Steve Burns

Steve Burns is the founder of New Trader U, an educational platform dedicated to teaching risk management, trading psychology, and rule-based systems. His philosophy, frequently shared via his Twitter/X account, emphasizes that trading success is a mathematical process of following a plan rather than a series of emotional predictions.

Core Trading Rules
Burns advocates for a set of "Golden Rules" designed to preserve capital and ensure long-term survival in the markets:
Risk Management First: Never lose more than 1% of your total trading capital on any single trade and maintain a total account risk below 5% at any one time.
Trade Price Action: Base decisions on current price movements and confirmed signals, not on personal opinions, market predictions, or emotions.
Maintain Ratios: Only enter trades that offer at least a 1:3 risk-to-reward ratio to ensure that a few big wins can cover multiple small losses.
Avoid the "Big Loss": Ensure every trade results in one of four outcomes: a small win, a big win, a small loss, or break-even—but never a big loss.
No Averaging Down: Never add to a losing trade, as this can lead to account destruction when fighting a strong trend.

Educational Philosophy
His teaching approach at New Trader University focuses on building a "Rich Trader" mindset through structured learning:
"Tuition" of the Market: New traders should view initial losses as necessary "tuition" for their education rather than failures.
System Over Ego: Successful trading requires replacing human emotion with a mathematical system. The goal is to act like a "casino" (the house) by trusting the edge over many repetitions.
Discipline as a Skill: Consistency in following a plan is more critical than the specific strategy used. Without discipline, even the best system will fail due to human error.