On NFP and CPI days, my edge is literally just doing less. my routine so i don't get farmed.

Been seeing a lot of posts lately about getting liquidated in these massive flushes. between the recent nfp reports, middle east tensions, and btc bouncing around $70k-$72k like a ping pong ball, the chop has been brutal.

When i started out i treated macro days like a casino. trying to snipe the exact minute cpi data dropped thinking i could beat the algos. reality check: i usually just became exit liquidity. slippage and spread widening in those first few mins will absolutely wreck you.

Over the last year i completely changed how i trade these. my edge now is basically just doing nothing. here is the routine that actually keeps my account alive:

1. 24 hours before: de-risk. close any b-tier setups. if its not high conviction, kill it.

2. cut size in half. whatever is left gets sized way down. you can't get liquidated if you aren't over exposed.

3. ignore the first candle. the first 15m candle after data is almost always a trap sweeping liquidity both ways. i don't touch it.

4. demo rehearsal. this was the biggest change for me. instead of fomoing into the chop with real money i test my thesis first. ended up using bydfis demo specifically for this cause it actually mirrors live perp conditions and gives you 50k fake usdt. i'll execute the setup there during peak volatility. if the thesis holds up and we settle into a real trend then i switch back to my main account.

5. wait for the real trend. the actual move usually starts an hour or two later once spreads normalize.

im no genius and i definately still take losses. but shifting my mindset from 'i need to catch this spike' to 'i need to protect my capital' changed everything.

the market will always be there tomorrow. anyway just gonna go touch grass until the dust settles on this current drop.