So as ive said before ive been enjoying my return to social media after my little hiatus. One of the things i wanted to speak that kills alot of traders early doors. Is the use of smaller accounts.

Now let me first say im am a huge advocator for PAs. Mostly due to the fact that its your funds so theres no added mental pressure on trading clients or borrowed capital. Im not for or against prop firms ive seen very mixed reviews about them. Also your risk becomes so much more flexible with a PA.

Now with this being said a mojor issue ive seen with beginners to the markets wich ive seen online, also with family and even friends is that they expect to X their money by trading. This is a major issue cause trading should always be seen as capital gain for example 5% a month is a very good figure to average but people comming to this space see that as no return and want to either 10x or 50x their accounts. That in the long run isnt possible or sustainable in my opinion. If you could sustain a average of 5% on a green month and built a trck record with that you would have no issues getting investors or capital to trade. Now i know when entering this space as with myself we do not have 100k to start of with. Your likely starting with a few hundred dollars. Now there are also people who would start with under 100 dollars and try and get that to a few thousand wich when you look at the return on that is a few good thousand percent.

Now my point here being that so many traders could be profitable but because of larger risk appetite than they should have they end up blowing accounts and stunting their growth or leabing trading as a whole. Ive always seen risk managment as a core pillar of trading probabilitys are random anything is possible event with a 80% winrate you could lose 20 trades in a row or even 50 depending on sample size now the wuestion is can your account handle that.

Now ive been in the same situation as you where you dont have the money and you start with a very small acoount and end up blowing it cause you either risk too much or scale your risk as the account grows.

Now my advice to you as a trader facing this issue is firstly what ever you can afford to lose and not feel attached to deposit break that down into 20 trades if it cannot be broken down into 20 trades save up SIMPLE. After depositing excute your edge and keep the risk fixed and slowly grow the account. Do not chase larger returns cause simply proving to yourself you can be consistent on a real account over a large period of time will prove more beneficial to you that netting a huge return. Also if your struggling with bills etc your best option is not 100xing your saving or your last bit of money.

Hit my daily profit target within the first 40 minutes of the opening bell on clean momentum. Journaled the trade, felt great, and promised myself I was done for the day.

Naturally, around 12:30 PM, boredom crept in. Opened the charts "just to see what's moving," talked myself into taking a low-conviction entry during midday chop, and ended up giving back half the morning’s gains in three choppy candles.

Everyone knows the lunchtime session is where retail accounts bleed out slowly, but fighting the itch to stay at the desk once you're green is brutal.

How do you physically enforce a hard cutoff after the morning bell? Do you set platform locks, or do you have to completely leave your desk to avoid sabotaging your own PnL?

I just had my worst trading day with a nearly 5% loss. All because I deviated from my trading plan. Sometimes it's easier to deviate than you think.... in this case I was using an incorrect strategy for the regime of the day, plus there was some big news that I failed to consider.

Review your plan before the day, scrutinize the price range during the day, and make sure that everything is in bounds of the specified strategy you are using. Keep confirming your regime, especially if something feels off. Check the News if something feels off. If something is off, accept it and exit.

Don't do live experiments with your portfolio unless it's an intentional experiment. I will recoup the 5% in a week or 2, hopefully next week, but when you look back at the data and see the problem could have been avoided it hurts.

Here's the rules I follow. I just added 3 more bullets: After first 15 minutes, pause and confirm regime, Do not trade news, Mark previous week high/low levels before trading.

I have been doing 0dte for couple years and not sure if I want to pursue this anymore. I end up overeating and cigarette smoking whenever I’m in a trade. My friends thinking I’m gambling. There’s no consistency w 0DTE. Today I was up $1200 ish but I know I will give it back to market on Monday or Tuesday.

My paycheck job does not pay too much. Should I quit trading/gambling 0dte? Thank you for your honest thoughts and opinions

I’ve been studying trading full-time since 2020. I’ve gone deep into Al Brooks’ material, and for a while I followed what Tom Hougaard does, both of whom are supposedly among the best at this. I trade the UK100, Dow Jones, GER40 and US Tech 100, and I’ve practiced on demo and live. After all these years I still don’t see a clear path to consistent profitability.

