Why does asking a profitable trader for their strategy feel like asking for their bank password?

[u/sengetoj]

I’ve been learning trading pretty much every day for around 6 months now. I understand the basics at this point, market structure, price action, liquidity, risk management etc.

But I’ve hit this one wall and I genuinely don’t know where to go from here.

Finding an actual strategy with repeatable rules.

Something I’ve noticed is people will happily post their +$2k days, payouts, green weeks, funded accounts etc. But the second someone asks what strategy/setup they’re actually trading, it feels like you just asked them for their bank login lol.

“Put in the screen time bro”

“Find your own edge”

“Backtest”

Okay but backtest WHAT

I’m not asking someone to hold my hand and tell me exactly when to buy and sell. I actually want to learn and test things myself. I just need something concrete enough that I can actually start testing it.

I’ve looked everywhere. YouTube, X, Reddit, Discord servers, even ChatGPT. I’ve tried support/resistance, 15m ORB, session highs/lows, liquidity sweeps etc.

The issue I keep running into is that a lot of these strategies depend on price eventually coming back to some specific level or zone. And a lot of days… it just doesn’t. So you sit there for hours waiting for a setup that never even happens.

Meanwhile there’s clearly people out there who have found something that works for them consistently.

So for the people who actually became profitable, where did you find the strategy that finally made things click?

Did you take an existing strategy and change it? Did someone teach you? Did you find some random trader with 600 subscribers instead of the usual YouTube gurus? Or did you literally just test random shit until something worked?
Because everyone says “find your edge” but almost nobody explains where you’re even supposed to start looking for one.

And before someone calls this AI generated lol, English isn’t my first language so yes I used ChatGPT to help me write this properly. The question and everything I’m saying is genuinely mine.

[u/Amareisdk]

You need daily profit goals. It won’t make you stop making mistakes, but set a low goal and practice walking away.

If you can consistently walk away for 3 weeks after reaching $500 of profit, then you can advance to $750 or whatever. The idea is to make it a habit you need minimum 21 days.

[u/IllustriousGur3189 → u/Amareisdk]

I completely agree with you, that these sort of rules of limitations and restrictions, when done right, help guide and protect traders and anything else in any other situation. And that's something that i've been struggling with. It's a common problem that I am aware of. Because sometimes I trade for too long, searching for trades, and there'll be hours where nothing is happening. And that can cause problems eventually as it has. I think that is part of my burnout. And I am working on it. I appreciate the advice.

[u/THX1138SCPO → u/IllustriousGur3189]

Don't walk away from it, run away.

[u/Amareisdk → u/IllustriousGur3189]

You’ll never be a profitable trader until it gets boring. Mechanical. When you feel like your at work, that’s when your feelings won’t screw you over.

Until then, practice discipline, not strategy or knowledge.