I hate bragging.
I got the idea for this chapter because I was winning “too slow”. But it brings up some important lessons to learn and things I can reflect back on to help you on your journey. The backstory here was the lesson I learned when I was first trading on Topstep. I had gotten to the 50k cap relatively quickly, thus it was increased. I crawled up to the second one and gotten the next cap a week later. Then, it got increased again. I didn’t waste any time from there. I hit the cap the next day. Got a new cap and hit that one. Finally, almost hit my last cap and then was moved to live. Then, I could relate to this on Apex as well. I should have swung harder there (but also I don’t think anyone has been moved that early).
Two Clocks
So lets get onto the important parts and lessons about time. You need two clocks or two different modes. Eval mode vs Funded mode. Evaluation mode to me is the part where you can sprint. You can sprint as long as you have a high passing rate. I would recommend tracking your passing rate, notice it start dipping, and you might be falling into the “failure funnel”. There was times I noticed I wasn’t passing challenges at the same high rate I was at better points and I turned down the risk I would take on evals. So what I’m saying here is essentially you want to sprint at your pace. Find your pace. And sprint at it.
What does sprinting actually look like? For me in eval mode, it meant concentrating risk into the best two or three setups of the week, increasing size into them, and accepting that variance would be higher. A sprint doesn’t mean mindless overtrading. it means focused aggression really. If I was passing x% (maybe 50%) of my evals, I could afford to double my size on a setup because I knew the math worked in my favor. On the other hand, when my passing rate slipped into below, I’d cut down to base-hit trading and grind consistency *depending on the firm.
Marathon mode flips that logic on its head. Once funded, I think of each day like a single mile in a 26-mile race. The daily win target might only be $500–$1000, but strung together over 20 days it becomes $20K. That’s the power of compounding patience. The mistake I see is traders carrying eval sprint energy into funded mode is chasing big days, forcing wins. The opposite mistake also happens: traders crawl through evals as if they’re marathons, wasting resets and dragging their timeline. Knowing which clock you’re on, and respecting its rhythm, is half the game.
For Funded accounts, this is the marathon point. It’s gonna take a lot of time. It’s gonna be on your mind. You are gonna be thinking about it a lot. That’s why it’s a marathon. It’s gonna take you a month or two. Preserving across cycles is key here. 1st payout -> 2nd Payout -> 3rd Payout -> 4th payout. Have a payout rhythm. What is my daily profit goal? What does my risk look like? Bring it all into the picture. It’s gotta be an everyday thing. 8 trading days to payout. If I’m on my 5th, what does the next 3 days look like? What do I need to do to get that payout? Everything revolves around getting that payout optimally. Take a big chunk payout? Might be good idea to take it slow next week. Build back that buffer up and then the following week look to get back on the attack. This is not something I can really teach. This is something that you have to know yourself on. Is news or some event coming up where I want to take it slower vs faster this week. Or does it not matter? Do I trade the same every day regardless of it?
For me that depends on the firm I’m trading at. Trading days are prioritized heavily at some firms. Trading every day is pretty much required to stay on payout tracks. But what does “trading every day” look like to you? To me, that’s self selecting the best days to trade and the other days to “flip”. I pick days I want to add more risk and take off risk. You optimize this to your trading calendar and your prop calendar. Connect the two together.
Hazards
With this marathon thinking, you have to narrow your scope to what actually matters. First the low hanging fruit: social media. When you are actually trading and locked in on your “marathon”, stay off social media. It’s not needed. It only brings downsides. Your wins don’t feel like enough. Your losses make you feel stupid. Cut it out completely. You can’t be locked in what someone else is doing while also focusing on your own journey.
Let me give you two quick pictures. Imagine you’re in a slower payout cycle firm, grinding $500–$700 a day, steady and consistent. Then you open X and someone posts a $15K day with a screenshot of their dashboard. Suddenly your $500 feels like pennies, even though it was exactly the right pace. That’s how social media corrodes your internal compass. On the flip side, the trading dashboard itself can pull you into the same trap. I’ve had cycles where I checked it ten times a day, replaying my PnL in my head instead of planning the next trade. It creates a feedback loop that pushes you off rhythm. only check dashboards once a day after the close. You’ll be amazed at how much quieter your mind feels when the comparison game disappears.
