Raghee Horner

Managing Director of Futures Trading

Raghee Horner

“I love trading and I love traders. It’s what I do and it’s the way I look at the world. My goal every single day is to help traders find their path through the markets to success.”

Who is Raghee?

Raghee’s exposure to the markets began in a rather unconventional way. Raghee attributes her unconventional start to a bet she made with her mom. Her mom said she could get a part-time job in high school as long as she invested 25% of what she made. Being a 15 year old, Raghee thought that was ridiculous and challenged her mom that she could prove there was no merit to what her mother had asked of her. To her surprise, her mom’s requirement helped Raghee to understand that you can make money while you sleep…She was hooked and has never changed her course. Given her interest in trading, she began learning the amazing tactile aspect of charting. That’s when she was able to visually see the way price and behavior lined up. It opened her eyes to market discounts, news, and fundamentals.

Fast forward to today, Raghee is grateful she doesn’t have to chart by hand any longer. Raghee has dedicated the last 30 plus years of her professional life to understanding and utilizing the markets to turn her into the successful trader she is now.

Along with trading, Raghee has a passion for communicating the message of the markets and teaching self-directed traders how to find choice, freedom, and an edge in the markets. One of her biggest beliefs is that traders should know how to trade various asset classes. She prefers to look at the markets as a whole and then decide which way would be best to execute the trade. Think indices, sectors, ETFs and stocks; then decide if trading futures, options, or the stock is best suited for your personal trading style. This philosophy has allowed Raghee to become successful at trading futures, options, forex and stocks.

Raghee’s trading style is created by a system-inspired approach and a sequential process to building her trades. She’s most well-known for having used the same foundational tools for most of her now 3 decade long career. These tools can be used in any market, and on any time frame. Her analysis and trade management stem from these foundational tools…GRaB Candles, the 34EMA Wave and Propulsion Dots. Raghee is a trend follower, so she uses these tools to visually identify the sentiment, momentum, and the trend. Her tools are automated so that she can quickly and consistently identify if, when and where she should focus her attention. In addition to these foundational tools, she uses various other indicators – dependent on market conditions. Some of the other tools she uses take into account liquidity and volatility. Her unique way of measuring volatility gives her a strong advantage of knowing what to expect from the market. Raghee is a conservative trader who is not interested in putting on as many trades as possible but rather only putting on high probability trades. Her strategies, together with her indicators, allow any trader to learn how to approach the market more objectively, removing unsupported bias and emotions that can cloud judgment. Raghee utilizes fundamentals, technicals, and price action to deploy an objective, systematized strategy. Trading futures, options, and equities across any time frame is Raghee’s area of expertise. If you’re looking for a foot in the door in any of these areas of trading, she’s the best there is.

Where can I find Raghee at Simpler?

Members get Raghee’s macro and technical analysis insights as well as her actual real-money trade alerts on sector and indices trades. The goal is to help members master options on ETF strategies by showing her trades in real-time, trading in a collaborative environment, and more.

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Want to save hours on your market analysis? Let our team of professional traders share their analysis with you. This detailed report walks you through a myriad of markets, indices, and internals in order to give you a better idea of where the markets are going for the week ahead. Whether you trade Options, Stocks, Futures, Forex, or Crypto, you’ll want this report.

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The Simpler Trading Team is unlike any other. We have 100+ years of combined market experience. While most other services offer ‘hypothetical’ trades and theories, we share our actual trading ideas in real-time.

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Raghee’s Courses:

With the “ETF Master Class,” there’s no need for complicated explanations or big learning curves to understand ETFs.

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If you want to reimagine what’s possible with your trading and develop a simple lifestyle trading plan, look no further for an epiphany than this course.

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Reveal how Raghee Horner banked “obnoxious” profits like $5,000 in foreign currency, $12,000 in futures, and $20,000 in bonds.

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Discover the time-tested strategies John Carter, Raghee Horner, and the Simpler Team use to identify high probability intraday Futures trades.

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Raghee’s Trading Plan

I trade for financial freedom. I realized at a young age that I had a strong desire for independence.

