Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Bit of a rough start today but it started going my way pretty quickly. The first trade dipped a little more than expected, so I took the stop exit and waited to let it plunge a bit more before trying to buy the dip again. Worked really nicely! That concludes day 4 of step 2, up a little over $4k. Almost to the halfway point!
Pretty easy going day, traded max of 2 contracts most of the day even. Felt super cautious today for some reason, but most of my trades worked well and it was a low stress day. Onto day 6!
Another good day. Not perfect, but good. Had a situation that caused some loss mid-day, but recovered and went on to a record settings day for myself with profits of $1,947. Mostly 1-2-3 contracts, but the mid-day snafu was something like 11. haha. Worked out in the end though. This concludes trading day #6 for me on step 2, with less than $2,000 left to the $9k goal.
Thank you! It took long enough! lol Got so tired of good days here and there only to be demolished the following day or week. I stopped getting excited about "big days" a good while back. Consistency excites me now. Still things to work on, but it's more like squeezing more out of working trades rather than trying to tread water.
I blew that account all to hell today. lol Too much size adds too much emotion and I did some entries that were mediocre at best. Having said all of that, I'd still have $4k in a live account even though I flunked the TopStep step 2. I've opened a Tradovate account and funding via ACH. I will be trading live towards the end of next week. I'd rather have the benefit of withdrawals on my own terms as well as the tax benefits of being able to claim profits as long term capital gains. I know I can grind an account up and up, so I'm not wasting any more time with these challenges where I trip one rule (still have a lot of $ in the account). We shall see!
Probably a good decision. Among the plusses and minuses of these firms, the fact that it's their rules and not your rules is a large negative. I think there's no other way for them to do it, but you do have options too.
This has been an interesting thread and you have traded well. I wish you good luck striking out on your own. Keep us informed of your progress.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
Thank you! Today was a bit turbulent for a live starter day, but I survived. I wired $2k to Tradovate yesterday at about 1 and was good out of the gates this morning. I ended up with $720 in profits, but spent $99 on their active trader subscription fee and of course the $13 fee for CME DOM, so at the end of day 1, I'm up $600 from where I started. Obviously I was trading smaller due to new account caution and limited margin with only $2k. Hoping I survive tomorrow and really start building up the equity next week trading 3-4 contracts rather than 1-2. I'm quite excited It's still surreal to think I can actually have them wire profits to me and it be REAL! Wild.
Just be careful to not get so giddy that you overcommit or overtrade. Going slow works well most of the time, and trading small at the start works well too.
But good news for the first day.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
It is a good feeling trading your own money. I'm pro-trader evaluations, I just finished Uprofit yesterday and have a few funded accounts around, but at the end of the day I honestly just like trading my own real money. It's mine, i can get it anytime I want, I don't have to split it. So I feel you. I also have a Tradovate account, you'll like it.
I'm not telling you or anyone what to do, but I took advantage of being able to set my own personal daily stop loss amount at Tradovate (or any broker really you can do this). Once you hit it, that's it you're locked out for the day. No breaking rules and losing your account, just slows you down. Has saved me more than once for sure. Just thought I'd mention it incase you weren't aware, it's there somewhere under the account settings.
Got so tired of good days here and there only to be demolished the following day or week. I stopped getting excited about "big days" a good while back. Consistency excites me now. Still things to work on, but it's more like squeezing more out of working trades rather than trying to tread water.