The trading dashboard can be a blessing and a curse. Use it to optimize for your payouts, but don’t allow it to blind you. Seeing the winning days stack up or wanting to really push profits harder can be very negative to your psychology and success. Stay grounded. All in moderation.
Remember to keep in mind what you have to do TODAY. TODAY IS THE ONLY DAY THAT MATTERS. Once you perform today, then you can think about tomorrow. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
Recovery Windows
Next, I want to bring up the idea of “Recovery Windows”. When I lost an account or multiple accounts, I would take a few days off from that firm. I wouldn’t be resetting intraday. I would take a few days or a week away. Don’t allow yourself just to buy reset and reset. It really takes some self knowledge here. You know what you are doing wrong. Change it.
I mentioned earlier a ‘light’ week after a payout. Trade an hour max. Take a small scalp. Rebuild your buffer. Come back next week with a clean mind. Don’t fall into the 1 payout and blowup camp. Don’t be pressured to make back your payout amount.
Time is the invisible opponent in prop trading. Everyone talks about setups, indicators, and entries but the calendar + consistency grind is what makes or breaks you. Sprinting too long turns wins into losses. Jogging when you should sprint wastes cycles. The traders who last aren’t the ones with the flashiest dashboards. The best looking ones I find to have negative performance correlation actually. the ones who learn how to sync their trading calendar with their prop calendar, day after day are the best ones I see. Look into your own numbers. Where am I at? What is my goal? What do I need to do/not do? I can’t answer these for you. On you.
PART I: INTERLUDE
Topstep #1 PNL Recap and Learnings
$1,500 → $700,000 in 20 Days.
I often get asked: “What does it take to get to #1 in the world on the biggest futures prop firm?”
“How did you do it, KJ?”
It might have taken me 20 trading days to achieve the results. But the foundation for success took much longer to build.
Performance Stats
Averages across the 20-day run:
| Metric | Value | | ----- | ----- | | Net PNL/Day | ≈ $6,838.11 | | Win Rate | ≈ 68.14% | | Average Winner | ≈ $2,458.32 | | Average Loser | ≈ -$1,495.85 | | Trades/Day | ≈ 5.975 | | Contracts/Day | ≈ 34.2 | | Fees/Commissions/Day | ≈ $101.39 | | Max Win Streak | 5 | | Max Loss Streak | 4 | | Avg. Winner Hold Time | 02:51:03 | | Avg. Loser Hold Time | 01:19:40 |
The key takeaway here is my expectancy. In trading, expectancy is a key performance metric/indicator (KPI) that measures the average profit or loss a trader can expect to make per trade over a series of trades, based on historical data. It quantifies a trading strategy's edge and is crucial for evaluating its long-term profitability. A positive expectancy indicates a potentially profitable strategy, while a negative expectancy suggests it's likely to lead to losses.
What Expectancy Measures:
- Profitability of a Strategy: Expectancy provides a factual assessment of a trading strategy's performance, showing the average profit or loss it generates over time.
- Edge: It acts as a litmus test, indicating whether a strategy has a statistical advantage in the market.
- Long-Term Success: While a single trade can be unpredictable individually, expectancy helps assess long-term financial outcomes by looking at the average of many trades.
Expectancy is calculated using the following formula:
Expectancy = (Win Rate * Average Win) - (Loss Rate * Average Loss)
- Determine Win Rate: Calculate the percentage of trades that were profitable.
- Determine Loss Rate: Calculate the percentage of trades that were losing trades (or simply 1 - Win Rate).
- Calculate Average Win: Sum the total profits from all winning trades and divide by the number of winning trades.
- Calculate Average Loss: Sum the total losses from all losing trades and divide by the number of losing trades.
- Apply the Formula: Multiply your win rate by your average win, and subtract the loss rate multiplied by your average loss.
Each trade outcome is random. You don’t know if you will win or lose the trade before you put the position on. BUT across a large sample, patterns emerge. That’s why probability mindset matters. A winning system doesn’t need to win every time. It just needs a positive expectancy over the long run. The law of large numbers ensures that the results will tend toward the expected outcome.
Now, I will break down why expectancy matters in a different way.
Imagine you flip a coin but only get paid $1 when it lands on heads, and you lose $10 when it lands on tails. You could guess “heads” and be a few times, but one “tails” will wipe out all your wins.
The problem isn’t your guesses → the problem is the payoff is unfair. If you keep playing you will get wiped out for your entire bankroll/balance. that’s called negative expected value (-EV).
