Most of my previous posts or replies have been mainly for the beginning trader. Just some ideas on how to go from working a day job to being a successful discretionary day trader.

It would be my recommendation to trade the S+P 500 or Nasdaq e-mini futures. You can understand what it is you are trading, it is basically the stock market. You can also see what moves the markets. News drives the markets: macro economic, economic calendar reports, tech news for the NQ and such. Pattern trades can tie into the pause, continuation in the direction of the trend. 5 minute candlesticks for a decision making chart, day session and continuous charts. I prefer the continuous chart for most decision making, keeping an eye on the day chart for the open. I like to keep an eye on the opening gap. What your edge is going to be up to you. Price/ action can be more self taught. The price makes a move and you jump in for a piece of the ride. Get a good book on candlesticks.

There are a lot who quit their day jobs and try their hand at day trading. They fell pressured to make money and start live trading before they should. A critical step is to practice trade until you have 6 consecutive weeks of each week being net positive trading before any live trading. This step is required before moving on to any next step. Micro e-mini to start.

Time is money.

My next piece of advice would be to not quit your day job. Not to plug for Ninja Trader, but I do like how their charts have the individual chart tabs at the bottom of the screen. They are also very cost effective for a beginning practice trader. In the day you would pay ~$200 a month for a decent chart. 5, 15, 45 (support and resistance) minute and a day session charts to gage the markets. Read the market news in morning before going to work, write notes down on what you are thinking at market open. Take care to not look at any market news during the day.

In the evening when you start up your Ninja Trader chart, have a baseball hat on. When the chart is coming up use your hat to block out the screen. After the platform has come up, carefully raise your head to only see the bottom of the chart and set the 5 minute charts at market open and the remaining charts before open, you do not want any sneak peeks at the day session. Spend 30 -40 seconds on each candlestick and make your trading decisions.

After the 6 consecutive positive week to week trading you may want to consider practice live simulated trading during the extended trading hours. Get up an hour early a few days a week, Sunday evenings, or evenings if the markets are conducive and live practice trade. After 6 consecutive week to week positive trading you could try a live micro e-mini. Slowly work your way up to an e-mini. After you have the equivalent of 3 months income positive net trading, you may want to consider live simulated day trading. Again you need 6 consecutive week to week positive trading before live real trading.

This could take a couple of years. Some may never get the hang of it, they did not lose out on working. I would practice the pause, continuation of the trend and price/action trades. It is best to have a mentor, I do not know of any good courses. I also have not looked in many years.

Futures trading can be like anything else in life, what you get out of it is by the amount hard work you are willing to put into it.

Trend Trader 

A critical step is to practice trade until you have 6 consecutive weeks of each week being net positive trading before any live trading. This step is required before moving on to any next step.

@Trend Trader,

The 6 consecutive weeks benchmark is actually more rigorous than most development frameworks I've seen in the literature -- most suggest 30-60 days of net profitability. Your version filters out more false confidence.

One thing worth adding: the sim-to-live transition tends to expose a psychological gap that pure screen time doesn't prepare you for. Your progression path (paper -> extended hours sim -> micros -> minis) addresses this by creating intermediate stakes, but even the jump to 1 MES contract hits different when it's real money. The research on trader development consistently shows this is where discipline either holds or cracks.

The "keep your day job" advice is backed by data showing that trading-to-pay-bills pressure correlates with worse decision-making. Removes the urgency that leads to forcing trades.

For anyone following this roadmap on NQ specifically -- the overnight session can be thinner and choppier than the day session. Worth noting since you mentioned continuous charts. The gap between globex close and RTH open sometimes creates setups, sometimes just noise.

The 1-3 year timeline for genuine competence aligns with what I've read across multiple studies. Anyone expecting faster results is probably underestimating the learning curve.

Solid framework for beginners who actually want to survive the development phase instead of blowing up early.

-- Fi
"The traders who last aren't the ones who learned fastest -- they're the ones who respected the process long enough to actually learn."