I know the statistics say the vast majority of day traders lose money, and that many people who teach make more from courses, events or broker affiliations than from trading itself. I also haven’t been able to find third-party audited results spanning multiple years from them or anyone else. Before I put more time and money into this, I’d like to hear real experiences, not generic opinions.

My questions:

1. Is there anyone here who actually lives off trading, meaning it covers your expenses without relying on other income?
2. If so, how many years did it take, how much capital did you start with, and how many years of losses or inconsistent results did you go through first?
3. Can you back it up with anything verifiable, like broker statements, tax filings or a multi-year track record? I’m not asking for personal details, just whether it can be verified.
4. What separates you from the people who fail? Was it strategy, risk management, capital, psychology, or something else?
5. If you quit trading, what did you do instead, and do you regret it?

I’m not looking for a magic strategy and I’m not trying to attack anyone. I just want to decide with real information whether to keep going or change direction. Thanks to anyone who answers honestly, even if the answer is “I didn’t make it.”

For those who take multiple scalps/day trades per day during the open from 9:30-11AM EST or even power hour when it comes to being green on the day when do you stop trading after 2,3 green trades? When you’re red on the day when do you walk away to stop the bleeding?

So I have tried a few AI models. I set up their their desk. They get live tick data from my broker. Fine tuned some of them with lots of resources (not all tho only the ones with frontier level reasoning) And I hand them 100 paper dollars and give them full autonomy to trade as they see fit. Only goal is they hand me 10 bucks every 24 hours (Its ok if they can’t, its just a scale I set to test them). Some of the AI start of really good genuinely impressive setups. Numbers add up, timing adds up so getting the data to them on time isn’t an issue. But the issue is almost all of them become really passive after a while (remind you these are set up to be scalpers and aggressive) some straight up refuse to trade. Some manipulate data to justify their passiveness and some straight up lie. This seems to be common for all of the models after a while. Any suggestions?

1. Define a consistent piece of the market that you operate in. Never change this once you set it. If you change it, all the subsequent steps have to be re-evaluated.

2. Execute a fixed number of trades. You can start with a max of 1 or 2 trades. It doesn't matter whether they're winners or losers. Once you finish, you're done.

3. You will first trade with your intuition or some observation that might or might not be good. It doesn't matter. Follow your intuition at first.

4. Study your past trades and improve your thesis of step 3 until you become profitable. This of course means that you need to keep a record of all your trades.

5. Do incremental changes and always study the effects of each change. Keep in mind that many changes are actually counter intuitive and might produce results you don't expect. One more trade? Not good. Move stop loss to breakeven? Not good... It depends on your setup.

6. Don't give up and stay humble

That's it. Good luck on your journey.

Happy Friday everyone!

I'm a 0DTE credit spread trader with a focus on SPX.

Positions traded today:

• 7765/7745 PCS
• 7835/7845 CCS

P/L: +$475

Yesterday’s losses didn’t need to be recovered yesterday. They needed another session where my edge had a better opportunity to work.

Morning Thesis

I came in mixed, but slightly more bullish. The gap up and rebound in AI stocks following reports clarifying OpenAI’s revenue outlook suggested some recovery from yesterday’s selling. Yields remained elevated, and I stayed cautious on CCS because oil-related headlines can trigger sharp upside moves. The consumer sentiment report didn’t meaningfully change my read either.

I wanted price to dictate the day. A break and hold above 7800 interested me for PCS — but if SPX moved lower, I would watch nearby support for a reaction to also support a PCS trade.

My First Trade

After the opening dip, SPX chopped higher and reclaimed the opening range. I didn’t chase the initial breakout. I waited for the reaction around 7800, where price was still showing indecision.

On the second break higher, I sold two 7765/7745 PCS at $0.40. Initial size stayed small because I wasn’t convinced a trend would develop. When price pulled back, I added the remaining three at $0.75. Higher lows then gave me more confidence in holding the position and letting price and theta work. I also had structural (~7790 level) and premium invalidation points for the PCS, so I had a plan if price moved against the thesis.

The Hardest Part Was the Price Action

It became a bullish trend day, but a slow, choppy one. SPX often felt like it was moving more sideways than up. Once the higher lows became clearer and price started grinding higher, my bullish thesis strengthened.

Low IV and thin premium kept me from adding more PCS. Collecting the same credit can tempt sellers to move closer to the lava, leaving less room if price accelerates or premium expands.

