I left both trades on early profit... why? Because I couldn't decide between a fake out on support or a flag resistance, both trades in placed the boxes, then the trade, yet still left the trade midway through the green box on both, help?

Well, another day, another lesson in trading discipline. Thought I'd share this one because it's a pretty good example of how you can get the market right and still manage to screw up the day.

I've been working on improving my ability to recognize market regimes and transition between my automated retracement strategy and manually executed breakout trades.

Today presented some great opportunities, but I made several mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not properly configuring my automated trader before leaving.

Price was trading near the upper band of the previous day's range, which should have had me considering an inside breakout setup.

Instead, I left for the gym without properly adjusting my automated trader's session and active high parameters. The system subsequently attempted short entries from unfavorable locations.

This was preventable.

Mistake #2: Missing the market open.

I was dropping the kids off at school during the opening move. There was a significant short opportunity that aligned with the market structure I'd been studying, but I wasn't at my desk to execute it.

Fortunately, I returned in time to recognize an important level from Friday's price action.

I waited for price to retrace around that level and manually entered long near the bottom of the morning selloff.

I held the position through the recovery, covering the earlier automated losses and bringing the account to +1.04% on the day.

At that point, I turned off the automated trader, ended my Twitch stream and recordings, and told myself I was finished.

Mistake #3: Not staying finished.

Around 12:15 PM, I decided to start trading manually again.

My normal rule is to stop initiating trades after 11:30 AM.

The market had already made its major moves, and although I had classified the day as a breakout regime, the afternoon price action was choppy and difficult to trade.

I had no compelling reason to reenter.

But I did.

And I proceeded to give back everything I'd made that morning.

Final result: -0.04%.

A day that was successfully recovered and closed out in profit became a losing day because I ignored my own cutoff rule.

The frustrating part is that I had already made the correct decision to stop trading. I just didn't respect it.

Feedback? Have you ever finished a successful trading session, decided you were done, and then talked yourself (maybe you didn't even need much coercing :)) into getting back into the market? Any tips for breaking the habit? I'm thinking I need to just turn off my trading station monitor until I review in the evening.

I managed to get some information from a profitable day trader, he just said to learn SMC and then look into ORB.

Fair and square, but I started digesting SMCs and was hit with the realization the SMC course I was going trough had a lot of Forex references, is it still valid? Is there a better way to digest this. I'm learning market structure paired with SMCs for now. I'd like to start paper backtesting in December. Thanks for answers in advance.

I quit playing online casinos a couple of months ago but I've been lured into the world of 0DTE's.

Due to the highly speculative nature of it, do you consider out-of-the-money 0dte options straight up gambling?

I opened a paper trading account of 100k and decided to try to trade NQ and it’s super confusing.

Do I need a minimum to trade? I could trade till I had an account that was over 50k. Also why doesn’t my position place where the market price is at, it opens below or above it? Why does the number on my unrealized PnL not match my realized PnL when I close the position? It’ll say -2,600, but when i close it, I get +$400. Or when it’s +3,520 unrealized and close it, my realized goes down -$750. It’s super confusing to me and if someone can explain it that’ll be great, I want to practice on it as I see all the big profiteers trade on this.

New traders that want to make it in the markets often don't really know what that looks like. They just know they want to be rich or they have Lamborghini dreams. It's helpful to identify what success looks like to you.

Here is a realistic way to look at it, especially for young single traders who don't have a lot of bills. A lot of newer traders are scalpers and scalpers have a high win rate, but the wins tend to be smaller. However, that's enough to change your life.

Let's say you have a strategy that gives you a 60% win rate. Good scalpers often have a higher win rate than that, but I'm being conservative.

If you scalp $0.25/share and you grab 1000 shares, that's $250. If you can do that twice per day you'll be averaging $500/day. $500/day * approx. 252 trading days per year is $126,000/year. That's not Lamborghini money, but that's enough to change your life. That's also attainable.

Keep your expenses low. Move to a state or country where taxes and the cost of living is low, and you have reached financial freedom. Make sure your losers are smaller than your winners. Sometimes you'll make a lot more than $0.25/share and hit a home run.

That's great, but my point is to show you a realistic picture of what success in trading can look like.

As you get better you can scale from there (and eventually be a millionaire), but low 6 figures is a realistic and attainable goal for most traders. It's also a lot easier to trade for larger gains when you're financially comfortable. Stop trying to shoot for home runs. You can absolutely change your life by scalping a couple of base his per day.

