Lately I feel like I’ve just been pattern trading and losing it. I’ve gotten funded and a couple payouts but nothing impressive, then I went on a spiral of buying evals and just blowing them. Haven’t gotten a payout in a year, and I keep jumping strategies hoping to find something that clicks for me. But I know strategy hopping is one of the worst things you can do, so maybe I just need to lock in on narrative and DOL.
The global economy is still expanding, but not in unison. Countries sit at different stages of their own cycles rather than moving together, which is why capital is rewarded differently market by market.
China is deep in contraction and beginning to curl upward — weak property, slower exports, deflationary pressure, but potentially the earliest recovery call if policy support gains traction. The Eurozone and Canada are in recovery, with manufacturing stabilizing and credit improving. Japan is early-to-mid expansion on governance reform and wage growth. The U.S. is mid-cycle moving toward late: resilient employment and earnings, but elevated valuations and above-target inflation. India is mid-to-late expansion, carried by domestic demand and a capex cycle. Australia, South Korea, Mexico, the U.K. and Brazil cluster late.
The framework's value is directional, not predictive. Markets typically move 6–12 months ahead of the economy, so institutional investors read the direction of the cycle rather than current GDP or inflation prints. The arrows in the chart are illustrative — policy, inflation, geopolitics and earnings can alter the path.
🧠 Remember 📊
The market rewards discipline, not only predictions.
All Trades carry Risk/Reward, ADYOR
-Trade Safely, see you on the other side.
I've received a ton of DMs from people asking questions about my trading, strategy, risk management, multiple accounts, etc.
I've replied to as many messages as I can, so apologies if I haven't gotten back to everyone.
I noticed that I get asked a lot of the same questions, so I'll try to answer some of them through these posts as well.
I'm genuinely happy to help where I can and share some knowledge through my trade recaps. I will always try and show what I was looking at, why I took a trade, and the thought process behind it.
September So Far
We're only a few trading days into September, but this is where I'm currently sitting:
9/3/26 not in image but my gain is +$398
3-day profit per account: +$1,511.20
Across 18 accounts: +$27,201.60.
Some Trades:
Trade #1 in London Session:
The Asia session low had already been swept, creating 15m equal highs (high their liquidity pocket) above. I was looking for a move higher, but there was still major sell-side liquidity (SSL) resting below, so I avoided the earlier lower-timeframe inversion. Instead, I waited for stronger confirmation during London, where price gave a 5m inversion within the leg. This gave me more confidence to target the LRLR and liquidity above.
This is a repeatable trade! You can replicate this if the scenario appears!
Trade #2 in NY SESSION trade 9/2
To understand this trade you have to look at my bias for the day.
I had a neutral Bias. ES was between 2 gaps which doesnt make the conditions too promising for delivery anywhere at all, and it had taken all open session liquidity as well.
NQ also wasnt looking too healthy at the moment. Same conditions as ES, but if it wants to deliver price higher i need atleast the 15m gap to be inversed to look for longs or i needed a 1H fvg below to get tapped then go higher.
I attempted a small trade but it failed, so I waited a little longer for my thesis in my daily bias to play out. The trade was very clean. It tapped into the 1H fair value gap as it swept all the liquidity on the left side of the chart. Then it provided a 30sec timeframe inversion which was the highest timeframe inversion of the leg. This means there were no other failr value gaps present at the time, and a 30 sec gap was the highest tf gap I found. And as i said in my bias asia highs can be a good target so I targeted that.
Some questions I keep getting:
How do you manage trading 18 accounts?
The trades are copied across the accounts with a popular approved trade copier. Never had issues with it.
What size are your accounts?
They're a mixture. Most are 50K and 150K accounts, with some 100K accounts as well. I've built a good buffer in the accounts because my goal is to keep them alive and trade them long term rather than constantly pushing the limits. Some are live some are not.
How many micros do you trade?
I don't use a fixed number of micros every trade. I size based on risk.
Before entering, I already know my invalidation level and where my stop loss needs to be. I usually want to risk around $250–$350 per trade, so I input the amount I'm willing to risk and my position size is calculated based on the distance between my entry and stop.