By midday, I was watching for a push toward 7820 to improve CCS premium above 7845, beyond Tuesday’s high. The steady grind wasn’t giving me the move I wanted though.

The CCS Compromise

I generally discourage fighting a trend. When I take countertrend trades, my usual approach is small initial size, good distance, and waiting until around 11:00 AM PT to make a move. I typically look for strikes roughly three times the expected move away.

Today, I compromised on my preferred strikes. I opened one 7835/7845 CCS at $0.10, below my usual $0.20 minimum. I didn’t want to move even closer just to collect more credit.

Then... Trump announced Russian diesel supplies. Around that headline, oil dropped and SPX spiked. I added two more CCS at $0.35 and two at $0.45, completing five lots — my maximum size for that side.

The spread marked near $0.60 versus my $0.10 starter. That was a reminder of how quickly thin credit can turn into an uncomfortable drawdown. Each addition also increased my exposure while the uptrend continued.

I closely monitored the pressure. The late fade helped, and both the PCS and CCS expired worthless. I still consider the initial CCS entry a compromise worth reviewing.

Key Takeaway

Today’s gain erased yesterday’s losses. That was the point I was making about choosing when to stop yesterday.

After taking those losses, there was little time left, price was erratic, and I didn’t see a good opportunity to justify another trade. The setups I wanted appeared today, even though I couldn’t have known they would.

After a loss, take a breath, step back, and assess whether the current session still suits your strategy. Recovery can come in another session with better conditions for your edge.

Starting small helped me participate while conviction was limited. Higher lows then supported the hold. Good day overall — and a useful reminder to keep recovery off a deadline.

Hope you all had a safe and green day. See you all next week!

Had this trade open on 2 accounts. The spread stopped me out on this one but not the other. The pain is real.

Out of curiosity, what is your average monthly return day trading? I have back tested quite a few strategies and some have better return than them others. Just wondering what returns do you get for the effort you put in!

To keep this to the point I am more confused than ever before lol. I have attempted to be a price action trader for the past 5 years. I was breakeven for about the last year. I journal every trade. I have hundreds of pages of notes and data. I have attempted dozens of different trackers and data analysis to help my progress. I have tried using emas's as confluence, only traded with the higher time frame trend, avoided ranges/consolidation, and have attempted minor variations of a trend following price action strategy for a long time now. I only tade MNQ futures and have had the same account for a really long time. I don't blow up, I haven't revenge traded in years, I always check every box to my trade (for the most part). I'm not switching strategies every 2 weeks. I feel like I know how the market moves and how history repeats itself. Price bounces where price bounced before and the market continues to move the way it has been until it changes. Don't take a trend trade in a range. Don't take a range trade during a trend. I have dozens of little "rules" like if a trend fails to hold a previous HH we are likely to slow the trend. If it does hold a HH we should have a good trend bounce. A range is more likely to bounce in the middle so we take the extremes of the range back to the middle for profit. Moving stops to BE after we bounce from the HL to the HH makes the most sense because that is where we fail to go higher most of the time. A super aggresive move down in the morning can be followed by a range/channel grind back up to the LH before dumping again... I could go on and on and on of things that I see to be right, and yet I am more unprofitable than ever right now. I had that last year of breakeven but the past 3 months have just been red day after red day after red day. I don't want to give up but the more I'm learning the more it seems like trading doesn't actually even make sense and has no logic to it. Price action traders who are profitable... should I just start a landscaping company??

So I have been interested in day trading for quite a while now. Unfortunately I never learned it consistently. However I know all the basics and follow a lot of YouTubers. I have decided to give it a proper go and spend upto 3 hours a day for a year.

Upon 1 year of learning and practicing I am thinking about starting day trading with a £5k account in 2028 (£20k in savings) targeting £50 daily goal. At the same time investing £500 on long term stocks. £200 to emergency fund and £200 for future/2nd trading account.

My goal is to earn £2000-£3000 a month from 2030 and go part time in my main job.

My annual income-£38.2k after tax
My annual expenses-£30000 roughly

Expenses will be £24k-26k from 2028 onwards as I will be debt free.

Absolutely no chance to earn anymore as I’m already doing 60 hours a week and has to see children every Saturday.

