u/panipuriftw

Genuine question because I had a -$1,562.40 red day right in the mid of a decent stretch last month on options prop firm account.

The first row of the screenshot shows the week i’m talking about. One options day wiped out almost three days of work and left me -$6.50 for the week.

Usually I want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. But I’ve noticed that’s probably when I make things worse. I come back the next morning still thinking about the loss, and eager to get back on track.

This is the red day reset i’m testing now:

Take the entire next session off. No charts, nothing. I've done this a couple times now, and honestly I think the gap makes it easier to come back the following morning.

When I come back, I cut size (around 40%) and trade less. I keep it there until I’ve had three clean process days in a row and feel like I’m back in my rhythm.

I also set a hard weekly loss limit. Once I’m within 1% of it, I’m done for the week. No trying to squeeze out one decent day to get back above it.

Still testing this because I don't know if taking a day off is actually better than just trading smaller the next day.

The biggest pain is having a good week, giving a big chunk of it back in one day, then feeling like you need to do something about it immediately. And I think that's probably the part I'm trying hardest to get better at.

Any advice on red day handling this would be welcome.

one spy 0dte setup I watch for is a trend-continuation entry after price pulls back to the 21 ema.

the 21 ema touch is not the signal by itself. i first want a clear trend, followed by a pullback that fails to break the existing market structure. here is the checklist i use for a bearish continuation setup.

step 1 - confirm the trend structure first

before considering spy puts, i want to see a sequence of lower highs and lower lows.

a single selloff is not enough. without clear structure, the move could be a temporary drop, a reversal or ordinary chop. if i cannot identify the trend cleanly, i skip the continuation setup.

on this chart, spy formed a lower high, followed by a lower low. that established the bearish structure i wanted to see.

step 2 - wait for the pullback into 21 ema

price rarely moves in a straight line. Even in a strong downtrend spy will pull back up beforecontinuing lower.

rather than chasing the first drop, i wait for price to pull back toward the 21 ema. in a bearish setup, i am watching to see whether the ema area acts as dynamic resistance.

an ema touch alone is not an entry. price can cross an ema without immediately reversing, so i wait for additional price-action confirmation.

step 3 - look for a lower high near the ema

my confirmation is a lower high forming around or below the 21 ema.

i need confirmation that the pullback is actually failing not breaking through and turning into a real reversal.

what confirms it is a lower high forming right at or below the 21 ema. price came up, couldn't make a new high, stalled at the ema, and started rolling back over.

on this chart marked clearly. entry at 21 ema pullback, lower high formed right there. everything lined up.

[refer image: SPY forms a lower low, pulls back toward the 21 EMA and creates another lower high before continuing downward]

step 4 - entry and what i'm risking

i enter only after the price begins rejecting the ema area. my invalidation level is above the recent lower high.

if spy breaks above that swing high and holds, the bearish continuation thesis is no longer valid. i would rather take the defined loss than hold a 0dte contract while waiting for the setup to return.

for the bullish version, i reverse the logic: higher highs, higher lows, a pullback toward the 21ema and a higher low that holds.

what kills this setup

two things invalidate it completely:

1. price breaks above the 21 ema cleanly and holds trend is potentially changing, not continuing. get out.

2. structure breaks price makes a higher high instead of a lower high at the pullback. again, thesis is wrong.

if either happens i'm not holding hoping it comes back. the whole point of a mechanical setup is that when the rules are broken you exit. no exceptions.

why i use it for spy 0dte options

on same day expiration, you need a setup with clear direction and momentum already behind it. trend continuation gives you both. you're not trying to pick a top or bottom, you're joining a move that's already proven itself and just waiting for a clean entry point.

i also use this setup while trading a vanquish options eval account. because an eval account has a defined drawdown limit, the lower-high invalidation gives me a specific place to exit instead of holding and hoping.

this is not an automatic signal: the 21 ema is only useful here when it agrees with the surrounding market structure.

would you enter on the rejection candle or wait for its low to break?

I started with a watchlist of at least ten tickers. More choices meant more opportunities or so I thought.

