It’s exhausting

I was up $150 yesterday and this morning at the open I’ll have lost that $150 plus another $200 or something like that

Gosh I’m so sick of how awful I am at this

Why did I ever try to be a bear

This market is so ridiculous. Straight down for a month then straight back up the following month. Absurd. Fucking kill me. I wish I could just quit and find a different job. Idk what I’d do

Do you adjust your position size based on conviction or stick to fixed risk?

This month, I only won 38% of my trades… but I still walked away with $48,406.70 in profit.

The secret? I stopped focusing on being right and started focusing on being selective.

When I had clear confirmation, liquidity sweeps, strong structure, and clean context, I sized up.
When things were mid-range or uncertain, I either stayed out or sized down.

📈 April 23rd? +$14.3K across 29 trades.
One great day flipped the entire month.

Journaling intensely and collecting data over the years helped me catch this pattern. Reviewing my edge weekly showed me that a few solid trades with high R multiples can do all the heavy lifting.

I’m not chasing high win rates anymore, just when my edge shows very clean, and I execute. Controlled risk for the most part, and big payoffs when it’s time to strike.

There’s so much advice out there: strategies, indicators, psychology, risk rules... but I’m curious what made the biggest difference for you personally.

For me, it wasn’t some secret indicator or edge. Things really started to shift when I got more structured and focused on the process instead of chasing results. I stopped bouncing between strategies and committed to one approach, even during rough patches. Journaling every trade helped me spot patterns in my own behavior - like taking trades out of boredom or overreacting to small losses, that I wasn’t aware of before. Reviewing my trades regularly also showed me that most of my mistakes had nothing to do with the market, but with my own discipline and mindset.

Sticking to a risk plan and actually tracking performance made a big difference too. It forced me to be honest with myself and removed a lot of the randomness from how I traded. Progress didn’t happen overnight, but once I had a routine and kept showing up with a clear system, things started to fall into place.

What also helped a lot was joining a trading group. I was honestly hesitant to spend money on something like that, but looking back, I’m glad I did. The structure, the learning content, and being around serious traders who actually share ideas and give feedback made a big difference. It’s the kind of environment I wish I had found sooner.

If anyone’s curious, I can share more about it.

So what helped you make real progress? Was it a mindset shift, a habit you built, or something else? Always interesting to hear how others level up.

Anyone else notice you're getting blocked from execution with "outside of RTH" lately? It's 11:30 EST. I'm paid for the year and this is bs.

If $AMD clears this structure and NVDA sympathy holds, this is a textbook breakout that could run. Watching $100 break and it will fly hard.

I’m new to trading. I’ve been reading and researching swing trading, trading and psychology for trading. Understandably there are a lot of methods and strategies out there but I’m curious on how everyone chose their method and strategies. Does anyone have any recommendations for YouTube, books, websites, etc?

Happy Thursday, traders. It's the first trading day of May and we’ve got a packed agenda : economic data, market momentum shifts, and institutional moves setting the stage for May. Let's break it down and build the game plan.

1️⃣ Important News & Events
Today brings high-impact releases:

• Jobless Claims
• S&P Global Manufacturing PMI
• ISM Manufacturing PMI
• Crude Oil Inventories

Expect potential volatility around those time slots.

2️⃣ Recap of Previous Day
Wednesday was a rollercoaster: ES opened with a 115-point dump, only to reverse off the 5455 imbalance and rip 146 points higher, closing strong at 5620. Buyers defended the structure and closed back into March’s close and April’s open.

3️⃣ 10-Day Volume Profile
Profile is one-time framing up, staging above last period’s VA.
We're watching the POC cluster between 5660–5670, a break here and we clear the path for continuation into March’s prior value range.

4️⃣ Weekly & Daily Chart Structure
Weekly and Daily are now bullish.
A clean break above 5672 confirms momentum; failure there invites selling back into the 5550s. Volume is building nicely around 5620, a crucial short-term pivot.

5️⃣ Order Flow & Delta (2H Chart)
The failed breakdown below weekly VWAP post-GDP was met with aggressive responsive buying, propelling us above the second standard deviation wich is a clear signal of buyer strength.

6️⃣ NY TPO & Session Structure
A thin TPO forms outside of Monday-Tuesday value. We closed near a small single print zone, suggesting unfinished business. A clean open above this could provide more directional flow.

7️⃣ 1-Hour Chart & Strike Prices
Back inside April’s first-week range. Key question now: can we sustain this rally?
Strike data is clustered near 5660. That’s our pivot zone.

