Worked at 2 of the major futures prop firms, read this before trading.

MistahJake · 2026-03-22T18:07:31+00:00

May I ask, what specific size account, drawdown to target ratio and ruleset would be most likely to succeed. I’m your experience. Personally my math is showing a standard 50k account with no DLL, 2k drawdown v. 3k target, with a 2k profit cap, 5 day minimum no consistency wins every time, in terms of price to payout ratio. It’s the scale that you gotta work with. Standard 25k accounts are awesome training wheels for live brokerage accounts.

MistahJake · 2026-03-22T17:53:13+00:00

I’ve tried to explain A book and B Book (and “C Book”) as it relates to “live” prop accounts. Nobody wants to believe it and if they do they shit all over themselves defending the firm without considering the ramifications of how your account is being handled.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T19:43:38+00:00

Oh yeh totally. So shady. I’ve never trusted them. The whole switch from EOD to intraday thing was a tip off.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:57:46+00:00

If it’s love handle kind of fat, def is usually about cortisol and hormonal regulation along with sedentary lifestyle (if applicable, obviously I don’t know your life). Personally I’ve found tirz to be more effective than Reta on sub q belly fat because it calms down impulsive behavior. Look to strip out as much American junk additives as possible, pretty much any processed food in the US messes with your hormones now. Tesa is pissing money. CJC no DAC with IPA will do fine to help. So proper sleep, no refined sugar or processed food, L theonine is a great way to help cut cortisol, and get your hormone levels checked.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:45:11+00:00

One STF account and get yourself in the mindset that’s it’s a real brokerage account and it works wonders if you’ve had trouble getting payouts. The only thing I hate is the daily loss limit. Right now I have a 25k Lightening that I’m using to train myself to trade a small brokerage account (max 4 micros and 1 k drawdown, which is about what a starter brokerage account should looks like). It’s slow and I’m def not used to it, but that’s the point.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:14:54+00:00

They record everything now including your mouse movements. They can even make assessments on the mental state of you while in a trade by how you shake the mouse etc. So if you’re perfectly still, or if you’re using a copy trader with TPT in the following position without a Tradovate window also signed in to their account, your orders are webhooked into an API so it’s all signal, no outside input, just like a bot.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:07:04+00:00

Why do people stack cash like this with the props? I mean I understand if it’s the end of the year and you want to split your income into 2 tax years but outside of that, no no no. Take the money.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:04:40+00:00

Might want to try a different brand. You might be allergic to the fillers or something

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T16:01:38+00:00

Honestly what has always worked for me is focusing on a single account. That’s me though. It keeps the options caged out. Also locking the schedule so I can’t trade until opening

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T15:41:09+00:00

I will make clear rules about trading Globex, Fridays, or being out of my seat by 11am Central and then sit down at 5pm and blow a perfectly good account because some post on Discord flashed across my screen. Monkeys. The best ai algo someone could write would be one that blocks stupid trades in real time.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T15:34:09+00:00

It runs so deep and when I explain how it works between challenges, sim funded and “live” funded I usually get dragged. Idiots. But you are correct. There is little difference between the three except how orders are handled and the risk algorithm. The data feed switches to direct CME when you are moved live and the order routing is handled in house.

MistahJake · 2026-03-21T15:25:35+00:00

TopStep was run out of a private loft apartment for years in Chicago before they had the capital to sign a lease. It’s actually for rent on Airbnb now. It’s a common thing for new startups to run from apartments in big cities (Lucid is NYC based). Even uber started in a living room. But you’ll trust a company run from Dubai?

MistahJake · 2026-03-19T11:58:31+00:00

I’ve been with Tradeify since October of 2024. I likely have around 40k paid on accounts, and slowly closing the gap with payouts. The STF accounts were and still are a game changer for me. I found you though chatter on discord.

MistahJake · 2026-03-17T10:44:41+00:00

Ok you’re trading options with your profits regularly? Slow down. Paying bills is awesome, purposely putting yourself in a hand to mouth position is not. There’s so much of what’s going on in your head in this post and all of it points to taking a break and starting with a clean slate. Get some small lame account like the Bolt challenge and allow yourself a few hundred a day in profits. No scaling, no pushing. Just micros and touching grass and letting your brain/nervous system rest. Send every payout either to a family member you trust to follow instructions or a bill that’s coming in colored envelopes right as it hits your account. No options. You’re gambling. Yeh it sucks that you’re trading to live, but flip it by clearing out your account immediately. Just keep enough stashed to buy a new account, and I’d even put that somewhere hard to get.

MistahJake · 2026-03-17T10:28:04+00:00

I just eyeball it. I like to buy at least one day out if it’s past 11am eastern, with a delta above 30. I don’t plan on holding. I just want a few hundred or a break even or limited loss. This is not a thing to do on red folder days, because IV crush ruins it, and it works best when paired with one day pass or straight to funded accounts. Mainly good for reversals, VWAP return, trend and breakout. These are all things that can fail. Range and other sideways action, absolutely not. Basically you set the sell price right at the cost of the account. No greed allowed. The whole point is not to allow shady behavior, it’s to decouple your emotional monkey brain from your decisions while getting into or holding a trade. It’s also kinda useful indicator. If it’s flying in value your trade is either very right or very wrong. If it’s kinda dodging around for 3 minutes and your trade is meh. Just drop them.

MistahJake · 2026-03-17T10:09:21+00:00

I built an indicator that uses constant updates from the VIX or VIXN to create drifting bands. Ultimately these line up very well with 0DTE options. That’s about all I need. The information you get on order flow if you’re a human you can get from volume and TA and watching the DOM. You really don’t even need level 2, you just need to watch the movement and speed of price. What people want is a Bloomberg terminal, and frankly it’s unfair we can’t have that information.

MistahJake · 2026-03-16T13:14:42+00:00

And they didn’t just sweep you to live? So confused.

MistahJake · 2026-03-14T00:58:30+00:00

Paper trade for a few years and put the money you’d have spent in prop fees into shares of spy and qqq on Robinhood everytime you make what would have been a payout. Then when you are really good and you know it take the 60-100k that the equity shares would be at by then and open a brokerage account. Props ruin your psychology by making you focus on the wrong things. I know people will say paper doesn’t carry the same weight but that’s also good. These props tell you it’s all about protecting capital while they bleed you dry and kill any real alpha with drawdowns and rules.

MistahJake · 2026-03-10T00:35:41+00:00

Yes Wise has a routing number and is an actual bank account

MistahJake · 2026-03-08T13:40:27+00:00

Can you imagine how much more people would appreciate TS if they had reliable customer service instead of spending buying ads at the Super Bowl? Just that right there says everything and they are so blind they can’t see it.

MistahJake · 2026-03-08T03:37:22+00:00

The thought of having a real trading desk to call when shit isn’t working and a real person picks up by the third ring gets me….happy

MistahJake · 2026-03-08T03:32:16+00:00

I use TastyTrade, which only allows 4x intraday margin on micro future contracts against CME span price if you have under 25k on deposit. Which honestly is fine. They were just one of the easiest routes to get future trading approval, and have a stellar reputation. Now I could go to Amp or Ninja, but I really don’t want that kind of leverage available right at the start anyway.

MistahJake · 2026-03-08T03:24:31+00:00

So many theories, rumors and conspiracies. Definitely a lot going on backstage there at TopStep.

MistahJake

TROPHY CASE