Video summary

The Strategy Behind My $1.6M in Prop Firm Payouts

Main summary

Key takeaways

Finance

Finance-focused summary (markets / investing strategy / trading)

The presenter (JJ) describes a prop-firm-only futures trading strategy built around “fair price” / fair auction theory, targeting intraday mean reversion after the New York session open. The approach uses very aggressive trade frequency to meet prop-firm evaluation rules.

Proof / prop-firm payouts mentioned

JJ lists cumulative payouts across multiple prop firms (no tickers shown; appears focused on intraday futures trading):

  • Topstep: $292,000 paid out + ~$50K (old dashboard)
  • E8: $222,000
  • Funded Engineer: $180,000
  • My Funded Futures: $92,000
  • Funded Next: $129,500 (“right now”)
  • Lucid: ~$105,000 total
  • Apex: ~$60,000+ (JJ says possibly a bit more)
  • Alpha Futures: $75,000 total
  • Bulwark Prime: ~$55,000 total

JJ also references performance from 2 weeks of data:

  • 80 trades
  • 8 days
  • ~10 trades/day
  • 57.5% win rate
  • 1.5 risk-to-reward (explicitly stated: “1.5 risk to reward”)

Markets / instruments / tickers

  • No specific ticker symbols are mentioned.
  • The strategy is described generically for intraday index/futures-style “points”, using points as the unit for price movement and evaluation constraints (drawdown/profit targets).

Framework / step-by-step methodology

Session timing & setup logic

  • Primary session: the New York session open (JJ says it works with other opens, but NY is best)
  • Continuation: trade the first ~5 minutes after the open
  • Mean reversion window: trade for the next 5 to 90 minutes
    • framed as a ~90-minute total session
  • Trade frequency goal: ~10 trades/day on the NY AM session
  • No maximum trades (per JJ’s description)

“Fair price” concept and targeting

  • Fair price is treated as the pre-open / open anchor, where the market is assumed to be “unfairly repriced” at the open due to:
    • opening flow
    • liquidity imbalances
    • stops
    • hedging
    • momentum participation
  • Core premise: the open move is unfair, so price should revert toward fair pricing.

Entry signals

Primary entry: displacement candle (toward fair price)

JJ describes a “zero discretion” rule:

  • Body of current candle > body of previous candle

Additionally:

  • Optional/discretionary: combine two candles to count as displacement.

Stronger variant: Break of Structure (BOS)

JJ distinguishes setup strength as:

  • A+ setup: BOS (stronger confirmation / higher win rate)
  • A setup: displacement candle
  • B setup: something he says never take (“Just don’t take a B setup.”)

Scaling / layering

  • JJ generally: trade each account one at a time and aim to get through all accounts daily.
  • Layering is used when already in a trade:
    • if price moves toward the trade and then breaks structure in your favor while still in-progress
  • JJ explicitly discourages copy trading as a way to “spread risk out” across accounts on prop firms.

Risk management & trade sizing (numbers + rules)

JJ emphasizes that prop-firm evaluation math drives the risk plan.

Standard evaluation trade template (most recaps)

  • Stop loss: 25 points
  • Take profit: 38 points
  • Framed as ~1 to 1.5 risk-to-reward, with 38 repeatedly presented as statistically optimal for evaluations.

When the candle is larger

If the opening candle is larger than 25 points, JJ uses larger sizing, for example:

  • Stop: 50 points
  • Take profit: 76 points

(Used when candle body exceeds thresholds such as 40–44+ points.)

Targeting rules tied to “prop firm evaluations”

JJ claims prop firms often structure evaluations with:

  • $2,000 drawdown
  • $3,000 profit target

He argues that keeping trades within 1–1.5R improves pass rate, because of how drawdown trails.

Prop firm vs live account disclaimer

  • JJ says the full strategy/risk management is prop-firm only.
  • For live trading, he suggests targeting fair price levels rather than fixed evaluation profit targets (without giving live-specific numeric values).

Fair price adjustments (explicit rule)

  • JJ sometimes adjusts fair price intraday when volume/price action invalidates the original open anchor.
  • Example described: fair price moved “from down here to up here” after consolidation + continuation up, because the expected “revert to open” behavior did not occur.
  • News is treated as the primary factor that changes fair price.

News day handling (framework)

JJ distinguishes expected vs unexpected news:

  • Expected news (e.g., Red folder at 8:30 a.m., shown via Forex Factory):
    • “priced in”
    • fair price remains the pre-news area (JJ asserts it stays near where fair price is drawn)
  • Unexpected news / surprise tweets:
    • changes fair price
    • example (Trump tweet): fair price moved to the post-surprise consolidation, not the pre-news level

News trading approach

  • Still uses displacement / BOS concepts, but targets multiple “chunks” of the move consistent with prop evaluation constraints.
  • JJ references splitting into many smaller standardized evaluation trades (e.g., “13 different trades of 38/25/…” style partitioning), rather than one continuous “live-style” move.
  • He notes Trump tweets can cause fast directional moves; JJ enters evaluation trades because it’s “plus EV” (not because the direction is predictable).

Key performance metrics & recommendations/cautions

Metrics

  • 57.5% win rate
  • 80 trades across 8 days
  • Target structure: ~10 trades/day
  • 1.5 risk-to-reward framework

Explicit recommendations

  • Trade prop firms, not live accounts
    • JJ argues live competition is institutional; prop firm rules make it harder for most live-style traders.
  • Aim for prop-evaluation optimal R (commonly 25 SL / 38 TP)
  • Maintain bias toward reversion to fair price
  • Manage risk per account
  • Consider only A/A+ setups
  • Avoid B setups

Cautions / disclosures

  • No explicit “not financial advice” statement appears in the subtitles JJ provided.
  • Strong caution is implied:
    • “please do not trade live accounts”
    • prop-firm evaluation mechanics change risk/targeting logic

Timeline highlights mentioned

  • First ~5 minutes: continuation attempt
  • Next 5 to 90 minutes: reversion / mean reversion window
  • JJ ends trading at 11:00 a.m. on multiple days (JJ says: “I tell myself 90 minutes and I’m done.”)
  • News timing examples:
    • 8:30 a.m.
    • also mentions 10:00 a.m. as another news-related point

Presenters / sources

  • Presenter: “JJ” (referred to as the main speaker throughout)
  • Source for expected news: Forex Factory (used to identify “red folder” events)

Original video