u/Salamandrine88

Spent the last few years grinding prop firm challenges, mostly FTMO and a couple of the smaller ones. Got payouts here and there, nothing life changing but enough that combined with savings I can finally fund my own acct properly.

Want to step away from the prop game and trade my own capital. Fewer rules.

Researching brokers now and the same names keep coming up across reddit and a couple of trading communities Im in.

Currently on my shortlist: Fxpro/Pu prime as classic cfds borkers and bybit tradfi via crypto deposit, I still haven’t decided how exactly I want to fund the accounts and withdraw later on, but I’d really appreciate more detailed advice specifically on that part.

All three do CFD plus forex, decent execution from what i'm reading, ECN style accounts with about $7 RT commission. Curious what live users actually think of each, especially withdrawal experience and execution during news. Trustpilot is mostly noise at this point so I trust this sub more than star ratings.

Saw some ppl also recommending crypto exchanges that have CFD products bolted on the side. Personally id rather stay with a proper CFD broker for forex and gold, the exchange CFD products feel like a side feature not a core offering.

Anyone running real money on them? Whats actually been your experience vs whats on their marketing pages?

I avoided on-chain for way longer than I want to admit and the reason was stupid. It wasn't fear of getting rugged or losing keys. It was that the whole routine of withdraw, wait for confirmations, open the other wallet, maybe bridge, double-check the address, was just enough steps that I'd talk myself out of it every time. Friction killed more of my on-chain curiosity than risk ever did.

Few months ago I tried Bybit's Web3 wallet basically because it was already sitting there in the app and I was too lazy to do the old dance.

And I got weirdly annoyed at myself.

Because the barrier I'd built up in my head for like two years just wasn't there. Asset on-chain, same app, few taps, done. All that avoidance over a process that took less time than making coffee. I sat there a little irritated that I'd let a UX annoyance gatekeep me from learning this stuff for that long.

Not all sunshine though.

One swap the gas estimate was off and I overpaid more than I'd like to put in writing. Small absolute amount, but it stung in that specific way where you know it was avoidable and you just didn't catch it. And it's got a clear ceiling. Basic swaps, fine. Anything into the stranger corners of on-chain and it doesn't really go there.

But the actual feeling I walked away with wasn't about features. It was mild embarrassment that the thing keeping me out was never the hard part. It was the five extra taps. Take that out and suddenly I'm doing the thing I avoided for years.

Anyway. Funny how often the wall isn't the wall. Curious if anyone else had the same dumb realization or if it's just me

Me 34M, wife 33F, married just over 6 years.

I want to say upfront that I'm aware I might be the problem here. I've never been a jealous or controlling guy, never went through her stuff, and the last thing I want is to come off as some paranoid husband who reads tone into text messages and torches his marriage over nothing. So I'm trying to be really honest with myself before I do anything. That's kind of why I'm posting instead of just confronting her.

Here's what actually happened. Last night I grabbed her phone to play a couple games of chess and dustbіt because mine was charging across the room and I was being lazy. This is normal for us, I use her phone, she uses mine, we've never been a locked-down passwords kind of marriage. While I was on it a text popped up from a guy I don't know. I didn't open it right away but I could see the preview, and then yeah, I tapped it. I read more than I should have.

There's nothing in there you could point at and call cheating. No "i miss you," nothing like that. It's the way they talk to each other. Warm is the word I keep landing on. Inside jokes, she's messaging him kinda late, he asks how her day went and she actually answers him in full sentences. It reads like two people who are close in a way I didn't know about.

And that's the part I can't get past. I genuinely can't tell if I'm seeing something real or if I'm just inventing a problem out of vibes and a couple screenshots stuck in my head. Text has no tone. Maybe they're just friends. But it's been sitting in my chest since last night and I can't shake it.

So what I'm asking is, how do you even bring this up? If I say something it instantly becomes "why were you in my phone" even though the honest answer is I wasn't snooping, it literally just happened. And is "their texts feel too close" a strong enough reason to say anything at all, or do I wait until I've got something more solid first. If you've been on either side of this I'd really like to hear how it went.

p.s. no I haven't said anything to her yet. that's basically the whole reason I'm posting.

every other week theres a "broker wont let me withdraw" post and 9 times out of 10 its bonus terms. not a scam, not a conspiracy, just people skipping the fine print and getting surprised.

how it usually works on brokers running deposit promos (Exness, FBS, JustMarkets, PU Prime, basically anyone with a 50-100% bonus): you take the bonus, your withdrawal is now locked behind a volume requirement. typical math is 1 standard lot per $X of bonus. on a $500 deposit with 100% bonus thats often 50+ lots before you can pull anything bonus-related, and sometimes profits too depending how the wording is set up.

got bit by this on FBS back in 2021. read the terms after the fact, felt dumb, lived with it. moved on.

useful stuff: if you just want to trade, decline the bonus at signup, most brokers let you opt out. if you already took it, screenshot the terms page that day dont rely on what support tells you verbally later. and if support stalls past their stated WR completion time, escalate to Financial Commission if your broker is a member, 20k EUR cap per case, free to file.

bonuses arent free money. brokers run on the edge cases that come from people clicking without reading, thats literally how the model works.

