Key Takeaways from May 14, 2025 Session

1. Evaluation Account Strategy Set Up

• Activated First Evaluation Account: You’ve officially started your evaluation with My Funded Futures for $48.50, which gives you 30 days to pass without additional activation fees after success.

• Quality Over Quantity Approach: You’re committing to fewer, more high-quality trades per day. You’ll focus on no more than 2 trades/day, and if you get 1 win + 1 loss, only then will you allow for a 3rd trade.  2 straight losses mean calling it a day.

• Max Loss Limit Set at $250/day: You're implementing a $250 daily max loss rule to avoid catastrophic losses and keep your emotional state intact. You’re prioritizing risk management to protect your capital.

• Risk Focus: The strategy is to preserve capital first, so the focus is on not losing money rather than aggressively chasing profits. This mindset will help you stay calm and avoid unnecessary risks, which is crucial for success in a prop firm evaluation.

2. Trade Setup Strategy

• Risking 1% per Trade: You're starting with 1% risk per trade on MES, with a goal of 2.5R (2.5 times your risk) on every trade. This is a solid risk-to-reward ratio that’s both conservative and allows for profitability with careful planning.

• Only Taking Trades with Clear Setups: You’ll be selective about your trades and only pull the trigger when a setup presents itself, rather than chasing trades. This helps to avoid overtrading and ensures you’re taking high-quality setups.

3. Today’s Action: Setup and Paper Trading Reflection

• Today’s Setup:

  • Pre-Market High Sweep followed by Bearish Displacement on 5-Min Chart

  • 10:30 Red Folder Data Passed (likely referring to high-impact news events) — a crucial moment for your decision-making process.

  • Lunch Macro: Possibly referring to trading around lunchtime macroeconomic trends or data.

  • First Presenting Bearish Silver Bullet Entry on 2-Min: A bearish entry was the first clear opportunity.

  • Targeting Key Levels: Your target was a combination of the 9:30 Session Low, 12-Hour Low, and a 5R Target, which suggests you’re setting logical targets based on price action and time-of-day behavior.

4. Paper Trading Reflections

• Short Bias (Uncertainty on Future Direction):

  • You've had a short bias recently, but you’re unsure if it’s still valid because price is moving higher more than expected on /MNQ (Mini Nasdaq futures).

  • Lower timeframe setups seem less effective lately, indicating that higher timeframe confirmation may be required for a trend change. This reflects an adaptive approach, where you are acknowledging that market conditions change, and you need to shift to a higher timeframe approach for better confirmation.

  • Adjusting Strategy based on these insights is key. You’re in tune with the market’s flow, and the ability to adapt is essential to pass this evaluation successfully.

🧠 Reflection & Focus Areas Moving Forward

1. Keep Risk Management Tight:
   Your focus on preserving capital is wise, especially in the evaluation phase where you need consistent, controlled growth. Be disciplined about the $250 daily loss limit, and stay true to your plan of only trading high-quality setups.

2. Stick to the 1% Risk to Start:
   For now, 1% risk is a great starting point. As you gain confidence and your equity grows, you can scale up risk, but do so gradually. Since you're aiming for 2.5R, you only need a few wins to make solid progress towards your goal.

3. Adjust Bias Based on Higher Timeframes:
   You’re recognizing that short-term biases might not always hold true, and that’s a huge advantage in the long run. Your flexibility with timeframes, using higher timeframe confirmation, is key to trading successfully over the next 30 days.

4. Trading Discipline & Setup Focus:
   You’ve laid out clear rules for your trading day. 2 trades max, with a 3rd only if you've already had a win and loss—this kind of discipline will serve you well. Continue to only take trades when setups present themselves based on your criteria, and don’t force trades that don’t align with your strategy.

5. Psychology Focus:
   Even though you didn’t trade today, reflecting on your paper trading and identifying your biases (short bias, waiting for higher timeframe confirmation) will keep your emotions in check moving forward. Confidence in execution will build over time with consistent practice.

📅 Looking Ahead

• Tomorrow’s Goal: Since today was more about setting up, tomorrow’s trading should start with you focusing on taking a trade only when it fits your setup criteria. Stick to the 1% risk to ease into the process.

• Weekly Goal: By the end of the week, you should have a better feel for how your approach works in live market conditions, and start adjusting risk based on performance (e.g., possibly increasing risk to 2% if you’re seeing good results).

WED MAY 14, 2025

So here we are, the chance to do it right again. 

We have finally activated our first evaluation account with the prop firm 'My Funded Futures', and I must say, I got a great deal. $48.50 for the evaluation, 30 days to pass until next billing, and no activation fee after passing.

We are going to treat this account as professionally as we can, and we aim to accomplish this by approaching the market with a 'Quality over Quantity' system. Not taking any more than 2 trades in a day, with the acception of a 3rd trade, if I have 1 win and 1 loss. But 2 straight losses in a row, must be followed to end trading on the day. 

We also set a max loss limit of $250 a day, but do not intend to tap into that amount if its un necessary. We are primarily focusing on downside on this evaluation, and into the funded account. This means, we are going to prioritize not losing money, over making money, so that we can focus on keeping the money we make, rather than risking more when its un necessary to try to hit home runs, or make more profit. 

To start, we are just going to try to build confidence in pulling the trigger, so we are going to be focusing on MES to start. WIth a standard 1% risk per trade, aiming for 2.5R. Only taking a trade if it presents itself.

Today, I spent most of the day setting up the account, and I didnt get to trade, so todays journaling session will just simply consist of the details on each trade of the day setup provided. 

I will say, paper trading for the last week, to 2 weeks. I have had a short bias, that Im not still entirely sure is going to play out. As the move higher is extending a bit farther than I originally anticipated on /MNQ, so, it seems as though the lower timeframe setups arent prevalent as they used to be for now, and that higher timeframe confirmation is likely necessary in order to shift to a possible downtrend. But overall, todays trading session on both

TRADE OF THE DAY SETUP (930 SESSION)

* PRE MARKET HIGH SWEEP

* 5 MINUTE BEARISH DISPLACEMENT

* 10:30 RED FOLDER DATA PASSED

* LUNCH MACRO

* FIRST PRESENTED 2 MINUTE BEARISH SILVER BULLET ENTRY

* 930 SESSION LOW TARGET/12H LOW TARGET/5R