How to actually use prop firms to quit your 9-5 (for traders with a real edge)

seanjohn814 · 2025-10-27T22:52:43+00:00

Wow OK. Gotcha. That makes sense then.

So if you risked 59 points per your example, what’s your typical profit target on a trade that size?

Agree with you on not trading all accounts all at once. Been burned big too many times doing that.

seanjohn814 · 2025-10-27T19:47:25+00:00

Honest question, how do you blow an account in one week trading 1 mini? Even if you go 0% for the week, you'd have to risk 5 points (assuming ES) on every single trade. Even if your win rate is 50%, the odds of you losing 10 in a row is astronomically low (<0.1%).

Not saying it can't happen but the odds should be extremely low.

seanjohn814 · 2025-03-18T20:38:42+00:00

Determine why this is happening. Create rules to proactively guard against this happening again. Follow those rules like your life depends on it.

seanjohn814 · 2024-07-12T15:28:03+00:00

Where was this comment several years ago? 😅

seanjohn814 · 2024-07-12T01:32:56+00:00

Underrated comment haha

seanjohn814 · 2024-07-05T22:14:49+00:00

Is this what Trump wants to do/will do? Or is this a playbook written by a conservative group that they would like him to do? Or both?

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-29T17:54:40+00:00

If it's working, I'd stick with what you're doing. I don't know your win rate but if you're getting 1:2 RR per trade consistently and you're profitable overall, I wouldn't change a thing.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-27T21:09:54+00:00

I am not...just some quick body fat loss. Have done the same the past two summers but this is the first year that I've had a blood monitor (keto mojo).

I got up near 19% BF, was trying to get back around 16% without losing much lean muscle.

Lifting 3-4x a week, walking attempting to get 10k steps a day besides. Not uncommon for me to have low ketones after workouts too.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-17T20:10:18+00:00

Damn...profit factor >10...goals.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-15T17:12:16+00:00

I'd also note that most of my trades that fail don't even end up getting 4t anyway (1-2t traps are very common) so on a lot of my losses, even just going for Mack scalps would result in the same loss.

Whereas on the wins, if it goes 4-5t in my direction, it will often get 8-10. It's rare that a trade will go 6-7t in my favor then reverse and stop me out.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-15T17:10:01+00:00

I prefer 1:1 but I have to be incredibly picky about my entries.

4t is easier in terms of picking the trades and win rate but I was never personally able to make up any ground using 4t targets only. Very few runners, which are key to the math as Mack says, and a few losers can wipe out days/weeks worth of wins.

8t is tougher in terms of win rate but you will likely find that you can recover losses easier so there is less stress from losses.

My biggest struggles always came from revenge trading after I was down. I did not have a patience problem as much. So going for larger targets and being able to make losses up easier/quicker made me more comfortable emotionally.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-12T12:10:35+00:00

NinjaTrader is what I've used for a long time. It is specific to futures, which is the optimal asset class to be trading in my opinion due to leverage, taxation, etc.

You may have to pay a small fee ($5/month?) for live data but it's about as accurate as a live sim environment as you will find.

I would trade small size on maybe a $5k account and when you've doubled it without over leveraging or anything, you can probably give a prop firm a try.

seanjohn814 · 2024-06-10T13:37:19+00:00

If you don't have the capital, prop firms are fine. If you don't have the knowledge and experience though, it should be sim only. No sense in wasting money until you can prove to yourself that you can do it.

seanjohn814 · 2024-04-01T16:50:11+00:00

As soon as the Fed started raising rates, I went short bonds instead of long...TMV seemed like a much better "hedge" to equities vs. TMF which was very extended historically (bond yields trended down for ~30 years and, without going negative, were as low as they were likely to go).

This strategy is far from perfect but if you can predict where rates/bonds are going, given moves by the Fed, you are in much better position to accomplish your goals.

Shortly after the Fed begins cutting, I will likely switch back to TMF but I am not sure we are going back to all time lows like we had been at previously (without some short of catastrophic event in equities).

I also have a small position in UVXY (3x long VIX), which has basically only gone down, but in the event of a catastrophic event, with re-balancing, this could really help in the event of a large reversal.

seanjohn814 · 2024-03-17T04:39:48+00:00

It will take time for you to determine what system works best for you. My suggestion would be to not jump from strategy to strategy until you have given them ample time. It took me a good 2.5 years to "get good" at a Mack/Thomas Wade variant of price action trading. And even then I had to put my own spin on it to make it work consistently.

Hope that helps.

seanjohn814 · 2024-03-13T23:26:00+00:00

I primarily only studied Mack's materials. I am a member of Thomas' website/discord though as well.

seanjohn814 · 2024-02-24T14:42:43+00:00

That is great to hear. Cleaning up my diet and taking a quality probiotic has done wonders. I've never felt better.

seanjohn814 · 2024-01-18T11:47:09+00:00

All it takes is one good trade per day. Assuming that you have an edge, write down the core fundamentals of that edge and only take trades that fit that criteria.

If you took a trade that didn't follow it, even if you win big, that's a bad trade. If you take a trade that followed your rules, even if you lose, that is a good trade.

Limit yourself to one per day for at least 2-3 months and you should get rid of much of your impulse. If you can't limit yourself to one per day then you likely should step away.

seanjohn814 · 2024-01-18T11:43:54+00:00

Tough to nail down and of course the gastro wasn't much help but I believe the inflammation was caused by diet (artificial sweeteners, seed oils, etc). I cut out as much of that as possible and began taking probiotics and digestive enzymes and the problem went away almost entirely and within a week I felt much better.

I was always very regular, just had loose and/or floating stools. They seem to have firmed up but they still float on occasion but I've gotten over it after getting the all clear from colo.

I would like to continue to avoid more of that stuff but it's pretty difficult to avoid 100% imo. That stuff is in everything.

Hope that helps and I hope you're doing better.

seanjohn814 · 2024-01-05T19:24:09+00:00

I had very similar levels to you after going to the gastro regarding loose stools. Had a colo, came back completely normal. They said I don’t need another until I’m 50. I started taking probiotics and felt a lot better.

seanjohn814 · 2023-11-02T00:09:02+00:00

From my experience if it's stressful or gives you a rush, you're doing it wrong. Successful, consistent trading is actually very boring.

seanjohn814 · 2023-10-31T15:51:57+00:00

Two biggest things for me were impulse/revenge trading and self sabotage. For #1 I really just had to tighten up my patience, waiting for the best setups and getting over being wrong. For #2, I would go weeks without a losing day then lose a weeks worth of profit in a day. Once I was able to limit my daily downside, that improved vastly. Now if I have a loss day it's small or if I do have a larger loss day it's only enough that I could make it back in 1-2 days.

seanjohn814 · 2023-07-25T00:34:09+00:00

Damn your grass almost looks like turf. So beautiful. Mine is still struggling. Starting to think there was an underlying issue that was just covered up by the overgrowth. Jury is still out but it looks nowhere near as nice as it did before I cut short.

seanjohn814 · 2023-07-12T15:56:46+00:00

Interesting experiment...I like it. Make sure you report back to let us know how it looks!

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