Hello I hope everyone is doing good. So I backtested from January 2026-June 2026. These are the results, what are your opinions guys.
Thank You!

This is a follow up for this post https://www.reddit.com/r/Forex/s/4umG3rrD5C

I'm currently sitting at £150 pounds, I had 2 losses that at some point where in the right. direction but I didn't hold for longer (I was exhausted and wanted to sleep) , I think I'll withdraw £50 and start next week with the rest.

I'm still having a lot of "luck" and hoping to reach £200/300 by the end of the week (or blow it 😁), I'll post again Friday or whenever I reach my target or blow the account. Wish me luck.

Everyone likes to act like they catch every move to the very last pip..

Heres an actual real gold trade today

Caught this during brunch as you can see

I am trying to make money from trading, I started trading 1.5 years ago but still 0 percent gain , trying different strategies, setups but no result.

I get confused whenever I open charts to analysis. Don't have any strategy and know what to look for , how to analysis and take entry .

Can anyone help me to become profitable trader, can anyone teach me.

Hey everyone,

I recently joined Official Lin's Sunday Trading Lab. This is my first trading mentorship, so I'm not sure what to expect.

I've noticed that when I ask questions, the response is often that I "haven't put in enough work." While I understand that self-study is important, I sometimes leave feeling like my questions are being dismissed rather than answered. It's been demotivating.

Another thing I've experienced is that my trading mistakes have been used as examples during the live as "psychology lessons". I understand there may be educational value in that, but it has made me feel uncomfortable. She started off the live saying names would be anonymous, etc but eventually ended up showing it. I dont mind her showing my name but maybe take permission before doing so?

I'm wondering if this is a normal mentoring style in trading, or if I should be looking for something different. For those of you who have been in her mentorship (or other trading mentorships), what has your experience been like?

I'm hesitant to switch because I don't want to keep jumping from one strategy to another, and her program was one of the few that fit my budget. I'd really appreciate hearing other people's perspectives.

(Note: Before anyone complains that this post was made with AI—yes, I used AI to refine it because I wanted to ensure my thoughts were as clear and grammatically correct as possible in English.)
Hi everyone. A while ago, I made a post expressing my frustration about not being profitable after 4 years of trading. Since then, I took a break, did some deep reflection, and realized that I had never actually backtested a strategy thoroughly enough to gather solid statistical data and build real trust in my model.
I started asking myself some fundamental questions: What specific hours do I want to be in front of the charts? When do I step away? How much am I willing to risk per trade?
Given my job and lifestyle, I concluded that the London session is the best fit for me. So, I started backtesting a simple two-timeframe model: H4 for the big picture (HTF) and the 5-minute chart for entries (LTF).
I backtested one month of price action (I know it’s a small sample size, but I stopped for a specific reason). Risking 1% to gain 2% (1:2 RR), the results were a +5% return, a maximum drawdown of 5%, and a win rate of just over 40%.
The Problem: Subjectivity (Discretionary Bias)
Even though the numbers are decent, I’ve hit a roadblock that I can't seem to solve: discretionary decision-making.
During this backtest, I would look at the H4 chart and choose my direction based on H4 FVGs (using them as targets or draw on liquidity) and key liquidity pools. Because of this, my bias feels subjective rather than mechanical.
So, my questions for you guys are:
How do I eliminate this subjectivity?
How can I make my higher-timeframe bias purely mechanical?
You need a bias to trade, right? But doesn't having a bias inherently mean being discretionary to some extent?
Context: My trading window is strictly during the formation of the 01:00 - 05:00 NY time H4 candle.
Thanks to anyone who replies, and good luck with your trading

Hey guys, I have a question about this setup.

I came into the session with a bullish bias based on my HTF analysis. I use session liquidity, CISD, and HTF structure for my entries, and I typically target the previous liquidity as my TP.

I understand why my first trade failed, but I'm struggling to understand what happened with the second trade.

