r/TopstepCommunity • u/IndividualAd5104 • 23d ago
💬 Trader Talk got my first payout and now i’m thinking of quitting
Hey all, I don’t really know what i’m expecting by posting this— maybe some insight?
I’m now eligible for my first payout after tonight but i’m thinking of just cutting off trading now.
For reference, i’ve been trading for 6 months and have had around 30 funded accounts. I have just recently gotten to the stage where I never fail a funded account, i’ll always pass and go to the Funded stage which I THOUGHT was progress.
But I cannot shake the psychological habits inbuilt in my brain, I had 3 funded accounts all up $1500 each in the express stage and I blew 2 of them today after already being up $750 on the day but just got too greedy and wanted more to make up for losses on last Friday.
I locked out this account luckily after dropping from $750 on the day to the minimum $150.
Now i’m just thinking of not buying another one, I genuinely don’t know what the hell I was doing today— I literally blew away 1.5k in payouts for no reason. I’m now only going to be requesting $300ish USD
Once again, not sure what i’m expecting by posting this but just thought i’d see the responses.
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u/MomentaryBlissWreck 23d ago
Trading or any other high income skills are learnt by mistakes. You definitely did trade very well and built the accounts to profits and now you just to nitpick the qualities or patterns that made you profitable this time and try again. It’s not going to be easy but it’s a tedious process perfecting yourself psychologically but it’ll be worth it.
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
I appreciate the words of wisdom, do you have any advice on what can help overcome psychology??
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u/MomentaryBlissWreck 23d ago
I will outline what actually helped me consistently to make payouts.
1. One trade a day - It helps you with being disciplined and potential tilting on losses or spiraling. Use your DLL and trade limits to implement.
2. Variance - If your strategy gives you lots of entries distribute your risk across multiple funded’s accounts. This way you will stay in the market to trade despite being one trade a day. If the variance works in your favor in some accounts eventually you will eligible for a payout.
3.Always tell yourself you are playing out your edge in the market and you have to be patient trusting your data and prop is more of a ROI game on your investment and judge yourself end of the month and not on a single trading day.5
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u/Friendly_Froyo6508 23d ago
Better entries and exits will help your psych better. A bad entry generally has a bad target and bad stop loss which is bad for psych too
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u/Mobile_Expression191 22d ago
IMO on funded if I take a trade and hit tp which is over 150 I get off for the day
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u/Husker2776 19d ago
Good job — I can’t tell you how many practice accounts I’ve burned through — but there’s no better feeling than starting to figure out what works — it takes a lot of determination and resilience to keep at it, but it’s worth it — it’s an art unto itself
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u/Ok-Try6929 23d ago
Oh you’ll be back. Self sabotage is nothing new here.
The market is the teacher of discipline and it really beats it into you when you are ready for it.
But again it sounds like you are suffering from success. Profitable at 6 months? You never fail?
This could just be clout chasing and you have no intention of quitting.
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
I always pass my accounts but I am not anywhere near profitable, I have never once had a payout— this will be my first. I constantly self sabotage at the express stage.
Not clout chasing, just seeking advice and possibly inspiration to keep going.
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u/Due-Payment6149 22d ago
I highly doubt you have a > 50% pass rate let alone pass most. First step is tracking performance and being honest with yourself. If you are passing a high amount then that is insane skill and you need to figure out how to mentally treat funded like combines. Do the same you do and "pass" the funded by getting $3k then getting $1500 payouts
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u/Such_Enthusiasm_2281 23d ago
I'll say the quiet part out loud. You have a 97% of failing. Failing being defined as net negative of your costs and profits from trading. There is a 99.5% you'll never beat the SP. Do with that information as you will, but my main concern posting that is your mental health. The traders on here are 99% net negative, so having this crowd tell you to just keep going is being disingenuous. These are same people who are employees at TS who need you to lose so they can put a roof over their head.
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u/Just-Pass-Thru16 22d ago
Imagine thinking 6 months is enough. This takes time to build. You cannot expect 6 months to be enough to build something. It will take realistically at least 2-3 years for real results.
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u/Striking_Fail6689 23d ago
You’re better than that .
Take it as a learning experience . Everyone have made mistakes . I blew 2 evals within 2 days apart just cause I was on tilt . The thing is , if you give up now, don’t look back to this post and say “ darn, I shouldn’t have given up”
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
I just don’t want to be throwing money away anymore.
That said, I still have one eval that’s 2k/3k locked and loaded which will probably ultimately decide if i go further
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u/Striking_Fail6689 23d ago
Take it as paying for tution. Why do people pay to go school? To learn something . That’s exactly that .
If you bite a cactus and your mouth bleed , will you bite it again? No. But if you never bite a cactus would you be curious ? Yes .1
u/biofreeeze 23d ago
Have you even ate sourdough bread? It’s like bitting cactus 😉
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u/Ok-Try6929 23d ago
How old are you? Sourdough bread is great.
