VLAD impaling WALL ST!I believe Robinhood will achieve over One Trillion dollars in assets in very short order.
Giant Cup and Handle is your technical setup.
(I have covered hood at the low)
Brokerage
XAUUSD - Prop firm or your own account? - Trading Psychology"$100K Funded? Or $1K account you own?? Welcome to the Inside Battle of Every Trader"
You want capital, freedom and win big.
But the question is: do you do it with your own money, or someone else’s?
You’ve got the $100K funded dream on one side. Big leverage, strict rules, payout drama.
And on the other side? Your own $1K account. Zero limits, zero support, and a whole lot of emotional damage.
This is a breakdown of what really happens behind both paths — the adrenaline, the self-sabotage, the mind games, and the payouts that sometimes never come.
The Prop Firm Path: Pass, Survive, Then Pray
Phase 1: You trade with hunger.
You’ve got the goal in sight, and every move is calculated. You’re alert, focused, mechanical. The structure helps. The rules feel like a challenge. Everything feels possible.
Phase 2: You trade with fear.
Now you’re tiptoeing. The target’s smaller, but the pressure is suffocating. Hesitation.Overthink. You play defense — and that’s when you lose. You stop executing your edge and start trading to avoid failure.
Funded: The real test begins.
You go live, you trade well, you hit payout… and suddenly the firm has a problem. A new rule is “suddenly” enforced. A clause is reinterpreted. A delay happens. You’re told to wait. Or worse — your account is shut with no warning.
That’s the part no one prepares you for: the waiting, the silence, the mental snap.
Passing isn’t the end. It’s barely the middle.
✅ So, Should You Go Prop? Here's What You Need to Know
Yes — if you’re ready to treat this like a hostile contract.
If you’re trading a prop account, you are trading their rules, their terms, their timing. You are not a partner — you are a performer. And they are very comfortable pulling the plug.
If you do it:
• Be colder than the system.
• Read every rule twice.
• Trade Phase 2 like a surgeon — no ego, no rush.
• And never treat a payout like it's guaranteed — treat it like a fight you have to win more than once.
You don’t just pass. You survive.
And if you’re not ready to survive, stay out.
🚨 Do not forget — It’s Simulated Capital. And That’s the Game.
Let’s not pretend it’s hidden:
You’re NOT TRADING REAL MONEY. You’re executing on a simulated account that mirrors real conditions — nothing more.
When you get paid, it’s not because you “grew” capital. It’s because you performed better than the masses who failed their challenges and fed the payout pool.
This isn’t shady. It’s the model — and it works because most traders lose.
So don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re managing funds.
You’re monetizing discipline inside a challenge-based system.
And if you know how to work that system? You get paid.
If you don’t? You become someone else’s payout.
🔓 Trading Your Own Money: Real Freedom or Emotional Damage?
With your own capital, there’s no one watching — and no one helping.
You set the rules. You decide how aggressive, how cautious, how chaotic.
But the second you click “Buy,” your psychology comes for you like a debt collector.
Because real trading isn’t what’s on the screen — it’s what’s happening between your ears.
You lose your money, you lose your confidence.
You win big, and suddenly you think you’ve figured out the market — until the market slaps you for it.
There’s no one to blame, and that makes it ten times harder.
But here’s the part no one can take away from you: every lesson is yours.
Every win is clean. Every loss hits deep. And if you make it — you really made it.
💡 How to Make Self-Funded Work for You
✅ Start with small capital — but also invest in your trading education.
Join a group that teaches you how to trade, not signal groups that just give you orders when to buy or sell, without explaining why.
✅ Join a real trading community.
Surround yourself with people who post actual breakdowns — who teach, not flex.
Avoid ego chats. Avoid circus chats. Find people who show the why, not just the entry.
(If you’re reading this, you already found the right space.)
✅ Focus on fixing mistakes — not faking wins.
Nobody cares how many pips you caught if you blew 5 trades getting there. Get real about your risk management and lot size.
✅ Learn to stop after a win.
Don’t feed your dopamine. Protect your equity. Walk away while you’re still in control.
✅ Respect your losses. Don’t chase them.
Red days don’t destroy traders. Revenge trading does. Stop. Reset. Come back sharper.
✅ If you’re not paying yourself yet, don’t panic.
Some seasons are for building, not cashing out. Don’t force results just to feel good — let the system earn before it pays.
🔄 The Hybrid Advantage: Rent the rules. Own the skill.
Some traders don’t pick a side.
They use prop firms like a hired weapon — fast, effective, disposable and
Personal accounts like a vault — protected, scalable, sacred.
