Eight Alpha Futures Performance Fees on NQ and ES
Joseph
Part of our trader interview series. Also read: What is a futures prop firm? · How Alpha Futures works · Futures prop firm rules explained · Futures prop firm vs forex prop firm · How many NQ contracts on a 50K evaluation · Tori Trades on drawdowns · JadeCap on drawdowns and burnout · Octavia Grace on trading psychology
This article summarises a public interview. Joseph's history and the host's performance-fee figure are self-reported. They are not typical or guaranteed. Alpha Futures evaluations and Qualified Accounts use simulated funds. Performance fees are based on eligible simulated results. Simulated results do not reflect real trading outcomes. This is general information, not investment advice.
TL;DR: Joseph says he wanted to make money online, started by buying random stocks, then spent about two years around a forex boot camp with a year and a half of losses. Forex never paid him. Futures did. He trades NQ and ES off a volume profile of the previous day's session, about 9 to 4 New York time, and takes break-and-retest or continuation at three levels. The host introduces him as someone who has made over $50,000 in performance fees. Joseph says he thinks about eight of those were with Alpha Futures, and that the first futures performance fee came within about a month of the switch. The numbers are his and the host's. They are not typical and they are not guaranteed.
Quick answer: Joseph trades NQ and ES on Alpha Futures. He marks the previous New York session with a volume profile, picks three levels, and trades a break and retest or a continuation. He says Alpha Futures was the first firm he used after leaving forex.
Watch the full Joseph interview on YouTube
Joseph trader profile
Name | Joseph |
|---|---|
First markets | Random stocks, including names he saw on Twitter |
Forex | A boot camp he calls TGR, about two years before the interview. Euro US pairs |
Forex result | About a year and a half of losses. He says he never really made money there |
Futures | NQ and ES. First performance fee within about a month of the switch, in his account |
First futures firm | Alpha Futures |
Method | Volume profile of the previous day session, about 9 to 4 New York time. Three levels. Break and retest, or continuation |
Earlier method | ICT, including the silver bullet. He says it did not work for him |
Chart he describes | He has traded NQ on the one-minute chart and talks about the New York open candles |
Host's figure | Over $50,000 in performance fees |
His Alpha Futures count | About eight. He says "I think" and "pretty sure" |
When results started | About six months before the interview, after he slowed down |
Who is Joseph?
Joseph is a trader interviewed on the Alpha Futures channel. The host introduces him as someone who has made over $50,000 in performance fees. Joseph agrees with that framing in the open.
He did not start with a system. He wanted to be his own boss, so he bought and sold random stocks, including ideas he saw on Twitter, and hoped. He calls that phase something other than trading.
Forex was the first time he treated it as a craft. He went through a boot camp he calls TGR. The host later says TJ. About two years before this episode he finished that course, then spent about a year and a half losing and paying for evaluations without really trading them. He says the missing piece was discipline.
About six months before the interview he slowed down, reset after that losing stretch, and says the results started.
Why he left forex for NQ and ES
He was trading Euro US currency pairs. He says they were slow, and the volume data was thin next to index futures. On NQ and ES, the New York window he describes, from about 9:30 toward 2:00 p.m. New York time, produces large candles. He says that speed is what you see on the one-minute chart, and that he used to trade NQ on the one minute. Those opening candles behave like news candles.
He never really made money from forex. Futures is where the performance fees started. He says the first one came within about a month of trading futures, and he credits the two years of market time before that, not a sudden new talent.
Alpha Futures was the first firm he used after the switch. The learning curve was the rule set and contract size, which do not match a forex evaluation. He looked at several firms. Alpha Futures is the one he says stood out.
The difference between the two products is laid out here: futures prop firm vs forex prop firm. Contract size on a 50K evaluation is covered here: how many NQ contracts on a 50K evaluation. That page is the firm rule, not Joseph's position size. He does not state his contract count in this episode.
