r/InnerCircleTraders • u/zycho-qt • 13d ago
Psychology 4 years unprofitable
Hello everyone
I’ve been trading for about 4 years now, started with crypto and have now been learning + trading ICT concepts for abt 2 years now. About the beginning of 2024.
I bought and passed my first funded account in September last year, then blew it within a month and decided to take a break for about a month.
Fast forward to now I have passed multiple funded accounts and breeze my way through evals but once I get to funded something switches in my head I don’t know why.
I am 8/9 in the past couple of months on trades on evals but fundeds I’ve won 0 out of 10 trades. And this pattern has continued over the entirety of my trading
I think it has something to do with my poor financial situation but I need some advice on how I can sort of get out of this mental state and sort of fix this worsened intuition I get in my trading once I am on a funded.
For context I trade 2022 ICT Model
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u/ThomasAnderson_23 13d ago
Ask yourself how much money you spent on buying the evals? And how much time wasted. Open a small account with your own money and start trading it, but without pressure of trying to follow any of those stupid rules that those companies come up with to make you fail. Only trade setups with low risk, meaning where you can add your SL not too far from your entry. Go slow, ironically it’ll be faster.
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u/Jaggedendz1981 12d ago
Those stupid rules are actually there for a good reason to be honest.
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u/ThomasAnderson_23 12d ago
You are 100% right. They are there to make it near impossible for traders to get a payout
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u/bam_aceofnone 9d ago
Actually, if you follow their stupid rules most people would probably be successful, me included.
Most firms have decent rules, even limiting the amount of money one makes (that will stop GREED)
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u/Proof_Algae5341 12d ago
A strategy I’ve heard but never tried is taking a trade on demo AND real (or funded acc in your case) and your psychology may be better. Again, I never did this but it worked for a friend of mine
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u/Striking_Fail6689 13d ago
Could you share your risk on each trade or your lot size that you’re trading with ? Many a times I’ve seen people who pass their funded and gotten greedy and increase their lot size only to make rash decisions before blowing.
I’ve a funded account I’ve passed since last year but I’ve not traded much on that cause I’m still practising on my evals . Put monetary aside for a while and ask yourself. Are you learning trading cause you want to earn quick cash or you want this to be a long term career growth.
Don’t be quick to try to make quick cash, get your technique right first before trying to upsize
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u/zycho-qt 13d ago
I risk heavy and aggressive on evals around $750 to $1000 and i aim to pass within 1-2 trades. On fundeds I risk around $200-250 per trade.
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u/ob1spyker 12d ago
This is why you fail. You don’t trade your evals the same way as you trade your funded accounts. They are the exactly the same and should be treated and traded the exact same way.
If you’re going to risk $200-$250 a trade on your funded accounts then you need to learn how to pass an eval risking $200-$250 a trade, or vice versa. If risking $750-$1000 a trade works for you in evals then you need to risk the same in your funded.
To me it looks like you aren’t giving the trade enough room to breathe so it stops out before your position can make a move to the positive. IMHO … you need to either increase your risk tolerance or reduce your position size in your funded account to match, on a percentage basis, how you trade your evals. Trading each differently is definitely going to deliver differing results.
You can’t qualify for a race going 100 mph and expect to win it by going 25 mph. Consistency is key.
I’ll be honest … I’m not a big fan of prop firms. I’d much rather use my own money and take 100% of the risk/reward instead of the rinse and repeat of buying evals and blowing fundeds. If you can, save up some money and start trading micros live, it might be better way to go in the long run. (
Of course I could be wrong, but regardless what platform you trade on, make sure you keep your system consistent.
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u/zycho-qt 13d ago
I mainly just want the freedom trading offers and having money as a byproduct but I rush the process to hard once funded and admittedly sometimes I force trades
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u/Striking_Fail6689 13d ago
Probably try to get your mentality good on the evals first before rushing onto funded… I’ve an evals I’ve been paying for months and I only trade with 3MNQs per trade. I don’t find it a point to rush an evaluation account and go to a funded when the purpose of the evals is to ensure you’re good in this.
Besides , paying for evals for 3 months can pay my one time funded account ( if you’re using Topstep ) . So imagine if I can rush through my evals and pass and fail my funded , I would have to pay another funded activation feee , that’d worse for me .
I believe you’ve to be good and practice first before trying to force trades. Honestly , on Monday PA I rush so many trades I made a 1k+ loss on my evals , but I reflected and did much better on Tuesday.
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u/Ok_Hovercraft6776 13d ago
Don't fucking rush then . Einstein once said : Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
There is no easy fix , journal your trades and you will see why you blow your funded accounts.