They switch between them based on market conditions, mental load, and long-term goals.
You don’t need to be loyal to a style just be loyal to your results.
🧠 Final Word:
Trading becomes real, sustainable, and successful only when your mind is at peace with the path you chose.
If you wake up anxious about your account — if you feel pressure before you even open the chart — that’s not discipline, that’s misalignment.
This doesn’t mean trading should feel easy. But it should feel right.
You should wake up curious to read price, not terrified to take a trade.
Whether you trade $100K or $1K, the real account is always in your head.
You should feel like this work belongs to you — not like you’re trying to survive someone else’s idea of success.
Whether you trade with a prop firm or your own account, or both, the goal is the same:
Mental clarity. Emotional control. Strategic confidence. You’ll know you’re on the right path the moment the stress fades — and the obsession becomes patience, structure and joy with success.
If this lesson helped you today and brought you more clarity:
Drop a 🚀 and follow us✅ for more published ideas.
IBKR: BUY THE TECHY BROKERNASDAQ:IBKR reported strong results for Q3 2024, with adjusted earnings per share of $1.75, reflecting a 12.9% increase from the prior year, albeit slightly below the consensus estimate of $1.78. The company has shown significant growth in customer accounts and daily average revenue trades (DARTs), key drivers behind its performance.
After an initially negative reaction to the earnings report due to the slight miss and overall market trends, shares are stabilizing today. This creates a brief window for a long trade, allowing for a tight stop level to establish a very favorable risk-reward scenario.
Key Highlights Supporting Further Gains:
Total Revenue: $1.37 billion, up 19.2% year-over-year.
Customer Accounts: Grew 28.3% to 3,120,000 accounts.
DARTs: Increased 41.7% to 2.7 million, aligning with expectations.
Strong Capital Position: Cash and equivalents total $69.9 billion, with total assets of $148.5 billion.
Daily Technical Analysis Overview:
Oscillators:
RSI (14): 66.07 (Neutral)
Momentum (10): 4.72 (Buy)
Bull Bear Power: 2.08 (Buy)
Moving Averages:
EMA (10, 20, 50, 100, 200): All in "Buy."
SMA (10, 20, 50, 100, 200): All in "Buy."
Conclusion:
The robust capital position of Interactive Brokers, along with growth in accounts and DARTs, supports a positive outlook for the stock. Despite a slight increase in expenses, the fundamentals remain strong, justifying a buy recommendation. This is a great opportunity to capitalize on the current trend pause. If you'd like to discuss stop levels or have any questions, feel free to reach out!
🚀 Don’t miss this opportunity and follow me for more trading ideas!
Disclaimer: This analysis and recommendation are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Always conduct your own research and consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing in stocks involves risks, including the loss of principal.
FinecoBank (FBK.mi) bullish scenario:The technical figure Falling Wedge can be found in the Italian company FinecoBank S.p.A. (FBK.mi) at daily chart. FinecoBank S.p.A., known as FinecoBank or just Fineco is an Italian bank that specializes in online brokerage. Launched in 1999 with its Fineco Online service for retail traders, Fineco became a listed company in 2014 and has been independent from UniCredit banking group since 2019. FinecoBank is a constituent of FTSE MIB (since 2016), the blue chip index of the Borsa Italiana. Since 2015 it has over a million customers in Italy, where its role has been compared to that of Schwab in USA. The Falling Wedge has broken through the resistance line on 10/02/2022, if the price holds above this level you can have a possible bullish price movement with a forecast for the next 35 days towards 16.550 EUR. Your stop loss order according to experts should be placed at 14.280 EUR if you decide to enter this position.
Italy's FinecoBank said its full-year net profit hit a record 349.2 million euros ($399 million) driven by stronger net commissions, lifting its shares on Wednesday. The bank proposed a dividend of 0.39 euro per share. FinecoBank said in a slide presentation it expects 2022 net financial income - the net interest income and profit from treasury management - to at least match 2021, when it was 280 million euros.
Risk Disclosure: Trading Foreign Exchange (Forex) and Contracts of Difference (CFD's) carries a high level of risk. By registering and signing up, any client affirms their understanding of their own personal accountability for all transactions performed within their account and recognizes the risks associated with trading on such markets and on such sites. Furthermore, one understands that the company carries zero influence over transactions, markets, and trading signals, therefore, cannot be held liable nor guarantee any profits or losses.
XP. Brazilian brokerage leader.XP Inc. is a Brazilian brokerage and dealer company. It is one of the seven largest companies in the country with a capitalization of $16.8B. It is the leading low-cost financial services company in Brazil. XP Inc. gives clients access to a wide range of financial products, including fixed income securities, mutual funds and hedge funds, pension plans and life insurance, generates a large amount of media content and develops technology solutions to support its cloud and mobile applications.
