Login

u/Kasraborhan

r/StocksAndTrading r/tradingpsychology r/traders r/AlphaGroupOfficial r/tradingmillionaires r/PropFirms r/PropFirmTester r/ai_trading r/Forexstrategy r/Trading r/FuturesTradingNQ r/DayTradingPro r/ICTMentorship r/daytrade r/propfirm r/TopStepX
Image 1 — Live Callout: The Setup That's Made Me $16.5K Across 68 Trades Is Forming Again
Image 2 — Live Callout: The Setup That's Made Me $16.5K Across 68 Trades Is Forming Again
Image 3 — Live Callout: The Setup That's Made Me $16.5K Across 68 Trades Is Forming Again
▲ 3 r/tradingmillionaires

Live Callout: The Setup That's Made Me $16.5K Across 68 Trades Is Forming Again

Figured I'd post this one before the result instead of dropping another perfect chart after the fact. This is the ERL → IRL / ICT 2022 setup I'm currently watching, and I actually have enough data on this specific model now that I'm comfortable sharing the numbers behind it too.

The weekly profile is what started the idea. Monday established the initial range, then Tuesday into Wednesday pushed lower and flushed sell-side liquidity, including Asia SSL. Under the weekly bias framework I use, I'm watching Monday as accumulation, Tuesday/Wednesday as the potential manipulation, and then looking for distribution/expansion afterward. That doesn't guarantee Wednesday printed the weekly low, but after taking liquidity I needed price to prove it wanted to reprice higher.

That's exactly what started happening. Price displaced aggressively away from the lows and created a clean 30-minute bullish FVG. For me that's the transition from ERL back toward IRL: external liquidity gets raided, displacement confirms the reaction, and the imbalance created during that displacement becomes the area where I'm willing to enter rather than chasing price higher.

The actual trade plan is pretty simple:

  • SSL/ERL has already been taken.
  • Potential weekly low/manipulation has formed Tuesday-Wednesday.
  • Bullish displacement confirms the reaction.
  • 30m FVG becomes my IRL/entry zone.
  • Stop belongs beyond the low that invalidates the entire idea.
  • Opposing external liquidity is the DOL.
  • I'm generally taking 1R-2R rather than trying to squeeze every point out of the weekly expansion.

The reason I've gotten much more confident trading this is because I finally stopped lumping every trade together. I created ERL → IRL as its own strategy inside TradeZella, then used the Reports/Strategy section to isolate what the model was actually doing instead of relying on memory.

Across the 68 trades currently tagged to it, I'm sitting at a 70.59% win rate, 3.55 profit factor and $16,510.20 net P&L. Average net P&L is $242.80 per trade, average win/loss is 1.48, winning-day rate is 76.36%, and the average hold is about 4h 13m. What's probably most important to me is that the equity curve has continued grinding higher over the sample instead of the results coming from one or two monster trades.

That's also why I don't really care whether this particular callout wins. One trade means nothing. If the FVG holds and we continue toward the opposing liquidity, I execute the model. If the low gets invalidated, I take the loss and log it. The whole point of tracking this stuff is getting away from judging your trading based on whatever happened today.

I'll come back and post the result either way. Win or loss, it'll become trade #69 in the dataset.

u/Kasraborhan — 12 hours ago
▲ 6 r/ICTMentorship

Live Trade Callout: My 71% WR ICT 2022 Model Is Setting Up Right Now

Posting this one before the trade plays out because hindsight charts are easy. This is the setup I'm currently watching going into Wednesday, and it's basically my version of the ICT 2022 model / ERL → IRL delivery.

The weekly structure is what got my attention first. Monday gave us the initial range/accumulation, and Tuesday into Wednesday delivered below the range and flushed sell-side liquidity, including Asia SSL. That matters because under the weekly profile I'm watching, Monday establishes the range, Tuesday/Wednesday can provide the manipulation, and then I'm looking for the actual weekly expansion/distribution afterward. I'm not blindly assuming Wednesday's low has to hold, but right now I have enough evidence to treat it as a potential low of the week.

What makes this interesting is what happened after the liquidity was taken. We didn't just touch SSL and bounce. We got actual displacement away from the lows, and that displacement left a clean 30-minute bullish FVG behind. That's the part I care about. Liquidity being taken gives me the context; displacement tells me price may actually be repricing; the FVG gives me the IRL where I can structure the trade.

So the model I'm watching is basically:

  • ERL: Sell-side liquidity gets taken.
  • Manipulation: Tuesday/Wednesday trades through the prior liquidity and potentially establishes the weekly low.
  • Displacement: Price aggressively reprices bullish away from the sweep.
  • IRL: That displacement leaves the 30m FVG I'm interested in buying.
  • Entry: Retracement back into the FVG rather than chasing the initial move.
  • Invalidation: Back through the low that created the setup.
  • DOL: External liquidity resting above.
  • Management: I'm looking for roughly 1R–2R, depending on how price delivers.

The biggest mistake I see with the 2022 model is people treating every FVG like an entry. The FVG by itself isn't the edge. I want liquidity taken first, displacement away from that liquidity, an imbalance created by the displacement, and a logical draw on liquidity sitting on the opposite side. The FVG is just where I can express the idea with defined risk.

And this isn't something I'm judging from five cherry-picked screenshots. I've separated this model from the rest of my trading and tracked 68 trades recently:

  • 70.59% win rate — 48W / 20L
  • 76.36% winning-day rate — 42W / 12L / 13 BE
  • 3.55 profit factor
  • $16,510 net P&L
  • $242.80 average net P&L per trade
  • 1.48 average win/loss
  • 4h 13m average hold
  • 2.07 trades/day
  • -$1,424 max daily net drawdown

That's why I'm comfortable posting this before knowing the outcome. The individual trade can absolutely lose. I'm trading a setup that has produced positive expectancy over a meaningful sample for me.

Now I wait. If price gives me the retracement into the 30m FVG while the structure remains valid, that's my entry. If it invalidates the low, I'm wrong and I'm out. No need to turn a losing setup into a new theory halfway through the trade.

I'll update this afterward whether it wins or loses.

u/Kasraborhan — 12 hours ago
▲ 106 r/Trading

I Made Over $33,000+ Trading Less Than 10 Minutes a Day Heres the Exact System:

My average hold time over the last two months is still under 5 minutes, and most trading days wrap up in under 10 minutes total screen time.

https://preview.redd.it/wuk6ob2ewoih1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b6cbb4c32c565814729bfdc7558b483d5f5538f

Tradezella strategy stats

The first 15 minutes of the session is where liquidity gets grabbed, direction forms, and real momentum shows up. Pair that with imbalance confirmation on the 1 minute chart and you filter out almost all the noise that traps people into fading a move that was never actually done moving. Works cleanest on trending days, NQ responds to this better than almost anything else I've traded.

Over 200+ sample size for backtested results

1517 trade automated backtesting results in zella

  • Mark ORH and ORL off the first 15 minutes
  • Wait for a real breakout, candle has to close above or below the range, not just wick through it
  • Confirm with an imbalance forming between 3 candles in the direction of the break
  • Enter on the break plus the close of that imbalance
  • Target 1 to 2R depending on stop size, if stop is under 30 points aim for 2R, if stop is over 30 points aim for 1R on NQ

Before the bell I already know previous day high and low, overnight high and low, session bias, where the next liquidity draw sits, and any major news on the calendar like FOMC or CPI. The entire point is eliminating hesitation before the session even opens, if you're still deciding your bias after the bell rings you're already behind.

Entry Triggers

Long setup needs a clean break of ORH, imbalance forming in the same direction, price closing outside the range and forming that 1 minute imbalance, stop below the imbalance low, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/akflh4gqvoih1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6255e733cf10005b77e9d148deb83ca8949cb6e

Short setup is the mirror, clean break of ORL, imbalance forming downward, close outside the range with the 1 minute imbalance, stop above the imbalance high, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/atr9upxqvoih1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=31de95f9110929c5446a8769f5131f2bb3c889fb

Risk And Management

Risk stays at 0.5 to 2% max per trade. One trade a day, two max. If the first trade is green, I'm done for the day, no exceptions. Move to breakeven once structure clears in your favor. (we break and internal high or low and close above/below)

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 9 days ago
▲ 58 r/ICTMentorship

I Made Over $33,000 Trading Less Than 10 Minutes a Day Trading ORB + FVG Model:

My average hold time over the last two months is still under 5 minutes, and most trading days wrap up in under 10 minutes total screen time. This same repeatable framework put me up over $6,400 on a single account this stretch, and since I copy trade this across 5 funded accounts, the real total lands around $33,000. Same setup, same rules, just scaled across accounts instead of scaling contract size.

Strategy stats tracked in tradezella

The first 15 minutes of the session is where liquidity gets grabbed, direction forms, and real momentum shows up. Pair that with imbalance confirmation on the 1 minute chart and you filter out almost all the noise that traps people into fading a move that was never actually done moving. Works cleanest on trending days, NQ responds to this better than almost anything else I've traded.

Over 200+ sample size for backtested results

  • Mark ORH and ORL off the first 15 minutes
  • Wait for a real breakout, candle has to close above or below the range, not just wick through it
  • Confirm with an imbalance forming between 3 candles in the direction of the break
  • Enter on the break plus the close of that imbalance
  • Target 1 to 2R depending on stop size, if stop is under 30 points aim for 2R, if stop is over 30 points aim for 1R on NQ

Before the bell I already know previous day high and low, overnight high and low, session bias, where the next liquidity draw sits, and any major news on the calendar like FOMC or CPI. The entire point is eliminating hesitation before the session even opens, if you're still deciding your bias after the bell rings you're already behind.

Entry Triggers

Long setup needs a clean break of ORH, imbalance forming in the same direction, price closing outside the range and forming that 1 minute imbalance, stop below the imbalance low, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/cc8wzd3u0whh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=1628011171c50695ef1f8417384d15e6a7726af6

Short setup is the mirror, clean break of ORL, imbalance forming downward, close outside the range with the 1 minute imbalance, stop above the imbalance high, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/3srjpr3v0whh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=e43b606c236e232d9e4698309862d4281f768aa6

Risk And Management

Risk stays at 0.5 to 2% max per trade. One trade a day, two max. If the first trade is green, I'm done for the day, no exceptions. Move to breakeven once structure clears in your favor. (we break and internal high or low and close above/below)

The Actual Change From Last Time

Only running 1 to 3 micro contracts per account now instead of stacking size on one account. Copy trading the same entries across 5 accounts builds the real total without ever forcing a single trade to carry the whole day's result. If one account underperforms slightly on slippage or fill timing, it doesn't sink the whole session, the other 4 still carry it.

My entire equity curve is still built on two models and discipline, not on switching setups when things get slow. Less time behind the charts after I got my data points and found my edge was the biggest shift I needed.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 13 days ago
▲ 378 r/tradingmillionaires

I Made Over $33,000+ Trading Less Than 10 Minutes a Day Heres the Exact System:

My average hold time over the last two months is still under 5 minutes, and most trading days wrap up in under 10 minutes total screen time. This same repeatable framework put me up over $6,400 on a single account this stretch, and since I copy trade this across 5 funded accounts, the real total lands around $33,000. Same setup, same rules, just scaled across accounts instead of scaling contract size.

Tradezella strategy stats

The first 15 minutes of the session is where liquidity gets grabbed, direction forms, and real momentum shows up. Pair that with imbalance confirmation on the 1 minute chart and you filter out almost all the noise that traps people into fading a move that was never actually done moving. Works cleanest on trending days, NQ responds to this better than almost anything else I've traded.

Over 200+ sample size for backtested results

  • Mark ORH and ORL off the first 15 minutes
  • Wait for a real breakout, candle has to close above or below the range, not just wick through it
  • Confirm with an imbalance forming between 3 candles in the direction of the break
  • Enter on the break plus the close of that imbalance
  • Target 1 to 2R depending on stop size, if stop is under 30 points aim for 2R, if stop is over 30 points aim for 1R on NQ

Before the bell I already know previous day high and low, overnight high and low, session bias, where the next liquidity draw sits, and any major news on the calendar like FOMC or CPI. The entire point is eliminating hesitation before the session even opens, if you're still deciding your bias after the bell rings you're already behind.

Entry Triggers

Long setup needs a clean break of ORH, imbalance forming in the same direction, price closing outside the range and forming that 1 minute imbalance, stop below the imbalance low, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/68dghagezvhh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c569aaad6eb18539b560b8d2216c4aeecdbe1fd

Short setup is the mirror, clean break of ORL, imbalance forming downward, close outside the range with the 1 minute imbalance, stop above the imbalance high, target 1 to 2R.

Example:

https://preview.redd.it/xn70687gzvhh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=57e854f9376555e6bc372fcad6d81ff4f3588939

Risk And Management

Risk stays at 0.5 to 2% max per trade. One trade a day, two max. If the first trade is green, I'm done for the day, no exceptions. Move to breakeven once structure clears in your favor. (we break and internal high or low and close above/below)

The Actual Change From Last Time

Only running 1 to 3 micro contracts per account now instead of stacking size on one account. Copy trading the same entries across 5 accounts builds the real total without ever forcing a single trade to carry the whole day's result. If one account underperforms slightly on slippage or fill timing, it doesn't sink the whole session, the other 4 still carry it.

My entire equity curve is still built on two models and discipline, not on switching setups when things get slow. Less time behind the charts after I got my data points and found my edge was the biggest shift I needed.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 13 days ago
▲ 39 r/Trading

1500 Backtested Trade Results On The 15Min ORB! (over $65k profit)

Ran this through 1,517 trades on NQ from May through August using an automated backtest. Not going to pretend the results look flashy, because they don't. Win rate sits at 41.1%. That number alone scares most people off before they even look at the rest of it. But boring and repeatable beats exciting and inconsistent every time, and the full picture explains why.

Automated backtest w/tradezella

The Rules

  • Let the first 15 minutes of the session define the opening range, ORH and ORL
  • Wait for a candle to close fully outside that range in the direction of bias
  • That breakout candle has to form an FVG on the 1 minute timeframe, that FVG is your entry
  • Stop loss goes at the low of the FVG for longs, or the high of the FVG for shorts
  • Take profit is a fixed 1RR if the stop loss is more than 30 points on NQ, and a fixed 2RR if the stop is under 30 points
  • Trade closes automatically at stop or target, no manual management, no holding past target hoping for more

15min ORB

That's the entire setup. Close outside the range, form the FVG, enter, set stop, set target, walk away.

Why 41% Win Rate Still Works

This is the part people miss. Avg win sits at $349.43 against an avg loss of $170.76. That's roughly a 2 to 1 payout ratio even though the setup itself is only targeting 1RR most of the time, because the 2RR version kicks in on tighter stops and pulls the average up. Profit factor comes out to 1.43 across the full sample, net P&L of $65,040 over the test period.

Max drawdown across the whole test was -$6,570, which is 13.1% off the starting balance. The equity curve isn't a straight line up either, there's a visible red patch early on before it turns and compounds.

https://preview.redd.it/ue1q1yhlohhh1.png?width=1452&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bd03b77a805c050c261d76dfbcd0479ba98ba2f

A setup doesn't need a high win rate or a complicated confluence checklist to be worth trading. It needs a defined entry, a defined stop, a defined target, and a large enough sample size to prove it holds up over time instead of just looking good on a handful of screenshots. Ran this specific backtest through a new automated backtesting tool since manually tracking 1,500+ trades by hand isn't realistic for anyone, but the setup itself works regardless of what you use to track it.

If anyone wants the exact FVG definition I'm using or how I'm defining the opening range candle count, happy to break that down further in the comments.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 15 days ago
▲ 91 r/tradingmillionaires

I made $1,360 in 3min using the 15min ORB!

Simplest Green Day I've Had In A While

Today didn't need to be complicated. One trade, held for about 3 minutes, done for the day. $272.76 net on the base account, same setup running across 5 funded accounts so a little over $1,300 total off one entry. Currently sitting on max allocation at $250k funded and this puts me 2 days out from another payout if things keep tracking the way they have been.

The Setup

Bias was clean going into the session. Asia SSL got taken first, price displaced above it and was clearly heading toward the Asia BSL, that's what made the bullish read easy to trust instead of guessing. Once ORH broke, it broke with an FVG forming on the 1 minute timeframe right on the move, entry was on that FVG. Stop below the low, target set for a fixed 1RR. Hit target clean, and price kept ripping well past it after I was already out.

Didn't feel a shred of FOMO watching it run further after I closed the trade. Took the base hit exactly the way the setup is supposed to be traded and shut the charts down for the day. Spending less time actually sitting in front of price has done more for how I trade than any single strategy tweak this year. Less screen time means less temptation to manufacture a second or third trade that was never actually there.

Only reason I even have that level of clarity on when to walk away is because I review every session against my actual rules afterward instead of just checking if I was green.

u/Kasraborhan — 16 days ago
▲ 13 r/AlphaGroupOfficial

I Made $1,295 In 4 Minutes Using The 15Min ORB + Max Allocation w/Alpha Achieved!

This week played out about as textbook as ICT weekly bias ever has for me. Monday and Tuesday were pure accumulation, nothing to trade, just building the range. Wednesday, right around FOMC, price tapped the weekly FVG and set the low of the week, that's the manipulation leg everyone always talks about but rarely actually gets to trade cleanly. Once that low was in, price displaced up hard and never looked back. That's when I knew Thursday and Friday were setting up for expansion in the direction of that bias, and today delivered exactly that.

The Trade Itself

Simple setup once the bias was clear. Formed the 15 minute opening range high. Broke it the very next minute after the range closed. Closed outside the range and formed an FVG on the 1 minute timeframe, that's the entry trigger. Stop loss goes below the low of that FVG, target set at a fixed 1RR. TP hit 4 minutes later at $259 x 5.

Why This One Mattered More Than Usual

This trade ran across 5 separate $50k Alpha Zero accounts, all copy traded, so $259 became roughly $1,300 in one shot. More importantly, this was the trade that got me max allocation across all 5 new funded accounts, which means I'm now sitting on a $250k total funded stack starting from scratch on all of them. Slow and steady growth from here toward actual payouts instead of trying to force size too early.

The Part I Actually Want To Talk About

I had zero doubt going into it because the whole week's bias was already mapped out and confirmed before I ever placed the trade. I run my premarket gameplan every single day before the open, weekly bias, next draw on liquidity, technical levels, all of it written down before I'm even looking at live price. Then after the session I run it back through a review that checks rule adherence against my own playbook, not just P&L.

The thing that's actually changed my results the most this year is forcing myself to review every session against my actual rules instead of just glancing at whether I was green or red. After a while of making money and trading decetly I got lazy with this and saw it in my results as well. Half my worst months came from technically winning trades that still broke my own rules, and I never would've caught that pattern without going back through it session by session. If you're not reviewing your discipline the same way you review your P&L, you're missing half the picture.

Curious if anyone else runs a structured premarket gameplan before every session or if you're mostly reacting to price live. Feels like the prep is doing more work for my results lately than the actual entries are.

u/Kasraborhan — 20 days ago
▲ 30 r/tradingmillionaires

I Made $1,295 In 4 Minutes Using The 15Min ORB + Max Allocation Achieved!

The Bias Set Up Days Before The Trade

This week played out about as textbook as ICT weekly bias ever has for me. Monday and Tuesday were pure accumulation, nothing to trade, just building the range. Wednesday, right around FOMC, price tapped the weekly FVG and set the low of the week, that's the manipulation leg everyone always talks about but rarely actually gets to trade cleanly. Once that low was in, price displaced up hard and never looked back. That's when I knew Thursday and Friday were setting up for expansion in the direction of that bias, and today delivered exactly that.

The Trade Itself

Simple setup once the bias was clear. Formed the 15 minute opening range high. Broke it the very next minute after the range closed. Closed outside the range and formed an FVG on the 1 minute timeframe, that's the entry trigger. Stop loss goes below the low of that FVG, target set at a fixed 1RR. TP hit 4 minutes later at $259 x 5.

Why This One Mattered More Than Usual

This trade ran across 5 separate $50k Alpha Zero accounts, all copy traded, so $259 became roughly $1,300 in one shot. More importantly, this was the trade that got me max allocation across all 5 new funded accounts, which means I'm now sitting on a $250k total funded stack starting from scratch on all of them. Slow and steady growth from here toward actual payouts instead of trying to force size too early.

The Part I Actually Want To Talk About

I had zero doubt going into it because the whole week's bias was already mapped out and confirmed before I ever placed the trade. I run my premarket gameplan every single day before the open, weekly bias, next draw on liquidity, technical levels, all of it written down before I'm even looking at live price. Then after the session I run it back through a review that checks rule adherence against my own playbook, not just P&L.

The thing that's actually changed my results the most this year is forcing myself to review every session against my actual rules instead of just glancing at whether I was green or red. After a while of making money and trading decetly I got lazy with this and saw it in my results as well. Half my worst months came from technically winning trades that still broke my own rules, and I never would've caught that pattern without going back through it session by session. If you're not reviewing your discipline the same way you review your P&L, you're missing half the picture.

Curious if anyone else runs a structured premarket gameplan before every session or if you're mostly reacting to price live. Feels like the prep is doing more work for my results lately than the actual entries are.

u/Kasraborhan — 20 days ago
▲ 11 r/tradingmillionaires

My Worst Trading Month This Year... and I'm Actually Proud of It.

This officially became my worst month of 2026.

Across my personal cash account I finished -$1,671, and after copy trading my strategy across 4 accounts (3 Alpha Zero funded + my cash account), I was down roughly $1,600 per account.

Five years ago this would've ended very differently.

I would've doubled my size trying to make it back.

I would've revenge traded.

I would've convinced myself the market "owed" me a winner.

I would've tried to catch every falling knide over and over again.

Instead...

I closed my charts.

Took almost an entire week off.

Came back with fresh eyes.

Honestly, I think that's the biggest sign I've grown as a trader.

I kept forcing a bullish bias in a market that was clearly offering better short opportunities.

Instead of reading what price was doing, I was trading what I wanted it to do.

Every trader says, "trade what you see."

It's amazing how easy that is to forget when you've already convinced yourself of a direction.

I spend almost as much time reviewing trades as I do placing them.

Looking back over my journal made the mistake obvious.

I simply had directional bias and I spotted that after 1-2 mistakes, and not 10-20 with improper size.

That's a completely different problem to solve.

What's encouraging is the statistics.

Even during my worst month...

  • I never came close to blowing an account.
  • Position sizing stayed exactly where it should've been.
  • I respected my stops.
  • I accepted when I wasn't seeing the market clearly.
  • I stepped away instead of digging a deeper hole.

Five years ago I would've lost an account trying to recover.

Today...

I lose a month.

That's progress.

Ironically, after taking time off, the first trade back was one of my cleanest all month.

It was another ICT 2022 IRL → ERL model, this time on the Daily timeframe, perfectly aligned with the Weekly Bias Theory.

Instead of forcing longs...

I finally accepted what price was showing.

The trade paid just over $1,130 across my accounts.

One thing I've learned after seven years...

Your biggest losing month usually teaches you more than your biggest winning month.

Winning makes you confident.

Losing, if you review it properl, makes you better.

I'm curious...

What's the biggest lesson your worst trading month ever taught you?

u/Kasraborhan — 22 days ago
▲ 13 r/ICTMentorship

$1,130 Short Using the ICT 2022 Model (Daily IRL → ERL + Weekly Bias)

This was my first trade back after taking almost a week off.

Ironically, it ended up being the cleanest setup I'd seen all month.

The higher timeframe story was already there long before the entry.

Price had already taken External Range Liquidity (ERL) on the Daily, which immediately shifted my attention toward a reversal instead of continuation. That lined up perfectly with the ICT Weekly Bias Theory, where the weekly expansion had already delivered one side of the range and now had a much higher probability of seeking liquidity in the opposite direction after its already done with the manipulation move.

After the Daily liquidity sweep, price displaced aggressively lower and created an Internal Range Liquidity (IRL) entry in the form of a clean Fair Value Gap.

I wasn't interested in chasing the displacement candle.

The entry was always going to be the retracement and entry right at the daily fvg , where we also set the high of the week and ready now to expand lower.

The execution was straightforward.

  • Daily ERL sweep completed.
  • Weekly Bias Theory aligned bearish.
  • Daily displacement created a fresh IRL.
  • Entry on the retracement into the Daily FVG.
  • Stop above the imbalance.
  • Target back toward the next external liquidity pool or in my case, fixed RR.

The trade ended up paying just over $1,130 across 3x50k Alpha Zero accounts and my personal cash account.

This trade came immediately after my worst month of the year.

A few years ago I would've forced trades trying to earn everything back.

Instead I stepped away, reviewed the month, realized I kept forcing bullish ideas in a bearish market, and waited for price to confirm what it actually wanted to do.

That reset probably saved me thousands more than this trade made.

One thing I think newer ICT traders misunderstand...

The Fair Value Gap isn't the setup.

The liquidity sweep and displacement are the setup.

Too many people try buying every FVG they see without asking why it formed.

The context is what gives the imbalance its probability.

Curious how everyone else trades the 2022 model.

Do you prefer taking entries from the Daily, or do you wait for confirmation on the 15-minute or 1-hour after the higher timeframe sweep?

u/Kasraborhan — 22 days ago
▲ 52 r/tradingpsychology+1 crossposts

6 Years Trading Here Are the Lessons That Actually Moved the Needle

Been around markets for 6 years now, profitable consistently for the last 3 of them. First few years were exactly what you'd expect, messy, inconsistent, way more ego than edge. I’m sure you have heard this plenty of times, but trading is not a light bulb moment, it takes time and dedication to fully gain this as a skill (Never recommend this to be your only source of income.)

One Repeatable Model

Spent way too long thinking adaptability meant switching strategies the second conditions got choppy. All that did was make every month look different from the last with no way to actually diagnose what was working and if you get llost in this phase, it’s going to take you a while to get back out. Once I committed to one core model and ran it through every kind of environment, I finally understood when it worked and when it didn't, which is the only way you build real confidence instead of hope. Pulled my tag performance and it shows exactly why this matters. My forever model setup is sitting at 58.75% win rate, $17,527 net, across 80 trades with a 2.87 profit factor. My irl to erl model is at 73.91% win rate, $13,819 net across 46 trades. Those are the two I mastered first before I ever touched a third (which now is the 15min ORB and I use this quite often.). Now I run 3 models.

Risk Management

Until your risk is consistent, you genuinely don't know if you have an edge or you're just riding a lucky stretch. I backtested the same models with different risk sizing multiple times and the difference in long term equity curve was massive, way bigger than any entry tweak I ever made. I like to use at least 300 trade sample before testing it live or with a prop, whichever is bes suited to you and I like diverse risk, anywhere from 0.5 to 2% on a give trade.

Analytical Mistakes

Went back through my worst days and almost none of them came from misreading structure. They came from impatience, boredom, or just being at the screen too long and feeling like I had to do something. The tag data makes this brutally clear. My "no setup" tag is sitting at a 17.78% win rate and -$9,322 net across 45 trades. My "green to red" tag, meaning trades where I gave back a winning day, is at 0% win rate and -$5,721 across 19 trades. That's over $15,000 combined lost to trades that had nothing to do with my actual strategy. Learning when not to trade ended up mattering as much as learning how to trade.

https://preview.redd.it/lgandv5gkwfh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=43e0a5cd582b3237fe57e5a81c4ee71a01539b9c

https://preview.redd.it/mhljvx6ikwfh1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2c81b27f7a646ec38d2405652684c9dc4967c4d

Journaling Behavior

Recording entries and exits is table stakes. It is truly crucial to understand how you feel and how it affects your trading in any given scenario, and you can’t fully achieve this with just some backtesting and one year in trading, it TAKES TIME Once those patterns were visible in the data instead of just a vague feeling, they were actually fixable.

Consistency

Stopped chasing the feeling of "locking in" and started just focusing on clean execution instead of forcing outcomes and truly become obsessed with the details. Same morning routine every day now, walk or stretch when I wake up, 10 minutes of meditation, cold shower after. Not saying it's required to be profitable, but it's what dialed my head in before every session.

If you're still early in this, don't rush the timeline. Focus on survival first, protecting capital, and building something repeatable. The results follow that, they don't come before it.

Happy to keep breaking down what's actually worked if people want more of this.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 22 days ago
▲ 5 r/AlphaGroupOfficial

40% off every plan just dropped on Alpha Futures

Alpha just cut 40% across the entire lineup and honestly the plan lineup itself is worth breaking down because there's an actual difference between these four, not just price tiers.

Zero is the cheapest way in at $47.40 a month with the code, 25k account, pass in a single day, no consistency rule dragging out your eval. Good if you just want the fastest shot at getting funded and don't need a bigger cap yet.

Standard is new, it's the old plan reworked, $77.40 with the code, higher performance fee caps than Zero and you can hold up to 5 qualified accounts as you scale. This is the one if you're planning to actually build size over time instead of running one account.

Advanced is the one if payout size is what you care about most, $125.40 with the code, $15k cap per request which is the highest in the lineup, full buying power immediately, no scaling plan slowing you down.

Direct skips the eval completely, one payment of $209.40 with the code, no subscription, straight to a qualified account. Made for anyone who's already proven themselves elsewhere and doesn't want to sit through another evaluation.

Across all four, 90% split from day one, no waiting on tiers to unlock a better rate, performance fees every 5 winning days so you can actually pay yourself multiple times a month, and the safety floor doesn't slide back to zero after you get paid, it stays put. Drawdown only updates end of day too, so it's not tightening on you mid-session.

Code's ALPHA40 the discount won't be around forever -> CLICK HERE

u/Kasraborhan — 23 days ago
▲ 6 r/AlphaGroupOfficial

Full update: refunds processed, migrations complete, performance fees moving

Latest from the team, wanted to get it in front of you straight. Full refunds are done for every active Premium client, over $2 million processed including activation fees, give it 3 to 7 business days to actually land depending on your card provider. Performance fees that were approved on Premium are now showing as Premium Pending in your dash, those are going out in batches and outstanding ones are getting contacted directly this week. Migration to AlphaTrader is fully complete, every account on a retained plan is moved, that part’s done.

Not going to pretend last week wasn’t rough, one day’s notice to sort all this out isn’t nothing. But the follow-through actually happened, refunds went out, payouts are moving, migration’s finished. That’s what mattered most out of everything said last week and it’s done. Focus now is forward, more updates on AlphaTrader coming over the next few weeks. Questions, drop them below or hit support.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 30 days ago
▲ 107 r/tradingmillionaires

How I learned to trade while working 7 to 7 six days a week with no days off

For about 2-3 years I worked 7-6 six to seven days a week. I had side gigs on top of that, a part-time job after my main job, and I was trying to get through college at the same time. I was completely alone in America. Every single day felt like survival mode for me and for the first time at 17 years old, I had no one to rely on, at all.

Somewhere in the middle of all that I decided I was going to learn how to trade. This is after trying amazon FBA, dropshipping, getting a real estate license, etc.

I woke up at 4:30 AM every morning to study before work. That one hour was all I had and I protected it like my life depended on it. Books, courses, YouTube, whatever I could get my hands on. At work I had two monitors and one of them always had charts on it. My coworkers would walk by and tell me I was wasting my time. "Stop gambling bro." "You know 99% of traders fail right?" I heard it all.

Lunch breaks I stayed at my desk and journaled every trade I took. What went right. What went wrong. How I felt when I entered. I didn't realize it at the time but that journal is probably the single thing that changed everything for me. After work I'd go to my second job, then hit the gym or train MMA to clear my head. By 9 or 10 PM I'd finally get home and squeeze in another 2-3 hours of studying/backtetsing before passing out and doing it all over again.

I did that for years. Most of it with zero results. I missed birthdays. I lost friendships. I questioned if any of it was worth it more times than I can count.

Now I trade multiple funded accounts and used it to fund a live cash account and consistently pull payouts. But I never forget what it cost to get here. The mornings I could barely keep my eyes open at 5 AM. The nights I fell asleep with my laptop on my chest. The years where nothing worked but I refused to stop.

If you're working a full time job right now and trying to learn this, don't let anyone tell you it's not possible. You don't need perfect conditions. Your path will be slower than the kid who sits at home trading all day but it'll be built on something real. And once you've built something while juggling a job and school and exhaustion and loneliness, nothing in this game can break you.

If you really want something you'll make time for it.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 1 month ago
▲ 40 r/tradingmillionaires

I made $2,152 using the IRL/ERL setup!

Not going to sugarcoat this one. This has been the toughest stretch I've had in 2026, string of red days that just kept compounding on each other. Market went through a full personality change too, whole thing shifted from a clean bullish cycle into a grinding bearish one, and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to actually adjust to that instead of still trying to force longs into a market that had already flipped. Today's the first day that actually felt like the tide turned.

This is the IRL to ERL model, external range liquidity gets swept first, then price shifts back toward the internal range. Here's exactly how today's trade played out step by step.

External liquidity swept first. Price ran up and took out the external high, which is the ERL sweep this whole setup is built around. There was an SMT divergence sitting on top of that sweep too, but that's a bonus confirmation, not a requirement. The sweep itself is what matters.

Displacement lower forms the FVG. Once the sweep happened, price displaced hard back down and left a clean higher timeframe FVG on the move, in this case it was the 4hr FVG. That displacement is the tell that liquidity actually got absorbed and reversed, not just wicked and ignored.

Entry on the FVG retest. Price came back up into that FVG zone and that's the only valid entry here, never the initial displacement candle itself. Waiting for the retest is what keeps you out of the moves that look right but reverse again before continuing.

Stop loss and target. Stop goes at the first high or low of the FVG candle, not some arbitrary tick count. Target is a fixed 1 to 2RR depending on how tight that stop ends up being.

The Result

$538.34 net on the account shown, same trade copied across 4 accounts total, 3 Alpha Zero accounts plus 1 cash account, so a little over $2,150 total off one setup today. Doesn't erase the month, still net down significantly, but it's the first real proof the model still works now that the market's actually shifted regimes instead of just chopping me up in the old bullish structure.

The last few weeks I kept getting stuck looking for the same continuation patterns that worked great in the bullish cycle and they just weren't there anymore. This trade only worked because I stopped assuming the old bias and actually let the ERL sweep and the displacement tell me what regime I was actually in.

u/Kasraborhan — 1 month ago
▲ 37 r/Trading

6 Years Trading Here Are the Lessons That Actually Moved the Needle

Been around markets for 6 years now, profitable consistently for the last 3 of them. First few years were exactly what you'd expect, messy, inconsistent, way more ego than edge. I’m sure you have heard this plenty of times, but trading is not a light bulb moment, it takes time and dedication to fully gain this as a skill (Never recommend this to be your only source of income.)

One Repeatable Model

Spent way too long thinking adaptability meant switching strategies the second conditions got choppy. All that did was make every month look different from the last with no way to actually diagnose what was working and if you get llost in this phase, it’s going to take you a while to get back out. Once I committed to one core model and ran it through every kind of environment, I finally understood when it worked and when it didn't, which is the only way you build real confidence instead of hope. Pulled my tag performance and it shows exactly why this matters. My forever model setup is sitting at 58.75% win rate, $17,527 net, across 80 trades with a 2.87 profit factor. My irl to erl model is at 73.91% win rate, $13,819 net across 46 trades. Those are the two I mastered first before I ever touched a third (which now is the 15min ORB and I use this quite often.). Now I run 3 models.

Risk Management

Until your risk is consistent, you genuinely don't know if you have an edge or you're just riding a lucky stretch. I backtested the same models with different risk sizing multiple times and the difference in long term equity curve was massive, way bigger than any entry tweak I ever made. I like to use at least 300 trade sample before testing it live or with a prop, whichever is bes suited to you and I like diverse risk, anywhere from 0.5 to 2% on a give trade.

Analytical Mistakes

Went back through my worst days and almost none of them came from misreading structure. They came from impatience, boredom, or just being at the screen too long and feeling like I had to do something. The tag data makes this brutally clear. My "no setup" tag is sitting at a 17.78% win rate and -$9,322 net across 45 trades. My "green to red" tag, meaning trades where I gave back a winning day, is at 0% win rate and -$5,721 across 19 trades. That's over $15,000 combined lost to trades that had nothing to do with my actual strategy. Learning when not to trade ended up mattering as much as learning how to trade.

https://preview.redd.it/ngawrkc42qdh1.png?width=1642&format=png&auto=webp&s=96d3de996deaf882a70c31686149fe87f77a3463

https://preview.redd.it/vtbgqih82qdh1.png?width=1614&format=png&auto=webp&s=f49b8641726a09f824bfae79802ff05227d48a70

Journaling Behavior

Recording entries and exits is table stakes. It is truly crucial to understand how you feel and how it affects your trading in any given scenario, and you can’t fully achieve this with just some backtesting and one year in trading, it TAKES TIME Once those patterns were visible in the data instead of just a vague feeling, they were actually fixable.

Consistency

Stopped chasing the feeling of "locking in" and started just focusing on clean execution instead of forcing outcomes and truly become obsessed with the details. Same morning routine every day now, walk or stretch when I wake up, 10 minutes of meditation, cold shower after. Not saying it's required to be profitable, but it's what dialed my head in before every session.

If you're still early in this, don't rush the timeline. Focus on survival first, protecting capital, and building something repeatable. The results follow that, they don't come before it.

Happy to keep breaking down what's actually worked if people want more of this.

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 1 month ago
▲ 3 r/AlphaGroupOfficial

Most recent update from Alpha

Wanted to get this in front of you directly. Everyone in approved for pay status on Premium, showing as Premium Pending in your dash, is getting paid, that was always the plan even through the mess of the last week. First batch, 10% of outstanding payouts, went out today, rest of you are getting contacted by email with real timelines. Zero and Advanced payouts are back to same day starting tomorrow too. Know trust took a hit this week, appreciate everyone who stuck around through it.

u/Kasraborhan — 1 month ago
▲ 2 r/Trading

The Fastest Way I Made My First $100,000 Trading

Before anyone reads this, this is not for beginners who are still trying to find a strategy. If you're still switching systems every week, don't know your edge, or can't manage risk consistently, focus on that first.

https://preview.redd.it/wedbtj4vubdh1.png?width=1828&format=png&auto=webp&s=9348df135bd6518525e320281565007f979d0737

This is for traders who have already put in the work, know their setups inside and out, and simply don't have enough capital to fully capitalize on their edge.

One quote completely changed how I looked at scaling:

$1,000 → $10,000
$10,000 → $100,000
$100,000 → $1,000,000

To make your first $10k, you'll probably have to be willing to risk around $1k.

To make $100k, you'll probably have to be willing to risk around $10k.

The numbers change for everyone, but the principle stays the same. You need capital to make capital.

That is exactly why I started using prop firms.

Instead of spending years trying to build a six-figure account from a few thousand dollars, I treated evaluation fees as my business investment. I allocated roughly $9,000 specifically for evaluations, resets, and scaling. Looking back at my dashboard, that investment has returned just under $100,000, which is an ROI I never could have achieved trading my own small account.

I had already spent thousands of hours studying market structure, backtesting, journaling, and reviewing every mistake I made. By the time I started aggressively scaling prop firms, I already knew exactly what I was looking for every session.

One thing I tell traders all the time is to stop looking for the next strategy and start collecting data. Backtest hundreds of examples. Journal every trade. Learn how your setup behaves in bullish markets, bearish markets, ranges, high volatility, low volatility, news events, and everything in between. You need so much screen time that execution starts becoming automatic.

The hardest skill is mastering yourself. Emotional control is what separates traders who pass one account from traders who consistently manage twenty and imo you can't do this in 3-6 months.

Personally, I don't spend weeks trying to grind through evaluation phases. When I buy new accounts, I wait for an A+ setup and often pass them in one or two trades by copy trading the same execution across multiple evaluations. That approach isn't for everyone, and it only works if your edge has already been proven. If it hasn't, you'll simply lose money faster and also if you don't have much capital set aside, this is also NOT a good approach for you.

Once funded, I generally use one of two approaches:

The first is more aggressive. I'll use an early winner to build a healthy buffer, then spend the next several trading days hitting the minimum trading-day requirement while protecting the account until I'm eligible for a payout.

The second is the approach I use most often now. I'll trade one or two micros, keep risk extremely small, and slowly build multiple funded accounts at the same time. A $500 payout across 20 funded accounts is a $10,000 payout cycle from relatively conservative trading.

This is one of the reasons I've enjoyed trading with Alpha Futures. Once you've proven you can execute consistently, having access to multiple funded accounts allows you to scale an edge without needing hundreds of thousands of dollars in your personal brokerage account.

None of this happened overnight. It took me years of blowing accounts, making emotional decisions, chasing trades, and learning the hard way. Prop firms didn't make me profitable. They simply gave me more capital once I finally became profitable.

If you're serious about using prop firms to build wealth, spend far more time building your edge than looking for discounts on evaluation fees. Capital is easy to find. A repeatable edge is not.

Curious how everyone else approaches prop firms. Do you prefer passing aggressively in a couple of trades, or slowly building the account before taking payouts?

Share them below in hopes to help a fellow trader out!

Here are some of my payouts within the last year:

https://preview.redd.it/0z6daj2fxbdh1.png?width=1198&format=png&auto=webp&s=060c746fb6863daa9ea32e0efc945d0e561d478b

https://preview.redd.it/i0ze0uhdxbdh1.png?width=696&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d194da6c540b9b8eb5157c62a1165b339d36e42

https://preview.redd.it/op9k9tacxbdh1.jpg?width=1222&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce24b26c3392374116f6a1a6402b211796b27b06

https://preview.redd.it/k7po06waxbdh1.png?width=1968&format=png&auto=webp&s=e136362956cc91c9e35dff569429467a68cff392

https://preview.redd.it/kg3skso4xbdh1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=77ad75e8f8fcccf084ae483f95d55819d653367f

https://preview.redd.it/fa1i1bx3xbdh1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9cd5e90d465088ea4257e1dee4235949c4cb60b

https://preview.redd.it/27p2yn12xbdh1.png?width=1635&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb292e1c4f9a2cad1e186d434ad758d6ba9c6720

reddit.com
u/Kasraborhan — 1 month ago