Getting started · Roadmap
The exact order I'd do it in if I were starting again today: eight steps, from not knowing what NQ is to getting paid and scaling.
Almost every DM I get is some version of the same question: where do I actually start? This is my answer, start to finish — the exact order I'd do it in if I were starting again today, with a link to the deeper guide at every step.
Nothing here is a shortcut. It's the boring version, which is the version that works.
The whole road, end to end
Before anything else
One instrument. Learn it properly.
A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell at a fixed price later, traded in fixed sizes with only a slice of the value put down. I trade one thing — NQ, the Nasdaq-100 future — and I'd tell anyone starting out to pick one instrument and stay with it for months.
Your screen
Keep the stack small.
I execute on Tradovate and chart on TradingView. Tradovate has the bigger user base, so when something confuses you there's far more help on YouTube and in communities than for the alternatives — which matters more than you'd think in month one.
At your first Tradovate login you'll sign a market data agreement: choose non-professional. For charting, TradingView Premium unlocks 15- and 30-second charts; without it, expect some lag on the live NQ feed.
Before real money
Forward test, then backtest.
Use TradingView's paper trading to forward-test one setup in real time. If you want to compress months of practice into weeks, a paid replay tool like FX Replay lets you backtest. You have to invest somewhere — better here than in failed evaluations.
Learn to decide direction before you learn entries. Entry is maybe 20% of the trade; direction is the other 80%.
Read: how to determine your bias for the day →The part that fails most people
You don't lose accounts to bad trades. You lose them to rules.
Two rules decide almost everything. The trailing drawdown follows your balance up and never comes back down. The consistency rule stops one big day from carrying your whole payout. Understand both before you spend a rupee.
Read: the consistency rule, explained simply →Your first account
Not five. One.
I always recommend the 50K size: $2,000 of drawdown room to hit a $3,000 target, and a payout worth having at the end. With a budget of roughly $100–500, buy whichever account is cheapest that week — firms rotate sales constantly, and Tradeify and Lucid both run one roughly monthly.
Buy only from the firm's own website, with a creator code. Resold accounts can get banned as unauthorised, and the “direct funded for ₹5k” comments are scams.
Straight-to-funded accounts skip the evaluation, but they're for people with capital who keep failing by oversizing — not a fix for discipline.
The evaluation
My exact daily rules.
I trade one NQ with a 20-point stop and a 20-point target — $400 either way, 1:1. I move the stop to breakeven once price is 10 points in my favour and never trail. Two trades a day, maximum: after a win I take one more and stop around +$800; after a loss I take one recovery trade and stop at −$800 if it loses too.
Five $400 winning days is $2,000 — most of the way to a payout. That's the whole idea: boring days, stacked.
Read: how I locked a $7,500 payout on Apex →Funded
Simpler than people fear.
Each firm pays through a portal — Rise, WorkMarket or Plane. You complete KYC there with your PAN or passport, add your bank, and the money arrives already converted to INR. I take mine into ordinary savings accounts at private banks and have never needed a purpose code or a form.
Take your first payout as a partial one to recover what you spent on accounts. Go for the maximum from the second payout on.
Read: Tradeify payout to an Indian bank →Once one account works
Only now — never before.
When one account is genuinely paying you, add more and copy the same trade across all of them. I run 25+ accounts this way from a single click. Copy trading multiplies a working strategy; it also multiplies a broken one, which is why it comes last.
Read: how I copy one trade across 20+ accounts →These are the four I'd send a beginner to, and the only four I'd rate. Honestly, no single firm is “the best” — each wins on something and costs you on something else. My ratings are my own opinion from trading all four, not a paid placement.
Best for: beginners who want the fastest money into an Indian bank.
Evals cost more than Apex, so failing one stings more. Wait for the sale that comes round roughly monthly.
Visit TradeifyBest for: beginners, and anyone who wants to be paid in crypto.
Ignore any “25K for ₹5k” or 100%-coupon comments — they're scams. Buy only on Lucid's own site.
Visit LucidBest for: cheap attempts — the lowest upfront price of the four.
The activation fee arrives after you pass, so the real cost ends up close to the others. Budget for it.
Visit ApexBest for: traders who'd rather pay a monthly plan than a one-off eval.
It's a subscription — every month you're stuck in the eval costs you again. Max 5 accounts.
Visit MyFundedFuturesIf you only read one line: start with Tradeify or Lucid — their beginner plans are near-identical, so buy whichever is cheaper that week. Choose Apex if upfront price matters most and you've budgeted for the activation fee.
If you'd rather see it than read it, these are the videos that go with this roadmap. There's more on my YouTube channel.
Watch · Tradeify
Every Tradeify account, decoded
Growth, Lightning and Select side by side — plus a full trade breakdown from the day.
Watch · Lucid
How I pass Lucid accounts
The approach I use to get through a Lucid evaluation.
Watch · Apex
My Apex rules, trade by trade
The exact daily rules from the Apex payout guide, played out on a live account.
Every video, in one placeWalkthroughs, trade breakdowns and firm explainers — all on the Watch page.
Go to WatchLearn one instrument. Set up a small stack. Practise until it's boring. Understand drawdown and consistency before you spend anything. Buy one 50K account from the firm's own site. Pass with small, repeatable days. Get paid. Only then, scale.
That's the whole road. Most people skip steps three and four — which is exactly why most people don't get paid.
The roadmap is simple on paper. Where people get stuck is the middle — a rule they misread, a losing week, a question nobody around them can answer. Two ways to get help:
Free
Join the Discord
Ask questions, see how others are working through the roadmap, and get unstuck when a step doesn't make sense.
Join DiscordPaid mentorship
Want me to take you through it?
The Vault is where I teach the setups, the daily bias and the routine behind this roadmap — in far more depth than a guide can go.
Join the mentorshipSee the firms I actually trade
Every firm I use, the plans I'd pick, the honest cons, and a checklist to run before you buy anything.
Get funded with Lucid
One of the four firms I trade and rate above. Buy on the firm's own site, with a creator code.
Enter ABHI at checkout — that's what applies the discount and credits the sale to me.
My personal experience and opinions, including the firm ratings — education, not financial advice. Trading futures carries real risk, including loss of evaluation fees. Plans, prices, rules and payout times reflect September 2026 and change often; confirm them on each firm's own site before buying. I earn a commission if you buy with code ABHI; it doesn't change what you pay beyond the discount.