Anyone else agree with me that Futures like NQ, CL, GC have all been very choppy? I feel like there are way more trashy days than clean days. It's much harder to look at the charts now then a couple of months ago. I have screenshots of my winners and the chart is night and day. There seems to be much less momentum.
For quite some time, my biggest problem wasn’t bad setups. It was execution and timing.
I’d spend 2–3 hours scanning charts, finally find something clean, but on live trading enter late, then realize the actual move happened hours earlier. Sometimes the setup was still valid, but the R:R was already ruined.
I tried a few tools like finviz, TradingView.
A lot of “signals” looked good visually, but most of them either felt noisy or lagging, or disconnected from expectation. What helped me more was simplifying everything and prioritize. Focusing on a few setups only (mostly breakout + retest), tracking trades weekly, avoid overtrading and wait for obvious setups instead of forcing entries out of boredom/FOMO.
Curious how other traders here handle this: How many charts do you realistically scan per day? What improved your execution the most over time? Have any alert/signal tools actually helped you long term?
Hey there I’m looking to get into day trading and I came across this website call top-step and I’m wondering if it’s worth it they seem to have a training program for a monthly subscription but if you guys know of any other way to get into day trading like other websites or other training programs then I’d greatly appreciate the advice. And is it possible to day trade whilst still keeping my day job I currently work an 8-5. Thank you in advance for any and all helpful critiques or comments
ChartScout picked up a clean Triple Bottom on the 15-minute chart. The three lows are visible, and price is now pushing back toward the neckline as the structure develops.
Clean chart, solid structure, and worth keeping on the watchlist. DYOR.
Was around 700, I just want to know if this is enough
Built an open-source project called OpenTerminalUI — a terminal-inspired trading and market research workstation for NSE/BSE + US markets.
GitHub: OpenTerminalUI GitHub Repo
Live Landing Page: OpenTerminalUI Demo Site
The idea started from frustration with fragmented tooling, expensive subscriptions, and dashboards that try to look modern but slow down serious workflows.
So I started building a keyboard-first, locally hosted, Bloomberg-inspired terminal experience focused on:
• Multi-chart workstation
• Quant/AST-based screeners
• F&O analytics
• Portfolio + risk tooling
• Backtesting workflows
• Command palette / GO bar navigation
• Model lab + stress testing
• Mock-data support for offline/local development
• Docker-first deployment
Tech stack:
• FastAPI + Python backend
• React + TypeScript frontend
• Dockerized setup
• Playwright + automated testing
One interesting part of this build:
A significant portion of the development workflow was AI-assisted using orchestrated multi-agent prompting across Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Gemini CLI running in parallel task flows. AI was extremely useful for scaffolding, repetitive implementation, and refactors — but still struggled heavily with domain-specific trading logic, real-time data flows, derivatives workflows, and edge-case reasoning.
That balance between “AI-generated velocity” and “human-engineered architecture” became one of the most interesting parts of the project.
This is still actively evolving, and I’d genuinely love:
• Feedback on UX/workflows
• Criticism from traders or engineers
• Ideas for terminal workflows
• Contributors interested in frontend/backend/quant infra
• Collaboration around open financial tooling
If you try it out, I’d be really happy to hear what feels useful, broken, overengineered, missing, or worth improving.
Would also love to collaborate with people interested in:
• Open-source fintech infra
• AI-assisted software engineering
• Trading systems
• Quant tooling
• Terminal-style UI/UX
• Self-hosted platforms
Feedback, PRs, architectural discussions, and harsh critiques are all welcome.
ChartScout picked up a clean Double Bottom on the 1-hour chart. The structure is pretty textbook, with two lows forming and price starting to push higher after the second bounce.
Simple pattern, clean chart, and a solid bullish reversal structure to watch. DYOR.
overbeaten bottom setup.
I genuinely think most retail traders completely misunderstand what trading actually is.
People think trading is:
It’s not.
Trading is literally just a statistics game.
That’s it.
The market is an environment of uncertainty. Nobody knows where price is going next. Not me, not you, not the guy on Twitter posting Lambos, not the “ICT funded trader”, nobody.
The only thing that matters is whether you have a statistical edge that plays out over a large enough sample size.
That’s why I cringe every time someone posts ONE trade and says:
“See? This strategy works.”
One trade means absolutely nothing.
You can flip a coin and get heads 8 times in a row. Does that suddenly make the coin magical?
No.
Same thing with trading.
And this is exactly how you should actually build a strategy if you want to treat trading like a real business instead of a casino.
Seriously.
Most beginners immediately overcomplicate everything before even testing whether the core idea has merit.
Let’s say we start with something stupid simple:
Rules:
That’s it.
