what the IB 50 playbook is
the IB 50 playbook is a free guide edgeful built with Zinc (@MrZincx) — a futures trader known for trading the initial balance every single day. it lays out his exact process for trading the IB: where he enters, where he exits, the edgeful data he checks every morning, and the filters he uses to skip the bad days.
it's a 27-page PDF, and it's free — no purchase, no account, and no upgrade required.
how to get it
the playbook has its own page. go here and enter your email to get it:
the email field sits right under the headline at the top of that page. that form is the way in — there's no separate download button on the page itself.
you'll also find it, along with every other free edgeful resource, on the free resources page — the get playbook button there takes you to the same page.
saving your own copy
the playbook is a PDF, so once it's open in your browser:
click the download icon (the down arrow) at the top-right of the PDF viewer — the viewer itself is just the preview
no download arrow? press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on Mac) with the PDF open and choose Save as PDF
on mobile, tap the screen once to bring up the toolbar, then use the download / open-in option
there's also a one-page summary at the end you can print and keep next to your screen.
signed up but it never arrived?
first, check your spam and promotions folders — that's where it usually is.
if you've already put your email in and it still hasn't shown up, you don't need to request it again. reach out through the in-app chat with the email address you used and we'll get you a copy.
what's inside
the guide walks through Zinc's full process, start to finish:
the IB 50 strategy — enter at the 50% midpoint of the initial balance, take profit at the breakout level, stop at the opposite level. 1:1 risk-reward by definition
the 4 edgeful numbers he checks every morning — breakout %, breakdown %, by rejection (the direction filter), and by weekday
the SPY + QQQ alignment rule — when the two disagree on direction, he skips the day entirely
the 10:23 front-run rule and the weekday data filter — when to enter early, and which days to trade vs sit out
position sizing and contract selection — MES vs MNQ, sized around max drawdown
a full trade walkthrough — one real trade from pre-market read to exit, plus how he runs the same setup again in the Globex session
trading it with edgeful
the playbook is built on top of edgeful data, so two tools make it much easier to run:
the initial balance breakout report — this is where Zinc pulls the breakout %, by rejection, and by weekday numbers before the open. set it to your ticker, the NY session, and your lookback
the edgeful IB TradingView indicator — it plots the IB high, IB low, and the 50% midpoint automatically as the first hour forms, so you don't have to draw the levels by hand. find it under invite-only in TradingView as edgeful - IB - initial balance
to match the playbook, set the indicator's timezone to America/New_York, IB time to 09:30 - 10:30, and session range to 09:30 - 16:00 — that's the NY session Zinc trades.
a note on the data and your results
the playbook leans on real edgeful numbers — the single-break rate on the IB is the foundation the whole strategy is built around. pull those numbers yourself in the initial balance breakout report before you trade: they describe a specific ticker, session, and lookback window, and they'll look different on a different ticker, a different session, or six months from now.
and it's worth being clear about what the playbook is: a framework, not a signal service. none of this is automated — you still have to check the report every morning, read the alignment, make the call on the front-run, and size the trade for your account. getting it to work takes screen time, customization, and reps. paper trade it before you size up.
who is Zinc
Zinc (@MrZincx) is a futures trader known for IB trading in the futures community. the strategy in the playbook is the one he runs every day across the NY and Globex sessions. you can follow him on X at @MrZincx for daily IB setups and trade recaps.