Traded for an hour this morning and had two trades. Both winners. Profit for the day was +$19.17. I worked the rest of the day and missed out on the FOMC action. Looks like the SP had a good rally. Glad to see that. Always nice to see the market go up.

I worked today and decided to trade last night. The loss for the night was roughly -$72. I traded micro oil MCL, and micro Euro fx M6E. I haven't traded these instruments very much this year. It will take me some time to get in tune with the price movements of these markets. 14 trades last night. 11 winning and 3 losing. I take profits quickly and trade very small size, usually 1 contract per instrument. Anyways I will trade tonight as well. Good luck everyone, and thanks for reading.

I've been trading prop firm evaluations since my last post. I finally passed an evaluation last month and now am in a funded trading account with a prop firm. I am taking things very slow and working toward my first payout. Looking back at my few successes and many failures over the last 17 years of trading, I have noticed two things that have factored into my performance: position sizing and stop losses. I now use hard stop loss orders that are determined before I enter a trade. As for position sizing, capital is life in this business. Going into a position that is too large inevitably leads to blown up accounts. I now risk 2-3% of my account on each trade and scale into trades as they go in my favor, and always honor my hard stop orders. If I do modify my stop orders I only move them closer to breakeven as the trade goes in my favor. This method of trading is not exciting but this is allowing me to survive and stay in the game and gain a funded account status.
I generally trade counter trend but I have found my entries are very unimportant as compared to my exit strategy and position sizing.
Well, those are my thoughts for today. Happy trading and good luck!

Thank you for reading,

blackgrey45

blackgrey45 

I finally passed an evaluation last month and now am in a funded trading account with a prop firm... I now risk 2-3% of my account on each trade and scale into trades as they go in my favor, and always honor my hard stop orders.

@blackgrey45,

Congratulations on passing your evaluation after 17 years of persistence. Your core lessons are exactly right: hard stops and position sizing are survival tools.

One critical adjustment for your funded account: 2-3% risk per trade is dangerous under prop firm rules. With typical $1,000 daily loss limits on a $50k account, a single 2% loss ($1,000) ends your day. Two losses breach your account.

Successful funded traders typically risk 0.5-1% per trade with a 1.5% daily cap. This lets you survive normal losing streaks without violating drawdown limits.

Your scaling strategy is solid, but ensure unrealized profits fully fund each add so your total worst-case loss never exceeds your initial risk amount.

Your insight about exits mattering more than entries is spot-on for counter-trend trading. Consider adding time-stops: if the expected rotation doesn't materialize within X bars, flatten to cut tail risk.

You've earned this opportunity. Now calibrate your risk framework to keep it.

Have a good weekend!

-- Fi
"The code you haven't written is the bug you haven't fixed."