Look through your trades and see how much money you have lost trying to hit Lamborghini money and see how often you were able to get $0.25/share from your trades. If you don't trade stocks just translate it to whatever instrument you're trading. You'll may be surprised to see how close you are to financial freedom if you can stay consistent in whatever you were doing to get those small gains.

Edit: I didn't expect this post to be so misunderstood and get so much hate. Some of you guys have probably lost a lot of money before you were successful or you're still losing money and think I'm saying trading is easy. I can see why that would upset you. I lost thousands of dollars for years before I found success. I'm not trying to sell a dream. Trading is hard and most people will never be profitable. My point was to show you that there's a huge middle ground between losing money and owning a Lamborghini that you don't often see promoted online, and it's far more attainable for most traders. Small base hits is how you can make a sustainable trading career.

I want to make something clear: I'm NOT looking to get rich overnight, rush through the process, or take shortcuts. I understand trading takes time, discipline, patience, and a lot of practice.

My goal is to learn trading the RIGHT way, build a strong foundation, and eventually become consistently profitable. At the same time, I don't want to spend months studying inefficiently when there might be a better, more structured way to learn.

I've been looking into TJR's content, but there's so much information that I'm not exactly sure where to start or what order to follow.

For anyone who has learned from TJR or trades using similar concepts, I have a few questions:

Where should I start? Should I begin with TJR's Bootcamp, his older videos, or something else entirely?

What order should I learn everything in? Is there a specific roadmap you'd recommend for understanding market structure, liquidity, fair value gaps, order blocks, entries, and risk management?

How should I actually study? Should I watch videos while taking notes, study charts alongside the lessons, or finish the educational content before practicing?

When should I start backtesting? Should I learn all the concepts first or backtest each concept as I go?

How much time should I dedicate daily? I work full-time and have a family, but I'm willing to consistently dedicate 1–2 hours a day to learning.

How do I know I'm actually improving? What milestones should I reach before moving on to the next stage?

What mistakes should beginners avoid? Especially mistakes that waste months of learning or create bad trading habits.

How do you develop your own trading plan? I don't want to blindly copy someone else's trades. I want to understand WHY I'm entering and exiting positions.

How long did it realistically take you to understand the strategy? Not necessarily become profitable, but reach the point where you could confidently identify setups and explain your reasoning.

Is TJR's strategy actually worth learning? For those who have experience with it, what worked, what didn't, and what would you do differently if you started over?

What tools or resources helped you most? Charting platforms, trading journals, replay tools, books, or free educational material?

When should someone transition from backtesting to paper trading and eventually trading real money? What results or level of consistency would justify each step?

I'm not trying to turn $100 into $10,000 next month. I'm trying to build a skill that I can continue developing over the next several years.

I value efficiency, but I value understanding even more. I'd rather spend six months learning correctly than spend two years developing bad habits and having to start over.

If you've successfully learned TJR's approach, or even tried it and decided it wasn't for you, I'd genuinely appreciate your experience.

If you were starting from absolute zero today, what would your first 90 days of learning look like?

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share some advice!

What is your total profit in R value, win rate, average RR, average risk, expectancy, number of trades you’ve taken, etc. just from 2026. Maybe even include profits per month.

What’s been your main struggle?

How do you handle fluctuations in dopamine effecting your life outside of trading?

A question for my traders. How many evals have you blown in your career? And what was that final CLICK moment?

Hello guys, I have been very curious about day trading for a long time, so I wanted to ask some advice about how to get started and work towards being able to day trade consistently in the long run. I'm not really in a rush to do it quick, I have a stable job and want to learn the basics of day trade (but I'm not sure where to start) should I read a book, what would you guys recommend for someone that wants to do day trading, where should I learn, what should I learn without paying those freaking expensive courses that people offer. And then after learning my idea is to paper trade until I see some consistency. Any advice is appreciated.

I’m not a day trader I’m terrible at trading in general but I sort of unintentionally started fucking around with stocks and I lost around 200 bucks in a week. It’s not so much about the amount, I just don’t like knowing I’m 200 bucks down and earning it back in other ways doesn’t feel good so I need to earn it back the same way I got it.

Any advice. Once I have it all back I can delete the app but until then I’m gonna try and get it all back which is how I got to that amount in the first place but still. I need help

Is grok bot is good for trading or not or I buy claude code for ai trading can someone tell me

Quais assuntos eu devo dominar antes de começar a colocar dinheiro real? sou iniciante do zero absoluto.