My approach is trend following. The trend could be price – intraday or end of day – but also a macro trend. Trends offer the most “predictable” price action. I add to that the indicators I have created like the 34 EMA Wave and GRaB candles, along with other tools such as volatility studies like the Hourly Price Movement Ranges, and VScore.

My goals for trading are predicated on trend and volatility. You can not take from the market what it is not willing to give. My expectations are higher in trending environments and lower in choppy, range bound markets. Adapting to each environment is the cornerstone of my trading.

Objectives are always, identify the market trend first, if it is not a good trade, do not take it! Simple advice but not heeded enough. Secondly, I want to understand the risk I am taking. I utilize my volatility analysis that is based on historical volatility price movement. Identify historically price movement ranges, likely reward levels, and balancing that with intelligent risk-taking. Taking risk in a trending market is different than taking risk in a choppy market – so the objective of knowing the behavior of the underlying market is key. Without that the application of indicators as well as using a particular strategy is left to dumb luck. Risk-taking and dumb luck is a surefire combination to a short trading career.

Futures, Futures Options, Forex etc… My rules apply to any market. There must be volume, also known as participation – lots of it. I prefer to trade markets that are open as close to 24-hours as possible. Forex and Futures (and Futures Options) are my preference. ETF options trading is actually a very hand-in-glove fit for Futures Index traders since the weighting of ETFs mimics those of the Futures Index contracts like the S&P and NASDAQ, minus the leverage trading futures provides. I have spent a career spanning over three decades focusing on where the trend and participation is and this changes. I am, and I teach traders to be fluent enough, to flow from market to market and be able to trade anything.

The daily and the one-minute chart. I will either focus on the daily time frame – which I believe is the most psychologically relevant time frame – or day trade a one-minute time frame. Now there is some flexibility here. Instead of a one minute chart, I could use a 5 or 15-minute, but the idea is one longer time frame and one short-term intraday time frame and that is it. Finding which time frame is a matter of understanding the historical price movement and the risk involved in that movement. It comes back to the historical volatility analysis process I use and the underlying trend.

The setups I trade are basic. I have developed a process of entering trades into retracements in up or down markets. I also utilize a process to “fade” resistance or support in choppy markets which I coined “distribution fades” for the market trend environment and the way I will enter at the top or bottom of the range. I will also daytrade which, because of time and volume, has some unique setups apart from the daily time frame trading I do. What is most important is that the indicators I use allow a trader to not have to draw subjective lines and endure prolonged learning curves. How? The automation of the indicators I have created and use afford even a new trader to see the levels and setups on their chart; when the criteria for a setup appears, it is process-driven.

Entry rules are simple: In trend, wait for retracements. Some call them bounces, pullbacks, or corrections, but retracements are probably the most accurate because it is a temporary, measured move against the dominant trend. For non-trending, choppy markets it is important to recognize the trend that was, and favor that for the entry even when the trend has been broken, or as I like to say “Respect the trend that was.” We look for the top and bottom of the range in chop. Intraday the focus is the 1-minute chart which is primarily about the first two hours of the day using time as well as ranges created during the first 30 and 60-minutes after the bell. Volume-derived price levels using my VWAP Max Trio offer traders an edge in identifying “submarket trends and levels” that traditional price dependent levels cannot see. The key to entry is having a checklist, a process, with specific criteria needing to be met before entering the trade. The fewer the criteria met the smaller the position.

Stop losses are something I have taken a very different view of since I began trading. I consider a stop loss to be a “Point of Validity” and not a level to exit at a loss based on dollars or a percentage. Sure those should be taken under consideration, but not the primary reason for the exit. Validity means there is a reason I entered the trade, and therefore the reason to exit is based on the entry no longer being valid. Now, if that level exceeds the dollar or percentage maximum allowable for the account, the trade can be taken with smaller size, a different asset class (ie options versus futures), or not at all. Stop losses are also best defined based on historical volatility. There is a natural and repeating range that most markets move within. You can smother your trade by placing your stop-loss “too close”. You can also risk “too much” by entering too aggressively (very far from the entry) and needlessly beyond the symbol’s historical range.

