i had my best month ever in february.
i've been worse ever since.
not because the market changed. because my brain did.
one good month and your position sizing makes sense, your rules feel optional, your edge feels obvious.
then march arrives.
has anyone actually come back from a run like that without blowing something first?
had a solid month trading ES and figured I’d share what actually helped
nothing crazy or life changing, just way more consistent than before which is what I’ve been trying to fix
I mostly trade ES during NY, usually mean reversion around VWAP + levels like prev close / NY open. not doing anything fancy, usually 1–2 entries max and aiming for around 2R or a move back into value
biggest differences this month:
• traded less. basically limited myself to 1 idea a day unless it was super clean. this alone helped a lot
• stopped cutting winners early. this was probably my biggest issue before. just letting trades play out made a noticeable difference
• way more selective with conditions. if ES felt random or wasn’t respecting levels I just didn’t trade
missed trades > forcing trades
still a bunch to fix though:
• I’m not great at holding on trend days, definitely leaving a lot there
• a couple red days came from forcing entries when the setup wasn’t really there
• entries could be cleaner, especially after sweeps
overall though it finally feels like things are starting to click a bit more consistency-wise
curious what others focus on for holding winners longer without giving too much back, that’s probably my biggest issue right now
Most people like clean breakouts because they feel safe. The range is obvious, the level is obvious, the break looks clean, and it feels like the market is finally confirming what everyone was already thinking.
That’s usually where I get more careful, not less.
A lot of the time, the cleaner the breakout looks, the more crowded it already is. Late buyers pile in, stops start building in the obvious place underneath, and now the market has something very easy to work with before the real continuation happens.
So the breakout itself is often not the opportunity. Quite often it’s just the setup for the cleanup.
That’s the part I think a lot of people miss. They see the break, they see momentum, and they assume the move should just keep going from there. Sometimes it does. But veyr often price first needs to punish the people who entered in the most obvious place, because that’s where the soft inventory is.
That’s why some of the bes continuations don’t happen straight after the breakout. They happen after the breakout gets hit first, the weak longs get cleaned, and only then the move is free to continue with less friction.
So when a breakout looks too clean, I don’t automatically see confirmation. Sometimes I see a crowd. And when I see a crowd, I start asking where they’re likely to get punished before the move actually continues.
Not always, obviously. But often enough that it completely changed how I look at “good looking” entries.
Hey newbie here. Basically from a lot of responses I see here and on other places in the internet, it seems that the most successful traders are the ones that find a specific setup on a specific stock/future/crypto etc. that they have been studying for a long time until they find a specific pattern that has a high hit rate so the can keep doing that right? But edge always disappears as a specific setup is used and exploited again and again right? So then the best traders find another setup on something else with a high hit rate? Please excuse any misuses of terminology as I’m still new but basically this means that the best traders are supposed to gatekeep their latest strategies and setups so the stuff actually available in videos and easily accessible for people to “learn” are slightly to very outdated right? So an actually profitable trader should just learn the fundamental aspects of trading but be using backtesting or paper trading to discover a specific pattern on a specific stock or whatever it is they want to trade to be able to find something that has a high hit rate which they can repeat until the edge disappears then do the process again for another financial asset ? Or just find a different pattern in the same asset they’ve been trading?
Thank you
I’m curious what newer traders (under 1–2 years) are using that they’ve actually found consistency with.
What your setup is (price action, liquidity, indicators, etc.) , Timeframe you trade & What made it “click” for you
Would be good to hear real experiences rather than just general advice, so much fluff online that it’s hard to figure out what’s irrelevant and what’s not,
I’ve been trading 6 months mainly just learning the foundations and brief videos on strategies, but any advice on what you guys are using that works for yous would be amazing.
The title already says it all, what kind of prop firm would you recommend due to positive experience.
I myself used the account of myfunded futures until I couldn’t mentally handle the bad charts given by Tradovate.
In prior research I did see that it’s possible to connect your tradovate with your TradingView account to be able to use their charts and tools.
But unfortunately this is only possible if the funded is already passed (when using myfunded futures).
I am really used to the TradingView charts and just think they are way better and more concise.
Therefore I would like to get some advice on how to use TradingView even in the evaluation process.
I would appreciate any kind of help or assistance!
Been trading since January 2025. I have been very profitable recently, but all hell broke loose last week.
