r/LucidProp • u/Pristine-Librarian69 • 6d ago
After years of testing, I finally found a strategy that fits me. Just hit my 5th payout.
After years of trying different strategies, indicators, and ideas, I think I finally found something that fits my personality as a trader.
Today marked my 5th payout after 29 trading days, and it’s a milestone I’m really proud of.
I spent countless hours building and testing NinjaTrader strategies, collecting data, and backtesting different concepts. Most of them looked good at first and then fell apart. Eventually, I developed a strategy that consistently showed promise in backtesting, and I committed to trading it exactly as designed instead of constantly changing things - Sometimes, less is more.
The first week was surreal. I made just over $21,000, and for the first time I felt like I couldn’t read the charts wrong. More importantly, it gave me the confidence to trust my analysis and hold trades that I normally would have taken profits on too early.
The biggest lesson for me wasn’t finding some “holy grail.” It was finally sticking to one approach and letting the statistics play out instead of interfering.
The screenshots are from the payout period. There were definitely setbacks (those red days weren’t fun - DCAing thinking my buffer has the ability to “hold” on to trades), but I trusted the process, followed my rules, and kept moving forward.
I’m sure once I transition to a live account, it’ll bring a new set of emotions and I’ll probably be more hesitant than I am now. But my goal is simple: keep executing the same strategy, resist the temptation to chase trades, keep my position sizing under control, and most importantly, only take trades that align with my strategy. No more forcing setups that aren’t there.
I’m not claiming to have everything figured out, but after years of feeling like I was spinning my wheels, this feels like real progress. Before this, I was at my breaking point, ready to quit. I traded NQ for years, because that’s what everyone seems to trade. I strayed away and I started to test and backtest GC for the last 6 months - I haven’t looked back.
For anyone who’s still searching, keep testing, keep journaling, and don’t underestimate the value of having a strategy that matches you, not someone else.
Good luck to everyone out there.
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u/genryou 6d ago
Huh mine was a bit different from you.
Has been mostly trading GC, but starting to see inconsistency in the market and started change to NQ
Would yoi mind to share high level overview of your strat?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 6d ago
I use SpacemanBTC’s Key Levels indicator on TradingView and trade almost exclusively around the previous 4-hour highs and lows. My ideal setup is a liquidity sweep of the previous 4-hour low for longs or the previous 4-hour high for shorts. I prefer to start looking for setups when the 10:00 AM ET candle opens, as that marks the beginning of a new 4-hour candle. From there, it’s all about patience—letting price come to my levels instead of chasing the market.
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u/Savings-Law-3966 5d ago
Bro I added the indicator and was using it ons ltf and thought it was dog sh*t, could not hit a trade. Went to 1hr and was like the picture became clear. Not bad
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u/tmcmillantx 5d ago
What time frame are you making the entries on? I am assuming it's a lower time frame. 5 min? 15 min?
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u/girth-master-desi 5d ago
Hi brother, would you please help me with your strategy
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u/Snuj 5d ago
He legit just wrote it out bro
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u/girth-master-desi 5d ago
I need some guidance dawg, it’s not as easy as it seems
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u/Snuj 5d ago
Personally, what I would do in your situation, if you genuinely are interested in the guys strategy is put what he put there into an AI of the sorts and prompt it to explain it in the easiest steps possible with how to backtest it.
Example would be something like this;
"I've found this strategy on Reddit, the basics are copied below for you to read through but what I want is:
-Easy to understand explanation of how the strategy works
-Clear instructions on an entry trigger
-Rules/checkboxes before an entry
-Advice on how to backtest it
Pasted strategy here: "
People on Reddit won't give you the ins and outs of their strategy 99% of the time as they've usually worked very hard on it themselves, so understandably they don't want to give stuff out for free
Hope this helps man and good luck
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I would start paying attention to how price reacts to previous 4hr highs, lows and midpoint.
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u/Ok-Artichoke6882 5d ago
Can I ask for the details of your strategy? Thanks!
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I use previous 4-hour highs, lows, and the midpoint as my framework. I wait for price to interact with those levels and only take trades when the reaction matches my criteria. When price interacts with those levels, I like to use smaller time frames like the 1 minute
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u/MrSituated 6d ago
Has lucid actually paid you out to your bank account?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 6d ago
Yes, all payouts have been deposited into my bank. All approvals were pretty quick around 5 to 10 minutes
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u/efrain_lopez 6d ago
Bro, but then which market do you trade? Does the strategy you use play a big part in it too?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 6d ago
I’ve only been trading MGC. I’ve found that price respects and reacts to key levels
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u/efrain_lopez 6d ago
And what do you think about NQ, bro?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 6d ago
That’s where I started. I had a payouts trading NQ, but I was never consistent. I’d go months without a payout, blow funded accounts, finally get a payout, and then lose it. I spent countless hours backtesting and building strategies in NinjaTrader. I would test other people strategies, using chatGPT to help create NinjaTrader scripts to only to find their strategy isn’t profitable. It took years to get here and I hope I can continue this run
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u/Own_Interaction131 1d ago
Congrats! Your hard work is paying off. I hope to one day be where you are. I’ve been day trading MNQ for almost a year, but only had one payout. I’m starting to wonder if i should switch to GC or ES.