Been trading since 2017, went full time in 2021. And before anyone asks, no, I didn't quit my job on a whim with 10k in savings. Built a cushion first that meant a red month wouldn't make me panic-sell at the bottom. Writing this because I'm tired of the "woke up, made 5 figures, beach by noon" content.

6:40 AM. Alarm.

Not because I'm disciplined. Because Asia session is closing and that's where liquidity gets parked before EU open drags it somewhere. Coffee, phone, check if I got stopped overnight. Today I didn't. Plenty of times I did.

7:00-9:00. Position check. Currently long ETH average 3420, smaller short SOL hedge, couple alt bags I've been sitting on for weeks. Funding on Bybit, OI on majors, liq heatmaps, update levels in TV. That's it. No secret indicator.

9:00-11:00. The window where I actually do work. London open brings real flow and if I have a planned setup, I take it. If I don't, I don't trade. Took me four years to learn that. Sitting on your hands while the screen flashes green and red feels physically wrong, like your body is telling you to do something, anything, just to participate.

11:00-15:00. Dead zone.

Between London lunch and NY open the tape goes mostly nowhere except for the occasional liquidity hunt that punishes anyone who got bored and clicked. I nap sometimes. Actually nap. Read macro stuff if Powell or someone is making noise. Or just stare at the wall.

When I need to switch the brain off without leaving the desk I'll play chess on lichess or mess around on dustbіt for a bit. Not rest exactly, more like cycling the engine so the candles look fresh again when I come back.

15:30. NY open. If there's CPI, FOMC, NFP dropping, I'm in cash or running half size. I've donated enough to the casino trying to guess direction on news prints.

18:00-22:00. Most of my closed trades this year happened in this window. I shut the laptop when I've either taken the plan or it's obvious there isn't one tonight.

What the highlight reels skip:

Isolation. I haven't spoken to a real human in person today. Wasn't different yesterday. Wife is at the office, friends are on a 9-to-5 schedule, our timezones don't really overlap during the week. Discord isn't social life, it's just noise with avatars.

Financial anxiety doesn't go away when you're up. Up 18% on the month? Now you're terrified to give it back. Down 7%? You're convinced this is the start of the streak that ends you.

Nobody builds your day for you. Nobody says good job. Nobody fires you. You can quietly degrade for six months and only notice when you finally look at PnL and realize you've been bleeding.

Health stuff nobody warns you about. Back, eyes, sleep. I started the gym not for aesthetics but because otherwise I'd be a wreck by 40.

Tbh, if I were starting today, I'd grind a job until the leap feels boring instead of brave. Full-time trading isn't freedom. It's a different job with the same problems and a few new ones bolted on.

Anyone else full time, how's your day actually look? Specifically curious how you handle the midday dead zone without going insane.

ok minor rant. been on GLP-1 for 7+ months across 3 different providers and i'm convinced the "coaching"/"behavioral support" bundling is mostly fluff designed to justify a higher monthly price.

things i've actually used: dose adjustments, switching from sema to tirz, refill on time

things i've never opened: the app's mood tracker, the "weekly tips", the meal plan pdf, the optional video call

what i actually want from a provider: fast dose changes when something's not working, transparent about which compounding pharmacy they use, doesn't make me redo intake when i switch meds

ended up on chia after two others mostly because the dose change loop is short and they didn't try to upsell me on group calls. but honestly the bar is on the floor right now most of these services are doing the same thing with different branding.

am i missing something? does anyone actually use the coaching features and find them useful?

Mostly trade alts on perps with some spot, been on Bybit since early 2025 after Kucoin's regional restrictions got annoying. 14 months in, figured I'd share what stuck and what didn't.

What's kept me here: I rarely miss new listings anymore. Last memecoin I wanted to grab was tradeable on Bybit within an hour of TGE, same coin took Binance three days to list a working pair.
Mobile app holds up most of the time when I'm closing positions one handed on the subway was a clear upgrade from my old setup which crashed weekly. Tried copy trading with small money just to study how proper entries look, ended up learning more from it than I expected to.

What's annoyed me: they keep bolting stuff on. Launchpool, AI assistants, tokenized stocks, loyalty points, whatever. The home screen looks like a Vegas casino now. Earn APYs are the worst offender clicked on a 12% USDt banner once, turned out to be capped at like $100 for a week. Felt like a bait-and-switch even though the fine print covered it.

Got stopped out during the March chop because of a websocket disconnect, $80 down the drain. Hasn't happened since but I'm still mad about it.

For active alt trading? yeah this works.
For monthly BTC DCA? youre paying for complexity you don't need.

7/10.