No smart money.
No liquidity engineering.
No “algorithmic manipulation”.
No magical indicators.
Just a basic idea.
Now here’s the important part:
YOU TEST IT.
Most people skip this entire step and jump straight into live trading based on vibes.
And when I say data, I mean REAL data.
Not:
“Yeah bro I looked at the chart and it seems good.”
No.
You manually backtest this over YEARS.
Let’s say:
Now suddenly trading becomes math instead of emotions.
Example results:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Trades | 517 |
| Wins | 214 |
| Losses | 303 |
| Win Rate | 41.3% |
| RR | 1:2 |
| Expectancy | +0.24R |
| Profit Factor | 1.31 |
| Max Drawdown | -17.8% |
| Avg Trades/Month | 4.3 |
Now THIS is useful information.
Not opinions.
Not “I feel bearish”.
Not “this looks manipulated”.
Numbers.
And now you already understand something important:
The strategy loses MOST of the time.
303 losses.
214 wins.
Most beginners would quit immediately after seeing this.
But here’s where statistics slap beginners in the face.
Despite losing more than winning…
…the strategy is STILL profitable.
Why?
Because RR matters.
They think:
“Low win rate = bad strategy.”
Completely wrong.
Let me show you something:
| RR | Break Even Win Rate |
|---|---|
| 1:1 | 50% |
| 1:2 | 33.4% |
| 1:3 | 25% |
| 1:5 | 16.7% |
Read that again carefully.
A strategy with:
…can make far more money than:
This is why blindly chasing win rate is one of the dumbest things in trading.
You need to understand EXPECTANCY.
That’s the real metric.
Formula:
Expectancy = (Win Rate × Avg Win) − (Loss Rate × Avg Loss)
Now comes the actual research part.
Not YouTube.
Not Discord groups.
Not copying influencers.
Research.
You take your raw strategy and improve ONE thing.
Example:
“What happens if I only take trades aligned with the weekly trend?”
Now you retest ALL 10 YEARS again.
New results:
| Metric | Before | After Weekly Trend Filter |
|---|---|---|
| Trades | 517 | 301 |
| Win Rate | 41.3% | 49.1% |
| Profit Factor | 1.31 | 1.58 |
| Drawdown | -17.8% | -9.2% |
| Expectancy | +0.24R | +0.43R |
Now THAT is interesting.
You reduced trade frequency…
but massively improved quality.
This is how real strategy development works.
Not:
“Bro I found a new indicator.”
Now maybe you test:
ONE variable at a time.
Because if you change 5 things simultaneously, you no longer know WHAT improved the strategy.
This process takes months.
Sometimes years.
That’s the reality nobody wants to hear.
Real trading is basically:
Over and over and over again.
Once you actually have enough data…
…psychology becomes WAY less important.
Because now you’re no longer trading opinions.
You’re executing statistics.
If your system historically shows:
…then why would you panic after 3 losses?
The data already told you losing streaks are normal.
This is why most “revenge trading” comes from uncertainty.
People don’t trust their systems because they never actually tested them properly.
They’re basically gambling with decorations on the chart.
Once your backtesting numbers finally look solid:
THEN you move to demo.
And this is where most people realize they cannot even follow their own rules.
Backtesting and live execution are two completely different things.
Demo trade it for MONTHS.
Not 2 weeks.
Not 1 month.
Months.
You need enough live data to see:
People post:
None of that means anything.
I can scroll back on TradingView right now and find 20 perfect trades in 5 minutes.
That proves absolutely nothing.
What matters is:
Actual numbers.
The market does not reward opinions.
It rewards statistical edges executed consistently over time.
That’s all trading is.
Not motivation.
Not mindset quotes.
Not “alpha male discipline”.
Not magic concepts.
Math.
Probabilities.
Risk management.
And a large enough sample size for the edge to actually play out.
Just my 2 cents.
I used to be the trader who entered the second a level broke. No confirmation, no retest, just pure FOMO. Got burned enough times to finally change the approach. Here is what actually works for me now.
I only trade confirmed closes, not wicks The breakout is only valid when a 5m candle closes beyond the opening range high or low. A wick through the level means nothing. This one rule alone cut out a massive chunk of bad entries.
The candle after the break tells me everything If the next candle closes outside the range, momentum is strong and I expect a shallow retracement. If it closes back inside, I slow down completely. That single candle determines how patient I need to be before entering.
I wait for the retest, always This was the hardest habit to build. The break is exciting. The retest is boring. On strong breaks I look for entries around the 0.382 fib or the ORH/ORL level itself. On weaker breaks I go deeper, 0.618 to 0.786.