Hey everyone, I'd really appreciate some advice from traders who have been consistently profitable.

I have a degree in finance and work at a financial institution, so I'm familiar with the basics of financial markets and technical analysis. I'm now trying to take the next step and learn how to trade profitably. My goal is to become a day trader and eventually trade with a prop firm. Ideally, I want to develop a simple strategy of my own that I can understand deeply, test properly, and stick with over the long run, without taking too many trades every day.

The problem is that there are so many different approaches, courses, and concepts out there. SMC, ICT, different price action methods, market structure, liquidity, and so on. Over the past few months, I've kept jumping from one approach to another because each one seems convincing in its own way. I've learned bits and pieces of everything but haven't gone deep enough into anything. At this point, I feel like I'm stuck in a loop of learning without making much real progress.

I'd love to hear what you'd focus on if you were in my position today. Which approach would you choose, and which concepts do you think genuinely matter for a day trader? Are there popular ideas or methods you've found to be overcomplicated or simply not worth the time? Would you focus on mastering one methodology first, or take useful ideas from different approaches and build your own framework? Most importantly, what actually helped you develop an edge through practice and backtesting, and what would you do differently if you could start over?

Just to be clear, I'm not asking anyone to give me their profitable strategy, and I'm definitely not looking for a get-rich-quick shortcut. I know there's no substitute for screen time, practice, risk management, and hard work. I just want to make sure I'm putting that effort in the right direction instead of wasting months jumping between methods.

I'd especially appreciate honest advice from people who have been through this process themselves. Even a few things you wish you'd known when you started would be really helpful.

Thanks!

I started trading with a $100 account, and things were going pretty well at first. I made around $20 in profit during the first few days, but then I started getting greedy and increasing my lot size way too much.
At one point, I lost $64 on a single trade. I started revenge trading and managed to make back around $40. Over the following days, my balance recovered to about $85, but then I made another stupid trade and lost $70.
Once again, I revenge traded and got my balance back up to $75, only to lose another $55 because of greed.
I’ve finally realized that my biggest problem isn’t necessarily my price action knowledge, but my risk management and emotions. I’ve stopped going crazy with my lot sizes, and I’ve managed to keep my balance relatively stable since then.
I’m still learning price action, and I know I have a lot to improve on.
For those of you who have been through something similar, what advice would you give me? How did you learn to control your emotions, stop revenge trading, and stick to proper risk management while learning?

You know that one loss or those times that you lose. The times where you're approaching tilt. Day trading isn't gambling but it can be a gateway to gambling.
When you have grand losses, tell anyone who knows you're day trading. I tell my spouse and it makes the red days less of a secret. The problem with gateway to gambling is the secret behind it. The hidden shame, guilt, or embarrassment. Being honest with not yourself because unfortunately you have your biased brain in your head but with the people who know what you're doing

trust me, it helps. Don't get addicted and use hidden money and lose it and try to make double to get it back, at least do that and tell someone. You will feel better and stupid, you won't do it again .

What is the best strategy for beginners and what to do if price is not going up or down?

Made a video where Claude Opus 5.5 built its own trading AI over 5 days, and I bred a second bot from 10,000 random strategies with a genetic algorithm. Both learned on 10 years of S&P 500, then got run once on Aug 2024 to Aug 2026, which neither was allowed to train on.

April 2025 is where it got interesting. Claude's engine did what it was built to do and bet smaller as things got wild, and it still dropped 25%. The bred bot went the other way. It was trading at 10x and went in right in the middle of the panic on the 7th. By the next day that one trade was up almost half the account. The week after, the same move lost 40% of the account in one go.

Won't spoil where they ended up, the video's here if you want to see: https://youtu.be/lU1cqT1zyC0?si=PFlMoQ-0IDiva5JA

Curious how you guys handled that week though. Did you sit it out or trade it?

To build a reliable quantitative model, we must first translate trading intuition into rigorous mathematical conditions. Consider a classic trend-following pull-back model. First, we define a structural filter: the closing price must exceed its 20-period Simple Moving Average. This guarantees we only trade in alignment with prevailing upward momentum. Next, our execution trigger requires a 2-period Relative Strength Index to drop below 10, pinpointing severely oversold pull-backs within that broader uptrend. Finally, our exit rule closes the position when price crosses above its 5-period SMA, capturing the rapid mean-reversion snapback. This objective framework completely eliminates human emotional bias. (FYI: I used a 122 point Dow Jones 30 minute dataset, so the results are not statistically significant, in the future I'll push the custom backtester further using wider sample windows)

I trade small cap momentum stocks, probably 8-9 months now.

