Today, there stands two primary ways of trading supply and demand:

Price Action entry, and Set and Forget entry.

Each entry strategy has pros and cons, and it’s possible to make consistent money using either. Zone identification skills matter more trading “Set & Forget” than entering using price action (Pin Bars, Engulfing Patterns), but both strategies offer numerous high R/R trading opportunities.

Here’s a breakdown of the main differences:

How To Trade S&D Using Limit Orders (Set & Forget)

Sam Seiden’s famous “Set and Forget” entry is most traders go-to method for trading supply and demand zones.

It’s the simplest, most widely-taught technique.

With set and forget, you trade S&D zones using limit orders.

By placing a limit order at the edge of the zone, when price returns, the order will execute and put you into the trade. The upside – you’ll never miss a reversal, which can happen from time to time with Supply & Demand.

The downside – price may just blast through the zone, causing you to lose money, which can happen often depending on how you idenitfy SD zones (SupdemV2 can really help here!)

Here’s a “Set & Forget” sell trade example using a 1-Hour supply zone on Usd/Jpy:




1) Place a limit order to sell at the lower zone edge (proximal line) nearest the current market price. For price to reverse from this supply zone, it must breach the lower edge, either by a candlestick spiking through the zone or by price moving inside the zone.

With the sell order placed, now position a stop loss at the upper supply zone edge (distal line).

Nailed it!

The sell trade took off – price shot up, spiked the lower edge (activating our limit sell order), then quickly reversed and moved lower.

A great trade, in anyone’s book.

All in all… “Set & Forget” provides a hassle-free entry strategy for supply and demand, but can lead to increased losses depending on your abillity to identify high-probability zones.

Price Action Entry: How To Trade Supply/Demand Zones Using Price Action

My preferred way of trading supply and demand, and the method most price action traders use. Price action offers superior confirmation to set and forget, and has you enter S&D trades using two common candlestick patterns:

1) Pin Bars
2) Engulfing Candles

Look for pin bars or engulfing candles to form inside a zone and then enter using a market order. These price-action candles indicate smart money are still interested in making price reverse away from the zone.

So, the price action gives you more confirmation price will reverse.

Here’s a price action entry example using a 1-Hour supply zone on Eur/Usd:




1) With the price action entry, you must wait for price to enter or touch the edge of the supply or demand zone before entering. Price may spike into the zone and produce a pattern outside the zone area before reversing; usually long legged pin bars, but sometimes with engulfing patterns.

Pin bars with noticeable wicks and large engulfing patterns provide evidence smart money want price to reverse.

For example:



A bearish engulfing pattern forms soon after price enters the zone. This is your signal to enter a sell trade.

2) The engulf confirms smart money activity within the supply zone, which raises the chance of a reversal in the near future. Who’s decided to sell at the top of a major rally from the lows (just below the 1.11000 round number, no less!)

Pro Tip: Pin bars can also provide low risk entry signals, but in my experience, engulfs work better. Make sure any pin bar entries feature a long wick with a small body at one end of the candle (bullish or bearish!). The bigger the wick, the more buying or selling required to push price the other way.




3) Place your stop loss a above the upper edge of supply zones and lower edge of demand zones. Adding a few pips to the stop-price can also reduce your risk of getting stopped out by stop runs or unexpected price spikes (super annyoying when this happens!!)

How To Take Profits (Both Entry Methods)

Taking profits comes down to personal preference; no matter the technique, as long as it maintains your stop at a resonable distance, it’s 100% compatible with supply and demand trading.

For me, I always monitor for lower highs and higher lows: These clearly define where smart money buying (demand) and selling (supply) entered the market.

1) Lower high during Downtrend (move buy stops down).
2) Higher low during Uptrend (move sell stops up).

The source of the current price swing also marks the last possible point where buying or selling came in from the smart money. So, it makes sense to trail your stops around them to secure profits.

Eur/Usd 1H Supply Trade Example:

1) Entry on Bearish Engulfing Pattern: Your trade is initiated after price reaches the identified supply zone and forms a bearish engulfing candlestick pattern, signaling a potential reversal. Your stop-loss is placed above the supply zone or the high of the engulfing pattern to protect against unexpected upward moves.