Ten tickers meant ten charts to watch, ten sets of levels and ten different price behaviors to follow. SPY would be moving one way, QQQ another, while NVDA was setting up differently. Icouldn't focus on any of them properly because attention was split everywhere.

Why I reduced my watchlist to one ticker

Now I trade SPY options almost exclusively.

The biggest benefit has been familiarity. Watching the same ticker every session has helped me recognize how SPY behaves around the levels and indicators already in my plan, rather than interpreting a completely different chart each day.

That does not mean SPY becomes predictable. I just have fewer variables to process before deciding whether a setup fits my rules.

The trade in the chart is an example. SPY was already trending higher, with the 9 EMA above the 21 EMA. Instead of chasing the initial move, I waited for price to pull back toward the EMA area and hold.

I entered after the pullback showed support, used the level below the setup as my invalidation and targeted approximately twice the amount I was risking a 1:2 risk-to-reward ratio.

What focusing on one trade removed

The first thing it reduced was FOMO

If NVDA is up 2% while I’m waiting for a SPY setup, I no longer feel the need to switch charts and chase it. It may be a valid trade, but it is outside my plan.

It also reduced decision fatigue. I no longer spend the opening session asking which ticker looks best or whether I should move from SPY to QQQ. My job is simply to decide whether SPY is offering one of my predefined setups.

Why that matters in an eval account

This has been useful while trading an options eval account with drawdown and consistency rules.

A larger watchlist gave me more reasons to enter marginal trades. Restricting myself to one ticker did not remove trading risk, but it made my process easier to repeat and reduced impulsive switching between setups.

The drawback is that some sessions produce no valid SPY setup. Focusing on one ticker only works if I am willing to accept a no-trade day instead of forcing an entry.

I still watch broader market conditions and scheduled news, but SPY is the only ticker I currently execute.

How many tickers do you actively trade, and has narrowing your watchlist improved your execution?

Took me longer than it should've to figure this out.

When I first started trading SPY 0DTE options, I was watching chart all day because I thought more screen time meant more opportunities.

It doesn't. It just means I gave myself more chances to do something stupid in a market that isn't moving.

The first power hour is where it actually happens

For me, 9:30 to 10:30 ET, sometimes stretching to 11am on a strong day. That's when volume is real, moves have follow through, and your setups actually work. ORB forms, EMAs start stacking, direction becomes clear.

After that? Most days SPY just... stops. It starts ranging, chopping back and forth between the same levels, faking breakouts, reversing for no reason. Looks tradeable on the chart but not actually moving.

The theta problem

Here's what makes afternoon 0DTE trading brutal. Even if you're right on direction, theta is eating your premium the entire time. SPY chops sideways for 45 minutes, your option loses value just from time passing. You didn't do anything wrong technically you just held a 0DTE contract while the clock ran out.

Had a trade once where I was right on direction, entered around 11:30 am, SPY slowly drifted my way and I still barely booked profits because theta had already bled half the premium out by the time price moved. That's when it really clicked.

The trade in the screenshot

This was one of the after 11 trades that technically workes.

I took puts / a short biased trade around 742 resistance after price failed to cleanly continue higher. The idea was simple - rejection at resistance, short into the lower area, stop above the zone if price reclaimed.

Price did move in my direction, but it took almost 30 mins to reach the target area. By the time it got there, the actual profit available wasn’t worth the time/risk compared to cleaner morning trades.

So yes, it was green. But it wasn’t the kind of trade I want to keep repeating.

When I do trade after 11am

It's not a hard never. If there's a strong trend carrying over from the morning with real volume behind it, I'll stay in or look for a continuation entry. But that has to be obvious not "I think it might keep going." Volume has to confirm it, structure has to be clean.

Regular days? I'm done by 11. Flat days or choppy opens? Sometimes I'm done by 10:15.

What changed when I started doing this

Fewer trades. Less stress. Stopped giving back morning gains in the afternoon. The consistency in my eval improved just from cutting out the part of the day that wasn't working.

