Bill Huynh
Learning the Market.
Building the Process.
I started trading in 2023 and discovered that learning the market is about far more than finding a strategy. I’m interested in the systems, education, psychology, and experiences that help traders turn knowledge into disciplined execution. I’ve also learned that performance doesn’t exist in isolation—life, mindset, stress, and emotion can directly affect how well a trader follows their process.
Where these skills converge
My background spans operations, marketing, public health, and biology—each shaping how I approach decisions differently. Operations taught me discipline, execution, and process; marketing taught me to understand behavior and psychology; and public health and biology strengthened my ability to think critically, analyze evidence, and understand systems. Trading brings these skills together, challenging me to manage risk, make decisions under uncertainty, understand my own psychology, and continuously improve my process.
OPERATIONS
- Process
- Execution
- Accountability
MARKETING
- Behavior
- Communication
- Psychology
PUBLIC HEALTH + BIOLOGY
- Evidence
- Education
- Systems Thinking
TRADING
- Risk
- Uncertainty
- Psychology
- Process
Trading Journey
CHASING THE OUTCOME
Quick Money → Strategy Hopping → Losses
I entered the market thinking trading could be a quick way to make money. I wasn't journaling, didn't have a defined process, and moved between strategies looking for what worked. The market quickly humbled me, but those early losses forced me to recognize that trading required far more than finding the right setup.
TRACKING THE RESULTS
ICT → Journaling → P&L
I began studying ICT concepts and started journaling my trades. It was an important step forward, but my attention was still primarily on profits and losses. I was recording what happened without fully examining the psychology and decision-making behind why it happened.
UNDERSTANDING THE TRADER
Mindset → Personality → Acceptance → Reflection
In 2025, I began realizing that every trader brings their own personality into the market. My perfectionism had helped me in sports, where persistence and the desire to win could push me to perform better. In trading, those same traits could work against me. Wanting to win every trade made losses harder to accept and created the urge to keep pushing until I was right. I began learning that losses aren't failures to correct—they're a normal part of trading, and accepting them is part of developing as a trader.
Around February 2025, my journal expanded into mindset, trades, news, market context, behavior, and reflection.
BUILDING THE PROCESS
Data → Psychology → Risk → Systems → Life
In 2026, my focus shifted toward understanding my performance at a deeper level. I began taking data, psychology, risk management, and self-reflection more seriously while studying ideas beyond the charts through books on trading, money, ego, behavior, and life. My goal became less about chasing individual wins and more about building a process I can understand, measure, and continuously improve.
I started by trying to understand the market.
I eventually realized I also needed to understand the person trading it.
Trading is my laboratory.
Every trade creates information I can use to understand and improve my process.
01 — JOURNAL FOUNDATION
Building a journal that captures the process, not just the outcome.
A trading journal should capture more than profit and loss. I want mine to document the entire decision-making process—from how I prepared that morning to the strategy I identified, why I entered, how I managed risk, what I felt during the trade, and why I exited. The goal is to collect enough information to separate problems with my strategy from problems with my execution, preparation, risk management, or psychology.
Morning Routine
- Sleep·
- Energy·
- Mindset·
- Preparation·
- Habits
Pre-Trade Checklist
- Economic calendar·
- Market news·
- HTF bias·
- Important levels·
- Session context·
- Mental readiness
Strategy & Setup
- Model·
- Required conditions·
- Liquidity context·
- Market environment
Entry Criteria
- Defined checklist·
- Confirmation·
- No impulsive anticipation
Risk & Exit Criteria
- Risk·
- Stop·
- Target·
- Position size·
- Invalidation·
- Exit rules
Timestamped Psychology
- Confidence·
- Fear·
- FOMO·
- Impatience·
- Greed·
- Frustration·
- Urge to interfere·
- Urge to re-enter·
- Hesitation
Post-Trade Review
- Screenshots·
- Result·
- Rule compliance·
- Mistakes·
- Lessons·
- Would I take it again?
Was the strategy wrong—or did I execute the strategy wrong?
02 — STRATEGY & MODELS
Using higher-timeframe context, liquidity, structure, and imbalance to create a defined trading model.
My strategy is built around identifying higher-timeframe direction and a draw on liquidity, then waiting for price to interact with a meaningful liquidity area or point of interest. Rather than entering based on bias alone, I look for confirmation through a liquidity sweep, market structure shift, strong displacement, and an FVG or IFVG opportunity. Before entering, I define where the trade is invalidated and manage the position toward liquidity-based targets.
