Hello and welcome to my journal! I'm a beginner trader. Last year I discovered micro futures and I've been hooked up since then. I blew up 2 small accounts by now, trading the MES.
My approach is somehow discretionary and simplistic, I wait for the price to reach out to important levels and after some reversal signals I play a mean reversion trade. The levels that I’m watching are pretty basic::
- yesterday's Close, High and Low. (YC, YH, YL)
- yesterday's and today's Point of Control. (YPOC, POC)
- high/low volume nodes from a stacked composite volume profile that I have on the right of my
chart. (HVN, LVN)
- high/low of the overnite session.
- high/low of the initial balance (the first hour of the trading session).
daily VWAP.

My main chart is 2000ticks, I use it for entries too. I also use a 15000ticks for the general feel and a daily chart for an even more general feel In the past I'd been using a 400ticks chart for my entries but I realised that it only messed up with my mind.

I'm always looking for sudden bursts on the Delta indicator - something like over 500/1000 (or under -500/-1000). I studied these specific values and they are working most of the time.

I'm watching the ATR on the 2000ticks chart to not be over 3.5 or else my 4 points stop becomes too small. If the ATR is more than 3.5 then I'll better wait for the extremes of the price ranges to have a better positioning.

I'm watching the distance between the Close and EMA21. Market mostly tries to pull back when the distance is over 6 points on the 2000ticks chart. Of course that doesn't mean that it will succeed every time.

Now, the funny part, my starting balance is 224$, but that’s ok, it’s just practice money.
I try to keep my Stop Loss at 4 points. That’s like 21$ loss with 1 contract, fees included. If the Profit Target is also 4 points, that’s 18.58$ win, after all fees, with 1 contract. So the risk is not in my favour, I’ll have to chase more than 4 points or cut my losses earlier when it is the case. I’m planning to not make more than 3 trades a day.

Ok not sure, if you are still trading, but while you can indeed grow 200USD to a big account, I feel it affects trading in a very negative manner, if you have not enough cushion.

I think it might make more sense to first SIM until you are consistently profitable, then do a evaluation demo and after that invest into a small evaluation account with a funding company. The most important part in trading is to conserve your own money until you are consistent enough.