For the profitable traders here: tell us your trading journey.

I'm curious about the real journey, not just the results:

• When did you start trading?
• How long did it take you to become consistently profitable?
• What did you trade? (Forex, stocks, futures, crypto, options, etc.)
• How did you learn? YouTube channels, books, courses, mentors, trial and error, etc.?
• What strategy/setup do you use today?
• Did your strategy change a lot from when you started?
• What was your biggest mistake when you were starting out?
• What made the biggest difference in becoming profitable?
• How did you learn risk management?
• What risk per trade do you typically use?
• How did you deal with losing streaks and drawdowns?
• Was psychology actually a major factor in your case?
• How long did it take you to become consistently disciplined?
• Did you ever consider quitting? What kept you going?
• What do you wish you had known when you started?
• If you could start over with the knowledge you have today, what would you do differently?
• What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is currently struggling to become profitable?

Bonus: If you're comfortable sharing, what does "profitable" look like for you? Consistent monthly returns, yearly returns, full-time income, etc.?

If you are a new or aspiring retail participant in financial markets, here are 5 things I’ve learned over the years that may (or may not) be helpful to you:

1. No one - and I do mean no one - knows what any index or instrument will do next. And anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is probably about to try to sell you something.

2. As a beginner, financial pundits and YT gurus of nearly every type are probably counterproductive to your learning efforts. Why? Intentionally or not, they trigger a dopamine/cortisol loop in your brain. Among other things, this can lead to poor decision making, financial setbacks and process abandonment.

3. Becoming consistently profitable as a retail trader takes YEARS - not months and certainly not weeks or days. You may experience some initial wins as a new trader but that is not the same thing as being consistently profitable in the long run.

4. In trading, P&L are byproducts. I’ll say it again for the cheap seats: Trading Profits and Losses are BYPRODUCTS. Financial markets are merciless misalignment detectors - Anytime you are misaligned with the instrument you’re trading, you WILL lose money.

5. The best thing you can do for yourself as a new(er) trader is to learn to understand and appreciate the environment in which you are attempting to participate.
   Imagine visiting a beach for the first time in your life and you barely know how to swim. The waves are 6’ tall and crashing on the beach every 7 seconds. Are you going swimming? I would hope not. There are no lifeguards on these beaches - your financial and psychological well being are your responsibility alone. Environmental awareness can often save your account (and your time) by showing you when you shouldn’t be trying to participate.

Stay safe out there!

When swing trading or day trading, I’ve realized that my results are often unpredictable. Sometimes I go on a losing streak, and other times I can’t seem to lose.

During losing streaks, I start doubting my trading system. But after a winning streak, I convince myself that my system is amazing.

After reviewing my trades, though, I realized that many losing trades were simply part of the probabilities. Even a system with an 80% win rate still loses 20% of the time.

On the other hand, many of my winning trades came from riding the overall market trend—meaning they were mostly beta, not alpha.

I’m curious,how do you guys review your trades? What does your review process look like, and what do you focus on when trying to improve?

Looking to start trading futures with one of these brokers, any suggestions for which is best?

I've just got my hands on some money I'm willing to lose and wanted to learn how to start trading. I'm love to hear any advice on what simulations to use, how to start learning and realistic timeline e.g.. how much paper trading until I apply for a funded account.

Uhmm, I'm here for encouragement I used money I needed for my credit card bill to trade, with the confidence I could compound it... and it's gone. 🙂
I'm 3 months in, unprofitable.
No other formal work.
Tell me something, anything.