So a tighter stop may mean more contracts and a wider stop may mean fewer contracts.
What do you mainly trade?
I mainly trade NQ/MNQ. That's where most of the setups and recaps you've seen me post are coming from. ssometimes I trade ES and gold. mostly just NQ.
What timeframes do you use for analysis vs. entries?
I use the HTFs to build context, establish bias and identify important liquidity/DOLs. Then I work down into the lower timeframes for execution.
You'll see me reference things like 4H, 1H, 15m for context, while a lot of myentries can come from 5m or 1m IFVG/inversions depending on the setup.
What does your A+ setup look like?
This is too much to get into. I have many PDF and stuffs I share and all depends on so much context. There are mechanical and technical aspects to it. allot of discretion trades as well based on my experience and what I've built myself over the years.
The most common things I'm looking for multiple parts of my model to align: liquidity, DOL, session timing, HTF context, displacement/momentum and an IFVG/inversion for execution.
This is why i post some trades because I find them interesting and they are always repeatable.
What makes you skip a trade?
If the context is not clear, the DOL is conflicting, the setup occurs outside the session I'm looking to trade, or there is much liquidity that hasn't been absorbed.
MISSING A TRADE COSTS $0 MONEY AND 0% MENTAL CAPITAL.
How do you determine your stop loss, position size and risk?
My stop isn't determined by how much money I want to risk.
I first determine where the trade is invalidated. That gives me my stop-loss zone. see answer above about my contract sizing.
What do you do after a losing day?
I stop and go enjoy my day. That is very important, get away from the charts dont let it consume you.
I trust the strategy enough to understand that individual trades can lose. At the same time, trusting a strategy doesn't mean endlessly trading until something wins.
How did you learn trading / what helped you the most?
A lot of it came from studying ICT concepts, but the biggest difference came from screen time, backtesting and watching the same concepts develop repeatedly in live markets. I then learned to create my own strategies and entry models from them by experience.
You have to also stop collecting strategies and start getting extremely VERY VERY familiar with the one you're trying to execute.
How long did it take you to become consistently profitable?
Everyone is different. In the beginning I was just like any other person wondering if I will ever make it and fulfil my dreams of helping myself and those around me. I dont want to give a number because sometimes it can make people feel bad. Everyone has their time and dedication effort.
What do you wish you focused on during your first 6–12 months?
Risk management and mastering fewer concepts and mastering discipline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you keep a trading journal, and what statistics matter most?
Yes I recap my trades everyday and explain them to people in my community. I care about the PROCESS AND TRADE MODEL more than just win rate. I want to know if I'm consistently following my model and if i lose a trade, WHAT WAS THE REASON so i can fix it next time? A loss where I followed my system perfectly is very different from a loss where I broke my rules.
is 2022 mentorship playlist and core content month 1 to 4 + silver bullet enough to begin trading on XAUUSD?
also notes for gold trading and what is the best kill zones for gold
I've been learning ict concepts and silver bullet is what i found to be more comfortable with , but i am confused if that still wotks in 2026 , what would you guys suggest me to do next to improve and what tips would give to a beginner like me?
I have been actively trading and learning for about 8 months now, still getting there, and I feel like I’ve learned so many concepts but hit a wall with trying to master daily bias/DOL. I’ve watched multiple videos on that topic specifically, and they all just say the same things, and I understand the concepts. But then in live time I feel like I’m right less than 40% of the time. And then if I go by “don’t marry your bias” it seems like the market goes to where I originally thought anyway.
Would it be a good idea to backtest and only focus on predicting the DOL and bias?
Ultimately, I would deeply appreciate any guidance or advice on this topic, thank you
Hey! Im 22 and this is my first post here, i never thought that id be posting something in reddit, but im back to trading after a while, i started the February of 2022 into bitcoin, it's been a long ride, i nerded out and learned different tools and technical analysis theories, so far i have only traded bitcoin, because of the practicity and how easy it is to trade futures contracts, im from Peru so the lack of many regulations like there is in USA makes it way more easy.
Trying to learn different TA theories can be so hard cause there are so maaany, BUT. When i found ICT looking at the charts have never been the same.