Yesterday I asked Gemini AI about my trading flaws and what I could do to fix it.
Told me to stop revenge trading and set a hard stop loss. Makes sense. With the development of AI, I highly suggest you guys try it once.
Because damn, even for me that is an introvert, it's too much.
I paid my tuition to the market by failing fast and readjusting, now that's settled, I am now currently scaling.
The path is clear and I know that my winning days are inevitable but I have nothing to show for it now so I cannot tell everyone about it yet.
I am more isolated to my parents & friends. I can't even afford relationships because I can't handle distractions now.
I am losing a lot of sleep at night because I am constantly overthinking that what if something happens to my family before I get to the part where my trades can finally afford insurance for all of them.
My family thinks I am a dreamer and that I should be realistic because I do tell constantly that I'll be the first to bring generational wealth but I don't talk about trading, just the vague stuff.
I just hope I scale just slightly fast enough so I can give my family the life they deserve.
I made a post here about gurus and learning strategies from people. And I still see people ask for strategies. The truth really is that there's no magic strategy that will print money and most people lie about this. I recently learned that most of the time, an instrument will be in consolidation. If you are using a moving average, you'll see multiple crosses without direction. Bollinger bands will constrict until momentum caused by volatility makes them expand. But momentum is hard to measure. There are instances where it starts, then fades away. And we all know that volatility is present where greed and fear are present. These are extreme conditions. You either get the most from the markets or or lose the most. I've used multiple indicators trying to measure momentum. To catch it in time. I'm still struggling with this today. Each trader has to find their own edge in the market. Hardly anyone can teach you this. The ideas have be understood before you place a trade. If I list the indicators I use here, it's no use, because I won't tell you how I got there. My understanding of how the market moves. (I also think I write here because I have no one to talk to about trading, 😅)
Hi , im 16 and just started learning paper trading and im currently trying on tradingview and trading things like eth and btc, and i put my account values around like a few hundred dollars to make it seem more realistic and i put around 30-40 in each trade but i only end up getting a few cents back maybe a few dollars if i get really lucky even with leverage, i just wanted to know how people make so much % back in just a few trades
Thanks
I turned a $50 loss, into a $20,000 loss revenge trading.
Every single trade I made lost, and I was operating on the logic I will have to win a trade eventually to make up for all the losses and 1 trade will be enough to make it all back.
I feel like such an idiot. but keep in mind I made that $20,000 originally from gambling $30,000 on options. so the money just kind of fell on my lap so I was getting ballsy with it.
With just $30,000, I am breaking the risk 1% a day advice. I'm trying to make $5,000 in a single day and I have done it before, but I have lost it $5,000 too as you can see here. My gut is screaming to stop before I lose it all.
We've all been there. You're green on the trade, the chart looks like its going to the moon, and suddenly your brain starts whispering like Size Up or Move the profit target further out.
In that exact moment when the logic is fading, and the greed/ Fomo is taking over, what actually works to snap you out of it? Is it a physical sticky note on your monitor? A specific "hard rule" in your broker settings? Or did you just have to blow an account once to learn the lesson finally?
I’m trying to build a better "circuit breaker" for my own psychology. Curious what actually stops you guys from self-sabotaging when the adrenaline is high.
so I have recently gained interest in volume profile after studying ICT, SMC, candlesticks patterns etc
Most intriguing part of VP for me now are LVNs as I can see price bouncing from em quite frequently.
I have been back testing it a lot but I'd also love some opinions on it.
So what confluences do you guys know of that make LVNs good or more probable? any idea?
I think paper trading completely removes the aspect of risk management and only taking correct setups and is almost useless for a lot of people.
Instead, I think that trading only with small amounts of money until you can gradually grow it to a target amount is the best option.
What do you think?
I’m getting sick and tired of the amount of misleading info out there about who to learn from after Babypips. I’m almost finished with the course and want to move on to learning real trading strategies, but I don’t want to waste my time following some fake “guru” who isn’t actually profitable.
This is honestly pissing me off because I’m serious about becoming a full-time day trader, but I don’t have a clear path or someone legit to learn from.
If anyone here is a real, consistently profitable full-time day trader and can point me in the right direction for what to study or where to go after Babypips, I’d really appreciate it.
I don’t really post this is like my 2nd or 3rd within years of using pc etc, so if my wording is hard don’t cook me alive!