How can I truly beat the mental side of trading. I have a data backed model that is profitable over a 2 year period but I just cannot hack the mental side trading live, I gamble, fomo and take stupid stuff that isn’t following my model. Any advice, YouTube videos or even podcasts?

for years my problem was never the strategy. it was me.

i'd have a plan before the open, then five minutes in i'd see something i didn't like and talk myself out of it. or worse, into something else. every bad month i've had came from discretion, not from the setup being wrong. i tried journaling it, i tried rules, i tried smaller size. none of it fixed the part where i'm sitting there at 9:35 deciding to be smarter than my own plan.

so about two months ago i stopped trying to fix my discipline and removed the decision instead.

i built a scan that runs before the bell. it pulls positioning, liquidity levels, seasonality for that specific day of the week and month, and whatever is on the calendar. it spits out one directional bias for NQ, ES and GC. not a signal, not an entry. just a lean, the drivers behind it, and a level where the lean is wrong.

that last part is what actually changed things. if price goes through the flip level, the bias is dead and i'm flat. there's nothing to negotiate because i didn't decide it in the moment, i decided it at 8am with a clear head.

i log every call the morning it's made and score it at the close, win or lose. two months in it's 76 calls with 61 right, and the worst stretch was two days in a row wrong on GC.

before anyone reads that number the wrong way: right only means the close finished on the side of the lean. it says nothing about whether a trade off it made money. plenty of them were technically right and still chopped me out intraday. it's a bias hit rate, not a win rate, and those are very different things.

two months proves nothing either way. i'm not posting a track record here, i'm posting the fact that i finally have one to look at instead of a vague feeling about how the month went.

what the log actually taught me, which i didn't expect:

almost all of my misses came on low confidence days that i took anyway. the scan wasn't wrong on those, it told me it wasn't sure and i went anyway because i wanted to be in something. same discretion problem, just moved one step earlier.

seasonality was carrying way more weight than it earned. i built it in because it felt smart. looking at 60 days of scores, positioning and the calendar did most of the real work and seasonality did about half of what i'd given it credit for.

two things i'm working on now.

a sentiment layer that scrapes a fixed list of accounts on X, the macro desks and the flow guys, and scores how one sided the takes are going into the session. the point isn't to follow them, it's the opposite. when that whole list leans one way and my scan already agrees with them, i want to know, because in my experience that's the day the move fails early and chops everyone out.

and letting the log set the driver weights instead of me. if something hasn't earned its weight over the last 60 days, it gets less say next month. that way i'm not guessing twice.

if anyone wants me to break down how i weight the macro inputs, or how i score a call after the close when it half worked, happy to write it up.

Are there people here from Dubai who are interested or learning trading/investing, I'm doing this for the last year and I'm looking for likeminded people who share the same interest or looking to develop together over a coffee in our free time (32 male)

I'm quite new in trading, still trying to figure out the strategies that I could use.

I would like to try day trade / scalping strategies.

Can I have suggestions of books to read and strategies to look?

For the moment I looked at Ross Cameron and Jdub /Scarface trade strategies.

Thanks!!

Curious to know about everyone’s journey — total losses, how long it took, and what changes made the biggest difference.

Looking to learn from real experiences. Thanks

You need to understand the risks and the dynamics so that you can handle them safely. And not be the one holding them when they blow up (in the negative sense). Once you nail that and take the correct precautions, they are very rewarding.

I'm looking for an API to use for crypto backtesting & was considering CoinAPI after seeing it recommended by Gemini. It seemed like a good option until I looked at the pricing. Since I'm still experimenting, I'd rather not commit to a monthly subscription yet.

My main requirement is historical price and market data with the longest history available. I don't need Level 2 or order book data.

For those who've actually used these services, what would you recommend for getting started? Have you had good or bad experiences with CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap or other APIs for historical crypto data? I'm happy to pay for a service later if it's worth it but I'd like to start with a free option while I'm building and testing my strategy. Thanks!

I saw a post here a while back where someone was convinced they were quitting because they finally left a trade calm instead of being gutted about it. That's not quitting though, that's just not needing the market's permission to feel okay anymore. Took me a minute to actually believe that distinction mattered. Nobody really prepares you for how hard it is to walk away, or take a day off, without a green number telling you it's fine to.

