Resources

Everything you need to know about proprietary trading firms and how to get started in futures trading

Scalping can be profitable — but it's the hardest style to make work, because your costs scale with every trade and your execution has to be near-flawless. Here's the honest math, what it actually takes, and how scalping interacts with prop firm rules.

Paper trading is genuinely useful for the mechanical parts of trading — and useless for the one thing that actually breaks traders. Here's what sim practice can and can't teach you, and how a cheap prop firm evaluation bridges the gap.

Most day traders lose money — but not because the market is rigged. Here's the honest breakdown: the base rate, the specific leaks that drain accounts, the math nobody wants to do, and what actually separates the traders who make it.

The honest answer depends entirely on which path you take. Here's what it costs to day trade futures with your own account versus through a prop firm, why micros changed the math, and the real number that matters more than margin.

Traders use multiple monitors to see more at once without alt-tabbing — charts, order entry, the DOM, news, and multiple instruments. But more screens don't make more money. Here's what goes on each screen, and how many you actually need to start.

Breach a prop firm's drawdown and the consequences are immediate and automated. Here's exactly what happens the moment you hit the floor, how it differs between evaluations and funded accounts, and why you can breach without even losing money.

A small number of people genuinely make a living trading futures — but the honest math is more sobering than the highlight reels suggest. Here's what the income really depends on, why account size is everything, and the part nobody advertises.

Tradovate is a cloud-based futures broker and trading platform — charts, DOM, and order entry in your browser, no downloads required. It's also one of the two big connection types prop firms offer. Here's how it works and how it compares to Rithmic.

Rithmic is a market data and order-routing provider that connects your trading platform to the CME. If you've ever logged into a futures prop firm account, there's a good chance Rithmic was working behind the scenes. Here's what it actually does.

A prop firm evaluation is a paid tryout: hit the profit target without breaking the risk rules, and the firm gives you a funded account to trade with their capital. Here's how evaluations work, the rules that matter, and the honest math behind the model.

A liquidity sweep is when price pushes through an obvious high or low to trigger the stop orders resting there, then reverses. Here's why it happens (no conspiracy required), how to spot one, and how traders actually trade them.

ES and MES track the S&P 500; NQ and MNQ track the Nasdaq-100. The micros (MES, MNQ) are exactly 1/10th the size of the minis. Here's every difference that matters — tick values, point values, dollar examples, and which one you should actually trade.

Drawdown rules exist because the firm's money is on the line, not yours. Here's why every prop firm has them, how static, end-of-day, and intraday trailing drawdowns differ, and a worked example showing why the trailing version ends so many evaluations.

The DOM (Depth of Market) is a price ladder showing the resting buy and sell limit orders at each price level. Here's how to read one, how traders use it for entries and exits, and why it's the tool of choice for futures scalpers.

Market structure is the pattern of highs and lows that defines whether a market is trending up, trending down, or ranging. Here's how to read it — higher highs, break of structure, change of character — without the jargon overdose.

The CME is the world's largest futures exchange — it's where ES, NQ, and the micros trade. Here's how the exchange, the clearing house, margin, contract months, and the nearly-24-hour session actually work, in plain English.

A footprint chart shows the volume traded at every price inside each candle, split between buyers and sellers. Think of it as an X-ray of a candlestick. Here's how to read bid x ask footprints, delta, imbalances, and absorption — in plain English.

Order flow trading means reading the actual buy and sell orders moving the market — not just price patterns and lagging indicators. Here's what it is, the tools traders use (DOM, footprint charts, time and sales), and an honest take on whether it works.