HTF BIAS + DRAW ON LIQUIDITY
Determine higher-timeframe direction and draw on liquidity.
LIQUIDITY SWEEP / POI
Relevant liquidity may include previous-session high/low, Asia high/low, London high/low, HTF POIs, and HTF FVGs.
MSS
Wait for market structure shift.
DISPLACEMENT
Look for meaningful expansion.
FVG / IFVG ENTRY
Use Fair Value Gap or Inverse Fair Value Gap as part of the entry framework.
DEFINED INVALIDATION
Know where the thesis is wrong before entering.
LIQUIDITY TARGET
Internal liquidity as a potential partial; external liquidity or HTF target as the larger target.
Exit — Internal Liquidity
Potential partial.
Exit — External / HTF Target
Larger target.
This is presented as Bill’s current model being defined, tested, measured, and refined—not as a guaranteed profitable system.
If I can't define what I'm looking for, I can't consistently execute it—and I can't meaningfully test it.
03 — BACKTESTING & DATA
Testing one strategy at a time across defined periods to understand what the data actually says.
I use TradeZella to backtest one strategy across three-month periods, giving myself a defined window to collect data without constantly changing models. Each testing cycle helps me evaluate the rules, identify patterns, question assumptions, and determine what should be refined before testing again.
Choose One Strategy
Avoid strategy hopping.
Define Rules
- Entry
- Exit
- Risk
- Invalidation
- Confirmation
- Target
Test Three Months
Quarter-sized historical period.
Track Variables
- HTF Bias
- Liquidity Sweep
- MSS
- Displacement
- FVG / IFVG
- Session
- Risk
- Exit
- Market context
Analyze
Potential variables to evaluate:
- Win rate
- Risk/reward
- Average winner
- Average loser
- Drawdown
- Frequency
- Profit factor
- Rule compliance
Identify Patterns
Find environments and behavioral conditions that repeatedly matter.
Refine
Question assumptions.
Retest
Run another defined sample.
04 — PSYCHOLOGY & PERFORMANCE
Understanding how the person behind the trade affects execution.
My biggest shift in trading came from realizing that knowing a strategy doesn’t guarantee that I will execute it correctly. Personality, emotions, stress, confidence, sleep, and experiences outside the market can all influence the decisions I make inside it. By tracking these factors alongside my trades, I want to better understand the behaviors that improve or interfere with my execution.
Know My Personality
Perfectionism and persistence were useful in sports. In markets, they sometimes became:
Establish Baseline
- Energy
- Confidence
- Stress
- Focus
- Sleep
- Expectations
- Outside-life factors
Timestamp Psychology
Record emotions while trading rather than relying only on memory.
Connect Emotion → Behavior
- FOMO → Early Entry
- Fear → Hesitation
- Greed → Holding Too Long
- Frustration → Forced Trade
- Perfectionism → Difficulty Accepting Loss
Separate Loss From Failure
A correctly executed trade can lose. A poorly executed trade can win. Therefore P&L alone is not a complete measure of trade quality.
Measure Execution
- Rules
- Risk
- Confirmation
- Discipline
- Process
Build Self-Awareness
Identify repeated behavioral patterns.
JOURNAL ENTRIES
The strategy is only one part of the system.
The trader executing it is another.
Knowledge ≠ Execution
I believe trading education should go beyond teaching setups. A trader can understand a strategy and still struggle to execute it. Effective learning should help traders understand the market, build a process, manage risk, recognize their own behavioral patterns, and learn how their personality and environment affect decision-making.
Two traders can learn the same strategy and experience completely different problems executing it.
Trader A
Fear
Trader B
Overconfidence
Trader C
Perfectionism
Trader D
Poor Risk Management
Trader E
Impatience
Trader education should account for the person learning, not simply distribute identical information to everyone.
From using the ecosystem to wanting to help build what comes next.
My connection to SMART started as a trader, not as a job applicant. I began using SMART for the rebates and rewards—using code SMART, earning Smart Points, and putting those points back toward additional prop accounts. As the platform expanded into areas like purchase protection, the Payout Bonus, comparison tools, and trader resources, I began to see SMART as more than a place to find prop firm discounts. I saw an ecosystem being built around improving the trader's overall experience.