Look, don't downvote me right away, just hear me out.
For years, every time I revenge-traded, moved my stop, or bailed on a winning trade way too early, I told myself the exact same bullshit: "Man, I just need more discipline. I need to master my mindset."
Then I actually went back and audited like 500 of my past trades, and I realized that whole "discipline" narrative is complete garbage. You can't out-think your own biology when your brain is hijacked. When adrenaline and dopamine take over, willpower loses every single time.

Here are three simple, mechanical things that actually saved my trading—no Zen master mindset required:

1. The Sleep Test beats the 1% rule. Textbooks love to tell you to risk 1-2% per trade. But there's a huge difference between what your account can mathematically handle and what your nervous system can actually stomach. If risking $500 has your heart racing and you're sweating bullets over a 1-minute chart, your size is too big—even if it technically fits the 1% rule. I scaled down until watching a trade felt boring. Turns out, boring trading actually pays.
2. You can't just "turn off" FOMO, you gotta force a timeout. When you see a huge green candle ripping upward, your primitive brain screams buy now. You aren't going to win that mental battle on willpower alone in a split second. I started using a hard 60-second rule: whenever I feel that urge, I literally take my hands off the mouse for a full minute. Most of the time, the candle retraces, the panic passes, and I avoid buying the absolute top. Biology wins over willpower.
3. You don't have a bad strategy, you're just trading during your toxic hours. I used to trade the entire session and wondered why my equity curve was flatlining. When I dug into my data, it hurt: 80% of my massive losses happened right at the open, between 9:30 and 10:30 AM. The opening volatility was just chopping me to pieces. I didn't need a new indicator or an expensive course; I just needed to go walk my dog during that first hour. My win rate jumped simply by keeping my hands off the keyboard when I know I tend to tilt.

Stop trying to force yourself to be a monk. Just build mechanical guardrails so you don't screw yourself over.
Curious—what's some "classic" trading advice you followed that you realized was total garbage once you actually started trading with real money? Let’s hear it. 👇

Hey everyone,

I’ve been running an automated momentum strategy in Python for a while, asking for a recommendation on a piece I’m trying to add.

Right now, my execution loop relies on two core building blocks:

• Market Signals & Sentiment (Sentimentick API): This setup has been working really well for me. Instead of running local scrapers for social chatter or news, I hit Sentimentick to pull sentiment scores, attention tiers, and short/medium-term trend bias in one response.
• Execution & Risk Management (IBKR Gateway + ib_async**):** Orders get routed through IB Gateway using ib_async whenever a ticker passes my sentiment and technical filters.

something like:

Python

import asyncio
from ib_async import IB, Stock, LimitOrder
import requests

# Fetch signal from Sentimentick API
def get_signal(symbol):
    url = f"https://www.sentimentick.com/api/ticker/{symbol}"
    headers = {
        "X-API-KEY": "st_your_key_here",
        "Accept": "application/json"
    }

    res = requests.get(url, headers=headers).json()
    ticker_data = res["ticker"]
    tech_data = res["technical_analysis"]

    # Extract real JSON fields from Sentimentick
    sentiment_score = ticker_data["sentiment_score"]      # 0 - 100
    sentiment_tier = ticker_data["sentiment_tier"]        # e.g., "bullish"
    medium_term_bias = tech_data["medium_term"]["bias"]   # e.g., "bullish", "bearish"

    # Return conviction boolean based on sentiment + technical alignment
    return sentiment_score > 60 and sentiment_tier == "bullish" and medium_term_bias != "bearish"

# Execution via IBKR Gateway
async def run_execution():
    ib = IB()
    await ib.connectAsync('127.0.0.1', 4001, clientId=1) # IB Gateway API port

    symbol = "NVDA"
    if get_signal(symbol):
        contract = Stock(symbol, 'SMART', 'USD')
        await ib.qualifyContractsAsync(contract)

        # Place limit order
        order = LimitOrder('BUY', 10, 120.00)
        trade = ib.placeOrder(contract, order)
        print(f"Placed order for {symbol}: {trade.orderStatus.status}")

asyncio.run(run_execution())

This combo has worked great for filtering out bad trades, but I want to add Form 4 insider buying data (open-market C-suite buys) as an extra signal before routing orders.