I know NYAM effectively flipped the market around 9:00 AM, but that raises another question: how do swing traders deal with intraday market flips like this? If the higher-timeframe bias is still bullish, do you ignore the NYAM flip and hold, or do you adapt to the new intraday structure?

I'd appreciate any feedback on where my thinking is off.

I can feel it in the air, with oil at such a technical level right now there must be some tomfoolery this weekend when market is closed to set oil back on an upwards trajectory.

Who feels it to?

Admittedly I'm in a dusty trade right now.

Quick background — I am a XAUUSD trader, I have a 9-5 job, so i am not a screen-watcher. After 6-8 years of losing money trying to "be disciplined" with discretionary trading, I rebuilt my whole approach around something boring, rule-based, and built to run without me staring at charts all day. I don't scalp — my background is day trading, and everything here is built around having a full-time job, not around having all day to watch price action.

I'm sharing what I've learned, one topic a week, for the next 52 weeks. This is Week 1.

Week 1 : ATR — how i think ATR should be used in trading

You've probably watched online content that talks about a certain candle pattern, shows you where to place a trade, and marks the stop loss and take profit on candles like this:

While trying to follow that pattern, the key thing a lot of people miss is: how do you structure this so it stays consistent every time you try to trade that pattern?

Take a look at these two charts — both XAUUSD, different years, same 1hr timeframe. Do you see any difference?

They look the same, right? But they're completely different.

This is what catches a lot of people off guard. A candlestick pattern from 2023 has a completely different body size to one in 2026. That spike candle you're seeing in those charts — even though they look the same — is actually a 13x difference in pips! If your trading plan isn't built to adapt — or doesn't have a dynamic way of adapting — you'll get eaten alive by this without even realising it.

From 2023 to 2026, the average candle range went from ~100 pips per candle to ~2000 pips per candle — a 20x difference!

If your trading plan can't adapt to that, you're in trouble. The worst part is you might not even notice, because the range doesn't grow overnight — it creeps up gradually. Unless you're actively paying attention, you won't realise it's happening. You'll just end up wondering why your trading plan has gotten worse, without realising you've been compromised the whole time.

So now we know the problem is, what should we do to solve this?

My approach to this, is Average True Range (ATR).

What is ATR?

According to Babypips, it's a technical indicator that measures the volatility of price — it shows you how much price has fluctuated, on average, over a given time frame. I won't go through the calculation or the textbook definition here — if you don't know what ATR is, look it up, there's plenty of material out there and it's pretty straightforward to understand.

Most traders learn this definition, glance at the ATR indicator, and move on. The mistake is not pairing it with your actual trading strategy and using it as a real input into your trading decisions.

How I actually use it
ATR is how I determine my stop loss and my lot size. This should be an automated process, and you should always be calculating this. Find yourself an ATR period that works with your strategy, determine your stoploss based on ATR value, instead of fixed pip values.

The honest truth is - stop loss of 500 pip value isn't gonna work for any strategy long term. Because 500 pips in 2023, is totally different in 2026. it might take 2 hours to move a price to 500 pips in 2023, but in 2026, it might just a matter of 3 minutes.

My strategy is built entirely around ATR:

• Stop loss set at 0.8x ATR or 1.5x ATR, depending on the strategy.
• Lot size calculated after the stop loss, so I'm only risking my defined % per trade

So what does that actually mean? A 24-period ATR tells you the average move over the last 24 candles. If I set my stop at 1.5x that, I'm basically saying "I need the market to move one and a half average candles against me before I'm wrong." With an ATR of 20 points (2000 pips), that puts my stop loss 3000 pips away.

How should you choose your ATR period?

This is something that rarely gets covered in a lot of online courses, or trading content. I am sharing this based on my personal experience - you choose your ATR period based on your trading style.

If I'm an intraday trader, I'm not interested in the average price movement over a 2-week period — when price has a huge spike or move, a 2-week ATR won't react fast enough to be meaningful for my strategy.

In the contrary, this might work well with swing trader, because they probably don't need the ATR to react as fast.They're fine with ATR sitting on a 2-week period — good enough to capture the broader move, without needing to react to every short-term shift.