More time doesn't mean more edge. Sometimes the edge is just knowing when to close the platform.

Curious what time you guys usually close out do you have a hard cutoff or just feel it out?

More time on charts feels productive. Like research. Like discipline.

But after a point, it’s just boredom in the name of analysis. Your brain stares long enough and suddenly every candle starts looking like a setup.

Look at this trade history.

Nine trades. Switching between puts and calls on the same ticker, same expiry, same morning. Puts, calls, calls, puts, calls again.

That's not a strategy. That's a brain that stayed on the screen too long and started seeing setups that weren't there.

The dangerous part is none of the losses look terrible by themselves: -$29, -$16, -$23.

It doesn't feel like blowing up. It feels like "almost got it." That's what makes it dangerous. Death by a hundred small bad trades nobody warns you about.

The loop is simple:

Long session → more trades → more forced entries → more losses → stay longer to make it back → more trades.

Doesn't end with a better win rate. Ends with a blown account and a journal full of trades you knew were wrong while clicking buy anyway.

What changed for me

Shorter sessions. Hard stop on number of trades. If the first two don't work, laptop closes.

Less screen time forced better filters. Can't afford bad trades if you're only there for 90 minutes.

In an options funded account, avoiding one bad forced trade can matter more than catching one extra setup.

Funny how that works, but how many trades are you averaging per session?

I've tried a lot of intraday setups over time.

ORB, EMA crossovers, momentum chasing, news plays. Some work, some don't. But the one setup I keep returning to is the VWAP reclaim due to its consistent structure.

What's actually happening in this trade

VWAP is the average price traded during the session, weighted by volume. When price is above VWAP, I’m more open to long setups. When price is below VWAP, I’m more cautious with longs or looking for downside continuation.

A reclaim happens when price breaks below VWAP, and then comes back and closes above it.At first, it looks like sellers have control. They push price below the level. But if they cannot getcontinuation and price reclaims VWAP, that’s where the trade starts to get interesting.

By this, it might seem like you’re predicting a breakout but it’s not. You're just waiting for the market to show that the balance of power has shifted, and then getting in on the right side of it.

The exact entry I look for

The setup starts with price breaking below VWAP, not just a wick. I look for a clean break where sellers push price under the level and it looks bearish for a moment.Then when the price comes back up, I close a candle above VWAP on decent volume.

That close above VWAP is the signal, but I usually don't enter there.I wait for the retest.

A lot of the cleaner VWAP reclaim trades I've taken the price almost always come back to tap VWAP from above after reclaiming it. That retest where VWAP now acts as support is my entry. Better price, tighter stop, cleaner risk-reward.

If the retest fails and the price closes back below VWAP, I'm not in the trade.

A recent example from my trading journal

SPY, mid-morning session: Price dipped below VWAP around 10:15 AM, it looked like sellers had control. They pushed the price under the level, but couldn’t really get continuation. That was the first thing I noticed. If sellers had real strength, I wanted to see a continuation below VWAP. Instead, the price started climbing back toward the level.

​

By 10:28 AM price closed back above VWAP with a strong candle. That was the reclaim. But I still did not enter. I waited for the retest, because the reclaim candle only tells me the price above VWAP.

Around 10:34 AM, price came back to tap VWAP, held it, and then bounced. That was the entry.

Stop went just below VWAP, because if VWAP didn’t hold as support, the trade idea was wrong. Risk was around 0.15%. Target was the morning high, roughly 2R away.

Price hit the target around 11:10 AM. It was a clean trade, no drama.

The whole thing took 45 minutes and required exactly one decision… wait for the retest, enter when it holds.

What kills this trade

Choppy sessions!

If the price crosses VWAP 4-5 times in an hour, I skip the session entirely . At this point, VWAP isn’t acting like a clean level anymore. It’s just the price moving back and forth.

Also avoid this in the last hour of trading. VWAP starts compressing toward price as the session ends and the level becomes unreliable.

My preferred window for this setup is 9:45 AM to 12:30 PM. The morning session has the cleanest VWAPw reactions.