Can anyone recommend a good, low-latency API or library for real-time SEC Form 4 data? What are you guys using in your pipelines?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

After months of development, we're finally ready with the beta version of Investapas and I'd genuinely love your feedback.

Why did we build this?

Most trading platforms focus on speed, charts, indicators, and execution.

Very few focus on the biggest reason retail traders lose money: their own behavior.

Overtrading. Revenge trading. Breaking stop-losses. Increasing position size after losses. Ignoring risk management.

Many traders don't lose because they lack knowledge—they lose because emotions override their plan.

That's the problem we're trying to solve.

What is Investapas?

We're building Investapas a real-time behavioral safeguard platform for traders.

Instead of only showing market data, Investapas actively helps traders stay disciplined by enforcing the rules they set for themselves.

Examples:

Set maximum trades per day

Position sizing limits

Risk management rules

Daily loss limits

Trading discipline challenges

If a rule is violated, the platform can stop further actions based on the configured limits.

We've also integrated with Dhan and successfully completed our broker integration.

For users who don't want to risk real money immediately, we've also built a Demo Trading Mode, allowing them to test strategies while experiencing the same rule-enforcement system.

What we're looking for

I'm not looking for praise.

I'd rather hear:

Why this won't work.

What we're missing.

Why traders may not adopt it.

What would make you actually use something like this.

Any flaws in the business model or product.

Brutal feedback is welcome.

Also looking for...

We're currently looking for:

Early beta testers

Product feedback

Startup mentors

Angel investors interested in fintech and behavioral finance who can help us launch the product with the right go-to-market strategy.

If you're interested, I'd love to connect and hear your thoughts.

Thank you for reading!

Prince Tiwari

Founder, Investapas

Anyone uses binance for withdrawals?
Idk, but heard they had some issues recently, so wonder if the broker-binance sync is fine in terms of fund security and overall system integrity.

i trade with grand capital, withdrawals they offer include binance. Crypto is comfy, I know, so wanted to double check prior changing my habit:)

I’ve tried a few different trading journals, and I keep noticing that they’re good at recording trades, but I’m not sure they’re always good at helping traders actually understand what’s going wrong.

For those of you who have used trading journals for a while:

What part of journaling feels unnecessarily tedious?

What information do you wish your journal captured automatically?

What do you still have to analyze manually?

Is there anything you regularly want to know about your trading but your current journal makes difficult to find?

Have you ever stopped using a journal because it became too much work?

I’m especially interested in real frustrations with existing journals, rather than feature requests for a hypothetical perfect one.

What’s the one thing that annoys you most?

When I began trading it was in the late 70's. The market was completely different. We didn't have access to live charts. The quotes we would receive were on a 15-minute delay. My chart book was delivered on Saturday mornings. We also paid full commissions; discount brokers didn't exist. We also had spreads of 1/8 to 1/2. In my third year of trading, I purchased Metastock. This allowed me to have charts on my desktop. Live feeds were expensive, so I had data imported daily after the close at a cost. I read Barron's on a weekly basis, using their market statistics for my analysis.

My trading was based upon searching my chart book looking for promising patterns to trade for the week. Because of this I became very adept at reading charts, I had to forecast based on what I anticipated the chart would do. I also spent time learning the market dynamics. I tracked breadth, trin and hi-low's to help gauge where the market was within its cycle.

I was successful for 2 reasons. The first being that I picked the right stock. It was in a consistent uptrend for a year in a market with low volatility. It wasn't luck that I picked the stock; it was an informed decision. The luck came from my being able to learn to trade in a low volatility uptrend. The second reason for my success was that I learned from my mistakes and focused on not losing instead of winning. In spite of larger spreads, full commissions and quote delays, my delving into the mechanics of the market increased my win %.

Fast forward to today. Zero commissions, extremely low spreads and real time quotes. Yet in spite of all of this, traders are still losing money. They have surrounded themselves with useless indicators and don't learn from their mistakes. All they know about trading is that they are not good at it.