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Summarized:
started trading February, bought my first eval March, passed it in 2 days, I now have 3/5 profit days, on the 5th day I can withdraw,
My question is why has it been so fast for me while others take 3 years??
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Also I’ve both managed to make 1.4K in 1 day and lose it even since I passed my eval 😭😭I almost sold and went negative $700 but I learnt my lesson day 3 and left after making 900, I also have video clips of my trading because I want to document this, if this comes through I can really change mine and my families lives, instantly expanding to multiple accounts 5x
———————LONG VERSIÓN
So I started learning trading on February 4th, it was obviously confusing at first, but I would study it every day, I was able to have like 90 trades with 70% win rate and February 23rd I was able to come across as 17 year old trader but he does meme coins, he managed to move out and buy 2 corvettes, he said he started 2025 in April and achieved all of that in 1 year, it further motivated me to try harder and like he this might be real I will say I had a bit of doubt.
Time skip and it’s March like 10th I’m feeling confident like super super, everything is going the way I’m predicting and then…I started doubting everything like why is it going so smoothly for me, is this possible why is it taking some people 2 or even 3 years to pass an eval or even get 1 payout. I was going to buy prop but felt like I needed to be more sure and maybe there’s something I’m missing or a wall I haven’t hit yet.
Time skip to March 21 and I get extremely busy, I’m an Uber Eats driver btw! And I’m also not that savvy with vehicles, I fked up and my expenses are becoming too much to the point I was debating even using $ on a prop firm because what if I fail.
For days and days I don’t practice but I still wake up and see the charts to try and predict and see if my daily bias was right, which it was 4/5 of the days, so on March 30th I decided to buy my eval and I only need 2 more profit days to withdraw meaning by Tuesday if I keep hitting profit, ill be able to withdraw
I realized this is a yap so I’ll summarize my question at the top and leave the extra for the nosey ppl hahah 😅
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to get into futures prop trading but I’m stuck choosing between a few firms and would really appreciate some honest feedback from people with real experience.
Due to my location, I’m limited to a few options:
- Traders Launch
- FundedNext (Futures)
- The5ers (Futures)
I’m mainly looking for a prop firm that is reliable, actually pays out, and doesn’t create unnecessary stress with rules or payout issues.
One important factor for me is that they offer crypto payouts, since other withdrawal methods are difficult in my country.
I’ve also considered Trade The Pool, but I’m not sure about it since it’s daily loss limit seems quite tight.
So I wanted to ask:
- Which of these firms do you trust the most long-term?
- Any real payout experiences (good or bad)?
- Any hidden rules or issues I should be aware of?
- If you had to choose one to stick with and scale, which would it be?
I’m not looking to jump between firms — I just want to commit to one solid firm and focus on trading.
Would really appreciate any honest insights 🙏
I have been paper trading futures for a couple of months now and am ready to make the transition from 0DTEs to futures. What is a recommended amount of capital to start with? I have $1000 in the account right now. Is that an adequate amount?
I plan to only trade 1-2 contracts of MNQ to start so $1000 should be fine in my opinion
not in hindsight not looking back at the chart after.
i mean in real time you see the setup isn't clean and you know it doesn't fit your rules and you click buy anyway.
i've been talking to a lot of traders lately and this keeps coming up and the moment isn't confusion it more like watching yourself do something you already know is wrong.
curious how common this actually is and what if anything has ever made you stop in that moment and not after in it.
not selling anything i'm still in research mode.
after long struggle, I figured out how to be profitable and consistently make little amount. and it is not strategy, it is patiently waiting for the right setup, using same size for all trades and using 1:1 RR. however, my problem is I cannot stick to my own rules. I often go tilt and lose everything then I have to start all over again. analyzing few months of trades, I found three main scenarios of how this happens,
on a day when I make few small profitable trades, I become too confident and on the next trade I increase my lot size.
when I'm $100/$200 dollars far from payout or passing evaluation I try to reach target on that day to save one day of waiting. hi that I take a trade without obvious setup or on the right setup I increase my size.
sometimes when price is coming to my stop I feel like market makers is trying to eat my stop loss after which it will go up ultimately. Then, I move my stop loss further down and start to average.
I cannot stay calm and let the probability to take care of everything. I wrote small notes on my monitor to warn me. i read out the rules before starting everydays trading and few other ways. but no matter what at some point I forget everything, it feels like somebody hacks my brain.
how can I overcome this?
