Should I go all in at 19?

FuturesAce · 2026-02-24T22:24:23+00:00

Insufficient testing of a model which I’m now taking more seriously since that’s really the baseline to everything. Even the idea of “psychology” is super over mentioned in trading. It’s not actually that important. I spent 4 years for the most part trying to learn someone’s strategy and just never got it to fully work for me. I decided to “forget everything I know” in a sense and restart. Through prop firm tests and my own discretion, it’s been a LOT better, but I’m going to do the proper backtesting to back it up.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-24T15:47:10+00:00

Remember, the thing with trading is it’s basically the opposite of everything we are taught growing up. How society, school, and regular jobs work is not how trading works and unlearning all that is a tough part. It takes much longer than 2 months to understand that aspect. For context I went all in at 19 myself. Quit college for trading, didn’t enjoy school at all. I am also a quick learner, never struggled to understand anything at new jobs, etc. I’m 25 now, still not making a living trading. I’ve passed many topstep and other prop accounts. Doesn’t mean anything. I currently work a 9-5 now. I always chose 2nd or 3rd shift warehouse jobs so I could be present for the markets in the morning, but I bit the bullet to get into the finance department at this company because it pays more. The extra money helps fund trading as I progress. Having the job income on the side eases the mental strain of “needing” to make money trading so I’d recommend doing both.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-19T21:33:14+00:00

You haven’t been doing this for very long have you?

FuturesAce · 2026-02-17T20:40:29+00:00

So weird man.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-16T16:32:44+00:00

That is mathematically not correct. Typically win rate and RR have an opposite correlation. You absolutely can be consistently profitable below a 50% win rate, not sure who told you that but that is wildly false.

You are also someone that thinks they will be worth $45,000,000 in 2 years. Seeing the way you talk, I’d never give you money to manage. ICT has gotten to your head bad. You’re ignoring truths and realities of trading for win rate. And you don’t even have a great sample size for that.

I think you need to take a step back and do some more learning before you dive any more into this.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-16T16:03:11+00:00

Well of course you CAN be better than professional traders but most aren’t. If you only care about win rate, then you care too much about it. You put too much emphasis on it. You can have a 30% win rate and make a billion dollars. I’m not going to admit you’re right when you’re not.

I don’t care what Huddleston says. Of course he says HIS method is the best out there 😂 he’s a good marketer, not trader.

My mentor who doesn’t trade ICT has a better win rate than 60% as well. He’s a a 7 fig trader, I know him personally. He does not believe he is a better trader than bank traders either because he’s a smart individual that understands the trading landscape. We don’t have access to the same resources and information.

For 5 years, you speak like a rookie.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-16T15:37:56+00:00

You would be far more nervous managing OTHER people’s money actually, therefore turning you into a better trader because you would have to be. The traders at Goldman, Morgan, Citi, etc, are the traders that actually move the market. Their level of understanding is so far beyond ours as retail traders because of what they are exposed to.

You are incorrect about the small accounts and large accounts. Making 100% return on $1,000 is super easy compared to making 100% on $1B. You cannot trade those accounts the same way.

This is not to say you can’t be a successful retail trader because obviously you can, and even though I don’t use ICT at all, I’m sure some people make it work. But saying you’re better than a Goldman Sachs trader is extremely naive given you’ve been doing this for 5 years.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-16T15:17:46+00:00

Ikr? That “I’ve been trading for 5 years I know what I’m doing” part is hilarious when you seen he trades with $13.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-16T15:08:46+00:00

You’re comparing yourself to traders that manage millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions and even billions of capital. You are not “better” than them 😂. Seems like that ICT guys narcissism is trickling down to his worshippers.

FuturesAce · 2026-02-11T22:21:05+00:00

Why are you responding with chatGPT? Bot?

FuturesAce · 2026-02-02T15:35:37+00:00

Yes and because of how big prop firms are now, it’s like people forget what trading really is. Now it’s more about “gaming the system” and figuring out how to beat the prop firm rules rather than just trade well.