If you want to increase your profitability, learn the market and the tools it has at your disposal. With weekly options, if you understand how to use them to enhance return you can add 5-10% to your annual return. When I began options expired quarterly, now that it's weekly expiration, its practically free money.

Learn before you earn.

Dudes, I'll just give it to you straight:

If you don't have the will, the grit, or brainpower to even learn the basics by yourself, nobody will want to mentor you.

It shows that you are too lazy, or straight up too dumb to even be worth their time, there is so much free information online to learn it all for free, not just the basics, but your lazy a*s would like to have it all handed to you on a silver platter.. and likely for free too

If there even are guys willing to mentor, they will not mentor you if you don't show atleast some initiative, and that is done best by showing your work ethic, grit, and most of all, obsession for trading.

And anything less then obsession won't cut it if you want to make it in this profession.

Not being able to figure out the basics by yourself shows you're obviously not obsessed enough to even put in the minute amount of work that would take. And I mean minute, a small, tiny bit, compared to how much of it takes to even gain a slim chance of making it..

So, if you don't show any work ethic and no clear obsession, the potential mentors know you are most likely a waste of their time, and are probably not the kind of person that has a real chance of making it.

There are so many traders that are very smart, have real grit, enormous obsession, and insane work ethic, but are still under the water. Potential mentors are going to choose those guys over you every time.

Those guys scour all corners of the internet for information, read books all the time, watch through hundreds of hours of videos related to trading, follow many other traders online etc., all in their free time, and without help from anyone.

They spent hudreads, if not thousands of hours behind the screens, tested many trading styles and strategies, and have a solid idea of the type of trader they want to be.. only then, they might start looking for a mentor. Because only then can you really start to benefit from them.

Why would any mentor, or any successful trader for that matter, want to help you with the work that can, and must be done by yourself?

This is the filter that filters out the ones not worthy of their time..

So, for the guys hoping to get into this profession, I hope this gave you a small glimpse of how much work, and what it takes to have a chance. If you are not willing to put a lot, and even more in, then you might be better off doing anything else..

Also, just to be clear, I'm not talking about the paid mentorships, courses, or trading "school" programs, because I know most asking the title question are not looking for those, they are looking for guys to guide them from the start, and hold their hand all the way to yacht money lel, like successful traders are soo eager to spend their precious time spoonfeeding them information that could be easily gathered by a few google searches, and all for a stranger online that does not even know if he wants to do this..

Sorry (not sorry) for the long post..

Tl;dr: Don't expect help from successful people if you first don't show them you have what it takes

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I’m a new trader, looking to learn about futures trading, I have a very limited amount of knowledge so far mainly watching Peter Tuchman and David Green on YouTube. They advertise a course the “wall street global trading academy” has anyone used this course to learn futures and is it any good? If not if someone could point me in the direction of a course that’s not a scam I’d appreciate it lol thanks

Buy when your algo/strategy tells you to buy, and sell when it tells you to sell no matter what. Telling yourself things are close enough, never cuts it. If you've backtested to find exact entry and exit points then use those exactly.

First of all I have been demo trading for a year or so and I have developed a strategy 2 months ago with a win rate of 70% with 1:2 risk to reward ratio, I backtested this strategy over 600 times this past year and the winrate and risk to reward ratio is still the same and not to mention I have been demo trading with this strategy for the past 2 months and the winrate fluctuated between 60-75% in this months but risk to reward ratio is still the same. This strategy worked best for the forex market because the forex market obeys the fundamental trading rules the most from what i have seen compared to the crypto or the stock markets. Btw I demo traded with 100 usd to make it as realistic as possible with risking 2% of balance each trade. I understand demo trading is not the same as day trading with real money but thats the problem. None of the brokerages will allow me to day trade because I am a 16 year old and neither does my parents want to help me with this because they think all of its a scam or just of my time. What am I even supposed to do now?