Thanks @Kaimu for the insights. That is a somewhat good assessment of my "cycles". Which has pushed my mental game into the proverbial corner. From there its a slippery slope into revenge , over sizing & fighting trends while blindly in a tilt mindset. Another reason I try to stay with micros so I can sit comfortably & manage the trades. As I get lost in the greed of quick full mini profits. I'd say half of my blowups are from consciously or unconsciously using NQ mini's.

Money is great I accept which ever way it flows, begrudgingly at times. At this point my biggest goal - mental hurdle is making all the time spent count towards something positive. I did wait an extra day to finish this thought. I re-listened to a old alpha mind podcast in regards to the deeper connections to money, yes without getting into all the details you're on point. So now Ill work on changing that mentality.
Just writing off the top of my head, I see trading as a competitive skill to grow & learn from. To be rewarded when I'm disciplined & focused to take the high risk opportunities. I say high risk because its NQ/MNQ and I'm a short time frame trader 5min trade is rare for me to collect 3-20+ pts. My previously stated logic for it is less exposure/time waiting. Also a product or bad habit of being a prop trader & constantly protecting profits.

Was my best week in a long time. Trading 3 accounts no copier. My MAE/MFE could be improved if I waited more.

Welp not gonna lie its been ugly this past year. Primarily using NT & one of the every 5 min promo companies. My focus is still MNQ; however with random sales of course my trading would turn into the yolo express. I'd say I was on a every other month funded situation with self sabotage crushing my hopes on most days. I went from being a DCA overlord to pondering the rule changes & just funding my own account again. Anyways there has been some recent light at the end of this tunnel. As I am waiting on my first payout request review. However I suspect there could be 3 or 4 violations on my tiny 25k account I've managed to keep alive for 15 days. I believe tying my old PA record back when the old rules were 20+ days before request.

On top of that I'm waiting for FTT & tradovate/NT to get their shit together to start that party. A few days into a 50k pro TPT, eager to see the perks from both companies. As I keep hearing great things with no shenanigans. Time will tell.

I am also a Topstep eval customer again for the first time in years. I like parts of their platform, however their software / brackets compared to what Ive been used to,are pretty much garbage. I probably need to practice more with it. But using my same bracket targets with a trail etc, performance is not matching other platforms.

Ultimately my new old dead horse is to avoid shorting unless its painfully obvious flushing. Mainly start a long micro at certain support level when basing occurs & then if I'm confident with price action but my entry is too early I'll add single mini. Now I know this is retarded. So I do my absolute best to avoid this & just let the micros build my confidence instead of gambling with mini's. So far my self control has been winning.

So back to my voodoo errr rules. I'm currently breaking 3 & inadvertently starting a new trend dammit!
Look thru my old posts.
#1 avoid trading in August, 16 days in lets go! Currently I'm not looking that far left. Market breaks will happen but I can't get caught up on past mistakes
#2 Don't talk about day trading to family/friends ie non-traders. I try to keep it to once or twice a month but experiences good or bad get shared from time to time.
#3 Superstitious about posting anything here or xyz on my 3rd eye guru chat $999 private membership(kidding)  before perceived successful progress.

Yes I may over think things, that's why when I trade I try to look left for my brief time frame of availability & then flow with the trend. Also getting better at listening to my gut.
oh and its my 2nd election cycle!

Welp the Voodoo was right! August is off limits for me. Nearly broke my hand blowing up PAs with fraudulent prop firm companies in September, the floor won. So I wisely nursed my wounds, stayed in-tune to markets but ultimately gave myself a over month off from trading. When I regrouped in late October , I gave myself daily, weekly & yearly goals to help streamline my focus. However I remained on the tit of the props until December. That is when more of the drama scandals emerged. So starting in 2025, I am slowly funding my own account & just sim not prop sim. After 4 years of playing with online prop firms I can confidently say this is whats best for me. Bravo to those that earned & or "scammed" the scammers.

Using Tradovate my DG trigger is 250. After a rocky start & tinkering with my brackets Ive remained in balance since Feb 6th. I started with 2k. Thinking once I hit 10k I'll reset it as if I took a payout.
Its funny I have a white board but never hanged it up after the move. So back to a trusty notepad for shorthand-ish notes. But I see it daily just the same.