The Brazilian financial market is not very developed, most of it is made up of conservative banks with inefficient financial instruments. In such circumstances, the activities of XP Inc. can be called revolutionary on a national scale. At first glance, XP Inc. is at the peak of the current investment promotion trend.
➡️ The entire movement since March 2020 visually looks like an impulse and a correction to it. The structure of the initial growth is ambiguous, and the corrective movement in wave 2 (or B) is technically decomposed into a plane. In December 2021, the decline in wave {c} reached the level of $27.5 , stopping at it with a slight flat. At the start of 2022, we saw a false breakout of this level and a return to the top with the update of the last peak (iv)of{c} and the potential for the end of the downtrend.
It is worth noting that in the area of the indicated level of $27.5 there are:
1️⃣ Corrective Fibo level 0.5 of wave 1.
2️⃣ Projection Fibo level 1.618 for wave {c}of2.
3️⃣ Strong volume zone $22-28 within the ascending wave 1.
4️⃣ The lower border of the descending pitchfork.
📌 Growth in January is like a expanding diagonal. I see a good opportunity to buy on a rollback to the area of $27-$29 .
📈 If this movement is an ABC zigzag, as a minimum target for further growth, I note the maximum level of the stock at $52 - $53 , which the price has already touched three times over the past years. If this is a start of a new impulse and we have leading waves 1-2 in front of us, then the adequate growth potential in wave 3 is at $90 , but it may turn out to be noticeably higher - the following projection levels: $120 , $142 and $190 .
➖ In theory, wave {c} may become more complicated or my initial counting may not be confirmed, then the fall will continue. Cancellation of the current scenario when the price goes below $25.5 .
just act like a crabcrab harmonic pattern:
3-4=0.38 X1-3
4-5=0.88 3-4
2.6 4-5=$38
3.6 4-5=$21
1.6 X1-3=$12.5
AB=0.38 X2=$33
BC=0.88 AB=$22
2.6 BC=$63
3.6 BC=$95
1.6 X2-A=$147
Best Brokerage Account 2021Let’s talk about the best brokerage account, and in order to do this, I want to compare five different brokers for you.
I’ll be comparing tastyworks, the current broker that I’m currently trading with, Robinhood because many traders are using it, TD Ameritrade because it’s wildly popular, Interactive Brokers because it’s great for international traders, and we will talk about a new broker that I’ve been using for the past couple of months, so I have an account with them.
I want to talk about this and compare them to the others and tell you why I really like this new broker and why I’m in the process of switching over all my accounts.
The first thing to keep in mind when you’re comparing different brokers, you have to pick criteria that fit your needs.
These are my criteria and they might be great for you, or your criteria may be different. So what I’m looking for when finding the best broker.
My Criteria For Selecting A Broker
So the first thing that I would like to know is how much do I have to pay in commissions per month? I use a certain baseline for this.
With my current broker, tastyworks, I looked back over the past three months and I wanted to see how much I spent. From 1/1 through 3/31 I made 150 trades and traded 1,665 contracts.
So I use this as my baseline in order to compare these different brokers. I took to see what if I make 150 trades, or 50 trades per month and 500 contracts that I’m trading per month.
Again, for you, it might be different, but we need to have somehow a baseline, especially when we are comparing the commissions per month that I’m spending right now, that I would be spending on Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, interactive brokers, and this new broker that I’m trading with.
Now, every single broker has some other fees, and you need to see which of these fees are important to you. Here are the ones that are important to me.
I want to know if there any wire fees and if so, how much are they?
Also, are there any assignment fees? Assignment fees are important to me because I’m trading The Wheel Strategy, and part of this strategy is getting assigned shares, so I want to know how much this will be.
Information about their customer support is also important to me. What happens if I need help and I need to call or e-mail them? Do they have an online chat feature? So this is important for me.
What about the platform? Every single broker offers a platform for you, so which one best fits your needs?
This is where we get a little bit more technical because I want to talk about levels three and four. What does this mean?
Well, it means that, especially when you are selling options which you do with The Wheel Strategy, you need certain option trading permissions, so you want to know how easily can you get level three and four if this is important to you.
Now, last but not least, I love having live data. I don’t know about you, but I want to make sure that live data available with these brokerages.
I also want to know how much it costs if anything. So let’s get started and let’s talk about the first broker here, tastyworks.
tastyworks
I am currently using tastyworks, and I know exactly how much money I spent on tastyworks.