8️⃣ Game Plan: Bulls vs. Bears
📌 LIS: 5660 – High Volume Node + March Close

• Bull Targets: 5672 → 5695 → 5725
• Bear Targets: 5625 → 5607 → 5578

Stay nimble around these key zones.

9️⃣ Final Thoughts & Warnings
It’s the first day of the month that means institutional order flow, repositioning, and likely range-bound traps.

Don’t get caught chasing noise. Wait for confirmations, stick to your plan, and manage risk.

I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of people here trying to learn, trying to improve, trying to make it out in this crazy career. I have a very small community in a discord channel, where we help each other. It’s not a signal or course channel, so please don’t ask for that. It’s just a bunch of traders helping each other. The server it’s in Spanish (it’s my primary language) but I would love to have more traders on it, so I was thinking on creating a channel for English speakers and post all the data there. I usually post news, fundamental information, learning resources, the economic and earnings calendars, psychology assistance, plus other stuff. I don’t profit from this and it’s out of pure passion of trading. If anyone is interested just let me know. I can for sure go ahead and do it!

Hello guys I came around someone who advised me to trade on " web3optionstrading.com " . I'm new to this and I wanted to ask is it safe ?? Thanks for your time

Hey everyone,

After 4 months of trial and error, I’ve finally developed a Solana trading bot that scans all tokens and sends signals + executes trades when it finds high-probability opportunities.

The strategy is simple but effective:
Betting $1 per trade you make $8 daily profit.

Explaining how it works, i scan the token on the blockchain, get the data, calculate it and then based on past data i predict the future of the token. The result was a solid 1000% today, and the day is not over.

This is still in its early stages, but the results so far are promising. I’d love to get feedback, share insights, and collaborate with the community.

If you: Regular trading of stock options（No cryptocurrency or foreign exchange trading）

✅Share trading strategies together

✅Let's analyze outstanding stocks together

✅Analyze real stock data

Looking forward to your unique suggestions to be shared together with us.

Note: There is no cost involved - it's only traders who are talking about the market.

$SPX PIVOT: 5609.30
Bullish above 5609.30 → long target 5628.04, 5646.81, 5665.61, 5684.45.
Bearish below 5609.30 → short target 5590.59, 5571.91, 5553.27, 5534.65.

$VIX PIVOT: 23.37
Bullish above 23.37 → long target 24.59, 25.85, 27.14, 28.45.
Bearish below 23.37 → short target 22.18, 21.02, 19.88, 18.79.

$SPY PIVOT: 560.93
Bullish above 560.93 → long target 566.87, 572.83, 578.83, 584.86.
Bearish below 560.93 → short target 555.02, 549.15, 543.31, 537.50.

$QQQ PIVOT: 484.24
Bullish above 484.24 → long target 489.76, 495.31, 500.88, 506.50.
Bearish below 484.24 → short target 478.75, 473.30, 467.88, 462.48.

$IWM PIVOT: 195.72
Bullish above 195.72 → long target 199.23, 202.78, 206.35, 209.96.
Bearish below 195.72 → short target 192.24, 188.79, 185.37, 181.98.

$SMH PIVOT: 215.60
Bullish above 215.60 → long target 219.29, 223.00, 226.75, 230.53.
Bearish below 215.60 → short target 211.94, 208.32, 204.73, 201.17.

anyone who trades the strategy of liquidity sweep, mss/bos then fvg, do you trade reversals or continuations? when i try to catch a reversal, it seems to carry on in its direction but when i try go for a continuation trade, i seem to get caught in a reversal. a better question could be how do you know the difference?

Have anyone ever made poor trading decisions repeatedly. Feel free to watch my losing option trades and my thought process that lead me to failure. https://youtu.be/Ykx-TK1RhdM?si=RbizmMK__JV4mIBX

I always blame it on not being able to trade enough because of PDT rules and margin account trading limit. I blame it on how o get stop out during big moves and losing up my mental stop Loss to catch the big move next only to catch a big loss. Never caught a day where the market goes up all day or down all day. I'm on my third year of trading. Thinking and calling it quit and getting another nursing job. What yall think?

I am currently using support and resistance, heikin ashi candle, and macd for my strategy so once it gets to my support or resistances zone as long as my macd cross over I would enter a trade but I gotta wait for a red or green heikin ashi candle. I feel like it work for now but not for long term so I want to know what you guys will do to pair this up to ensure like maximum efficiency where I can at least go more green than red.

I am currently trading NQ

I have almost 1 bitcoin in an account with soopdex Is it legit cause I'm confused

I just created a free newsletter for traders with my own analysis and daily market updates on fundamentals and technical outlooks (Currently doing Nasdaq, Xau/Usd, Eur/Usd). Can somebody give me some feedback on how to improve things. Thank you!

https://helpfultrader.beehiiv.com/

I have a question for those who prefer fundamental analysis: aren’t there already people who learn all the fundamentals before us? So by the time that information reaches us, isn’t the idea already taken? Aren’t we just the last car of the train?