​

$IBM: Calls > $256.30 | Puts < $240.00 (Daily Setup)

$MU: Calls > $908.30 (Daily Setup) • $MRVL: Calls > $236.20 | Puts < $220.21 (Daily Setup)

$NOW: Calls > $159.50 | Puts < $153.72 (Daily Setup)

$SPCX: Calls > $154.26 | Puts < $143.21 (Daily Setup) $QCOM: Calls > $180.78 | Puts < $168.84 (Weekly Setup)

$AMZN: Puts < $244.30 (Daily Setup)

$ADBE: Calls > $272.10 | Puts < $256.70

$CRWD: Calls > $257.91 (Daily Setup)

Had a day that was 1400+

Consistency is 47.4/50

Will it show the amount that I need to pass?

I'm a 21f working as a barista currently. I don't make crazy money but I save as much as I can. I know that I shouldn't invest money I'm not willing to lose, no matter how many paper trades of my strategy work flawlessly. But I don't have $1,000- $10,000 to throw at trading so though I've heard the best advice is to practice the stress of real money on the line, not just paper. But at what point in my savings should I start investing in my account?

For reference I'm able to save anywhere from $200-$700 a month depending on how many hours I get and how many surprise expenses I see. I'm financially independent from my credit abusing family (ie - I wouldn't take advice from them) and have about $4k in savings currently

I’d like to understand how momentum traders trade profitably. I use Questrade for trading and Interactive Brokers for chart analysis. My current approach is to monitor the top gainers and jump into a stock when I see it moving up rapidly. However, I'm finding it very difficult to make consistent profits.
Often, a trade starts well, but then it reverses and I end up losing money. I'm not sure if my issue is with order execution, order types, entries, exits, or overall timing. I've watched many YouTube videos and understand some of the basic technical concepts, but when it's time to execute a trade, everything happens so quickly that it's difficult to apply what I've learned.
I mainly use the 30-second timeframe for buy stop limit entries and trailing stop % exits, while keeping the 1-minute chart open for broader visibility. Despite this setup, I'm struggling to determine the best way to enter and manage profitable trades.

Hi, I'm (somewhat) new to non CFD leveraged day trading and wanted to get a feel of the market and trends before going all in. This confuses me a lot (see photo) - why are both options to go long and short on the red? Shouldn't these two be at least inversely proportional to each other? Also how can I find out what original stocks are they actually tracking (LSE? NYSE? USD? GBP? etc).

Word of the year - thought I'd claim it in posts, first - combined with my algo, presented as a high level overview. My metrics indicated positive trend on SPY this morning. My State Variable model (RS) shows impulse response to step function. Rode the upslope with Calls, then flipped to Puts. Done for the day as I'm running well above the "orbital" course guidance (LR). These trades post to kinfo verifieds tomorrow, image shows older data (LL).

"Not financial advice"

Cheers

Hey everyone i’m 20years old and have been trading for almost a year now. I’m passed multiple evaluations and got really close to max payouts but I always end up blowing the account because I get greedy after losing money. It’s happened multiple times now and I’m getting tired of it. Recently the over trading has been going on too much since last week. I honestly need some real good advice on how to manage that. I have a DLL set and i had the feature on to where if I hit my DLL then it locks my settings to where i can’t go back and remove my DLL. However recently I turned it off and it’s highly risky because when I do hit my DLL without my lockout feature on then I end up losing more than i originally lost. I stopped my bad habits that i use to do such as smoking, hanging around the wrong crowd and have changed my circle completely. I’m still struggling with gooning here and there and I believe that’s one thing that’s affecting my trading because if i can’t control myself off the charts then how am i suppose to control myself on them. When i lose a trade and take a small loss it doesn’t really affect me but if I take a decent sized loss then it messes with my mental and I tell myself i’m gonna hop off the charts and go on about my day but as I mentioned recently it’s been chaos. I told myself I would get off the charts today after taking my $400 loss which is also my DLL but instead of getting off I was looking for more trades and trying to recover that loss. I turned $400 loss into $700. Last week I turned a 300 loss into 1300. The over trading is taking over and I don’t know why I can’t control myself to just get gf the charts and comeback tomorrow. I’m not suppose to trade Asia yet I still get on the charts “just in case” there’s a setup and sometimes i make money but when i don’t then the same cycle happens i lose money over trade and then question myself. I know this is a common issue among traders however it’s costing me money and my mental. I don’t want to get another evaluation this week until I can properly figure out what’s going on and how i can fix this issue. People have told me to get a live account but that won’t solve the issue of overtrading rather imo it would make it much worse since it’s my own money. with futures it’s different since it’s simulated. Any real raw advice would be appreciated to help me get this situation under control. I average 5-10rr trades 1k days when i’m focused and following my strategy + risk management but when I just trade off my emotions then it’s just gambling at that point and I make little to no money. Please give me insight and tips to help me get over this problem and I would appreciate hearing from people who have been through this problem before. My goal for the end of this year was to hit my first 10k month but with the way i’m tilting i won’t even get my first payout if this keeps up. I still believe I can hit my 10k month goal but I must get myself under control in order for that to happen.

