sitting and waiting for something to happen other than when I'm actually in the right position to potentially pull the trigger. So again, this might take 10-15 minutes, this might take 5-10 minutes. So overall, across the, across the day, I might be spending 30-45 minutes or so actually on the charts. And then again, even better, right? I mean, even when I'm in the trade, again, I can't influence what's going to happen, but it'd be nice to know when, when something does go on. So if I maybe enter a trade down here, I'll then set an alert on my stop loss I'll set an alert on my take profit. So again, I don't need to keep checking up and sort of seeing what's going to happen, right? Because I know that if that happens, I'm going to get an alert. I know if that happens, I'm going to get an alert. So I'm then able to really be efficient with my time. I'm not spending time sitting here watching paint dry on the charts and being enticed into taking more positions, watching the candles go up and down, because I know that if I do not follow this and if anything lies outside of this then I am simply gambling. I no longer am sticking to my edge. I'm no longer sticking to my mechanical rules to guide me to the right trades. So again, it's far more— it's far more efficient doing things this way. Obviously, this starts from having the right mechanical rules in place, and then you can systemize it properly. You can really build an efficient system out. I mean, if I go back through, I mean, last week I did around about 8% or so in the markets without scaling in positions. And all in all, I probably spent maybe 2.5, 3 hours on the charts because I, I know clearly what I'm looking for, right? I know exactly what I'm looking for in the markets, and, and if it's not there, I'm not worried about trading. So by having those mechanical rules in place and then using the efficiency system, using alerts, you're able to drastically cut down the time you're going to be spending on the markets massively. So Listen, I hope these things help. I mean, obviously it starts from, starts from having the right strategy in place with those clear mechanical rules to follow. Once you've got that and you know that you're only going to be pulling the trigger on a certain setup and a certain thing happens, you can then set those alerts in the market and only act when that happens. So I hope this helps you. Um, go away, test it with your, with your system. If it does help, be sure to let me know. Um, again, from my last video, definitely helped a lot of people. I've had a few messages. Um, I also had a couple of comments about being consistent with this. People saw value in what I do. So this is my second attempt at being consistent. I'm aiming for weekly uploads from now on. So again, be sure to let me know if there's anything you want advice on, stick it below in the comments. Be sure to like, subscribe, et cetera. Um, But again, just to recap, two very, very simple tricks to implement. Make sure you've got clear mechanical rules to follow for your strategy. Again, having an edge is, is super important for that as well. And then utilize alerts. We've got the most incredible trading platforms to use nowadays, so we should be using the features to help us be more efficient in the markets. So again, I hope you've enjoyed the video, uh, and I'll see you in the next one.