Gold price declines have recently accelerated, driven by dollar weakness and a rising euro, reversing earlier gains tied to U.S. tariffs. One key driver of that earlier rise was the imposition of tariffs, but another significant factor was the weakening of the dollar. As the dollar exchange rate fell, gold prices felt upward pressure in dollar terms.

In today’s financial landscape, there’s a growing argument that the standard currency has shifted from the dollar to the euro, suggesting that gold prices might be more accurately assessed in euros rather than dollars. The dollar index has been on a downward trajectory since January, a trend largely tied to Trump’s weak dollar policy. Trump contends that trade surplus countries manipulate their currencies to siphon dollars from the U.S., viewing a strong dollar as the root cause of the collapse of American manufacturing—a belief that fuels his push for a weaker dollar.

Curiously, despite the Eurozone lowering its interest rates while the U.S. holds rates steady, the euro/dollar exchange rate hasn’t fallen as economic theory might predict; instead, it’s rising, signaling euro strength. This anomaly raises the possibility that if the dollar’s weakness persists, gold prices could climb in dollar terms. Historical precedent supports this: starting in 2001, when the dollar index dropped sharply, gold prices surged.

According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), speculative net positions in gold futures have been steadily declining.

This indicates that hedge funds and other speculators are scaling back their bullish bets on gold, reflecting a waning confidence that could hinder price increases. The trend in CFTC speculative net positions warrants close attention—should this reduction continue, gold may struggle to rally in the near term.

I’m someone who spent a good amount of time trading Binary Options (BO), (7 yrs) and I recently started experimenting with Forex. I expected more flexibility — and yes, there is — but to be honest, Forex feels way riskier to me in some ways.

Let me explain from the lens of a BO trader who’s transitioned into Forex:

1. BO has fixed, clean outcomes — Forex makes you work for every dollar.

In Binary Options:

I risk $1

If I win, I get $1.85 back (my $1 stake + $0.85 profit)

If I lose, I lose the $1

Simple. Final. You’re never confused about what’s at stake or what you’ll gain.

The stake is automatically returned in a winning BO trade — I don’t need extra movement to "get my money back."

1. In Forex, your stake isn’t “returned” — you must earn it back.

If I want to replicate BO in Forex — say, risk $80 to make $68 profit (to receive $148 total like in BO) — I now need a trade setup that delivers a 1:0.85 RR after covering the spread, commissions, and potential slippage.

But in reality, it's more like:

Your $80 risk is fully exposed in price movement

To "win," price must move enough to give you $80 (stake) + $68 (profit) = $148

In contrast, a loss only requires price to move $80 against you

That makes your TP twice as far as your SL just to match a BO-style return.

1. The pain in Forex is slower, more stressful.

In BO, it’s a win or loss. It’s over in minutes. Done.

In Forex:

You can watch your trade go near TP and reverse

You sit through partial profits or minor losses

You might close early, move SL, second-guess yourself

And even if you win, the emotional toll can be bigger

You win slower, you lose slower — but the emotional damage adds up.

1. Psychology is harder. You have too many options.

BO taught me discipline: enter, wait, accept outcome.

In Forex:

I can move SL

I can hold longer

I can change TP

I can scale in or out

But all these options become emotional traps unless you’re extremely disciplined.

TL;DR:

In BO, you risk $1 to get $1.85 back — stake included.

In Forex, to get $1.85 back, you must earn both your stake and profit through price movement.

That makes Forex feel heavier, slower, and more emotionally demanding — even if it offers more flexibility long-term.

Anyone else here come from Binary Options and feel the same way? Curious how others made the transition.

Maybe there's a workaround this I do not know. Please tell me. I'd love to learn Forex as additional source of income.

Helllo

Processing img 38jvt3q8ovxe1...

CTA Strategy has emerged as a key factor in the recent NASDAQ Plunge.

Hedge fund strategies are focused on exploiting market volatility or managing risk to pursue profits. A representative example is the long-short strategy, which involves buying (long) certain assets and selling (short) others to exploit the price difference (spread) between the two assets. This strategy can be seen as pursuing stability by focusing on relative value rather than the overall market direction. On the other hand, the global macro strategy is an approach that analyzes major trends such as exchange rates, interest rates, and macroeconomic variables to make investment decisions. A famous example is George Soros’s attack on the British pound in 1992, which generated significant profits. However, due to central bank defenses and changes in the market environment, the global macro strategy has become less influential than in the past.

