The Strat, price action, and how we trade it

What is The Strat?

The Strat is a price action framework popularized by Rob Smith. Instead of relying on a dozen lagging indicators, it focuses on three things:

• How each candle forms (inside, directional, or outside)
• How timeframes line up (timeframe continuity / FTFC)
• Where liquidity sits (highs, lows, and key levels)

The goal is simple: remove noise, trade what's actually happening, and make execution repeatable.

Core Strat candle types

In Strat shorthand, every candle is one of three types:

• 1 — Inside bar: Price is completely inside the prior candle's range. Consolidation, balance, compression.
• 2 — Directional bar: Price takes out one side of the prior candle (either the high or the low). Trend in one direction.
• 3 — Outside bar: Price takes out both the high and low of the prior candle. Expansion, aggression, stops getting run.

Strat setups are combinations of these numbers across timeframes (for example, an inside bar breaking to become a directional bar, or a higher timeframe directional move supported by lower timeframe trends).

Timeframe continuity (FTFC)

Timeframe continuity (FTFC) is the backbone of the approach. Instead of guessing direction, you line up multiple timeframes:

• Year / quarter / month
• Week / day
• Intraday (60 / 30 / 15 / 5 minutes)

When most of those timeframes are all green or all red, you have strong alignment. When they are mixed, you are trading inside chop or against higher timeframe moves. Common Cents surfaces this alignment directly in the dashboard so you can see it at a glance.

Levels, triggers, and targets

Strat traders mark clear levels—highs, lows, inside ranges, and outside bars. A typical trade might follow a simple flow:

1. Define bias using FTFC.
2. Mark actionable levels in that direction.
3. Wait for a clean trigger through a level.
4. Use prior highs/lows and ranges as targets or stop locations.

Common Cents tools are built around this process: levels are surfaced, alerts are tied to those triggers, and the dashboard keeps your timeframes and context in front of you.

How Common Cents uses The Strat

We don't claim to have invented The Strat, and we're not here to rebrand it. Instead, Common Cents focuses on execution:

• Dashboards that show FTFC, levels, and key signals without clutter.
• Alerts that include context (timeframe, direction, level) instead of just a price ping.
• Playbooks & resources that walk through examples, including what not to trade.
• Community review of real trades—what worked, what didn't, and why.

If you already trade The Strat or you're just starting to learn it, the goal is the same: clearer decision-making and fewer random trades.

Where to go next

If you're new, start by pairing this page with our other resources:

• Read through Common Cents resources for playbooks and PDFs.
• See how the tools map to this process on the Features page.
• Join the community to watch trades and ask questions in real time.

Nothing here is financial advice. The framework is a tool—how you size, manage risk, and behave in real time is what determines your results.