On this particular account, I spent $550 dollars in commissions.
For the baseline of 50 trades and 500 contracts per month, I spent around $180 in commissions.
Now for tastyworks, how much are wire fees? When I wire money out, which is once a month, it costs me $25.
What about the assignment fees? The assignment fees for tastyworks are $5. I want to explain to you exactly how they are charging.
So with tastyworks, they charge $1 per contract and they do have a $10 maximum. So you’re never paying more than $10.
Even if you’re trading 50 contracts, you will only pay $10.
They also have no closing fees and this applies to options trading. For stock trading, these days, trading stocks is free pretty much everywhere.
So we want to worry about options here because that’s what I’m mainly trading.
What about customer support? I must say their support is good. The experiences that I have had thus far when I contact them by chat are very quick.
When contacting them through chat, they usually only have me on hold for three to ten minutes.
Now, what I do not like about tastyworks? You cannot call them, and sometimes I would rather speak with someone on the phone, so this is why I’m not labeling it “very good,” I’m just labeling it as “good” because you can’t call them.
As for their platform, I think it is pretty good. However, I’m just using a fraction of the platform, so for me, the most important function is actually placing trades.
I’m not using any of the complicated curves that you can have and all of the analysis tools, but again, if this is important to you, then you need to make sure that this platform meets all of your needs.
For me, it does what I need it to do, which is entering trades.
Now level three and four is actually something that is quite easy to obtain with tastyworks. So no problems there, and live data is actually free.
Robinhood
As for Robinhood, how much would you pay in commissions per month? Well, Robinhood has always advertised you pay zero commissions, and that is true. For options trading, you also pay zero dollars, which is actually pretty cool.
Wire fees are a whopping zero dollars with assignment fees being zero dollars. So thus far Robinhood is really good in terms of commissions, right?
Well, what about customer support? Now, full disclosure, I do not have an account with Robinhood, so I’ve never contacted them, but based on what I have heard, it is pretty bad.
What about based on what I’ve seen? I don’t know if you’ve been following the news, but back when we had the GME craziness, Robinhood restricted trading for several days.
I don’t think that was fair. I don’t think that they should have done that, but they did.
This makes it seem to me they don’t have their customers in mind. Now, again, full disclosure, I don’t have an account with them and never contacted them. I’ve just heard that customer support is pretty bad.
What about the platform? I don’t know first hand, but I’ve heard it’s good. Again, this is where I go from hearsay because I don’t have an account with Robinhood, never had one, & don’t want one.
In terms of levels three and four, I heard from traders who have an account with them say it is fairly difficult to obtain levels three and four.
If you’re trading The Wheel Strategy, this is super important. As for their live data, it’s free.
TD Ameritrade
Now on to TD Ameritrade. How much would you spend with TD Ameritrade based on my baseline? You would pay 65 cents per the contract that you trade.
So if you’re trading like me, 500 contracts per month, times 65 cents, that comes to $325.
What about the wire fee? The wire fees here are also $25, the same as with tastyworks, but assignment fees are zero.
Now, what about customer support? Customer support used to be good. Right now I would say it is decent.
There was a time when you could call them they would pick right up. These days you are probably on hold for anywhere between 15 minutes and 2 hours because they got bought by Charles Schwab.
There seems to be a lot of consolidation going on and because of this, and because of this, it seems that customer support is suffering.
What about the platform? ThinkOrSwim is probably one of the most powerful trading platforms out there, and it is fairly complex.
For me, I just need to enter simple orders such as buy and sell orders. So for me personally, it is too complex.
It took me a long time to learn it. For those of you who have ThinkOrSwim, you either love it or you hate it. Either way, it is so complex, so you probably had to spend hours and hours learning it.
Levels three and four are fairly simple to acquire, and also live data here is free.
Interactive Brokers
Now with Interactive Brokers, I personally do have three accounts. I’ve been using them since 1999.
They’re a great choice for international traders. However, Interactive Brokers charges 65 cents per contract.
So very similar here to TD Ameritrade. If I would trade on Interactive Brokers I would actually spend $325.
The wire fee here is a little bit cheaper, $10. The assignment fees, if you get assigned, are zero.
Now their customer support, based on my experience is pretty bad. I’ve tried contacting them by chat, by phone, by email, and if you’re trying to contact them by chat, you will most likely be on hold for at least 20 minutes.
If you try to contact them by phone it is not unusual to wait 30 to 60 minutes until you get connected.
Their platform here is actually simple to use, but I find it’s pretty clunky. So just if you want my opinion and again, this is just my opinion.
You on the other hand might find this platform blazing fast and think it’s the best trading platform there is.
