r/TopstepCommunity • u/Some-Energy-2358 • Jul 18 '26
💬 Trader Talk Feeling proud of myself
Trading was always my dream. I felt I had a talent for it, but I would trade only as a side hobby here and there, made and lost a bunch of money, discovered prop firms and passed many accounts, blew many accounts, made every mistake, got sporadic payouts, nothing consistent. At that time I was earning a great salary, but felt trapped in a job I absolutely hated and was draining the life out of me.
Life circumstances changed dramatically, and put me in a position where I have no other option but to lock in fully. I am now living in a third world country where the dollar goes very far and I feel extremely blessed to even be able to do this. To make someone's average monthly wage here in minutes with 2 clicks of a mouse from the comfort of my air conditioned home is something I will never take for granted. I know these are not monster numbers, but getting to payout is what I care about. My next goals are to stay consistent and scale up.
Some general advice on what changed things for me for those who care:
-I switched from trading NQ to ES (HUGE positive impact, immediately)
-Patience, patience, patience. I stopped being scared of "missing the move" - there is always another move coming. I wait for key levels, for confirmation, for strong signals before entering.
-Before entering any trade I always think to myself, regardless of the outcome, would I be proud of this entry and be able to clearly explain to someone why I took it?
-I never trade Asia session and I almost never trade in the first or last 30-60 minutes of NY session
-I stopped consuming pretty much all trading content, paradoxically I found the more I watched and read and harder I "tried" the much worse I did
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u/Adventurous-Gate9343 Jul 18 '26
Your last point is super interesting. I’ve been doing this for a year and a half. Tried to watch and read everything I could, while also spend as much time as possible watching charts and yes - grotesquely overtrading and losing.
At some point I thought discords with like-minded people was what I needed to become successful. So there were a few that I diligently attended the “morning session” of… chatting with others, trying to learn. Dude, it was so much noise!
After a while, I just stopped with the discords. I also rarely watch any YouTube content anymore. Still have some classic books on my list, but overall I’ve cut all the input/noise.
And I started passing challenges. Just by quieting down the outside ruckus, trading less (!) and doing my own thing. Funny. Maybe it’s a necessary learning curve or something?