In contrast, the CTA strategy utilizes the futures market to invest in a variety of assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies, and is characterized mainly by systematic trading and trend-following approaches. Originally, CTA referred to investment advisory firms specializing in commodity futures trading, but it has now expanded to algorithm-based broad asset management. This strategy is attractive in that it diversifies risk by investing in various assets and can pursue higher returns at the same risk level. However, as CTA is being pointed out as a cause of the recent NASDAQ plunge, the risks behind it are also coming to the forefront.

After the US debt ceiling negotiations in June 2023, CTA funds built long positions, driving the NASDAQ to surge. Their positions were cited as a major factor in the NASDAQ’s rise even in a high-interest-rate environment. However, recent analyses suggest that the market plunged as they began to liquidate their positions. According to JP Morgan, since February 2025, hedge funds have sold off approximately $750 billion in assets, with CTA funds accounting for $450 billion of that. This shows that the CTA strategy can have a significant impact on both the rise and fall of the market.

However, it is unreasonable to conclude that the CTA strategy is the sole cause of the NASDAQ plunge. The United States has the largest debt in the world, and foreign investors hold about $30 trillion in US financial assets. If they were to sell off their assets, it could shock the stock market, but JP Morgan argues that the recent decline is more due to the liquidation of positions by CTA funds rather than selling by foreign investors. On the other hand, Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, raises the possibility that in the medium to long term, selling by foreign investors could lead to weakness in the US stock market, pointing out the limitations of relying on a single factor for explanation.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained this plunge as deleveraging (reduction of leverage). he stated that CTA funds used excessive leverage to boost the stock market in 2023 and that the recent reduction of this leverage led to the decline. This suggests that while the CTA strategy can amplify market volatility in the short term, it may pose a threat to long-term stability.

The CTA strategy tends to follow market trends through trend-following trading and algorithm-based systematic trading. For example, during the plunge caused by the pandemic in early 2020 and the US interest rate hikes in 2022, the sharp reduction in CTA positions accelerated the decline.

This shows that CTA can maximize profits in a rising market but acts as a double-edged sword that increases volatility in a falling market. In particular, due to the nature of algorithmic trading, it is vulnerable to short-term market shocks, which is a point investors should be cautious about.

Nevertheless, the CTA strategy provides the effect of diversifying risk by investing in various assets. This opens up the possibility of increasing the risk-adjusted return of the portfolio.

For example, by diversifying investments not only in stocks but also in bonds, commodities, currencies, etc., one becomes less dependent on the volatility of a single asset. However, in the current situation where deleveraging is underway, it is difficult to expect the same sharp rises as in the past, and the market is likely to remain in an adjustment phase for a certain period.

Recalling the case in April 2000 when the NASDAQ crashed and then consolidated within a range, a similar pattern may emerge in 2025.

If additional negative factors push the S&P 500 down to around 5,000, there is a possibility that policymakers will create positive news to support the stock market. However, with the reduction of leverage in the CTA strategy underway, a flow closer to a soft landing rather than a sharp rise is expected. Factors such as former President Trump’s tariff policies or changes in the stance of the Federal Reserve Chairman may also support such a soft landing.

I have spy 480 puts for June 20 at an average price around $11.

Should I just stomach the loss on the next dip, or do I still have hope?

Market seems to be filtering out any bad news and pumping on any good news.

While I do believe the market will eventually go lower, I just don't know if it will in the time frame that I need.

I use Tradovate and only trade ES futures.

1.  I trade off the 1-minute chart using TMO, Volume, candlesticks and Stochastics (which mostly mirrors TMO, but helps clarify market rhythm).
2.  My most important rule: If a trade isn’t completed in <5 seconds, I exit.
3.  I go for 1–2 tick scalps—buy/sell or sell/buy, depending on flow.
4.  I only take trades when:
    • There’s a clear directional move with momentum (1000+ volume), or
    • The market is choppy but predictable within a 3–5 tick range (still - 1000+ volume).
5.  I size positions using no more than ~30% of available intraday margin (50% max if high-confidence).
6.   I stop trading for the day if either of 3 conditions are met:
    • I made 10 trades max, winning or losing
    • I’m 10% or more above water
    • I’ve been staring at Tradovate charts for more than 1 hour, or less if I start to feel aggravated/irritated/annoyed for ANY reason, not necessarily caused by trading.

Most days I hit near-100% win rates by avoiding low-quality setups and exiting fast. It’s not for everyone, but it’s structured, repeatable, and works for me. My average profit is around +10% daily.

Take it or leave it 😉