I let the signal tell me when conditions are right I use an indicator that validates breakouts across London, New York and Asia and flags when all conditions align. Before this I was making judgment calls on every single candle. Now I wait for the signal and then wait for the retest. Two layers of patience instead of zero.
SL and TP are defined before entry SL just beyond the 0.786 fib. TP at the next meaningful level: VWAP, PD levels, FVGs or an active zone. No moving stops, no hoping. The plan is set before I click.
This is the indicator I use for this.
What was the habit that took you the longest to build as a trader?
"The American delegation also included Tim Cook of Apple, and Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX. Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, was also present, after a last-minute invitation from the president."
- NYT
This has to be bullish for those companies right? Is ‘CEO on Air Force One’ the new investor bullish signal?
It took me 4 months of trading to go -$7,000. I use to just buy. If the market was going up, I bought a call. If it was going down, I bought a put. Started studying, reading and watching some videos. What took me 4 months to lose took me 6 weeks to gain back! Swing trading has been treating me well so far. For my daily take home I focus on 6-10%. If I’m in between those parameters (hopefully closer to 10) I sell and quit trading for the day.
I see this come up constantly. Someone has a few good months, maybe even a good year, and they start doing the math on quitting their job.
But the second your rent depends on your next trade, you are a different trader. You will feel it in every entry, every exit, every drawdown. Even if you think you won't.
I've traded with some guys who were sharp, disciplined, consistent - until they went full time without a financial cushion. Watched the pressure turn good traders into overthinkers and revenge traders within a few months.
If you're serious about trading for a living, the first thing you need to figure out isn't your strategy, but your income. Something steady that covers your bills whether you have a green month or a red one. That boring foundation gives you the freedom to actually trade well.
The dream may be quitting your job. To get there, you have to be trading without needing to trade.
Quick context I posted an AMA on various communities last week — some of you might have seen it.
This month I wanted to break down something specific because
I keep seeing the same question: "what strategy should I use?"
The honest answer? Your strategy probably isn't the problem.
Your TIMING is.
Thats my April on one express I traded more aggressively but the edge is the same one I use on every account.
Here's what my journal data shows after tracking 400+ trades:
AM session (9:30 - 11:00 ET):
- Win rate: 82%
- Average R:R: 1.34
- Biggest drawdown in a single session: $400
PM session (12:00 - 16:00 ET):
- Win rate: 64%
- Average R:R: 1.47
- Biggest drawdown in a single session: $330
Same setups. Same risk management. Same me. The only variable
is time of day.
When I stopped trading PM, three things happened:
probability window
giving back AM profits in the afternoon
staring at charts for 8 hours
I trade 3 setups on NQ — all OHLC-based, no indicators. But
honestly the setups are maybe 30% of why this works. The other
70% is:
- Session filter (AM only for this regime)
- Entry grading (I rate every setup A+ to C before I click.
Below B = I sit out)
- Hard daily target (hit it = close charts, no exceptions)
- Journal everything (if you can't measure it, you can't
improve it)
The reason most traders keep blowing challenges isnt that
they dont know enough. It's that they take every mediocre
setup they see, trade all day, and have no system for knowing
when to STOP.
And the best advice I can always give you is: look at the data I guarantee you will see a pattern.
Happy to answer any questions about the journal system, risk management or how I approach the market.
Oil prices just fell back a bit with WTI dropping below 102$, mostly because of short-term profit-taking.
But the main issue is the Strait of Hormuz is heavily restricted, and global oil supply is down by millions of barrels per day.
Some think oil is gonna reach 110$+, while the other thinks due to inflation will slow it down.
What are your thoughts, are you trading oil in such volatility or just watching?
If you took position, are you going long or short?
lets keep going with the new video. As you'll see in the video, the fees are high because it's a scalper. It makes a massive volume of trades, but the mathematical logic ensures the net profit always stays ahead of the costs. I’m posting regular updates to be 100% transparent about the progress. Happy to answer any technical questions about the setup!
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I keep seeing trading desk photos with six or eight monitors and it makes me wonder if I'm missing something. Right now I just use one laptop screen. I have my charting platform up, a small watchlist, and my broker window that I tab between. It feels fine but I also don't know what I don't know.
For people who have added more screens over time, did it actually improve your trading or just make you feel more professional? I'm trying to figure out if the cost and desk space is worth it for someone still learning. I mostly trade two or three stocks at a time, nothing super fast paced like pure scalping.
What do you actually put on each screen that you couldn't live without? Is there a minimum setup you'd recommend for someone who wants to take this seriously but isn't trying to build a NASA command center? Also curious if anyone downgraded from multiple screens back to one and felt like they lost nothing.
