u/Chriskk0709

Been trading NQ on the 1-min for a while, footprint + Bookmap, and I keep going back and forth on how much weight to give each piece.

Right now session VWAP is my main reference, with prior day high/low and the value area for context. But I'm never quite sure whether I should be trading the level and using flow to confirm, or reading the flow first and treating levels as background.

Curious how you all handle it:

- Do you build around VWAP, or around volume profile (POC, VAH/VAL, HVN/LVN)?

- HVNs — do you avoid them entirely, or trade inside them differently? I mostly stay out, but I've seen people deliberately work inside them and I'm wondering what they're seeing.

- What actually pulls the trigger at a level for you — absorption, delta divergence, resting size that doesn't pull?

- Anchored VWAP: does anyone use it seriously, and what do you anchor to?

Not after anyone's exact system, just interested in how people think about the hierarchy between these.

Hey all,

I trade futures with a US-based prop firm, simulated accounts only, currently based in Germany. Likely moving to Austria next year and trying to figure out what changes.

The Austrian regulator (FMA) published guidance saying that even purely simulated prop trading can potentially qualify as licensable investment advice — the reasoning being that taking a position in a sim environment is effectively a buy/sell recommendation that the firm monetizes.

Feels like a stretch to me, but it's their official position.

Anyone here actually based in Austria doing this? Has this ever come up for you — with an accountant, a lawyer, or the regulator directly? Did anyone request a formal assessment from the FMA?

Thanks!