Currently still focused on first 90mins of RTH, with my regular job/sleep its typically 6:50pst to 7:45 depending on performance. My new rule is no starting after 7:45am. At that point its too difficult if I have to recover & cant be late with the emperor DOGE.
Only trading 4 days a week to keep myself balanced & in control to avoid potential burnout/ riding too high. Which means depending on holidays & taking August off I'm only targeting 187 days a year with a 60% goal on that.
I am utilizing mini contracts again. But only singles & I must start with micros as my warmup test. Trump/Elon tweet away from devastation.

Finished the final 14 days of February in the green above 70%. Scalps typically 3-8pts using 2000t , 500tick & DOM
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Had a great week. Only took 99 trades, 76 into profit. Monday & tuesday were silly. Hit my daily goal in under 5 minutes combined; utilizing Micro warm up into a single mini.

Wednesday was my off day.

Thursday I got a bit squirrely. Didn't respect my channels/ BB pokes, over traded into a manageable hole. Recovered because I believe in Joe Hendry. Used small sizes of 1-2 micros & 1 mini once the fog lifted. After I hit my daily goal, I readjusted it in order to tinker with my brackets auto BE/trail features for longer swings. I successfully adapted one of my brackets to the current market environment, targeting 50pts but staggered trail triggers depending on size of order. Hit 40pts before I was locked out again. Via micros I managed to sweep up an extra 75pts total.

Friday - today professional performance, minus starting at 730pst. Never touched the minis all micros on 3/7/2025. 80% profitable some bad entries but managed to not add or revenge etc.
Only hiccup was 5 pts from Daily goal , I remembered I hadn't fixed my profit trigger back to $250. I knew I hit it several times & was starting to get annoyed. Thankfully fixed it, managed to get out before that 7:49 pump fake out.

4 weeks of good performance & behavior. Careful with the regular job stress drinks at night

Welp wasn't planning on being done this quickly today. However once I noticed the VIX was elevated I figured it was reasonable to move my stops for more breathing room on those micro entries. Did my micro warm up, time to see if I can lift a mini.... On the chart pic my mouse is hovering over my quick mini entry. I went with my tiny scalps bracket; surprisingly for the first time in my experience with utilizing tradovate profit trigger lockout I had positive slippage on the mini.
I know not the time to be playing with longs, figured since I was an hour late into RTH seeing it riding my lower bands there was an opportunity for a quick long. Daily goal hit, on to my 9-5 & on to tomorrow.

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Started the week strong again. This is my DEMO SIM on tradovate while also watching TOS. Yes I know fills will be different.
Monday took a handful micros into the green & my 1 & only mini NQ trade(for the week) that lasted about as long as.... you know half of hooters clientele. Solid 5 sec performance, daily goal hit.
Tuesday - 68% of my 16 trades ended up in the green. Only Micros, small size 1-3 at a time. Kept my stops wide to allow the trades to breathe.
WED- 75% of 20 trades into the green. I had good patience , however my size with micros briefly got above 6 (bad entries-just bail). Normally fine but with high VIX its unnecessary stress when managing the trade.
THURS-73% of my 15 trades green. Again only micros. Caught 2- 30 point runners for me. Stayed balanced
Friday I'll be away from the markets.

I have 5 weeks green, but really proud of my last 2 weeks. No breakeven barely green days, just in the zone. I know its a small sample size. But I do love the uncertain chop of political market changes. Hopefully I can transition this to slower times in the market. I do truly believe not focusing on prop firm rules & following my own rules is what will keep me profitable once I fully fund my personal again.
Here is todays trading pic & weekly performance stats


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Here is my March 2025 SIM results so ya know, no prop shenanigans. Just working on consistency , confidence & self control. Create good behaviors for me to succeed in the long term.
Took 408 trades , 387 were micros. Avg time 2 mins, my avg losing trade is spiked due to mini's bad enteries/ algo spikes. Overall happy with my results over 17 trading days maybe an average of 20-30 mins per day. 7:30am PST has been my sweet spot for time of day.
Reflecting on personal stress levels that I was dealing last summer at work. I think its fair to say focusing on futures & doing the regular work is fine, but taking on more work responsibilities for hopes of advancement (power, lil pay bump) doesn't align with my trading goals at this time. Just like indicators , less is more in life too.
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