Dear traders..
I know many of you have half-assed your way to some career success.
You’ve been in your field for 5+ years, have gotten a few promotions, and doubled your salary in that time.
You clock-in..get your work done in 2 hours.. and the remaining 6 you’re just bullshitting on your phone or with your co-workers.
You can’t explain with real conviction why the company can’t just replace you with someone younger who makes 2x less than you by tomorrow. But they never ask, so you just keep showing up.
That approach DOES NOT work in trading.
You are trying to make a doctors salary with the same work ethic as a deadbeat.
You watch trading videos, and think you have a full system, but you’ve never spent intimate time trading and refining each piece before you start risking real money.
Then you wonder why this isn’t working for you.
Just admit that you’re fucking lazy right now so you can start using your brain again.. because we both know it’s been fried for years.
Between the brain rot and mundane job, you’ve totally lost your critical thinking skills.
You can’t make any independent decisions without consulting someone else… because that’s how you’ve been socially engineered by the corporate landscape.
Now you’re just another guy/gal down on their luck, spending their pocket change on lotto tickets hoping someone is coming to save them.
WAKE UP!
If nobody has come to save you by now… they never will.
Stop blaming the last course or mentor and take some self accountability for your own failures.
You don’t backtest.
You don’t journal.
You have less than 50 trades tracked using the same exact system/process.
Your emotions still control you even though you know it’s a problem.
Yet you do absolutely NOTHING to fix the problem and are confused why you get the same results?
That my friends is called insanity.
So please, do yourself a favor..
If you recognize the above is you and you’re totally unserious about trading and unwilling to change… just quit now and save yourself the headache.
Or lock in, take the 500+ hours of information you’ve consumed, and actually start APPLYING it.
The choice is yours.
@PJtrades_NQ Won't propfirm lasts? Huhu I am just starting to be profitable 1 strategy 1 instrument. 2 trades a day max. And now it clicks. Hope propfirms will last 100 years. 😭
Somebody reading this is winning today.
Right now, while you're scrolling, someone's having the best day of their trading life. First payout, passed eval, first green week.
And next week it's someone else. Multiple people... maybe YOU.
It took me years and I never knew when my day was coming. But I never stopped building toward it.
So keep showing up. Keep getting a little better.
Your day is coming too.
Just don't give up before you make it there.
@AdamWTrades@TradersConf When you said to yourself you are done trading. Trading does not work out then the next time you go back to trading. That is the time you become profitable and that it the time you will keep it only to yourself.
In november 2025, I started trading nq with prop firms. On my second ever account purchase, I got a $5000 payout and I thought I cracked the code. I was gambling and got lucky. That $5000 came from 80+ trades a day. I then blew about $7000 on accounts and account resets. Last week, after 8 long months, I finally got my second payout of $1000. I thought it’d be so easy to get another payout since I got my first one so quick. The charts humbled TF out of me. Risk management and patience is key
I've been trading for 10+ years. Here's how I'd rank your trading habits:
ELITE:
- journaling daily
- max 2 trades a session
- investing in a mentor
MID:
- backtesting
- trading the first 15 min of open
TRASH:
- waking up 10 min before open
- signal botting
My 2 year trading anniversary is coming up soon - coincidentally on my Daughters birthday since thats always been my drive to change my life as a normal 9-5 these days just doesn't cut it anymore. I have spent thousands on courses, discords, mentorships, Props and live accounts. And tens of thousands of hours just charting, watching journaling. I Finally passed my first Eval for $2100 withdrawal last week of June - on my live im consistently flipping $50-300 - something ive been striving to achieve for almost a year now. Ive learned so so so many lessons along this journey. Now Honestly its hard to stay a little consistent - ive blown my funded and evals since the first payout, and have blown my live accounts since then. Im seeing progression in making money yes but then I just lose it. Ill sit at a chart and can explain the move perfectly and what will happen next, i dont jump in, see the move is going my way chase it and lose it. I know consistent profitability is coming i can taste it but wtf its a lot of levels to this game. It really is as hard as we make it.
Profitability is found in the work you're avoiding.
Backtesting, journaling, reflecting.
I would make a bet that less than 10% of the trading population actually journals their trades.
Not saying you have to do it forever.. but how do you know how well you're doing, or what to improve on, if you have no books.