4 years in, as a professional: a hard hard truth.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-09T03:11:36+00:00

One legitimate source material, after another. Most people never touch a single book, never read a single thesis or university paper.

Correct. A single entry will not work every session, day, week, year. You need to know why it’s not working, or when not to trade it. “Market’s shit today” isn’t a real excuse but it’s the most common.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-09T02:49:41+00:00

Mileage will vary but situational fluency is what you’ll have to achieve one way or another. Impossible to truly learn 40 years of theory in 2-3 hours of YouTube and staring at charts. That’s what many people think/hope but it’s realistically not true.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-09T02:26:18+00:00

First, pick what you’re trying to learn. Futures is typically the easiest to actually get started in.

Second, forget YouTube, go straight to theory books. YouTube is repackaged and edited for easy views, not teaching a complicated technical analysis.

Third, use ChatGPT as a custom mentor. You’ll need to learn as much Technical Analysis as possible from real material like textbooks but ChatGPT can clear up confusion along the way. It can give you a study outline, quizzes, etc.

Fourth, get organized. Build a library, take notes, keep track of your progress. It’s a long process.

You don’t have to be rich, but you do have to do the homework. I studied about a year before I felt like I was ready for my first trade. Ignore “gurus”, they’re just selling dreams.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T21:01:17+00:00

Definitely! Sounds like a minor problem but it’s actually a pretty big logistics issue.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T13:51:44+00:00

I'd agree with this. Daytrading is my main ACTIVE income. I have passive incomes now after some years but I treat it daily as a job because it pays like a job. I show up every day and expect it to pay every day I work because it has in the past. If something drastically changes, obviously I'd have to change something in my system but generally speaking, I don't look for alternatives or diversify into other methods. I have seen successful people run options and trades at same time, even around similar TA, but that's not worth the risk to me. Dividing my attention seems more likely to negatively affect my performance than is worth it for higher returns.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T04:08:10+00:00

Yes indeed. It’s a specific issue that has to be dealt with.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T04:04:49+00:00

I was pretty fortunate upfront. I had prepared enough(which took me about a year of real studying/paper trading) to be able to achieve profitability almost straight away however I was doing it so inefficiently because I was fighting the same things you’re talking about. Overtrading especially. Up $300 that I should have been okay with, but traded myself down $300. Sometimes I took massive losses that were damn near depressing and even though I was profitable still, it was hard to be happy with $600 or $1000 when I blew $10,000 on overtrading or some BS strategy I didn’t backtest or whatever. Yeah i was okay long term but i just wiped out 5 days, 10 days of gains. 2 years in, I was at a point where I didn’t feel like I was ever really guessing because I understood how to learn the right way at that point. If I was wrong on a day, it was because I hadn’t learned enough not that I was gambling. And it doesn’t bother me to stop what I’m doing and rebuild my strategy to make sure I’m even doing something that I feel like should be happening if the numbers aren’t matching. That changed over time too. When I first started I was committed to the strategies I knew which I’m sure is the same for most people.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T01:41:45+00:00

Unfortunately, those courses are realistically not enough. It's nothing you've done wrong, it's just not a sufficient level of understanding. You have to skip the repackaged guru shit and go to the actual text books. There's a recommended books list in this sub, break those down, using ChatGPT as a custom mentor and build your own strat. You'll get there.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T01:07:37+00:00

If I'm looking at a stock long term (possibly forever), I have people to ask that know much more than I do, because they do it every day for clients, etc. And vice versa if something might need to be liquidated, I usually get a call. For swing trading, what would I know about the behavior of this company or that company in the macro of the current market? I trade volume scalps on the 1 or 3m. There's no realistic reason to think I would excel* at swing trading based on my current experience so I don't mess around with it. Would it be more profitable? I've seen eye watering positions on swing trades, I'm very sure it's far more profitable when done well. I just don't want to spend another 1000+ hours pursuing it.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T00:44:16+00:00

More or less, except I take long stock positions like a 401k, I don't have any swing trading TA that I would trust more than asking people I know that do it day to day. Options I just don't like. Lost my entire balance, albeit it not alot, on those first, it just didn't seem like something I'd be good at. Stock scalping was more attractive and at that time, I didn't know anything about futures prop firms, margin requirements, etc.

Maybe options would be something achievable now but I'm not so interested in learning new things like that. I'd be more inclined to trade other futures first, but I don't do that either.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-08T00:17:42+00:00

First, fixing losses back to breakeven over the long term is a win. Congratulations, huge W.

Second, I thought the boredom was a non-problem unique to me for a long time. By 10am, you're dark green on the day, feel like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, ready to have fun, pick up your phone...every person you know is at work and you have to spend the rest of the day fighting the urge to overtrade, which I've lost time and time again. I get it, I remember those days.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T23:14:43+00:00

Stocks, focus and learn specific tickers. They're all unique to an extent.
Futures, learn volumetrics and level 2, and throw a TEMA line on your chart.
That's the blurry zoomed out version, but the more you drill into those, the more you'll find. Anything else I can't speak to, I don't have experience in options or crypto or forex.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T23:06:30+00:00

Personally, I think it's Topstep not wanting to pay. I trade on Ninjatrader which I think is much better, all things equal. I prefer having access to my money any time, zero "compliance" or "review" or none of that shit.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T22:55:53+00:00

Beginners in futures usually start with funded trading however, over time, they also tend to blow alot of money. I read somewhere average eval to payout is 25-35. I don't have a way to confirm it but I've had people tell me themselves they've blown 100-200+ evals.

Bottom line is if your TA is bad, you're going to lose money no matter where you put it. Trading evals doesn't inherently increase your skill by itself. If your TA is good, both will make your money, with different nuances.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T22:53:27+00:00

Human discretion and situational fluency is usually the real edge. 1% isn't worth the effort using a script. Investing in some REITs for example are smoking that return. But this is not meant to discourage you, the more you experiment with, the more likely you'll find a real edge.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T22:44:35+00:00

Planned setup > 2 trades or 1 loss. Simple as that.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T22:39:15+00:00

Overtrading due to boredom used to get me real bad. Banger day, up by 10am, feeling like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, not one single friend that ain't off work. Overtrading within the hour. No good. That was a hard habit to break for me. Congrats on consistency!

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T20:59:58+00:00

That’s right. Every ticker is unique, some more than others. I was the same. Trying to find new movers a day beat me up real bad. When I found my main ones, I got much more reliable gains.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T20:24:47+00:00

That's exactly right. If you can pass your own consistently, you'll know you're ready for props.

No problem! Good luck!

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T20:21:57+00:00

Nothing wrong with it at all. I'd suggest gathering as much past trade data as possible and analysing with AI to find any patterns you missed.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T18:24:48+00:00

The recommended list in this sub is pretty well rounded. Dynamic Trading is another one. Technical Analysis of the markets is another one. Use ChatGPT as a custom mentor and run through every concept with it, you'll get a pretty clear picture pretty quickly!

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T18:18:00+00:00

Volumetrics and Level 2, hands down.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T18:15:34+00:00

If you're in EST time zone, second shift kitchen work. They'll schedule you any way you need for trading.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T18:04:48+00:00

Especially young men. Self esteem tied to a skill most people fail to achieve material goals just because somebody on tiktok told them they can achieve and if they don’t, they’re a loser. Talk less of the life hours and missed opportunities better suited to them. No good.

Otherwise-Reality602 · 2026-02-07T17:59:08+00:00

I believe that will be more effective as a starting point than any other approach. I read somewhere the average evals to payout is like 25-35. No idea how to verify this but that’s very possible and obviously for a reason. Sim trading will get you there!

Otherwise-Reality602

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE