Three trades this week. All IRL to ERL. Two of them were literally the same trade on different timeframes. 730+ points captured on NQ.

The Weekly Setup

Coming into Monday, last week's sellside liquidity was the obvious target sitting below us. Monday swept it, grabbed the stops, and tapped straight into a weekly FVG underneath. Weekly gaps are strong levels, that's where institutional demand lives. Price tapped it, found buyers, and displaced back up hard.

That sweep was the trigger. ERL taken (last week's SSL), IRL tapped (weekly FVG). Now I'm only looking for longs targeting the next external level above.

Trade 1 — 30-Minute FVG

After the sweep and displacement, price reclaimed structure on the higher timeframe. Dropped to the 30-minute, waited for the first clean FVG to form in the direction of the move. Entered on the pullback into the gap, stop below the FVG low. Ran clean.

Trade 2 — 4-Hour FVG (Same Setup, Bigger Timeframe)

Next day the 4-hour chart printed its own FVG off of that same reclaim. Same directional bias, same levels, just a higher timeframe entry with more conviction. Entered on the tap and it exploded even harder. This was the same trade as Trade 1, just on a different timeframe. ( I was so confident on these

Trade 3 — Another IRL to ERL

Third trade was a separate IRL to ERL setup that presented itself on Sunday open.

All three played out. 730+ points total.

The Numbers

I copy trade across 4 Alpha Zero $50K funded accounts so all three trades hit on all four. I also took two of them on my personal account which added $1,300+ cash on top.

Total week: over $11,000.

One day away from another payout. If it clears that puts me at nearly $10,000 in payouts in just over 30 days running four $50K accounts. The evaluation cost for all four was less than what a single one of these trades paid me.

Why It Worked

The IRL to ERL setup keeps printing because the logic behind it doesn't change. Price sweeps an external level, taps an internal level, and targets the next external level. When a weekly FVG lines up with a sellside sweep and you get clean FVG entries on the 30-min and 4H, you take it and let the market do the rest.

Here is a free video breakdown of this setup: KAZ IRL - ERL STRATEGY

Alpha just dropped something big. They built their own trading platform from scratch called Alpha Trader and it's live right now on Alpha Futures andAlpha Capital.

I've been posting my trades and payouts on here for a while now and the one thing I always wished was that everything lived in one place. Alpha Trader does that. TradingView powered charts, multi-chart view so you can watch up to 4 timeframes at once, one-click trading, drag-and-drop OCO orders, built-in performance analytics, and the one I'm most excited about, internal copy trade functionality. That last one is huge for anyone running multiple accounts like I do. No more logging into 4 separate accounts and placing the same trade manually each time.

To celebrate the launch both firms are running discounts right now:

Alpha Futures — 50% off all evaluations Code: ALPHATRADER50 (unlimited use)

Plans start from $39.50/month with the discount. If you select Alpha Trader as your platform at checkout you also get a free $10K practice account within an hour so you can get familiar with the platform before your eval starts.

Alpha Capital — 40% off all accounts Code: ALPHATRADER (48 hours only)

Alpha Trader is coming to Capital soon so this is the time to lock in a plan at the discounted rate before the platform goes live there.

I trade on Alpha Futures and I've pulled nearly $10K in payouts in the last 30 days from four 50K accounts. Everything I've been sharing on this subreddit, the IRL to ERL breakdowns, the ORB setups, the payout certificates, all of that has been on Alpha. This isn't a random promo. I trade here every day and now the platform just got a serious upgrade.

If you've been thinking about getting funded or switching firms, this is probably the best entry point you're going to get for a while. The Alpha Capital code expires in 48 hours. The Futures code is unlimited but I wouldn't sit on it.

Alpha Futures CLICK HERE

Alpha Capital CLICK HERE

Friday was my worst day of the month. -$605 across 2 trades. And it came right after four straight green days where I was feeling invincible. That's exactly when the market humbles you.

What the data showed me is that the loss happened because I forced a setup that wasn't there. When I look at my long vs short breakdown for the past two months, my longs are hitting at 57% with an average profit of $246. My shorts are at 36% with an average profit of $176. I've been fighting the trend on shorts this entire time and the numbers prove it. Friday's $605 came from two short trades that had no business being taken in a market that's been bullish for weeks.

The fix isn't complicated. Size down on shorts. Only take them when the higher timeframe bias is clearly bearish and the setup is A+. And on days like Friday where I've had a strong week and my confidence is peaking, that's actually when I need to be the most careful because overconfidence leads to forcing trades that aren't there.

I'm not hiding the red days. This is what real trading looks like. Green streaks end. What matters is how small you keep the damage when they do and whether you show up Monday with a clear head ready to run the process again.

I've been doing some version of this for years now and every time I skip it my performance suffers. I'm not saying you have to do something like this to trade well, this is just what I found builds my discipline and puts me in a flow zone. Here's what it looks like right now:

4:30 AM — Alarm goes off, focus is to just get vertical.

4:35 AM — Walking pad on.

I have a standing desk and I get on the walking pad immediately. 30 minutes of low effort walking while I'm still waking up. This replaced my old cold shower routine honestly. The movement does the same thing for me, it helps breaks the sleep fog and gets the blood flowing which helps me feel actually awake.

WALKING PAD

5:00 AM — Breathwork.

4-7-8 method, 10 cycles. Inhale 4 seconds, hold 7, exhale 8. There's guided versions on YouTube if you've never tried it. This calms the nervous system down before a morning of high-stakes decisions.

4-7-8 BREATHWORK

5:15 AM — Black coffee.

No screens yet. Caffeine hits different when you've been awake for 60-90 minutes versus slamming it the second your alarm goes off.

5:30 AM — Game plan review.

This is non-negotiable. I write my game plan the night before so right now I'm just reviewing it, not creating it. I go through overnight price action (Asia + London highs and lows because I trade futures), update any key levels if the overnight session changed something, and confirm or adjust my bias.

I also stay on the walking pad during this entire prep and keep walking through the first part of the session. I manage to hit at least 15-20k steps ddaily, honestly one of the best $150 ever spent.

6:00 AM — Session opens (Pacific time).

Before I take any trade I answer three questions:

Where is price drawn to?

What is liquidity telling me?

Do I have confluence or am I forcing it?

If I can't clearly answer all three I don't trade.

After the session — I fill out the same template every single day. Premarket game plan, in-session updates at 6:45, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00, then an overall recap after market close. The recap has three sections: mistakes I made, what I did well and stuck to my rules on, and whether the day was red or green based on discipline (not P&L). I've been using the same template for over a year and it's the single biggest reason my consistency improved.

I attached a screenshot of the template if anyone wants to build something similar.

The mornings I rush through this or skip steps are always the mornings I overtrade or take a setup I know isn't there.

You don't need to do exactly what I do. But if you don't have any kind of pre-session routine you're basically rolling dice on whether today is the version of you that trades well or the version that revenge trades after the first loss.

Happy to answer any questions. This is just what works for me.

$380 in evaluation fees. $19,305 in payouts. That's a 4,980% return on my initial investment across 4 copy-traded funded accounts.

I think a lot of traders overcomplicate what actually works on NQ, ES, EURUSD.

The Numbers (April + May 2026)

April: $13,480 across 4 accounts, 12 trading days

May (so far): $7,360 across 4 accounts, 10 trading days

Total payouts received: $19,305.15

Total spent on evaluations: $380

Net profit: $18,925.15

The Setup: ERL → IRL (External Range Liquidity to Internal Range Liquidity) or Vice Versa

This is the framework that generates most of my funded account profits. It has a 66.67% win rate across 54 trades with a 3.06 profit factor in my journal. Average winner is $466, average loser is $304. Expectancy is $209 per trade.

Here's the concept in plain English. External range liquidity is the obvious stuff that everyone can see on a chart:

Previous day highs and lows, weekly highs and lows, swing points where stop losses are sitting.

Internal range liquidity is what sits between those levels:

fair value gaps, imbalances, areas where price moved so fast it left a gap.

The rhythm is simple. Price takes an external level (sweeps a high or low to grab liquidity), pulls back into an internal level (fills a gap or imbalance), then pushes out toward the next external level. ERL to IRL to ERL. It does this on every timeframe, every session, every instrument.

How I Actually Trade It (Step by Step)

I attached a chart example that shows exactly what this looks like on NQ 30-minute ( I also use the 1hr or 4hr for the FVG as well).

Step 1 — Find the ERL sweep. On the daily or 4H, look for where price just flushed a significant high or low. In the chart example, price swept the daily candle low on Monday, taking out the sellside liquidity sitting below it. That's your ERL.

Step 2 — Wait for displacement. After the sweep, price needs to displace aggressively in the opposite direction. This displacement creates a higher timeframe fair value gap (FVG). In the example you can see price flush the low then rip back up, leaving a clean gap on the 30-minute chart. That tells you real buying stepped in at that level.

Step 3 — Enter at the FVG. The first higher timeframe FVG created after the displacement is your entry. You're buying the pullback into that gap. Stop goes below the FVG low for longs (above FVG high for shorts). In the chart example, price pulled back into the gap on Wednesday and that's the entry. What's solid about this setup is that you sit on your hands till the entry comes to you so you just leave the charts and don't force anything.

Step 4 — Target the next external level. Your target is the next obvious pool of liquidity. Usually a previous session high, a daily high, buyside liquidity sitting above equal highs, or a fixed R target. In the example, the target was the buyside liquidity above the previous swing high. Price ran straight to it.

The Weekly Layer That Makes It Even Cleaner (WEEKLY BIAS THEORY)

This setup gets significantly stronger when you layer in the weekly structure. Monday typically builds the range for the week. Tuesday or Wednesday sweeps one side of Monday's range to grab liquidity. That sweep tells you the direction for the rest of the week.

If Tuesday sweeps Monday's low and reclaims, your bias is bullish for the rest of the week. Now you're only looking for IRL to ERL longs. You find your FVG on the 30-minute, place the entry, and ride the expansion toward the weekly high. Three layers of confluence, weekly bias, daily ERL sweep, and a clean FVG entry on the lower timeframe. When all three line up these trades hit with almost no drawdown.

Premarket Prep

Takes me 10 minutes every morning.

Mark previous day high and low

Mark overnight high and low (Asia + London sessions)

Identify where sellside and buyside liquidity is resting

Determine session bias: did we already sweep an external level overnight?

Check for major news (FOMC, CPI, earnings) — if high impact news, sit out or cut size

Risk Management

0.5-2% risk per trade per account

Max 2 trades per day

First trade green = done for the day

Move stop to breakeven when structure clears

Why I'm Sharing This

If you're trading NQ/ES or any of your fav forex pair and you're not looking at where liquidity is resting and how price moves between external and internal levels, you're making this harder than it needs to be.

If you want a free video breakdown of this setup just lmk.

Just locked in another payout cycle on these 4 Alpha Futures accounts and it brought the total up to $5,572 for the month. What’s crazy is almost all of it came from the same few setups I’ve been sharing here live the entire time.

Lately the IRL → ERL model has been absolutely printing in this market. NQ has been in a strong trending environment and instead of trying to be the hero calling tops every day, I’ve just been following liquidity and waiting for the market to pull back into imbalance before continuing higher.

That’s honestly been the biggest difference.

A lot of traders keep getting chopped because they’re forcing trades in the middle of ranges or trying to short a market that clearly wants higher prices. Meanwhile I’ve mostly just been sitting on my hands waiting for the same conditions over and over again: liquidity gets taken, price reclaims structure, we retrace into IRL, then expand toward the next ERL target.

The setups themselves are not complicated. The hard part is the patience.

This month only had a couple small red days across these accounts. Everything else was either base hits or bigger trend continuation trades.

That’s also why prop firms have worked well for me. Being able to spread the same execution across multiple accounts makes a huge difference once you actually have a repeatable edge and proper risk management behind it.

The best part is these were all trades I talked about publicly while they were developing.

Still a lot more work to do, but this has probably been the cleanest month I’ve had in a while just from staying patient and sticking to what’s already working instead of constantly searching for something new.

If you want the full free video breakdown of the IRL → ERL model and how I’ve been using it in this trend, comment MODEL and I’ll drop it.

All the book names are in the last post ----->

The first 15 minutes of the NY session is where overnight liquidity gets swept, institutional orders fill, and the real direction starts to form. Most traders jump in during those 15 minutes trying to catch the first move. That's where most of them lose. I don't touch anything until those 15 minutes are done.

Here's my exact process. Before the session even opens I've already done my premarket prep. I mark previous day high and low, overnight high and low, and identify where the nearest liquidity pools are sitting. I check the weekly bias from the framework I've talked about before. Monday accumulation, Tuesday/Wednesday manipulation, rest of the week expansion. By 9:30 I already know if I'm looking for longs or shorts and I know exactly which levels need to get hit for my setup to trigger.

Once the opening bell hits I'm watching two things. Where does the 15 minute opening range settle, and does price break out of that range with a clean displacement and form a fair value gap on the 1 minute chart. If the answer is yes I have my entry. FVG close is my entry, stop below the gap for longs, target 1R if my stop is over 30 points or 2R if it's under 30 points. If the answer is no I don't trade. Some days the ORB is too wide. Some days the breakout doesn't form a clean imbalance. Some days the move happens before the 15 minutes are even up. All of those are "no trade" days for me.

The other thing I'm checking during those first 15 minutes is the correlated pair. If I'm on NQ I'm watching ES. If they're moving together that confirms the move is real. If one is making a new high and the other isn't, that's an SMT divergence and it tells me the move might be a fake out. That one check has saved me from more bad trades than anything else I do.

The whole process takes about 20 minutes from premarket to either having an order placed or closing the charts for the day. That's it. Everything else is just sitting on my hands.

Alpha Futures CLICK HERE

Alpha Capital CLICK HERE

Braydon just crossed $22K in lifetime payouts with Alpha Futures. That's consistent execution stacked over time until the numbers start looking ridiculous.

Most traders never see a single payout. The traders hitting numbers like this aren't swinging for the fences every session. They're taking base hits, protecting capital on days where nothing is clean, and letting the payouts compound.

Alpha Futures CLICK HERE

Alpha Capital CLICK HERE

This was probably one of the cleanest months I’ve had in a long time and honestly the biggest reason was simplification.

Over the last month Itook a payout of $5,572 across 4 accounts, and almost all of it came from repeating the same few models over and over instead of constantly searching for new setups every day.

The biggest one was the IRL → ERL model.

NQ has been in a strong trending environment lately, and instead of trying to predict reversals or short every extension, I mainly focused on liquidity. Once liquidity was taken and price reclaimed structure, I waited for pullbacks into imbalance or HTF FVGs and looked for continuation toward the next draw on liquidity.

What really helped this month was journaling everything and reviewing the stats after every session. A lot of traders think they need more strategies, but most people honestly just need more data on themselves.

Once I started tracking things deeper, the patterns became obvious. Certain setups consistently worked better. Certain times of day were killing my P&L. Some trades looked “smart” in real time but statistically made no sense when I reviewed them later.

That’s why this month was mostly base hits and a few larger continuation trades.

If anyone wants, comment MODEL and I’ll send over the free IRL → ERL breakdown video and the stats/replay breakdowns I’ve been studying this month.

Just locked in another payout cycle on these 4 Alpha Futures accounts and it brought the total up to $5,572 for the month. What’s crazy is almost all of it came from the same few setups I’ve been sharing here live the entire time.

Lately the IRL → ERL model has been absolutely printing in this market. NQ has been in a strong trending environment and instead of trying to be the hero calling tops every day, I’ve just been following liquidity and waiting for the market to pull back into imbalance before continuing higher.

That’s honestly been the biggest difference.

A lot of traders keep getting chopped because they’re forcing trades in the middle of ranges or trying to short a market that clearly wants higher prices. Meanwhile I’ve mostly just been sitting on my hands waiting for the same conditions over and over again: liquidity gets taken, price reclaims structure, we retrace into IRL, then expand toward the next ERL target.

The setups themselves are not complicated. The hard part is the patience.

This month only had a couple small red days across these accounts. Everything else was either base hits or bigger trend continuation trades. No crazy gambling. No oversized revenge trading. Just waiting for clean conditions and executing the same model repeatedly.

That’s also why prop firms have worked well for me. Being able to spread the same execution across multiple accounts makes a huge difference once you actually have a repeatable edge and proper risk management behind it.

The best part is these were all trades I talked about publicly while they were developing.

Still a lot more work to do, but this has probably been the cleanest month I’ve had in a while just from staying patient and sticking to what’s already working instead of constantly searching for something new.

If you want the full free video breakdown of the IRL → ERL model and how I’ve been using it in this trend, comment MODEL and I’ll drop it.

Also if you haven't seen it yet, Alpha just launched the Premium Plan. It's basically the plan every trader has been asking for.

Check it out below:

Alpha Futures CLICK HERE

Alpha Capital CLICK HERE

We just dropped a podcast episode with Zander and honestly this one hit different. He started in 2020 at 17 years old with nothing but YouTube videos and a demo account. A kid who decided he was going to figure this out and refused to quit for six years straight.

What I liked about this conversation is he didn't sugarcoat any of it. He talked about how beginner's luck almost ruined him because those early random wins made him think he had it figured out when he had no idea what he was doing (some might call this beginner's luck). He talked about cutting off friends who kept telling him he was wasting his time. And he broke down what his actual daily routine looks like now, which is nothing like what you see on social media. No lambos we promise. He's routine consists of waking up at the same time every day, training, eating right, doing his premarket prep, and executing the same process over and over. He compared it to lifting, same time, same movements, same discipline, and honestly that's the most accurate way I've heard anyone describe what consistent trading actually feels like.

One thing he said that stuck with me was "you're not an unprofitable trader until the day you quit. Until then it's your learning phase." If you're in year 1 or year 2 right now and wondering if this is worth it, watch this episode. He was exactly where you are for a long time and he came out the other side by just not stopping.

He also gets into why your sleep, diet, and physical health will always show up in your trading whether you want to admit it or not. If you're eating garbage, sleeping 5 hours, and skipping the gym, your decision making at the screen is going to reflect that. Fix the foundation first and the trading gets easier. I've experienced the same thing myself this year.

Full episode here: CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST

Also if you haven't seen it yet, Alpha just launched the Premium Plan. It's basically the plan every trader has been asking for.

Check it out below:

Alpha Futures CLICK HERE

Alpha Capital CLICK HERE

Sitting on $2,284 P&L on a $200K funded account. $185 more and I'm paid. If you've been this close before you know how easy it is to do something stupid, so I went through my last 17 trades and broke everything down by time, day, and behavior.

Here's what the data actually says.

The $896 Leak: Early Morning Entries

Broke down my entries by hour and this was brutal.

• 7AM: 4 trades, 0% win rate, -$483
• 8AM: 2 trades, 0% win rate, -$413
• 6AM: 4 trades, 75% win rate, +$784
• 3PM+ late session: 4 trades, 75%+, +$521 to $552

0-for-6 between 7-8AM. That's $896 gone from just 2 hours of trading. Without those entries I'd already be paid out at $3,180. Blocking that window entirely going forward.

Day of Week Breakdown

• Sunday: 0% win rate, -$196
• Monday: 25% win rate, -$14
• Tuesday: ~40%, between -$34 and +$367
• Thursday-Friday: 100% win rate, +$1,556 combined

Thursday and Friday carried this entire account. If I had only traded those two days I'd be at +$1,556 on 5 trades with zero stress. Instead I took 17 trades to get to $2,284 because I kept forcing setups on days where my edge doesn't exist.

The Revenge Trade That Almost Got Me

May 4th I took back-to-back losses within 12 minutes. MNQ -$183 then MNQ -$203. Classic revenge pattern. Ended up recovering with a +$521 winner later but those two impulse trades cost me $386 before the bounce back.

Rule going forward: 2 losses in a day and I close the platform. Come back tomorrow.

The Gameplan

• Block 7-8AM completely
• No Sunday trading
• 2-loss daily cap, no exceptions
• Lean into Thursday and Friday sessions
• Normal sizing only

At my average of $134/trade I need 2 clean executions. That's the whole goal. Not $185. Two good trades.

Side note — been using an Zella AI in my journal that helped me pull all this data which is still in Beta right now. Asked it what's hurting my performance and it flagged the time-of-day leak, the day-of-week edge, and the revenge pattern on May 4th in about 30 seconds.

Sitting on $2,284 P&L on a $200K funded account. $185 more and I'm paid. If you've been this close before you know how easy it is to do something stupid, so I went through my last 17 trades and broke everything down by time, day, and behavior.

Here's what the data actually says.

The $896 Leak: Early Morning Entries

Broke down my entries by hour and this was brutal.

• 7AM: 4 trades, 0% win rate, -$483
• 8AM: 2 trades, 0% win rate, -$413
• 6AM: 4 trades, 75% win rate, +$784
• 3PM+ late session: 4 trades, 75%+, +$521 to $552

0-for-6 between 7-8AM. That's $896 gone from just 2 hours of trading. Without those entries I'd already be paid out at $3,180. Blocking that window entirely going forward.

Day of Week Breakdown

• Sunday: 0% win rate, -$196
• Monday: 25% win rate, -$14
• Tuesday: ~40%, between -$34 and +$367
• Thursday-Friday: 100% win rate, +$1,556 combined

Thursday and Friday carried this entire account. If I had only traded those two days I'd be at +$1,556 on 5 trades with zero stress. Instead I took 17 trades to get to $2,284 because I kept forcing setups on days where my edge doesn't exist.

The Revenge Trade That Almost Got Me

May 4th I took back-to-back losses within 12 minutes. MNQ -$183 then MNQ -$203. Classic revenge pattern. Ended up recovering with a +$521 winner later but those two impulse trades cost me $386 before the bounce back.

Rule going forward: 2 losses in a day and I close the platform. Come back tomorrow.

The Gameplan

• Block 7-8AM completely
• No Sunday trading
• 2-loss daily cap, no exceptions
• Lean into Thursday and Friday sessions
• Normal sizing only

At my average of $134/trade I need 2 clean executions. That's the whole goal. Not $185. Two good trades.

Side note — been using an AI in my journal that helped me pull all this data. Asked it what's hurting my performance and it flagged the time-of-day leak, the day-of-week edge, and the revenge pattern on May 4th in about 30 seconds.

This is the IRL to ERL framework and it's the only way I read price action now. Start on the daily. Find where price just took external range liquidity, that's your highs or lows. Once ERL gets taken, price wants to rotate back into internal range liquidity which is your fair value gaps and imbalances sitting inside the range. So the flow is simple. ERL gets taken, price pulls into IRL, then pushes back out to the next ERL. You're just trading that rotation over and over on every timeframe.

Here's how I execute it step by step:

• Identify on the daily where ERL was just taken (previous high/low, swing point, session liquidity)
• Find the nearest IRL below or above (daily FVG, 4hr imbalance, order block)
• Wait for price to flush a key level and reclaim on the 30min to 1hr timeframe
• Once it reclaims, mark the FVG that forms on that displacement
• Entry is at the FVG, stop below the first candle of the gap for longs or above it for shorts
• Target the next ERL for a fixed 1R or 2R depending on stop distance

The reason this setup prints is because you're not guessing direction. The daily tells you where price wants to go. The 30min to 1hr gives you the exact entry. And the weekly bias confirms whether you should even be looking for longs or shorts that week. If every day that week has been open low high close and sending new highs, you're not taking shorts. You wait for the IRL to get tapped, enter long, and ride expansion back to ERL.

I only trade 1-2 times a day max on micros only and that's been enough to pull consistent payouts every couple weeks. The edge isn't in how often you trade. It's in how well you read the rotation between these two levels and having the patience to wait for price to come to you.

Alpha Futures click here

Alpha Capital click here

Another one. $9,800 performance fee secured and paid out to Diamond.

What people don't see behind these certificates is the amount of days where nothing happens. The traders getting paid aren't the ones glued to the screen 12 hours a day, forcing entries. They're the ones who wait, execute, and move on taking their chunk out of the market.

Trade with the best propfirm out there:

Alpha Futures click here

Alpha Capital click here