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Hey Jermel! I'm currently trading the ES with my funded account. If you're trading aggressively, your risk per trade should be between 1–5% of your capital. If you prefer a more conservative approach, choose 0.1–1% of your capital instead. For example, if you have a max loss limit of $2,000, then risking 1% = $20 per trade is acceptable. It really depends on your trading skills, especially your win rate. Track your win rate over at least 100 trades, and then adjust your risk per trade based on your performance. Hope that helps! Never forget: Trading is a marathon, not a sprint ;) Cheers, N*

First of all, huge thanks to @Valentine Chiti, @Tomas Vyšniauskas, and @Florian S. for your insightful contributions. My condolences go out to Valentine — I truly appreciate your openness. I can totally relate to everything shared here. Even though I’ve always considered myself as a disciplined person, it took me years to translate that discipline into trading. Here are a few things that have helped me over time: As Valentine said, trading definitely has its ups and downs. I completely agree that taking breaks is essential — whether that’s for a week, a month, or even longer. During those breaks, it’s important to still engage with trading in a low-stress way while also focusing on your personal growth. Take time for yourself and reflect on both your mental state and your trading strategies. You’ll come back with a clearer mind. Tomas' point really resonated with me, too. I started running regularly — 10 km, 2-3 times a week. It gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on my trading without the pressure of staring at screens all day. I’ve even run two half marathons, which gave me hours of quiet reflection. The key takeaway from this: Trading is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t rush, don’t burn out — focus on consistent, gradual progress. One tool I found really helpful was „The Daily Trading Coach - 101 Sessions for becoming your own trading psychologist“ von Brett N. Steenbarger. It’s a fantastic read for anyone looking to build their mental resilience in trading (and Robert has read it too! 😉). Florian’s advice to journal every day and do a recap of each trading session has been a game changer for me. It’s not enough to just mentally reflect on your mistakes — writing them down forces you to confront your actions and decisions in a tangible way. I started keeping a detailed trading journal, including reasons for every trade, what went right, and what went wrong several years ago. Sharing that journal with others really made you think twice before making impulsive trades. When you have to explain your reasoning to someone else, it really sharpens your thought process. Writing, repeating, and reflecting — it’s a lot of work, but it eventually becomes second nature. Just like in sports: improvement comes from consistent practice over time.