So, that's my plan for now. For the future, until the money's in my bank account I'm going to shut the hell up. LOL.
This is my own personal perspective on my trading as well. I trade with TradeDay. I chose them primarily because their program is structured very much along the lines of how the prop firm that launched Navinder Sarao's career was structured. Sarao is my trading hero, you could say.
I don't know much about the many other firms out there other than that Apex is not a good choice. The live trailing drawdown is one problem. I lost an account that was in profit, but the trailing live drawdown "failed" me and took my account away. I have a friend who lost a funded Apex account that had over $11,000 in accumulated profits and the Apex Tradovate started triggering trades in his account overnight even though his computer was off and he wasn't logged in to Tradovate. He awoke to find he had "lost" his funded account overnight. Apex had no interest in making it right for him.
Back to Trade Day. For every $2000 in accumulated profit that you leave in the account, they increase your trade size by 1 Emini contract. The maximum size allowed without a special review is 25 contracts. That size, should I get there, is quite sufficient for my plans. I have not taken a withdrawal. I know others who have taken multiple payouts without delay and without problem, so I feel 100% confident that when the day comes and I am ready that the money will be paid to me.
My goal is to accumulate $110,000 in profits and then take my $100K withdrawal and fund myself with that trading stake. I feel with a $100K stake, sticking to my current plan, not getting greedy, taking my 3 to 6 point trades, and sizing up slowly and incrementally I can generate sufficient income on which to live nicely as well as to continue to grow my account equity. Slow and steady, friends, slow and steady.
I need $110,000 in profits because Trade Day will take $10K as their cut. I feel it is a very fair arrangement and I am more than pleased with the opportunity. The evaluation account cost $132 if I remember correctly. That was a monthly charge but I passed inside the first month so that was the only charge for the evaluation. I paid a $139 set up fee for the initial funded Sim account. After I made my first $5000, I had to move to a funded live account, and I must pay a $135 professional data fee to the exchange each month. There is no monthly fee to the prop firm itself. I've been at it since June 2024 and I figure I have a good chance of hitting my self-funding goal by December of 2025.
I'm sure TopStep and maybe others are also excellent firms and great opportunities to little guys like me. I'm just sharing why TradeDay seemed the best fit for me. I would add it to the list that includes TopStep and other reputable firms, and I do not speak of it as a replacement.
As for sharing trades, I do share some trades here but otherwise have no desire to share just how well things are going. I had a great win about a month ago in my own personal account. It is true that a big win can be as destabilizing as a big loss. I found myself sizing way down in my prop account on the heels of that big win. I had the nagging feeling that if I could make it that easily, I could lose it just as easily.
That is one reason, though not the only reason that I like to keep my mouth shut. It is also the reason I am quick to put ET members on ignore. If someone seems to have a persistent negative mindset when they post, even when it isn't directed at me, but especially when it is directed at me, I put them on ignore. It isn't anything personal. I'm in this for me. I know myself well enough to know I need to keep my mental environment clean.
Well, you never know just where a post will take you once you start until you get to the end, do you?
The End
