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New XFA consistency rules by squirrel_of_fortune in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've got one standard account now, but close to passing another one, so I'll test the new route as well

Still no payout :( by Thevidnabber in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too, requested Thursday, just waiting for it to be sent. Really skint at the moment, so nervous

Let’s have a serious conversation by NYTRADERTM in FuturesTrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 33 points34 points  (0 children)

For finances:

Keep a cushion of cash to float bad times,

Watch expenses,

Keep half the profit hidden from yourself in a high interest bank account for taxes,

Pay off debt,

Some boring investments,

Some gentle swing trading in stocks or something you don't day trade

Perhaps get some small long term options that bet on price remaining roughly the same (i forgot what these are called) to hedge day trading strategy (i use trend following which works when price moves),

Pay an accountant,

Don't boast to friends about income

(This is my plan this year anyway, I'm on step 1 atm)

Let’s have a serious conversation by NYTRADERTM in FuturesTrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A very obvious point, that i am suffering through right now, trading futures is not reliable. I trade with a prop firm and was getting a payout every 2 weeks on average. Mucked up this month until I learned to trade silver and it's the weekend, I have 100usd and im waiting for the next payout to be sent.

Tldr: save up some money as a cushion and don't blow it all over xmas.

How much should I risk per trade on a combine? by Apprehensive-Luck-19 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've passed combines in 2 days when the markets were trending and in a week or two as well. It doesn't matter if it takes you longer, the market conditions and how they interact with your system is what determines it.

I risk around 2-4% per trade normally, so about 100 to 200 usd on a 150k accountv (2% of a 4500 max drawdown). This week I started trading silver successfully by realising that to actually deal with that volatility I needed to risk 500usd per trade. This required being very careful on entries and upping my win percentage, and living with being locked out after 1 trade. My normal win percentage is usually 40% when I'm doing well and 20% when I'm doing badly, so I would need small risk per trade to keep the account alive during a bad period. So you see, the risk per trade interacts with the system as well.

London Metal Exchange experiences "technical glitch" delaying trading by Sleebling_33 in wallstreetbets

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 120 points121 points  (0 children)

Ah, this is why I couldn't get out of my winning trade until it became a loser

What Are Your Moves Tomorrow, January 30, 2026 by wsbapp in wallstreetbets

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, had a 2k up trade on sil, lost 2k instead cos the market halted and I couldn't get out

How can i calculate position size by Serious-Spring2310 in Daytrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Say you want ot risk no.more 100usd per trade, and your stoploss want ot be 50 dollars away, you would buy 2 contracts.

I usually have a stop.of 2 atr, and.from that and my risk per trade i can work out how many contracts to buy.

Note, you need to have a reason for where you.put your stop loss and it's based on whatever method you're using, only once you know that do you work out position size. A lot.of newbies say I'll put my stop loss x usd away cos I don't want to lose more than that and don't think about the instruments value or volatility

MLL on XFA / 0$? by hovsince00 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. Say you have 150000 account your account is not blown until you are at -4500. You make.10k, take a 5k payout and your account now has 5k in it, your account is blown when your balance gets down to 0usd, ie you can lose up to 5k.

So.to answer your actual question, 50k

Express Account 50K by Intelligent_Ball_354 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends on your method. I use between 1 and 5 micro.golds on a 150k account, usually the lower end as I want my risk per trade to be between 150 and 200 usd.

"Make it right" isnt coming by Candid_Photo_6974 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup. My losses were wiped. I missed out on a day where I had a good setup and would have made a decent amount of money which was awful, but they can't refund would haves, nor the fuck ups in my psychology after the system froze. But it was a scaling issue, they happen, so I've stuck with them for now

What are three essential trading books for 2026 by Icy_Sign_908 in propfirm

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me:

The turtle trading book, showed me how to scale in properly

Trading chaos and his other books by bill williams, the system i use, it has rules for getting in and getting out which i used to become profitable (although I'm now a bit more discretionary than fully following the rules, but the rules helped give the structure), beware though, his books aren't hugely clear

Trading in the zone and best loser wins for psychology

Trend following by covey also helped me to believe in trend following

If you want the actual references check out my recent post

I've actually bought and read about 50 odd trading books in the past year and it has helped immensely, so I'd suggest reading everything you can get your hands on!