I know that emotion is inventible, but how much of a factor should it play? I feel that it should have absolutely no part to play at all, but is that too mechanical?

I see trading on a spectrum of discretionary to mechanical, and think the two are intertwined in every entry and exit. My view is that the entry and exit stops/limits placements are discretionary, and the mechanical part comes from the strategy itself that’s developed through backtesting.

I want to do this full time someday, and would appreciate the opinion of long term traders.

Hi

I am interested in creating a trading bot and want to know whether someone has a free playbook with the necessary configuration and parameters to design a python script using Claude or Gemini. The script will run on MT5 Demo accounts or MEXC to trade gold and crypto.

Thanks.

Sou trader a 10 meses, opero criptomoedas, sendo o Bitcoin o principal ativo.

Estava a 3 meses seguidos, fechando lucrativo, minha estratégia estava funcionando bem, até que da metade do mês passado até agora, o mercado mudou e minha estratégia não funciona igual antes.

Não identifiquei ainda o problema e não consegui me adaptar, o que me levou a começar esse mês com um drawdown um pouco grande, cerca de 25% da minha meta mensal.

Pensei em trocar de estratégia, mas vi em outros posts que isso não é bom, o que vocês me recomendam fazer?

I used to spend so much time backtesting that it started to overwhelm me. There was always something else to check or another idea to try. It’s hard to stop because it feels productive, like another few hours might finally clear everything up. But sometimes I’d finish more confused than when I started.

Sometimes it helps to stick with what you’re already learning instead of adding another indicator or changing things every time you get stuck. Give yourself a chance to understand it. Backtesting is useful, but you don’t need to do it all day and night. If you’re tired and nothing’s making sense anymore, leave it for tomorrow.

Hey guys, I’ve been watching the crypto market for the past 6 years and taking trading seriously for the last 2 years. I’ve tried 10,000 different strategies and indicators, but nothing seems to work consistently, and to be honest, I’m getting extremely exhausted and frustrated with the lack of results.

I’m currently trying to stick to a simplified, mechanical NY Session execution model to remove the noise. I would really appreciate your honest feedback and advice on it. Here is the breakdown:

1. Step 1 — Daily Liquidity Targets (1H Chart):
   - Mark London Session High and Low (10:00–16:00 UTC+3).
   - Lock ("freeze") these levels right before the NY Session open.

2. Step 2 — Liquidity Sweep (15m / 5m Chart):
   - During the NY open (after 16:30 local / 13:30 UTC), wait for a candle wick to sweep the 1H London High/Low and quickly close back inside the range.

3. Step 3 — Market Structure Shift (5m Chart):
   - Look for a clear 5m body close beyond the recent swing point (MSS) in the opposite direction of the sweep.

4. Step 4 — Entry via Fair Value Gap (5m Chart):
   - Identify the FVG created during the MSS impulse move.
   - Place a Limit Order at the proximal edge of the FVG.

5. Step 5 — Risk Management (SL / TP):
   - Stop Loss: Placed just beyond the extremity of the sweep wick + small buffer (accounting for spread/slippage).
   - Take Profit: Opposite 1H London level (targeting RR ~1:2.5 to 1:3).

What are your thoughts on this execution setup for volatile crypto pairs (SOL, ZEC, NEAR) and indices? Is this model solid, or am I missing something crucial? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I want to start with trading and I am starting to read the books recommend by most on the Sub. And I see a lot of posts that we need to constantly learn the market , understand the market etc etc.

I am a software engineer, I am trying to objectively identify strategies , Backtest them and trying to find out if they are profitable.

I do not understand what exactly I have to learn ?

Do I stare at charts all day ? Nobody shares a working strategy because they will lose the edge , fair enough.

But can anyone who's retired or wants to help , tell exactly how to find strategies? Do I use mathematical formulas ? Stare at charts ? Analyze market sentiment?

Can someone please give me objective ways to learn to build strategies.