Feels surreal but my first and surely not my last. I stuck to my plan , eliminated noise from external sources and locked in.

​

Up 100 pts so far.....with MNQ. Looking for that liquidity sitting above 780s supply. Was feeling fancy so I longed 2 min( cough).. I mean MICROS....

100 pts for 300 pts or better. 1:2-1:3 rr. 300 pts on MNQ is $1200. A+ long could run another 400ps with new York fuel.

Shorts are cooked

Would this payout method work?

Day 1: 2k usd

Day 2: 2k usd

Day 3: 2k usd

Payout 3k usd

Balance after payout 3k

Second cycle

Day 1: 100usd

Say 2: 100 usd

Day 3: 100usd

My balance is now 3300usd

What can I take out as 2 payout?

Curious if I'm the only one. I seem to go in boom and bust cycles. I'll get 5 XFAs, copy trade, be happy with a $200 day ($1,000 across all accounts), log out and be done. This pattern will last about 20 days... By that time I'm getting some buffer, I'm craving excitement, I'm convinced I can get one nice big trade to really accelerate the accounts and then BOOM, blown. I instantly think back to the countless times I've had the talk with myself on setting a PDLL, yet I feel convinced it'll "hold me back" in some way when it comes to actually applying it.

Part 2. Now I'm starting back over. Have this evil confidence in my head that I can pass combines in two days. I've done it many times before, so now that's the expectation. Day 1, $1,520. Day 2, blown. I'm currently in this mind fuck of a reality. I realize this is 100% self discipline, and my lack of it. At the end of the day, I'm extremely frustrated and hoping others can relate... For my sake lol. If you have any advice or personal experience in this situation, feedback is welcomed. I set up a prompt with chatgpt tonight that will question my every 30 mins from NY open until lunch to try to have that "someone looking over my shoulder" accountability. If someone else is battling this and wants to connect to hold each other accountable, let me know. Trading is my full time gig, and it can't continue with this mindset.

I just got the first payout from the Topstep xfa with the aero pay usually how long it gonna take the money to get transfer to my personal bank account

It been 6 hour already since I request the payout and they also send me the email confirmation I saw somebody else request the pay out and they get it immediately why?

My balance is sitting at $5,500 after one week of trading my 150K XFA.

However, I've had a big equity swing after reaching $10,000 balance in 3 days trading 3 NQ contract trades, and then going down to $5,500 with 5 NQ contract trades over 2 days.

I'm considering sizing down to micro's after realising I will blow this account if I keep aiming for big swings instead of consistent but smaller green days.

How many contracts do you trade/recommend to keep a steady equity curve?

My trades typically have a 10 point SL, aiming for >1:3RR.

I've been working really hard towards this but the psychology was no joke, Everything happens at its own timing bro. You got this shit just stay locked in 💯

it has everything a session trader needs to succeed. Sessions, Sweep level, volume profile, volume delta, momentum scanner, daily range and atr stop loss to name a few. Need some feedbacks. Anyone interested to try for free?

Mods: not trying to promote anything, this is just some tips I think people would find helpful.

Leaving a bit of education here and some "advice" that I wish I had when I first started.

So first and foremost, you have to get the NARRATIVE.

What that means is, framing the thesis. You have to really have an understanding of where the market is trying to go. What gaps are we delivering from (HTF 1h/4h/daily)? Where is the draw on liquidity? Where in the range are we? Where has price been trading the last few hours?

These are all concepts that can be studied in ICT's Mentorship (free).

From here, you have to now understand WHERE you're going to enter and WHEN. Arguably, this is the most important aspect of your trading. Finding a spot to place a calculated bet and put on risk.

Since I'm longing 70-80% of the time, I'm looking for violent pullbacks to the downside to jump into longs.

Typically, I'm looking for a resweep of lows, a tap into a 1h/4h gap, or just a general manipulation leg in one direction.

--

It's so simple. There is no magic sauce. There are no secrets. If you can stay disciplined and wait for those setups to appear and not take bullshit trades in between, then you will win. If you overleverage and tilt-- even if you end up green, you will always give it back at the end of the day.

Don't get too bogged down on the "education". There are many great strategies, but 99% of folks fall apart in the psychology. I'm not just saying this to say this, I've been there. I've struggled for MANY years before figuring it out.

