Most failed evals don't die from a bad strategy. They die from the same 5 mistakes repeated across thousands of traders. Every blown account is some combination of these. Knowing them is half the battle.
01 — Over-leveraging on day one.
You just bought a $50K eval. You're hyped. You see a setup. You take 3 contracts. It goes against you for 20 points. You're down $1,200 in 15 minutes.
This is the #1 way evals die. The eval is brand new in your account, you're emotional, and you size like a hero.
Trade your smallest size for the first 2-3 days
Treat the first few days like a warm-up. Prove to yourself you can read the market before you press the gas. There's no rush to pass.
02 — Revenge trading.
You lose your first trade. You're pissed. You take a second trade to "get it back." You size up because the first one was small. The second one loses too. Now you're hunting. Now you blow.
This is where my daily rules come in:
The 2-trade structure
→ Win first trade = done for the day
→ Lose first trade = derisk 50%, take ONE more
→ Lose second trade = done for the day
→ Win second trade = done for the day
Maximum 2 trades. Doesn't matter if you're on fire. Doesn't matter if you're tilted. After your second trade, you close the platform.
This rule alone saves more evals than any strategy.
03 — Ignoring the drawdown.
You're up $3K on a trailing drawdown account. You don't think about the drawdown because you're "up." You give back $1,500 over an hour. Now you're up $1,500 — but on a $2,500 trailing drawdown, you might be $1,000 away from blowing.
People treat drawdown as a "max loss" number. It's not. With trailing drawdown, it's a moving floor that follows your peak.
Know your live drawdown distance every minute
If you don't know how far you are from your drawdown floor RIGHT NOW, you shouldn't be in a trade. Read the drawdown types article if you haven't yet.
04 — Trading without a written plan.
Most traders "have a plan" but they don't write it down. So when the market does something weird, they improvise. Improvisation in a stressful environment = bad decisions = blown accounts.
Before market open, you should be able to write down:
- What's my bias today (long, short, neutral) and why?
- What levels am I watching?
- What's my entry trigger?
- Where's my stop?
- What's my target?
If you can't answer all five before the trade, don't take the trade.
05 — Holding losers / no stop loss.
"I'll just wait for it to come back." Famous last words.
On NQ specifically, with current volatility, holding a loser without a hard stop is suicide. Price can move 50-100 points against you in minutes. Your $300 loss becomes a $1,500 loss before you blink.
Hard stop on every trade. No exceptions.
Set it in the platform. Don't use "mental stops" — your brain will negotiate with you when it should be cutting the trade.
The truth.
Nobody blows an eval because their strategy doesn't work. They blow because they break their own rules. The rules are the strategy.
THE STRATEGY.
Pick rules. Write them down. Follow them like your account depends on it — because it does.
// — HIGO
Pass your eval.
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