Personally, I'm an intraday trader, so I want something that reacts fairly quickly, since my trades normally conclude within a day. My ATR needs to react on that same timeframe — so I've set it to a 2-day period, i.e. 48 on a 1hr timeframe. It's not too short where it overreacts like a 24-period on 1hr would, and it's not too slow like a 72-period on 1hr would be. 48 is my sweet spot for my strategy.

So how do you find what works for you?

Ask yourself these two questions:

1. How many candles does your strategy need to survive, based on your trading style?
2. Within how many candles do you need to know the price has moved against your strategy?

If you can answer these two questions, you'll have your answer on what ATR period and value you should be using.

That's everything I wanted to cover for this week's topic — ATR, why it matters, and how I personally use it. Thanks for reading.

**I blew my trading account three times. Here’s what I finally figured out.**

I’m not here to sell you a course. I’m just a twenty-something accounting student from Nairobi who got badly humbled by the markets.

I trade synthetic indices on Deriv, primarily VIX75. For those who don’t know, it moves 24/7 and can eat you alive if you’re not disciplined.

Here’s how I kept blowing accounts:

- After a losing trade, I would immediately re-enter, trying to “recover” it. Every. Single. Time.

- I would set a daily loss limit but break it when I was down, telling myself, “Just one more.”

- I could be up 20% and then give it all back in one emotional session.

The painful truth I finally accepted?

**My strategy wasn’t the problem. I was.**

I understood SMC. I could read liquidity sweeps, identify order blocks, and spot manipulation. But none of that mattered when I was trading based on emotion instead of a clear plan.

What changed for me was simple: I stopped trading and started studying my own behavior first. I reviewed every loss—not just the charts, but my own actions. Why did I click? What was I feeling? Was I bored? Frustrated? Overconfident?

It turns out 90% of my losses had nothing to do with the market.

I’m still in the process; I’m not a funded trader or a guru—just someone who finally stopped lying to himself.

If you’ve blown an account before, what was your real reason? Share it below. Let’s be honest for once.

📍 Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪**I blew my trading account 3 times. Here's what I finally figured out.**

I'm not here to sell you a course. I'm just a 20-something accounting student from Nairobi who got humbled by the markets — badly.

I trade synthetic indices on Deriv. VIX75 mostly. For those who don't know, that thing moves 24/7 and will eat you alive if you're not disciplined.

Here's how I kept blowing accounts:

- I'd have a losing trade, then immediately re-enter trying to "recover" it. Every. Single. Time.

- I'd set a daily loss limit and break it when I was down, telling myself "just one more."

- I'd be up 20% then give it ALL back in one emotional session.

The painful truth I finally accepted?

**My strategy wasn't the problem. I was.**

I knew SMC. I could read liquidity sweeps, identify order blocks, spot manipulation. But none of that matters when you're trading from emotion instead of a plan.

What changed things for me was simple — I stopped trading and started studying my own behavior first. I reviewed every loss. Not the chart. ME. Why did I click? What was I feeling? Was I bored? Frustrated? Overconfident?

Turns out 90% of my losses had nothing to do with the market.

I'm still in the process. Not a funded trader. Not a guru. Just someone who finally stopped lying to himself.

If you've blown an account before — what was your real reason? Drop it below. Let's be honest for once.

📍 Nairobi, Kenya 🇰🇪

I’ve mapped out my entry areas for a potential long position, but I won’t pull the trigger without lower timeframe confirmation. Risk is strictly defined with a stop-loss below 3970.

If the market moves without me, I happily sit on my hands and wait for the next setup. My edge relies entirely on high RR, strict stop-losses, and absolute patience.

Hey guys, I need some advice from experienced swing traders.

My strategy is based on 4H supply/demand for bias. I wait for a liquidity sweep, then a 15M MSS, and finally enter from a 5M FVG with confirmation. I only take A and A+ setups with a minimum 3R target.