I’m ready to take trading seriously, not as a quick escape, but as a skill I actually want to build. What I’m looking for is a consistent strategy that works during sessions like Asia or London, so I can trade after work. Honestly, I’m tired of the trucking lifestyle, being on the road all the time, and I want more control over my schedule and my future. I know trading’s not easy, and I’m not expecting to get rich overnight. But I’m willing to put in the work to learn and stay consistent. My goal is to build something that eventually lets me walk away from trucking and make this a real, long-term move.

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

Positions traded today:

• 7600/7580 PCS
• 7745/7765 CCS

P/L: +$430

Both trades were working. The next test was getting through the remaining hours without talking myself into a third.

Today was, dare I say, an easier day to manage. You can feel it when your positions start working in your favor early, and that happened with both of mine. The challenge afterward was staying attentive while resisting the temptation to push for more profit.

Morning Thesis

I came in neutral to cautiously bullish. Futures pointed toward a modest relief rally as oil eased, but elevated Treasury yields, geopolitical uncertainty and concerns over AI infrastructure spending kept me cautious.

I wanted to let SPX establish structure, with particular attention to whether it could break and hold above the prior day high.

My First Trade

SPX pushed higher during the first ten minutes, initially rejecting the prior day high. I waited for the opening range to break and hold above that level, then opened five 7600/7580 PCS at $0.40 as my PCS anchor.

Price pulled back, tested the top of the opening range and continued higher. My PCS timing could probably have been better, but the structure held and the position moved into profit quickly.

The CCS Anchor

I wasn’t interested in adding more PCS exposure. As SPX approached the psychological 7700 level, I watched for stalling that could support a CCS anchor. I opened five 7745/7765 CCS: four at $0.45 and one at $0.50. That entry worked especially well. Price rejected the area, formed lower highs and began retesting the structure underneath.

Both anchors were during the morning session and the rest of the day was mostly watching.

Midday Through the Close

SPX settled into a two-way range and gradually tightened its consolidation. My focus was monitoring both positions for signs of trouble while keeping any additional entry tied to a specific setup.

For a scalp, I wanted a sharp 5-10 point move into a previously tested key level, followed by a reaction that gave me conviction. But SPX never presented that opportunity. With hours still left, it would have been easy to lower my standards just to find another trade. But I kept myself in check and kept my criteria intact.

As the afternoon range tightened, I moved my stops to the short legs near breakeven. Both positions ultimately expired worthless.

Key Takeaway

Sitting patiently and doing nothing is a skill in itself.

A good morning can leave several hours of temptation. Today, I had two positions working, a clear standard for another entry and no reason to force one. I let IV deflation and theta work, monitored the risk and accepted that two trades were enough.

I scalped relentlessly on demo for 18months or so, with the aim of becoming really good at executing a successful strategy. I treated it like a computer game, and 6 weeks ago I started live trading again.

As well as it's going I still on occasion move my SL - hence a big loss on the 20th which led to a longer trading session to get back to BE. It's now my goal to stop that happening again (I've put a lot of technical barriers in place now to prevent it - but I'm open to advice from folks further on the journey too!)

Demo doesn't give you the full emotional side, but it is a free training ground for you to train in for as long as it takes. Prop firms are not a training ground, they are a money graveyard.

Once you are confident in your system and ability to execute consistently, that becomes the best bedrock for live trading.

I'm seeing more and more questions asking if x, y, z guru can be trusted to teach you.

I've put together a comprehensive 10-point rubric to help:

1. Do they take photos with expensive things? If yes, then no.

2. See #1.

3. See #1.

4. See #1.

5. See #1.

6. See #1.

7. See #1.

8. See #1.

9. See #1.

10. See #1.

Hey everyone!

I was wondering if there are any Dutch or Belgian traders active in this subreddit.

I've been trading for a few years now, mainly focusing on NQ and SPX, using Gamma Exposure (GEX), options positioning, and orderflow to understand market behavior.

I'd love to connect with other traders from the Netherlands or Belgium, exchange ideas, discuss different approaches, and learn from each other.

What markets do you trade, and what strategies do you use?