The volume profile he actually trades
ICT came first, including the setup called the silver bullet. He watched it, decided he had made it, and then found no success. ICT as a whole did not fit him.
What he trades now is volume profile. He marks the volume from the previous day, or sometimes the previous week. For the session version, he marks about 9 to 4 New York time with the volume profile tool and pulls three key levels. He trades a break and retest, or a continuation if price keeps going through the level. He says there are two or three ways to use those levels, and that this is the simplest strategy he has traded and the one he has had the most success with.
He knows support and resistance is unfashionable online. His point is that the simple version is the one he can follow. Once the rule is small enough, he says he knows what he is doing at that level instead of inventing a new model mid-session.
He also pushes back on strategy hopping. If people are already using a strategy successfully, his advice is to stay with it. The futures switch was a market change after forex had not paid him, plus a method he could repeat.
Eight performance fees, and the first one
Asked how many performance fees he has had with Alpha Futures, he says he thinks about eight. He is not certain on the count. The host's "$50,000" is a separate line from the open of the episode. Do not add the two figures together, and do not treat either as an audit.
The first one, he says, felt unreal. It was the moment the question "do people actually make money doing this?" had an answer in his own account. He also says the aim was to be a good trader, and that the money follows that. That is his belief about his own process. It is not a promise that a pass produces income.
Alpha Futures evaluations use simulated funds. A performance fee is performance-based. The path through an evaluation is here: how Alpha Futures works and what a futures prop firm is. The rules he had to relearn, including contract size, sit in the futures rules explainer.
The compound calculator
He and the host spend time on the 1% story traders tell themselves. Risk 1%, catch a 1:5, book 5%, compound it, and a calculator will show a ridiculous balance in six months. He says he has used that calculator. Both of them tell people to stay off it.
The maths can be true on a spreadsheet. It ignores the losing stretches he already lived through for a year and a half. His warning is about expectations, not about a secret return target.
What to copy, and what not to
Copy the constraint.
- One session, marked from the previous day
- Three levels, then a break and retest or a continuation
- A market he could feel. Forex was too slow for him. NQ and ES were not
- A slower month after a long losing stretch, which is when he says results started
- Contract size and the rule sheet learned before the first futures evaluation
Do not copy eight performance fees or $50,000. He is unsure of the eight. The host owns the $50,000 line. Simulated results do not reflect real trading outcomes.
More futures interviews: Alpha Futures trader interviews.
FAQs
Who is Joseph?
Joseph is a futures trader interviewed on the Alpha Futures channel. He started with random stocks, spent about two years around forex, and now trades NQ and ES.
What does Joseph trade?
NQ and ES. He marks the previous day's session, about 9 to 4 New York time, with a volume profile, and trades three levels.
Did he make money in forex first?
He says no. Euro US pairs were his forex market. He says futures is where the performance fees started.
How many Alpha Futures performance fees does he report?
About eight. He says he thinks that is the number. The host separately introduces him at over $50,000 in performance fees. Neither figure is audited.
How fast did the first futures performance fee come?
He says within about a month of trading futures, after about two years of earlier market experience and a long losing stretch.
What happened to the ICT silver bullet?
He tried it, including that named setup, and says he found no success. Volume profile replaced it.
Is a 1% a day target what he teaches?
He warns against the compound calculator that turns 1% into a fantasy balance. He treats that maths as a way to inflate expectations.
Watch more futures trader interviews
Browse the Alpha Futures trader interview library.
- Tori Trades on the drawdown she survived in public
- JadeCap on drawdowns and burnout
- Octavia Grace on futures trading psychology
- Futures prop firm vs forex prop firm
- How many NQ contracts on a 50K evaluation
- Futures prop firm rules explained
This article summarises a public interview. Joseph's history and the host's performance-fee figure are self-reported. They are not typical or guaranteed. Alpha Futures evaluations and Qualified Accounts use simulated funds. Performance fees are based on eligible simulated results. Simulated results do not reflect real trading outcomes. This is general information, not investment advice.