Taking profits, and the mindset behind my approach, is very similar to stop loss placement. It’s based on historical price movement and it is not based on dollars or percentages. If a market has a historical price movement range of 5 points, that knowledge should be factored into the location of the profit target. Another feature to my taking profits, is the process of immediately moving the initial stop loss to a breakeven which allows a trader to “not let a winner turn into a loser.” Another thought behind taking profits is related to risk control. Placing the 1st target “too far” away delays the move from the initial risk-based stop loss to the breakeven, and this causes some traders to see profits vanish because they were looking for “too much”. What is too much? Typically, and most measurably, beyond the typical price movement range. Another way to manage winning trades is to bracket a winner after the first target with a second profit target and a trailing stop. That way, either way, profits can be locked in. Show me your stop, and I will show you your P&L!

Risk management is really about risk-taking. The only “risk” we can manage is the risk we are willing to take. These are 1) If we will enter a trade (discipline) 2) How much we will enter the trade with (position sizing) 3) From what price we will enter (strategy). The rest of the risk is up to the market. This means we can track volatility and volatility ranges, track economic events that are likely to trigger volatility, but that is observable, not controllable. The Risk of Ruin (a.k.a. “blowing up your account”) is 50% of your account. I taught a class called “Market Money Math” that discusses how and what to measure in terms of risk and how this influences position size and affordability of a trade. Bottom line: Know what risk you can control and focus on that first.

Pre-market activities include scanning ForexLive, scanning financial Twitter, scanning the pre-market levels, and major themes for the day.

Post-market activities are not really that different because forex is a 24-hour market and futures is nearly 24-hours, so the routine is the same especially if I am trading Asian session.

My preferred tools are the indicators I have created like the GRaB candles, 34 EMA Wave, VScore, and Autochartist. As well as the tools I created from that, called HPMR (Hourly Price Movement Range).

I prefer using journals like Wingman Tracker and Trademetria.

I keep a few “isms” like “Pay yourself while you can not when you have to”, “Respect the trend that was”, “Don’t be a fomo momo bozo”.

Trading Platforms Used by Raghee:


Raghee’s Must Read Books:

What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars

Revisit the events that led to disastrous decisions and examine the psychological factors behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors.

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Market Mind Games

If you are trying to solve the unsolvable, stop. Read this first and you will learn that the surest path to success will be to start with yourself.

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Thinking in Bets

Poker champion turned business consultant, Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result.

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Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices.

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Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits.

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Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Moneyball is the best business book Lewis has written. It may be the best business book anyone has written.

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Here are some of Raghee’s favorite products:

Sharpie Plastic Point Stick Water Resistant Pen

Know yourself with 24/7 personalized recovery, training, and sleep insights.

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Jamaica Blue Mountain Peaberry Coffee

The Rolls Royce of Coffees and the most prized coffee in the world.

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ONNIT Alpha Brain

Designed to help reduce brain fog and boost focus, Alpha Brain has been a market leader in the nootropics space SINCE 2011

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ONNIT New Mood®

Non-habit forming, safe for daily use. New MOOD is a mood enhancer made with herbal ingredients that won’t cause dependency.

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Mobile Magnetic Whiteboard Dry Erase Board On Wheels

This whiteboard is perfect for the office. The stand is very strong and mobile.

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Hamilton Beach Scoop Single Serve Coffee Maker

Brew your own ground coffee with single-serve scoop filter.

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Media Appearances

How U.S./China Trade Talks Will Affect Energy Markets

May 19, 2019

Raghee joins TD Ameritrade again to discuss impending trade talks between the U.S. and China. How will this affect energy markets specifically?

Does the Yield Curve Inversion Always Signal a Recession?

April 2, 2019

Raghee talks yield curve on the “10 Minute Stock Trader” podcast with Christopher Uhl. The yield curve inversion of 2019 is similar to the one we saw in 2018.

Oil Rebounds…

March 29, 2019

Geo-political events bolster the need for oil as OPEC looks to cut production, and we’re seeing a deteriorating output from Venezuela that has helped refuel a rebound in oil prices.

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