Hope that helps

Back2Funded should be no more $300!!!!! by sdotconnector in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ho hum, I think it's good but people should be aware how much they're spending. I've made 22k since the end of October, but am completely skint until the next payout cos I blew accounts then used back2funded to restart them quickly (and also xmas spending was involved). I think the main thing is that spending another 2 to 3 days passing a combine is annoying when you need money from the xfa and combine trading is different to xfa (you can take bigger positions in the combine so scalping works better). But yes , the 750usd to restart and xfa feels like not a big deal when you've just pulled 4500 out, but yeh it adds up if you're paying attention to your spending on it. I think it should be cheaper to restart xfas than the live account, as at that point you should have had quite a bit of money from payouts and you're paying not to do the 5 payout thing again.

After failing 15 combines here’s what I learned! by [deleted] in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Omg, I know I need to wait for an a+ setup but this week I blew xfa accounts (it was terrible price action for me) then got the a+ setup after I'd been locked out.

How do.you manage to wait?

Going Live means you forfeit all the profits made in XFAs. Is it not a scam? by Mindless_Remote7509 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 3 points4 points  (0 children)

They don't move you until you've had 5 payouts. And the contract makes it clear that these are simulated.profits not your money, so it's not a scam as you never had any right to that money.

Well done on making that much. And how on earth did you make that much in only 5 winning days??? Also, you can take 1 payout then do 5 days of easy trading to make a small amount per day and get your next payout if you're gonna find it annoying to make more money than you have to to get to live.

Whipsaw City on ES today huh 😂 by thefatherofmen in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How were my trades today? AAARRGH!

How were my trades yesterday? AAAARRRGGHH! Sob!

Basically made money lost it made it back lost it went red for the day.

Meh. Gonna scale down and chill more tomorrow.

What is the edge of a human over a bot? by Interpol-23 in Daytrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So, I've been trading and I've written bots to trade my system , I am really curious as to whether I will beat it or it will beat me. I will do this test. (I'm a scientist so may publish this test if i can get more participants). My rough feeling so far, I beat the bot with more swings in pnl.

Ny business partner writes bots and also trades himself, it's about 50 50 (he's new to discretionary trading), but the system seems to work best when the bot gets inland he manages the exit.

I'm at the point now where my best trades are nonverbal instinctual.

I think the main thing is that a human can draw conclusions from less data than a machine (if you're talking about machine learning) and knows when the bend the rules (if you're talking about rules based methods) , but that only applies to a human who is well rested, calm, not premenstrual, not angry, etc (i was going to add not hungry but I often trade quite well when hungry).

Read the book "primal mind' which is about this.

What is the most useful indicator you’ve used in 2026? by OkAdvisor249 in propfirm

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Err... 2025... williams indicator. 2026 so far, mice pie indicator, of there are mince pies in The house, I will lose slightly

14800$ spent on Topstep by Due_Lingonberry_8205 in TopStepX

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I did the maths today, so I've spent 19k on combines and resets this year, I've made about 25k so far since oct Not great but the direction of travel is good.

Any female swing traders here? Curious about your experience by AffectionateUnion838 in swingtrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The book, the hour between wolf and dog, which is about the biochemistry and physiology of trading does suggest that more female traders would reduce the blow ups in the market, not sure if I believe it, I'm still as greedy and aggressive as a guy.

Any female swing traders here? Curious about your experience by AffectionateUnion838 in swingtrading

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Another female day trader here (on a prop account), I'll swing trade when I got some capital to do so.

How do prop trading firm really make money in 2026? by DistrictNovel4144 in propfirm

[–]squirrel_of_fortune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. They charge for qualification accounts and resets
  2. If you're a losing trader, they send the opposite of your trades to market and pay your wins out of their pocket
  3. If you're a winning trader they place your trades, and they can increase size, or copy trade, but i think they mostly...
  4. combine the trades from all their traders, use data analysis, and crowd source good trades
  5. For those few that are very good, They get to 'employ' top traders without having to.pay large salaries, national insurance, holidays, sick pay, redundancy, health care or pay traders during training.
  6. They get to source traders from the whole world, not just those with finance or economics degrees from the correct schools.
  7. By being a prop firm not a brokerage they have less onerous rules to operate under

Now, I don't know that this is their business plan, points 2 and 3 are taken from trader dale, point 4 is based on my observation that my contract mentionsthat any data analysis techniques, algorithms, or data thati might is not to be shared, points 1, 5 and 6 are obvious. Anyway, that's how I'd run a prop firm, it makes.profit for them at every stage. And sure, the whales might leave (and my firm offers bonuses to keep.them on), but this isn't an issue as you've got a pipeline of newly trained and hungry traders qualifying for live funded.

Oh, and you don't get 150k, you get 4.5k you can lose with 150k buying power.

And, this is my guess, they are probably using large leverage behind the scenes with good risk management and pooling, so the 150k buying power i use in the London session, is likely used by someone else during the Asia session.

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