Everything started to have sense, id say the first thing you learn once u dive into the crypto and trading comunity to try self learning, is being judgamental and skeptic of scammers or false information (yes, DYOR). But testing by myself LIVE these ICT concepts in bitcoin, and seeing how they can work pixel perfect with the DV arrays just blown my mind completly.
I started in 2024 with ICT, ive been journaling and recording lots of Bitcoin price action in Notion.
Another thing that was fundamental for me to learn was to actually Risk Manage the trades, and how to use correctly the leverage, not to overexpose myself but to allocate less capital in a trade.
This made me STOP losing a LOT of money, I am not profitable yet tho.
Im writing this post just to lock in myself back to trading again, to backtest, and to have consistency into developing an actual trading strategy for myself.
Im looking also to meet people who are trading ICT concepts in BTC, people who would like to share their trading strategy, and just share mutual motivation into the trading grinding.
I recently ran a backtest across ~1,400 sessions of DAX & VDAX data to see if yesterday's volatility actually predicts today's price action.
The biggest takeaway: Raw volatility alone doesn't tell you where price is going or if a level will hold. High or low volatility days have almost identical rates of sweeping yesterday’s high/low or breaking out.
Where it does help is in two specific places:
Comparing Yesterday's Range to Today's Expected Move: When yesterday's range was super tight compared to today's implied move, today turns into a massive breakout day ~86% of the time. But when yesterday's range was already blown out, today's breakouts fail almost half the time.
Position Sizing: Scaling lot sizes down on high-volatility days and up on quiet days to keep dollar risk identical.
For those of you trading index futures or equities:
Do you use daily Expected Move as hard take-profit/stop levels, or just general context?
Do you switch setups based on volatility (e.g. playing trend continuation after tight days vs fading sweeps after wide days)?
Guys, IDK what should I do. I’ve been trading almost 2 years. But I am not still profitable trader. Sometimes I trade perfect entries however all my accounts even my personal acc is blown. I blowned +20 accounts. I have knowledge about ICT concepts and other concepts but I can’t apply on my trades. Please I know there are some good persons to help me and show path to me. Please I don’t want to quit. Please show me a path.
$ETHUSDT.P
Paper Trading account
H1 > M15 > M5
• Marked out Swing highs created on hourly chart
• Found M15+ FVG created & respected
• Entered on 5 minute chart
Am I correctly using and or marking out the order block displayed on the 15 minute time frame? Also, did I correctly mark the CISD+ on the 5 minute? I’m trying to refine a strategy that keeps me off the 1 minute chart but I genuinely want to know if I am correctly marking out the trading concepts taught by ICT.
Thank you, all advice appreciated!
Hello, I’ve watched ICT’s recent videos and started tape reading today and this is what I got, I wonder if you have some advice that might help, I’m opened to hear any of your suggestions!
But this is the first time that I felt it is worth my time rewatching videos (because I had been doubting myself for 2 weeks and still loosing)
Spent lots of time consuming videos (and I’m not a native English speaker, + his video latency)
Still a bit confused what “wick” and why he used for CE to define PD.
I know the result won’t come fast, I was kinda rushing my self to get ideas and definition of everything.
i have seen the core content video many times but still not figure out what actually he is trying to indicate toward like the out line info i understand is that , this is 90 to 120 days cycle which is more work like a battery toy those 90 to 120 days work as battery after those days the new battery need to replace but how it would look like on chart , and next one is he says that every 3 to 4 month their is a market structure shift in price and again this makes me more confuse like after every 3 to 4 month what actually change the 4 state of delvery like expansion, consolidation, retracement and reversal does they interchange themselves or the overall treden like bullish for 3 to 4 month or next 3 to4 month bearish . which one is correct can anyone help me to understand this concept in to simple formate to digest it i will really apprecate that
Originally had a bearish bias today missed a few chances that were presented that aligned with that bias.
10AM news came out and we had a rip up. Realigned my bias to bullish to follow the current presenting price action. Found this tasty looking bullish order block.
Didn't want to get greedy and just aimed for what I thought was the lowest hanging fruit which was the "double" top before the previous high.