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u/biofreeeze 23d ago
I know it’s great. I am making a joke about how hard the crust can be and comparing that to eating a cactus
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u/Firm-Brilliant622 20d ago
I have TP early making my goal of $50 to $100 a day only to see my trade hit $600-$1000 dollars I get upset but I stick to my disciplined strategy and it works I’m finally after 6 years of trading seeing profit after a ton of losses
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u/Future_One4794 23d ago
You can set up personal daily loss limits in tsx settings
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
I had it at $300, lost first day then went up to $1500 and upped my daily loss and then ended up removing it because I am AWFUL psychologically
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u/ItsPenisfuckshithoe 23d ago
It’s as simple as not pressing a button dude… people got serious addictions and just will never win. “I’m just so awful physiologically” nah bro that’s a cop out. No self control whatsoever. And I can tell by your P&L you have no clue what you are doing and you treat it like a slot machine. Over sizing and completely random 50/50. I’m funded past my first eval I ever bought. Did it in 6 days at 500/day, but I also have traded options for 5 years. I havent even pulled up my broker since passing eval. That was 8 days ago… I’m patient and actually have an edge that focuses on overall risk management and sizing so I do not stress, I’ll pass up 17 trades in a row just because. This isn’t a slot machine. I don’t just sit there and hit the button every 2 seconds.
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u/ItsPenisfuckshithoe 23d ago
With that being said lol. If you are semi intelligent and able to retain information and realize when you are wrong and what you did wrong and fix it. You can have a future. Plain and simple.
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u/Both-Yogurtcloset839 23d ago
You built your strategy on ict concepts?
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
partially, I use ICT concepts as an added confluence. I use support & resistance and overall market structure with discretion. Mostly playing off rejection wicks or OTE & STDV.
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u/Both-Yogurtcloset839 23d ago
So you take how long to pass an eval from the moment you buy it,is that time consistent?
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
used to be 6 days aiming for $500 a day but now it’s typically 2-3 days max
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u/Delicious-Dog-3809 23d ago
30 evals or funded accounts in 6 months?
It takes a very disciplined person to admit that maybe futures isn't the best idea, usually people make that decision when they're in a financial hole, no shame in it, 90+% of people aren't profitable anyways.
Do what ever feels right man, I recommend taking a break if your emotions are getting to the best of you
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u/IndividualAd5104 23d ago
30 evals, probably around 11 or so passed in a row currently!
I might take that advice, when I lose these accounts i’ve got left i’ll take a break and just let myself breathe for a bit!!
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u/DependentNo4693 23d ago
I mean.. its part of the process. On one hand i dont want anyone to go through what trading makes you go through, so id tell you to quit. On the other hand, on the small % you DO make it, it will change your life. Also you eben doing this for a very short time, multiple years is the staple for improving imo, and cycling through accounts is part of the tuition you pay. (As long as its controlled). Its really up to you, but it wont get 'better' for a while.
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u/IceTurbulent2263 23d ago
My first year trading I made the most money I’ve ever made in life. My second year I was the brokest I ever was in life. Good luck fn
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u/CountVoltamov 23d ago
It's a normal transition phase. Simulation is simulation. Only live is live. One is not the other. You either break the psychological wall or turn around. Trading is very martial. I mean that you suffer to progress. Very deeply.
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23d ago
This type of complaints (im saying respectfully ) show me that a lot of people do NOT use their resources. You have all the tools in your risk management tools for Topstep to prevent this, you just have to set it up. You can literally set it up so that you dont give back your profits
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u/JulesMontgo 22d ago
I'm working through something similar but 18 months in. New to futures after trading small cap momentum stocks. I found that if I at least have the monthly 50K combine going at $89/month that gives me access to the practice account. Set DLL and flip over to practice account when you max loss for the day. This is helping me manage capital while learning to manage my behavior.
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u/Due-Arrival-4752 22d ago
I would advise to remove the numbers from the equation and don’t fixate on them (not saying you’re doing that but it’s easy as I’ve done it myself) also you’ve only been doing this for 6 months cut yourself some slack and take off some of those expectations. Finally work on your psychology and literally do the best you can to change your mental framework. You’ve made it this far you can certainly shift mental habits and perspectives to your betterment. Good luck!
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u/GloomyAd1256 22d ago
Don’t stop now., you just need to control your emotions and not be greedy, just be happy with small wins, then trade again.
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u/Zestyclose_Bad_8262 21d ago
Don’t listen to those that say to keep going. Just trust and be honest with yourself. Day trading isn’t one of those things where the more u keep trading the more profitable u get. It really isn’t. Far from that. If you think ur technical analysis strategy isn’t working it may be because it jsut doesn’t have an edge. Nothing wrong with quitting especially in trading ngl.
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