I USED IT
My relationship with SMART began as a customer.
I SAW IT EVOLVE
The value became bigger than rebates.
I BELIEVE IN THE DIRECTION
Help traders make better decisions, not simply buy another account. Another account does not automatically make a trader better. Better preparation may involve education, risk, psychology, process, journaling, expectations, and discipline.
I WANT TO HELP BUILD IT
My interest in SMART comes from wanting to contribute to the next layer of that ecosystem.
SMART helped me access opportunities as a trader. What excites me now is the possibility of helping SMART build experiences that help traders become better prepared for those opportunities.
Career & Experience
Different environments. Transferable skills.
My professional experience has taught me how to lead people, build processes, understand customers, communicate ideas, and make decisions in fast-moving environments. While my career has crossed different industries, I see those experiences as complementary—each has developed skills that now influence how I approach trading, education, and problem-solving.
OPERATIONS & LEADERSHIP
- Structure
- Prioritization
- People
- Execution
- Problem-solving
- Accountability
MARKETING & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
- Audience
- Behavior
- Attention
- Communication
- Customer needs
- Feedback
PUBLIC HEALTH & EDUCATION
- Behavior
- Evidence
- Data
- Education
- Systems
- Accessibility
TRADING & SELF-DEVELOPMENT
- Risk
- Uncertainty
- Documentation
- Psychology
- Iteration
I don't see my experiences as separate careers. I see them as different environments that taught me how people, systems, decisions, and outcomes connect.
Beyond the Résumé
Building wealth, health, perspective, and a life filled with experiences.
I’m motivated by the idea that life should be filled with experiences, meaningful relationships, and work that you genuinely care about, regardless of the career you choose. Financial freedom is important to me not simply because of money, but because of the opportunities and choices it can create. As I continue learning, I also want to help others understand investing the right way—starting with long-term investing, compounding, and financial literacy before viewing trading as the path to building wealth.
01 — WEALTH & FINANCIAL LITERACY
Learning how to make money work over time.
My interest in finance extends far beyond trading. My family immigrated from Vietnam without many of the opportunities or resources to learn about investing and building wealth that I have access to today. That perspective motivates me to learn about long-term investing, compounding, financial literacy, and how thoughtful financial decisions can create opportunities across generations.
Investing builds the foundation. Trading is a specialized skill.
When I first entered the market, I was attracted to the possibility of making money quickly. My perspective today is different. For someone beginning their financial journey, I believe understanding saving, investing, compounding, and risk should come before trying to trade actively.
Long term, I want to take what I continue learning and help others approach investing with better expectations and education than I had when I first entered the market.
02 — HEALTH & LIFE
Performance means more than financial performance.
Health is another major part of how I think about success. I care deeply about both mental and physical health, staying active through sports, and maintaining hobbies and relationships that bring genuine enjoyment to my life. I’ve learned through trading that performance doesn’t exist separately from the rest of life—stress, sleep, confidence, physical health, and what is happening outside the market can influence the decisions we make inside it.
For me, success shouldn’t mean sacrificing everything else in pursuit of a number.
The goal isn't simply to build wealth.
It's to build a life worth having the freedom to experience.
03 — WHAT I’M READING
Learning beyond charts and markets.
Reading has become an important part of how I challenge my thinking. I’m especially interested in books about psychology, money, trading, personal growth, behavior, and how people define a meaningful life. Many of the ideas I encounter outside of trading eventually influence how I think inside the market.
Ego Is the Enemy
Ryan Holiday
The Let Them Theory
Mel Robbins
The Art of Spending Money
Morgan Housel
The Psychology of Money
Morgan Housel
Trading in the Zone
Mark Douglas
Best Loser Wins
Tom Hougaard
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
Market Wizards
Jack D. Schwager
I want to build wealth, but I also want to build a life filled with experiences, health, meaningful relationships, and work I care about. The more I learn, the more I want to help others build that foundation for themselves.
09 — Contact
Let’s Connect
Open to conversations, collaboration, and opportunities to build.
I’m always interested in connecting with people who care about trading, education, psychology, financial literacy, and building better systems. Whether the conversation is about markets, learning, operations, or future opportunities, I’m open to where the right conversation can lead.
billhuynh.builds@gmail.combillhuynhbuilds.com