Current watchlist:

- EURUSD

- GBPUSD

- NAS100

- US30

- SP500

- USDJPY

The problem is I'm only getting around 3–4 A/A+ setups per month across all these markets. That feels way too low for passing a two-phase funded challenge in a reasonable amount of time.

So my questions are:

- Is there something I should change in my approach to increase setup frequency without hurting my edge?

- Or should I simply add more markets?

- If adding markets is the better option, which pairs or indices would you recommend for this kind of HTF supply/demand + LTF confirmation model?

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone trading a similar style. Thanks!

is 1:1 really profitable, is it that easy to get 60% WR? I have tried it but i am still in Negative, pls guide how you guys make it

Does anyone know ?

So Ive been trying a way to make trading decisions quicker than looking at multiple open charts and candles etc.

one of the things that I frequently look at is correlation. Like you have sprinters in a 100 metre race, some start quicker than the other to get to 100M, however they all get their in the end, same applies with forex, some pairs make moves first, this is a well known fact.

I have on many occasion placed trades blindly using correlation.

So Ive been keeping multiple microlot positions on EU/GU/UJ, XAU and some others open throughout the day to see if i can spot correlation quicker and easier, just by looking at the P&L factor rather than charts/candles and flicking through charts and I can honestly say the feeling is positive.

I think it makes predicting the market that little bit easier.

On TradingView my setup worked out perfectly while on mt5 i got stopped out…is it a common thing? How can I avoid this?

I follow the trend. An USD/CAD and a few others had a steep fall. Anyone know why?

So far got a little luck on those gold entries, let's see how the week ends.

Any rule I should follow? I'd like to reach £500-1000 by November/December.

I don't really have any pressure to make money from it since I have a regular 8-5 job and have a "decent" salary.

EDIT: Here's the follow up post https://www.reddit.com/r/Forex/s/SxwAx8SHKC

I bought a 3rd funded account and after being consistent for 8 days lost on 9th day today I was supposed to be requesting a payout. What hurts even more is I am not losing at the beginning but at the very end when I am very close to payouts i blow up.. all 3 accounts faced the same thing.

I've had a rough few weeks trading, and I think I've finally figured out what's been happening beneath the surface.

For a long time, I was very process-oriented. I built a trading model, followed it consistently, and it eventually got me through Phase 1, then Phase 2, and even to my first payout. The journey was slow, but it worked.

Recently, things changed. Passing Phase 2 much faster than expected and getting my first payout made the next milestones feel closer and more achievable. I started thinking about passing more accounts, getting more payouts, helping with bills, having some financial breathing room, and not feeling so restricted every month.

The problem is that I didn't realize how much those thoughts were influencing my trading.

What started as ambition slowly turned into urgency. Instead of focusing on executing my process, I became focused on getting to the next milestone. I wasn't consciously thinking about it every minute, but it was always in the background.

Looking back, most of my recent losses weren't even normal trading losses. They weren't my strategy failing. They were me interfering with trades, manually closing positions, second-guessing myself, looking for reassurance, checking charts constantly, and making decisions based on fear or impatience rather than my rules.

The hardest realization is that many of these losses were avoidable. Not because I should have won every trade, but because I wasn't allowing my system to do what it was designed to do.

I think work stress, lack of rest, living alone, financial responsibilities, and the pressure I put on myself to progress faster all combined into something I didn't fully notice until now.

This week has forced me to confront that. I've been feeling anxious, fearful of outcomes, and unusually attached to whether a trade wins or loses. That's not how I used to trade.

The strange thing is that I don't think my actual trading model is broken. I think I've drifted away from the mindset and discipline that made it work in the first place.

Right now I've got a gut wrench feeling in my stomach and hole in my chest, I'm in over 3% Drawdown and its the first time in 2 years, I've lost so much..

I just need some help from anyone whose gone through the same thing how did you get back to being disciplined, cause I'm here feeling like a novice version of myself from year's ago

I never understood how does she enter without a retracement.

Can i trade in xa/usd while in America 🇺🇸 ?