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The consistency rule is only for PA accounts and for that, one day's profit just cannot be more than 30% of your overall profit. So if you make around $400 - $500 for several days, this is unlike that one of them will put you over the 30% of the total profit.
In eval accounts, they don't care. You can make your profit target in 1 day and trade one micro contract in and out for the rest of the eval days, and you will still qualify. Right now, you can also qualify in one day if you want to swing for the fences.
I don't think they could make this certificate look more atrocious but I'll take it.
I managed to put up another good trading day. Once again zero emotional mistakes, even though I lost 4 trades in a row at one point. I also didn't fall in the trap of rushing things once I got closer to my profit goal. I kept trading like I always do and I even took a step back when I was $80 from passing the eval because I felt that I was getting anxious.
The stats are great for today, with an average PnL per contract of $27.69 which is above my expectations.
Here are the stats and equity line for the entire duration of the evaluation. It took me a total of 18 trading days to pass.
Going forward
Now that I'm funded, my goal is to not blow the account. I will keep posting in this journal because I noticed a lot of improvements with my mental game, the accountability really helps. I will go back to trading micros and I will start slow. I'm in no hurry to get to the first payout, my goal is to keep trading well and show consistency.
I also have that other eval account with topstep, which I want to pass as well since the commissions are so much better. I don't like trading two accounts and my focus will be on the apex account, but I'll manage.
This is a milestone for me, so thanks to everybody who posted in this thread and showed interest in my journey.
I suggest changing your goal. If you are afraid to blow up your account, you will blow-up your account. See 'Mark Douglas.' Your goal is and should be to execute flawlessly. The results will take care of themselves.
You've inferred incorrectly. Nothing I have written was anything less than constructive advice. If I can help someone avoid an oncoming train, I will do so rather than letting them 'cook,' as you say. (Yes, I understand you don't mean fry/sauté/etc., rather I am interfering with the recipe.) If the author wishes it to stop, he will say so, and I will accommodate respectfully.
I welcome any type of criticism: good, bad, constructive, not constructive.
In the end I always make my own choices and follow my own plan, and I cook my own recipe.
When I say that my goal is to "not blow the account", I mean that I need to follow my risk management and not gamble everything in a few stupid trades. I am consistently profitable on demo, so there is no reason why It shouldn't be the same when trading live.
2024-05-10
I decided to take the edge off today and just trade a demo account. I will start working on the apex account on Monday.
I traded with a clip of 3 micros on the new topstepx platform to get myself familiar with it, I'm up $276 after 25 trades. Average PnL per contract is around $3.70.
One day I will be able to have this kind of performance on a live account as well.
Though now that I think about it, by then my demo performance will be even better, so I guess it will be a constant chase.
Today was probably the best trading day since I started posting here. I'm now trading the apex PA account and I'm up $43.84 trading 1 micro lot.
On the topstep evaluation I'm up around $80 trading with a clip size of 3 micros. At one point I was up $140, but I ended up giving some of it back.
My plans for the apex PA account
I know there can be some issues with psychology when moving from an evaluation to a funded account, so I decided to go very slowly at first. I will trade 1 micro lot with a daily goal of $40 or $50, which is around 20 points on the MNQ. If I'm positive at the end of the week, I will add one contract. If I do ok, in about 3 months I should be able to move to the NQ.
I'm in no rush to "get to the first payout" as many people online say. I don't want the rules of this PA account to affect the way I trade. I will trade as if this was an account I funded with my own money.
Apex PA account PnL: -22.68 USD
I had to book a losing day, I kept having problems with the rithmic datafeed. Any time price would do something interesting it would start to lag behind by several seconds.
This problem happens every once in a while, and usually goes away after 10:00 when volume start to dry up a bit. The problem is that Powell was scheduled to speak at that time, and I didn't feel comfortable taking trades on the PA account.
So I decided to call it a day with a small loss, which is about half of my current daily target. I know I was at risk of making emotional mistakes due to frustration with the rithmic datafeed, so I'm happy with this decision. When this same problem happened two weeks ago I continued to trade and did nothing but lose money.
Here are the stats for the day:
Topstep combine
PnL: +149.72 USD
The topstep combine went a lot better. I have reached my daily target and I did so with some very convincing performance.
After trading in the apex PA account, it felt like I was on demo. I'm currently on a 3 micro lot clip size, but I might bump it up to 4 tomorrow.
2024-05-15 Apex PA account PnL: +34.82 USD
Another solid trading day. I was able to almost reach my daily target very quickly during the first 15 minutes from market open.
I could have opened another trade (my target is 40 USD) but my gut was telling me to stop. I know that if I take a losing trade when I'm almost at my daily target I'm at risk of making emotional mistakes, and in a few quick trades I go back to 0.
This is an irrational fear that I would try to eliminate by drastically reducing my size for that last trade and forcing myself to take it. The problem is that this week I'm trading just one micro so I'm already at the smallest possible size. I will work on this behavior once I start trading with a bigger clip.
The stats look good today, with an average PnL per contract of 3.87 USD.
Topstep combine
PnL: +183.36 USD
Today I increased my size from 3 micros to 4, and I had a nice winning day. I only had to trade 30 minutes.
It seems that having smaller, easily achievable daily targets is really helping my performance. It's now been several days without a single emotional fuck up, and this really shows in the statistics.
A note about the data lag that I experienced yesterday: today I tried switching from the European rithmic server to the Chicago one, and had absolutely zero problems. I hope this is a permanent solution.
2024-05-16 Apex PA account PnL: -34.76 USD
Today I gave back what I made yesterday unfortunately. We got a really choppy open on the MNQ and I struggled to find good trades. I wasn't doing too bad, I had adjusted my expectations to the low volatility environment instead of getting frustrated like I usually do when price is moving slower.
The problem is that I wasn't able to adjust to the sudden spike in volatility that happen sometime after 10:00, when price dropped fast. I was still in range mode, so I tried to fade that move two times and got run over.
No worries, I know that I usually struggle a bit in these market conditions. The important thing is that I managed to contain the losses and I stopped trading before making any stupid mistakes. I was pretty triggered after those two last losing trades, but I forced myself to close the platform and walk away.
Here are the stats for the day:
Topstep combine
PnL: 0 USD
I took a short break after the loss I took on the apex account, and then I came back to work on the topstep combine. I was up around 110 USD when I realized that I was trading on the practice account instead of the combine account.
Embarrassing.
Realizing that this was simply not my day, I went and bought myself some ice cream.