Good trades come from spotting when the payoff is positively skewed compared to the risk at play. Such that if you keep taking the same bet, over time you will be making money. That’s when you have an edge. this is called positive expected value (+EV).
What Worked.
-Early Base Hits: Focus on strong "starting trades” to carry the cycle early. You are going to need some good variance to get going. I used the remaining days defensively.
-Lower Frequency + Fixed Windows: Trade only 60-120 minutes a day (e.g., RTH open, VWAP, Asia open). I would lock out after 1-2 green trades. This would protect and lock in my gains each day, so i would be able to compound daily and weekly.
-Buffer-Based Risk: Risk 10-20% of remaining buffer per trade; daily stop 30% of buffer. Say I had a 10k “buffer built”, I would risk 1-2k per trade. My daily stop would be 3k. This allows me to scale while also preventing “big losses” and wipeouts.
-News Days: Pre-plan (sit out or micro-size with strict rules). Don’t fall into FOMO with big trend moves.
-Mode Switch: Go from stacking to sprinting when it makes sense. Use the rules as your instructions. Push size as the buffer increases.
What Failed For Me (And Fixes).
- Oversized Days: There were a few days where I was “wrong”. I was oversized or wrong about direction. But allowing myself to cut quickly, move on, don’t get married to the position was what kept me alive. As thoughts or trade confidence changes, your size has to do.
-Distractions: I hid progress bars, journaled offline, limited social/Discord platforms to prevent FOMO or feeling too “euphoric”. Worry about YOURSELF and YOUR TRADING. NO ONE ELSE.
- Late Chasing: Some days I didn’t “make as much” as I wanted. Didn’t hit that “daily profit goal”. I found myself looking for trades and bets later in the session. Limiting this behavior as much as possible is suggested. Less time in the session = less room for error. If price goes against you, you don’t have the same amount of “time” in the session to trade out of it. Forcing you to accept mediocre exits or losses. If you are still around and trading MOC, you are probably gambling not trading to scale.
Equity Curve Insights.
The equity growth looks and appears “stepwise”, with consistent progress rather than big “outlier” days. I did have a pretty decent sized losing day. But I prevented it from dipping back to previous daily profit and cycle profit. Have a massive winning day? Don’t allow yourself to give it back and then some over the next few days. YOUR BIGGEST LOSSES OFTEN COME AFTER YOUR BIGGEST GAINS. Big gains are big gains on paper. It’s all on paper. You need to have the discipline to take that paper gains off the table.
Acceleration after Week 2. Having established routines and buffer built (fixed trading windows, decision limits, cleaner entries). I like to think in baseball terms here. Building a buffer is like having a good count at bat. You are still at bat. The outcome is uncertain. Anything can happen. You just have a friendly hitting count. At week 2, I had a 2-0 count. I was looking for good pitches. I was being selective. I had the discipline not to swing outside the strike zone. 95% winning days driven by consistency over aggressive sizing/urgency. COMPOUNDING. Daily compounding adds up. Make daily progress each day.
Cadence.
12/27/2024: bought five 150k combines (fees $750; total startup outlay becomes $1,500 with activation).
12/30: passed all five.
12/31: activated five xfAs ($750).
01/07/2025: ≈ $35,000 per account → first payouts.
01/14: ≈ $68,000 per account → second payouts.
01/21: ≈ $102,800 per account → third payouts.
01/28: call-up to live. 4th payout.
Cadence is the key point here: sprint early → lock out → withdraw → light week → repeat.
The Emotional Effects.
It is easy to chalk up trading just to math and charts. But prop firms introduce a different, new dynamic and that's the mental side of the game. It really is a mental marathon. When you are on a “run”, you can feel it. My first win in XFAs back in October 2024 taught me this. During that time, I took one XFA to $50,000 in balance. Withdrew half and lost the rest. It’s easy to look back on this period as a missed opportunity. But it wasn’t. It taught me how to win long term with props. I like to say this “if you made it/did it once, you can do it again.” It’s really the mental side that is holding you back.
You can’t win without knowing what losing feels like. Knowing what it’s like to fail is going to be what allows you to succeed. Prop firms amplify your emotions. They apply pressure on the trader. Losses trigger frustration loops. Wins feed overconfidence. Trading will always act like a mirror. Look in the mirror.
PART II: KNOW THE PLAYERS