Now, in terms of levels three and four, yes, it is fairly easy to obtain, but they charge you $14.50 for live data, so just keep this in mind.
This is a monthly fee so you just need to know what you need.
So with the new broker, and I’ll tell you in a moment who that is, but when I saw all this mess going on in February where several brokers restricted trading, I said, “you know what, this is not fair.”
When I heard from some of you say, “My broker suddenly raised the margin requirements and I didn’t have a margin problem before and now I have a margin call,” or that you’re on hold forever before you get any customer support, I set out to find a great broker, and here is the new broker that I’m currently using.
Tradier
The new broker that I’m using is Tradier. I will move all of my accounts over to them because of what they’re offering.
The commission per month, it’s a $10 flat fee. $10 no matter how many options you trade.
This is a special rate for those of you reading these articles, and following me on YouTube.
So I think it is an absolutely cool model because it is a flat fee no matter how many contracts you trade.
Now, this, of course, is great if you are trading a lot of contracts like me. You have seen it, 500 contracts per month, with 150 trades, so I’m a very, very active trader.
I think it is absolutely cool that instead of paying $180 per month, all I’m paying right now is a $10 flat fee. That is pretty cool.
Now the wire fees are a little bit more expensive. The wire fees are $35, but again, I’m using it once a month.
So, therefore, if I’m adding this up, all right, and I say, well, that is $205 per month versus $45 a month, and for me, that adds up.
Right. It’s only a $10 difference from tastyworks, and I’m not wiring money in and out like crazy. I’m just wiring it out once a month and that is okay.
So the assignment fee here is a little bit higher, at $9 as of right now. So over the past three months, I had 3 wires and I had 8 assignments.
This is for the year. This means that per month I have 1 wire and approximately 3 assignments.
So as you can see, this is why the assignment costs here for me are not that important.
Again, these are my numbers, your numbers might be completely different, and that is fine.
This is where the cool thing is you have probably your brokerage account statement, so you can take a look at that, and then you know exactly how much you’re paying right now.
So the customer support, I must say based on my experience, over the past two months that I’ve been using them, is awesome.
What do I mean by awesome? By awesome I mean that I can pick up the phone right now.
I can call them, and within two to three rings, somebody picks up. The customer support team is in North Carolina, so I’m not going overseas, they are here in the United States.
They have been super responsive by email and by phone. I don’t even know if they offer a chat on the website because I was just so happy that I can finally talk to somebody.
Again, I’m coming from tastyworks, and on tastyworks, I’ve never, ever been able to talk to somebody because their business model is that they’re all doing it by chat, so I love this.
What about their platform? Their platform is simple, and in my opinion, it is super easy to learn.
So you can learn this platform in literally 10 minutes because that’s what they do. They just say, hey, if you want to enter trades, which I want to do, it’s fine.
They don’t have all of the bells and whistles that the other platforms have. So I would say it’s more comparable to Robinhood instead of a platform like TD Ameritrade because with Robinhood you just enter the trade and it is good.
So it’s simple and easy, does the trick for me.
Levels three and four are super easy to get. And live data is free. So this is what this new broker is all about.
For our members, we have created in our private community a special discussion group, and in this discussion group, we are here to help you, support you, with this particular brokerage. Which again is called Tradier.
So, for example, people have been asking if they open an account for business, an LLC for example? And the answer is yes. So you can ask us if you want to, of course, you can contact them.
So this is what we have here. We have a Tradier discussion group.
We do have tutorials for you such as videos on how to open an account, how to set up a paper trading account, and that reminds me, they offer paper trading. As you know, I highly recommend that you trade on a paper trading account first.
There are also videos on how to fund your Tradier account, how to place a stock entry order for the PowerX Strategy, how to place options order for the PowerX Strategy, entering orders for The Wheel Strategy, how to check your positions.
Summary
OK. So, again, my promise is to show you the best broker and this is the best broker for my needs. Now, for your needs, it might be different, but I thought that I compare here that the top five brokers that most traders are using right now.
STONEX GROUP - While TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE have been bought for insane multiples, Stonex seems to be very under-reported. More than $20B in revenue for the QUARTER, but it trades at $1B market cap?
US100 - LONGThe US100 is in the support trend line. Today the counter has made an entry in the support line at the price 10415. The price started bouncing from the entry point, so long is more preferable for this counter. We can place our stops below level S1 (10307).
We can also see an accumulation phase in the counter which supports the same. Therefore we can expect a bounce the bottom of the phase (S1) to reach the top line of the phase (R1). The movement of the MACD indicator also indicates the upward movement of the price,