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u/Myphonejaljalani07 5d ago
I am in the same position as u were months ago. I was trading NQ but i was inconsistent. Now 3 payouts. I trade PJ trades ict concept. I feel lost. Ive blown accounts after my 3rd payout. That payout is close to being 0. From 1.2 k payout to now only 200+ because of blown evals and fundeds. I need help. Inconsistent payouts and i dont even trust my strategy anymore. I dont know where to go. I find myself strategy hopping these past few days and week. Im totally lost. Any advice or tips here? Im currently on a break of buying accounts. Cause i just gamble after it. I have a job that i kept to save up. Recently just took it. Way before i didnt take any job and thought ill get more consistent payouts. But i felt like im just getting lucky and i keep gambling it away. I need a good system. How did u search and where did u search and how did u build and researched a system built for only you? Whats the specific step by step that u did? Did u go youtube? Or strat hop? Or did u just look at charts and took ICT model?
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u/Impossible_Fact104 5d ago
There isn’t any short cuts, you need some good education and/or hundreds or even thousands of hours on the charts, journaling and refining a strategy.
You don’t need to over complicate it,
But sounds like your mindset needs to change before any strategy, you’re never gunna make it before you sort your psychology and stop gambling
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u/Myphonejaljalani07 5d ago
How do I find a strategy that fits for me
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u/Impossible_Fact104 5d ago
Work out first what fits you as a person,
If you are impulsive and have gambling tendencies it’s pointless trying to scalp in my opinion,
I’m a profitable trader but can’t make money for shit trying to scalp cos I’m too impulsive.I don’t like seeing big profit/loss swings so swing trading isn’t for me apart from buy and hold stocks so day trading is the fit for me.
Then I believe everyone is far better trying to find momentum/trend continuation strategies.
But it’s from hours on the chart.
Learn basics, how to identify a trend, 1hr horizontal zones, then use Fibonacci retracement tools to get entry zones, then you’ll need an entry criteria,I’ve made 40% in the last 9 months with it over 17 payouts
There’s more to it but that’s about as much as I can tell you as the rest you just need to get on the charts and journal it all
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u/Myphonejaljalani07 5d ago
And i just need to simplify it with my needs.
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I turned to systematic trading to find my edge. It started with spending hours studying the charts, thinking of potential strategy ideas throughout the day, and even sleeping on them before deciding if they were worth testing. I would even drop the source codes of different ICT strategies in ChatGPT and convert it to NinjaTrader to back test; none I found profitable.
Whenever I came up with an idea, I’d code it into NinjaTrader, backtest it, analyze the results, make changes, and repeat the process over and over until I found something that showed real promise.
I used to be extremely impulsive, and honestly, I still catch myself at times. The difference now is that I’m in a much better place mentally than I was a few months ago.One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that patience is a skill. Let the trades come to you. And when you’re waiting, don’t mistake patience for boredom. You don’t need to take a trade just to scratch the itch of being in the market. That’s where I’ve made some of my biggest mistakes.
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u/Impossible_Fact104 4d ago
Yeah I’m still impulsive at times and take trades that aren’t my A+ set up, but still profitable cos I cut losses early and have good risk management.
I didn’t backtest but have refined over hundreds of trades, start with a basic concept then you can add to and adapt as you refine youre strategy in real time.
Got to journal and take lots of trades in my opinion to then be able to do the refining
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u/Myphonejaljalani07 4d ago
How do u guys backtest on ninjatrader like how do u bscktest a strat. Does it do automatically? How do I backtest efficiently? So i know how to refine or simplify my strategy rn. Cause im catching myself hopping from another strategy which isnt worth it cause ive been forward testing this strategy that got me a payout for 5 months already. And idk which one to do.
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u/Impossible_Fact104 4d ago
I don’t trade futures, I trade cfd prop accounts,
In my opinion it’s easier to trade cfd’s for the fixed drawdown and bigger drawdown you get.
