ive been doing prop futures with topstep for a year, profitable but small (around 6k taken out total). thinking about adding forex to my routine and considering whether to:

a) stay with topstep, use their forex offering
b) take a small the5ers challenge for forex
c) keep them separate, run both in parallel

topstep forex is newer and i hear the rules are tighter than their futures product. the5ers seems more battle tested for fx.

any blend traders here doing both products successfully?

when i started everything seemed simple, buy low sell high, follow a few rules. two months of actually learning later i feel more confused than ever, every concept has exceptions, every rule has a counter-rule, and i second-guess every chart. is this a normal stage everyone passes through, or a sign im not cut out for this?

woke up to my EA throwing errors that werent there yesterday. turns out the terminal auto-updated to a new build and something in the trade functions changed behaviour. spent the morning patching instead of trading.

is there a clean way to freeze the mt5 build so it stops updating itself without my permission? id rather test new builds on a separate install when i choose to.

logged in to find my leverage dropped from 1:500 to 1:100 with no email, no notice. it messed up the margin on positions i already had open. broker says they can change it at their discretion per the terms. is this actually normal and legal, or do i have grounds to be angry?

taking a short on eurusd, entry around a clear lower-high after the daily rejected a resistance zone, stop above the swing high, target the prior demand area roughly two to one. posting before im fully sized in so its honest. genuinely want people to poke holes in the idea, not cheer it. what am i not seeing?

exploring dukascopy as a 'serious' broker option. swiss bank regulated (FINMA), segregated accounts at swiss banks, all the institutional credentials.

downsides ive read: their platform (JForex) is clunky compared to mt5/ctrader, customer service is famously cold and slow, minimum deposits are higher.

for capital preservation vs trade execution convenience, where does dukascopy actually fit in your view? worth the friction for the safety, or is that safety overhyped if you stick to other tier 1 brokers?

US based traders have limited broker options because of CFTC and NFA restrictions. forex.com (gain capital) has been the default for years - they're regulated, they take US clients, they're not going to disappear.

but their costs are noticeably higher than what international clients get at brokers like ic markets. the question for fellow US traders: have you found a better alternative? oanda US? tastyfx (formerly ig)?

curious especially for active traders, where the spread/commission difference compounds.

downloaded a free pine script that looks incredible on the chart, calls tops and bottoms almost perfectly. which is exactly why im suspicious. how do i actually verify whether it repaints or recalculates on historical bars before i build anything around it?

paid by 5 different prop firms over 3 years. tracking patterns:

fastest payouts (1-3 business days): blueguardian, alpha, fundednext sometimes
consistent middle (4-7 days): ftmo, e8
slowest (7-14 days, sometimes longer): some mid-tier firms i wont name

most of my delays werent firm-wide issues but specific triggers like: trade pattern that needed compliance review, account scaling requested, payment method change. curious what other people have seen trigger delays.

switching brokers and want to move my mt5 setup to the new broker's server. i have custom indicators, eas, templates, and saved chart layouts. trying to understand what survives a broker switch and what i'll need to redo.

my parents still ask me 'are you done with the gambling thing yet' even though ive been consistently profitable for 3 years and trading is now my primary income. they cant separate 'trading' from the casino-style image they have of it from movies.

for anyone whose family eventually understood, what shifted their view? showing them returns didnt work for me (they think i was 'just lucky'). explaining risk management bores them.

curious if others have found a frame that lands.

every answer i find is either 'demo for a week youll be fine' or 'demo for a year minimum'. those cant both be right. is there an actual signal that tells me im ready to risk real money, rather than a fixed time everyone just guesses at?

getting conflicting advice. some say start with eurusd only and master one pair. others say trade multiple pairs to have more opportunities. some say try exotic pairs for bigger moves. trying to understand the real reasoning behind pair selection for beginners.

day traders use everything from 1m to 1H entry timeframes. ive tested several and noticed:

• 1m / 5m: lots of setups but lots of noise, hard to be selective
• 15m: enough signal-to-noise to read clearly, decent setup frequency
• 30m / 1H: cleaner setups but fewer per day, may sit out productive periods

whats your timeframe choice for day trading and how did you arrive at it?

going back to basics question. in an era of order flow, ICT, SMC, liquidity grabs, and all the modern frameworks - does plain old support and resistance still work as a primary tool?

ive seen experienced traders dismiss SR as 'too simple' but also seen consistently profitable traders who basically only trade SR + price action. whats your honest take in 2026?

been thinking about removing all indicators from my charts. currently using ema 20 and 50 plus rsi. they feel like a crutch and i suspect they're just lagging price. everyone talks about pure price action being the final form but i don't see much discussion about how the transition actually goes.

what does the learning curve of moving from indicator-based to pure price action look like, and what do you miss vs gain?

controversial maybe but i want a real discussion. so much of fx flow now is algorithmic, central bank policy driven, with HFT eating any obvious patterns within milliseconds.

the question: is classical TA (support/resistance, fibonacci, candlestick patterns) still giving you actual edge in 2026? or is it just confirmation bias on a chart while the real edge has moved to fundamental + macro reads?

honest opinions please. dont need cheerleading.

10 years ago retail traders could make decent money news trading - get the data feed, fast execution, ride the spike. now algos read the release within microseconds, brokers widen spreads to insane levels around news, and the 'spike then return' patterns are barely visible.

serious question: anyone here genuinely making money news trading consistently? if yes, what's the angle - waiting for the post-news consolidation? trading the 2nd order moves? something else entirely?

ive committed to stripping my charts back to bare price for a full quarter and journaling the transition here, because im terrified without my indicators and want a record of whether it actually helps or im just chasing a trend. week 1, charts feel naked, i hesitated a lot, took fewer trades. updating weekly with honest results, not a success story sold in advance.

on a funded account, do you pull profits at every eligible payout, or let the balance build to trade bigger and withdraw larger chunks less often? compounding sounds appealing but it also means more of my earned money sitting inside the firm. how do experienced funded traders think about this trade-off?