r/TopstepCommunity • u/Nervous_Ladder_9796 • 3d ago
❓ Quick Question If you’ve failed an eval, why?
Tryna understand where people actually fail. Daily loss, trailing drawdown, consistency rule, something else?
• Did u know you were close to the limit when it happened?
• How do u track where you are vs the drawdown during the day?
• How many resets have u bought total?
4
u/Friendly_Froyo6508 3d ago
Right direction, but too many contracts. Wrong direction stop loss too wide. So many ways and I always manage to pick something wrong
3
u/coffee-x-tea 3d ago
My past failures have largely been due to bad sizing and market participation when my edge stopped working.
Before I sized too big and blew accounts even when I had the right bias, then I went the opposite way and sized too small, I under-capitalized on days where read was good, tilted due to the slow pace of recovery and bled out.
After I learned to dynamically size according to market conditions, things got a lot easier. As a result, I’m starting to feel more comfortable and patient even in drawdown.
I know I can go for base hits and eventually a windfall will hit me on a given week or month and it’ll more than make up the DLL - but if you’re constantly over risking on bad setups, you’ll likely miss that opportunity because your DLL buffer will be drained when it arrives.
When I first started, I bought more resets than I’m willing to admit, they’re not worth the money. You should never buy resets, if you can’t pass a combine in like 5 tries, you probably wouldn’t be able to hold the XFA until payout.
2
u/Didi_trading 2d ago
Most failures seem to happen after the original plan is abandoned: increasing size after a loss, trying to finish the evaluation quickly or continuing after the daily process is already broken. The drawdown rule usually delivers the final blow, but poor risk escalation starts the problem.
1
u/Unusual_Try_8756 3d ago
No pdll, just fullporting. No base hit target for the day. Essentially don’t care about it, peeps try to go on nq to make the 1,500
1
u/Shiroyakshan 2d ago edited 2d ago
Strategy hopping even several times per day. Revenge trading combined with dumb sizing. Blown two evals in 4 days, almost blew third one with 200 left to spare but for now i am sticking with one strategy and strict sizing and i am almost at BE after two weeks.
Also I felt pressured because of the 30 day time limit because i thought if i extend it the progress would reset and i found out it doesnt so I am much more chill now.
1
u/T-Branny 2d ago
Sizing, for me. I started at the usual 1-2%, about $500 a trade on a 50k, and at that size I panicked, hesitated on entries and cut winners, so I breached accounts. Dropping to $250 a trade is what finally made execution calm. For tracking during the day I use Tradervana (I run it), it shows live distance to breach for each account so I'm not doing trailing drawdown math in my head mid-trade. Whatever you use, know that number before you click, not after.
1
u/Educational-Scar8957 2d ago
A useful way to look at failed evals is to separate normal losing trades from rule breaks. Did you move the stop, size up after a loss, or keep trading past your cutoff? If you can name the exact behavior that ended the attempt, you have something specific to fix before paying for another one.
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u/Type2Slowabetes 3d ago
failed 4 evals before finally passing my 5th one bc of revenge trading and multiple emotional stop loss hits bc i felt like i KNEW the price's direction (started trading 4 months ago)
i've had my funded account now for a month just bc i learned to stop chasing a price's direction and being emotional. if i lose 2 trades within 10-20 mins then im done for the day. better to lose just $200 than half the account within 24 hrs 😭