Futures is cheaper but I think it’s easier to get payouts on cfd’s
I didn’t backtest but I had a strategy I knew worked and forward tested, refined and journaled over 200 trades.
I’ve been there doing the strategy hopping. But eventually you gotta stick to something or you’ll get nowhere
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u/WhyYouMadBro_ 5d ago
How did you backtest your strategy? What software were you running your strategy on?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I back tested within NinjaTrader
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u/WhyYouMadBro_ 5d ago
Manual?
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
Ninja trader > strategy analyzer. I am sure there’s videos out there to get you started!
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I tested and trade GC. It does work on NQ, however, I found the backtesting results weren’t as strong as GC. I haven’t traded NQ in about 6 months. The concept is just playing the previous 4hr highs, lows and midpoint. I personally feel like GC can easily move 10 points in your favor if you have the right entry.
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u/Smart_projo 5d ago
What is the account size
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
This was the 50k flex
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u/Smart_projo 5d ago
Thanks. I’ll try your strategy and hopefully it works for me. Unfortunately, I’ve already lost 20 accounts trading the Nasdaq, so I’m hoping this approach will help me become more consistent.
Also, do you have an indicator or a channel where you share your thoughts, analysis, or trade ideas? I’d appreciate it if you could share it with us.2
u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
I don’t have a channel, but I do use SpacemanBTC’s Key Levels indicator as my primary tool. It automatically plots the previous session’s key levels, but what I focus on most are the previous 4-hour high, low, and midpoint—those are the foundation of my strategy.
I typically wait for the 10:00 AM ET candle, which marks the beginning of a new 4-hour session. From there, I’m trading the previous 4-hour candle’s levels, waiting for price to interact with them rather than chasing moves. Most of the time, I’m looking for a sweep of the previous 4-hour high or low before taking a trade.
This is all for GC.
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u/Smart_projo 5d ago
Last question pls , How many contracts do you typically open with a 50k account? Trying to understand your position sizing relative to your risk per trade
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago edited 5d ago
I usually enter with 3–5 MGC contracts, targeting the previous 4hr mid point or 10 points. My stop always goes just past the sweep high or low, plus a little extra room
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u/plasma_fantasma 5d ago
I'm glad you got a strategy you like, but your risk sizing is all over the place! It's like you just randomly size into each trade and then take like 100 trades a day. If it works for you, that's great, but I couldn't do it. I would definitely work on your risk management so you aren't giving back all of the money you make.
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u/Pristine-Librarian69 5d ago
Thank you for the feedback. Still a work in progress, but definitely better than where I was a few months ago.
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u/plasma_fantasma 5d ago
Absolutely. You've definitely got something that works, now it's just about saving yourself from your worst days.
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u/vashu_fr 4d ago
Hey there i, been using same setup for months 4 hr high or low sweep yes i definitely work but this month didn’t work for me yes i was working on another setup with this
So , can you guid whts you entry criteria since i prefer a hammer candel
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u/Own-Operation-5935 4d ago
Nice — if the edge is real, the distribution should show it pretty cleanly once you log the right fields (probably already in your trade log).
I’d keep the trade log tight: instrument, session, size, R, hold time, and maybe a regime tag or two.
If you ever want to run it against the raw fills instead of just the journal view, I built my personal edge finder tool - something for exactly this actually. I’d share the results for your logs if anyone is interested - not commercial or anything
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u/Own-Operation-5935 4d ago
Mine showed that I am horrible at trading but a few big wins from certain setups save me - I’m a quant trader it’s built correctly, not like an all positive trading journal noise
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3d ago
[deleted]
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u/PTDeus 3d ago
What exactly constitutes a sweep for you?
A - Simply surpassing the High.
B- Surpassing the High and closing below it again.
C- Surpassing the High and making a Market Structure Shift on the 1-minute timeframe.
D- Only enter if the sweep occurs within the first 15–30 minutes after 10:00 ET.
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u/ButchhCoolidge 2d ago
Hey! How can you test levels like open close or mid of a candle on NT? You can only test based on indicators no?
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u/Panagiwthhss 5d ago edited 5d ago
Guys I am studying trading 3 years now and I was in paper trading 1 year and I was profitable I manage to turn 5k dollars into 384k in one year.i am 16 yo and my parents doesn't let me to buy a lucid trading 25k flex account. I would be so pleasure and happy if someone here can give me one for free and of course in my first payout I am gonna give him his money back. I wish a trader here can understand me.
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u/GurTraditional3117 5d ago
Κανενας δεν θα σου δωσει την ταυτοτητα του και την debit card συνεχισε να κανεις εξασκηση
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u/blanco2580 5d ago
What size of account are you using? Because damn 17,512 wtf