My trading concentration is super sharp from 12-4 but I really need to get it back to 10-4 to take advantage of some of those morning moves.
Most failing traders have many small positive days and one massive loss day. You're not out of the woods. If you cannot have multiple trades equal to your biggest loss you are not ready. The easiest way to meet that requirement is to keep losses small. -250 -500 -125 2500 -100 250 -250 5000 This is what good realized pnl per contract would look like.
It depends on being in sync with the higher TFs like the daily, 4h and 1h -- and a combo of other indicators but mostly gauging market reaction to econ data which is why I have now started to trade in the late morning/early afternoon since I can get a more accurate read on the market sentiment.
Your example is a perfect pass to that exam. Your draw (assuming that you didn't have a higher open DD any time at that period) is very well contained given the profits you make. All you have to do is just cut your position size in half (so everything is twice the size of those numbers) and you'll fit the -3% draw criteria. Think of it this way: That -3% should be considered your full account. So, if you breach it, you're account is empty. And then trade accordingly. That's it. Most of these firms are scams anyway, there're many "criterias" that suddenly jump up to cause you reset again and again and they have no intention to find talent traders. Here's a read from a guy i know and trust for a long time. He did a nice overview of these firms business models: https://paracurve.com/2022/07/funde...ve-into-how-they-work-no-affiliate-links.html