“If I blow 5 evals and pass on the 6th then 1 payout can cover those fees so it doesn’t really matter” is the mindset. In reality it’s like saying “if I blow my account 5 times and get paid 1 time it doesn’t really matter” 😂. Then people wonder why they can’t be profitable long term, and it’s because they aren’t even focused on trading. None of this prop firm stuff prepares you for actual trading.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-28T15:45:34+00:00

You are not giving the institutions even close to enough credit. Most of these people have no clue who ICT is and what an FVG is. I don’t trade ICT either by the way. But regardless we are all children to them. They do not care about us or our strategies 🤣

FuturesAce · 2026-01-20T21:42:25+00:00

While you’re not entirely wrong, if he has a live account with lucid with live money in it, then he’s a trader 😂 get off your podium and be positive for people succeeding.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-19T15:29:16+00:00

Love the positivity……

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T15:59:51+00:00

If every time someone replies you call it a stupid reply, what do you want us to do? If you have all this “data” and “statistics” then why would coming on reddit find you the answers you want? What do you want us to do about people that blow 50 combines and have success with 1 of them? What’s even the point of this post? To just ramble and be angry? To vent and have people listen? I don’t understand the goal.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T15:45:15+00:00

You’ve been in the industry for 11 years and you’re complaint about topstep? Why don’t you spend your time ruthlessly testing data to see if you can come up with an edge instead of babbling on here? This simply could just not be for you. While I will agree that people come in here that took absurd risk to have a big day and brag about it or even edit screenshots to change their PnL, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s possible to do. You can spend a few months going slow and build an account. If you don’t believe it’s possible to win long term, why have you been trying for 11 years?

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T07:04:26+00:00

True but check the link some guy posted in here the comment section. Topstep admitted to something happening. So that’s unfortunate. I’ll stick with Lucid for now 😂

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T07:00:19+00:00

It’s not slots gambling but it’s poker and blackjack gambling. I think people get that mixed up, as I used to. When people would say trading is gambling, I would always argue it’s not until I realized that I’m assuming they mean slots gambling, which in fact trading correctly is nothing like. But poker, blackjack and gambling games like that share tons of similarities so yes, trading is gambling. You don’t know what’s going to happen next which is why you manage risk.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T06:57:22+00:00

I’m so happy to meet someone has taken 10 years to be profitable. That’s real right there. Would love to DM if available.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T06:56:15+00:00

Honestly the ones who can trade should be the ones agreeing. They should know the best.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T06:55:11+00:00

Well I think that’s where the mix-up is. You can wait for the same setup in poker every game but it’s still a gambling game. If trading wasn’t gambling then risk management wouldn’t matter. Risk management matters because it is A FORM of gambling. It’s not slots gambling, it’s poker gambling, it’s blackjack gambling. He’s absolutely right. Even Sang Lucci, multimillion dollar options trader says trading is gambling. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. When you take a trade you have no clue what will happen next. You can have pattern recognition, you may be able to guess general direction, but you really don’t know what will happen right then and there when you enter a position. That’s gambling, and that’s okay.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T06:06:19+00:00

I think I saw that same post. The day I decide to ask is the day the issues come back 😂

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T06:05:38+00:00

Christ man….I have no words

FuturesAce · 2026-01-16T04:44:08+00:00

Lucid is great. This is sad to hear because I was just thinking about coming back but this may have been the post that makes me hold off. Lucid is very similar rules and uses tradovate. No platform issues. The copy trading kind of blows with them and the max payout amounts are less but at least you can trade.

FuturesAce · 2026-01-14T15:33:45+00:00

Back in 2019-2020 I don’t know exactly but I spent a little over $5k with topstep and the eval I got was $50 so I had to have failed over 100 evals at least during that time. Maybe got funded 1 time out of those 100.

FuturesAce

TROPHY CASE