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Risk management

My stop always goes below VWAP not below the entry candle. Because if VWAP doesn't hold as support, the thesis is wrong and you need to be out.

I also don't move my stop to breakeven too early.

I used to do that a lot, and it kept getting me stopped out on normal pullbacks before the trade had room to work. Now I only consider moving the stop once the price has moved at least 1R in my favor.

For targets, I keep it simple either a previous structure level or 2R, whichever comes first. I don't hold hoping for more.

Why I prefer this setup than most intraday setups

Most setups I tried were pattern-based and it kept me looking for a shape on a chart.

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VWAP reclaim is structure based and gives me a clear structure. You're trading at a real level that real participants are watching. The retest happens because other traders are also watching VWAP and entering there.

What do you think about my strategy? Any tips you want to add here.

I’ve been trading with prop firms for over a year now. 

But, my journey started with crypto trading during the 2021 bull run. Back then, I developed a trend-following system riding the alt waves, and most of my trading knowledge came from trading Bitcoins and alts. When I decided to get serious about trading, the natural next step was to try crypto prop firms.

At first, I couldn’t pass any of them!

Like many unprofitable traders, I doubled down on educating myself with EMAs + VWAP + TPO + order flow + ICT… just name it and I bet that I’ve studied those too. Slowly, all that studying paid off, and it helped me to become a breakeven trader in the crypto space.

It was around that time that a friend (who trades US stocks) suggested I give an options-focused prop firm a shot. I was hesitant because options were a new market for me. But, I still went with it and decided to keep it simple by focusing only on: SPY, trade directionally, and avoid jumping between tickers.

Once I had a basic feel for SPY price action,  I took a $10K Advanced account and set a modest daily goal: $100–$200 profit per day, then done. 

Within 5 days, I passed the advanced challenge and moved into the funded account. 

Sharing a breakdown of my SPY plan:

My main setups were –

1. Pullbacks into a 1-min or 3-min trend

If SPY was in a clear bullish trend, I looked for pullbacks into the short-term trend. I used the 13, 21, and 34 EMAs as my trend guide. 

1. Liquidity sweeps of major levels

I  watched the previous day's H/L and important H/L from the 15-min, 30-min, and 1-hour charts. If SPY swept one of those levels and gave a strong reaction, I’d look for a quick scalp. These were usually reaction trades, not trades where I’d sit and hope for something big.

1. Fibonacci retracements into the 618 AKA golden pocket

After a strong leg up, if the price started retracing, I watched the 0.618 area. If that level lined up with the broader trend and the reaction looked clean, I’d look for an entry there.

Risk-wise, I kept it very simple.  I checked my available drawdown and divided it by 8, so one bad trade wouldn’t put the whole account in danger. 

I also had a few rules to avoid overtrading:

-> Trade only during the opening hours of the NY session
-> Under 3 trades per day
-> Stop trading once I hit $100-$200 during the eval
-> No forcing trades if my setup wasn’t there
-> If I lost two trades in a row, I stopped trading for the day

The last rule helped a lot because one of my major mistakes in crypto prop firms was trying to make money back immediately after a loss. 

Once I moved into the funded account, I kept the same plan as eval. 

During eval, I usually stopped at my $200 target [to stay consistent]. But on the first day of my funded account, I let one of my better setups breathe a little more, while still keeping my risk controlled. That day, I ended up +$700

The next day +$800, and the day after +$1,000. 

By the fourth day, I was up $3.7k on the account and eligible to request a $500 payout. My first actual payout from a funded account!

This win wasn’t instant. It came from having a structure that fit my pace better. The no-time limit + single step challenge also helped because  I didn’t feel forced to take mediocre trades just to finish quickly.

Lesson learned: treat each funded account like proving consistency, not gambling. Have a daily routine, limit profit targets, and protect your capital first.

Would love any advice from more experienced prop firm traders on my setup, still learning.

Same

I don't understand why these ppl r hating eo outside but omg my heart is happy! That last hug of the trio was all i needed💕