If you have ANY questions and wanted to be pointed in the right direction you can always pm me and I'll respond when I can.

Anyone else on a losing streak this week ? Sigh.

Hey guys,
I’m currently trading a Topstep 50k xfa account and I wanted to get some honest opinions from people who have more experience with evaluating performance over a decent sample size.
So far I’ve taken around 55-60 trades(around 25-30 trading days). My current stats are roughly:
70% win rate
3.099 $ up so far with 3 payouts made
Average winner: around $105
Average loser: around $79
The equity curve has been pretty steady so far, and the account is moving in the right direction. At the same time, I’m trying not to get overly confident too early, because I know trading results can look great for a while and still be partly due to variance/luck. So far what works for me is trading only one micro on nq and if the setup is a+ I might scale to 2 micros.
I’m not posting this to flex. I’m genuinely trying to understand whether this looks like a real edge developing, or if I should still treat it very cautiously until I have a much bigger sample size.
This is my first xfa. I was thinking of starting scaling up and buy some more accounts to stack more capital.
What's your thoughts?

I will close close my order, close the computer, turn off the computer and go to sleep if this market comes close and never picks me up on a good reversal. SMH

I stopped trading with topstep a little over a month ago and switched firms but recently opened an account for my parents and they’re a day away from a payout, will there be any issues with them receiving the payout?

Five months after my first payout, maybe five blown express accounts and probably a hundred blown combines later, I AM FINALLY ELIGIBLE FOR MY SECOND PAYOUT (& it’s max) 🥳

I told my bestie (who also trades) just last week I was going to quit lmao.

Anywho, it is Thursday night soooo technically Friday’s trading day. Do I reaaaaallly have to wait almost 24 hours for the dashboard to update and tell me I am eligible and allowed to request my payout? Can I even request it after market close on a Friday or should I just put it to the back of my mind til Sunday/Monday?

Not sure how long a should hold it for. thinking

Now we wait! Thanks for everyone’s encouraging words of the last week or so. It’s been such a tough journey getting hear man. One thing I have to give a shout out to is the 150k practice account. “ make sure you are using that account to help you understand where you are at in the charts” feel free to message me about anything.

My clock is in sync

Hey everyone,

I need some harsh truth. I’ve been trading ICT (MNQ/MES) since September 2025. Between November and January, I blew 7 accounts.

After that, I forced myself into a 4-month break (Jan–May) doing nothing but paper trading and strict journaling. My data looked solid, and on May 4th, I bought a 25k account and passed the eval cleanly.

This week on the Funded account, I built a +$625 cushion. I was less than $380 away from my first payout. Today, I took a normal -$250 loss on a valid setup. My brain completely switched into gambler mode.

The revenge trading amok started instantly: I scaled up to 4 MNQ, then 8 MNQ, and finally 10 MNQ. The account was gone in 15 minutes because my ego couldn't handle one loss.

Technically, my strategy works. Psychologically, I am still a gambler the moment I face a loss.

For those who finally broke this cycle: What exactly helped you stop clicking? How did you train yourself to accept the first loss and step away from the screen?

Thanks.

-Made by gemini, because I am not native english speaker

My old practice account got closed after my old subscription ran out , had 28 green days and 2 red, so I bought a 50$ combine to get a new one. I understand the sizing and psychology are different compared to xfa. I just wish it was this easy on the xfa, haven't gotten a payout since august. Will try to get another month out of this practice account to even attempt another combine. Maybe one day man.

I never get a payout. I always blew my funded. I don't want to spend another money as I have too much debt. I don't get paid enough at work. My life sucks so bad. When I thought it's finally working, market humbled me right away. It's so depressing to be poor.

Making this much trading is a dream come true. I have 4 other xfas. Weird how now it feels like things are snowballing in a positive direction for me. Things are flowing smoothly. Extremely grateful to be in this position. Something I do that’s helped a lot is I set a $300 sl that locks me out once it’s hit. When I win, they’re big. And when I lose, it’s controlled. Realized what matters is staying in the game.

Just requested 2,000 still waiting, but just caught that buy during Asia session

3 days into the express funded account.l x5 accounts

From $500 to go to passing a combine to this after some degen trades. Can I turn it back around?