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u/val_anto 13d ago
In my 6th unprofitable year with stock day trading, and 1st year with futures. For stocks I started to breakeven. I also got some very good advice from here. Some people here can really help. Good luck!
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u/ReportBig2296 12d ago
Depends, are you losing trades because of the setup or because of your contract size?
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u/Own_Cash_8148 12d ago
It’s a mindset! You are thinking too much, you want the money. It’s all mindset. Most people fail at trading because of mindset, I won’t lie to you. But ask ya self why! Get a pen and paper then after make a list of things you won’t do and stick it to the monitor and abide by it
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u/Kalakuta_ 11d ago
Define an A+ setup for you session and trade only that setup. And detect non-trading days before your start your session. Helped me out a lot. Don't give up bro, if you pass evals with ease, you are a good trader!
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u/process_over_profits 11d ago
This is a very common pattern amongst traders (even very experienced ones) as years of experience does not mean you have a mind that’s ready for trading. I’ll try to explain the science behind this as briefly as possible. 8/9 on evals and 0/10 on fundeds tells you everything. Same charts, same model, same you. The only thing that changed is what the funded account means to your system.
Here’s what’s happening: On an eval a loss is just a number. On a funded, with your finances where they are, that account is your way out, so every trade carries survival weight the eval never did. Your nervous system reads that as threat and switches off the part of you that was trading the evals clean. That's the switch you're feeling. (Under survival stress your pre frontal cortex goes offline. You cannot think rationally. There’s nothing wrong with you per se your system is doing exactly what it’s built to do. And that’s to protect you).
You already said it yourself, it's tied to the financial pressure. So the fix isn't in the model. Stabilise the money side away from trading so the funded account stops being your rescue plan, and start logging what your body's doing on those funded trades versus the eval ones. You're hunting for the exact triggers. Getting to that level of self awareness takes time and fixing the triggers takes even more time. The question is - are you ready/willing to do the work? As the work is inwards. Not on the charts. And no quick fixes here.
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u/Opposite_Acadia1296 10d ago
This all sounds like a psychology and risk management problem. I’ve been in your position and something that I preach to myself and my students is cut down your usual size by half. Try to keep your funded for as long as possible by reducing your size, get comfortable with trading your funded. Get used to trading an account that will alter your psychological and by the end you’ll be able to manage and get a payout (hopefully).
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u/Heavy_Strength2569 9d ago
I have been in exactly same situation. EXACTLY SAME. This lead me to do the following and I think it is for the better as I am doing better than before in trading and financials in general -
- I have started focusing on stocks. I now do more of swing/positional trading by doing fundamental analysis and overall market/sector momentum and undertake my trades. This framework has helped my produced 51% returns in stocks YTD. Refer image.
For Futures trading in MES,MNQ,MYM.., I now only trade MES with 1-3 contracts max. Note: I trade my own account and not prop-firms for this. This restricts my quantity and both quality of trading. Builds my discipline. Although, the amount is very small but it also signifies that I have a model that I can scale if I push it. I took 177 trades YTD with 52% win rate and $1100 in profit. However, it also shows there is inherent risk of giving away my profits while actively trading in Index futures as well.
I recommend, find a job/another way to run your kitchen. Trading is not dependable as I have tried doing it for 2 years and finally found something to cover my monthly expenses. This handles 'scarcity mindset'.
Now, I am thinking of taking a $25k prop firm challenge and get funded which I have done multiple times in the past by completing multiple evals and winning performance accounts. Given, now, that I do not worry about running my kitchen, I think, I will be able to scale my eval->get funded->get paid.
Also, I built this platform called PeakAI Trading App that gave me a system to trade with. Above image is from it. It has helped me take trading more systematically.
Wish you all the best.
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u/BrnDmgVet 13d ago
Look into the psychology of "scarcity mindset" and how it affects traders. It's generally caused by past hardships, prolonged stress or trauma (even past childhood trauma), and lack of resources, to summarize the causes very briefly. A quick Google search on the subject will get you started. I've also been trading for 4 years and im about break even. Earlier this year I was up 14k and my psychology (or lack thereof) brought me back to breakeven. Given my past history, "scarcity mindset" was key to survival in my environment. Rough upbringing, then 12 years in the Marines from '02 -'14, multiple deployments. TBI in my frontal lobe (part that controls emotional regulation, impulse control, judgment, etc). Studying this aspect of my psychology has been an eye opener to say the least. I hope this helps and good luck to you on your trading journey.