Hi everyone,

I’m a beginner trader and I’ve been learning for about 3–4 months now. My first goal wasn’t to make money, but to actually understand what’s happening in the markets. I’ve been studying market structure, HTF bias, liquidity, supply & demand, etc., and I’m still paper trading.

I’m planning to start with a prop firm soon, but there’s one thing about my trading that makes me wonder if it’s sustainable.

My entries are usually on the 5-minute timeframe, but I always do a top-down analysis first and only trade in the direction of the higher-timeframe bias.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about myself:

I only take 2/3 trades per day.  
I usually exit my trades very quickly (anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes).  
I move my stop loss to break-even very fast. And trail   
Even if my original trade idea still has much more room to run, I’ll often take my profit early because I’m already happy with what the market gave me. I also add more contracts because I also know I wil exit the trade very fast.   
I don’t really care if price later goes exactly where I originally expected—it doesn’t bother me.  
I actually feel more comfortable banking smaller moves than trying to hold for the “perfect” RR.  
Ironically, I get more stressed if I see a huge potential move on my long/short position tool, because then I start thinking about what if the market flips on me?  
I also enter my trade with my stoploss and and take profit at 1:1 but I move it to break even very fast if it’s around 0.2/0.3 into my take profit and then I trail the base of the next candle.

Because of that, many of my trades don’t really have a traditional 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3 risk-reward ratio. On paper, that probably looks bad, but I’m honestly very comfortable trading this way.

I’ve attached my July paper trading calendar as well. I know it’s only paper trading, so I’m not claiming it proves anything—I just wanted to show what my trading has looked like so far. I only trade MNQ and usually I trade around 2/5 contracts 

So I wanted to ask more experienced traders:

Is this actually a valid trading style, or am I creating bad habits?  
Can someone be consistently profitable taking profits this quickly?  
Are there traders here who trade in a similar way?  
Would this style work with most prop firms, or would the quick exits become a problem?  
Should I force myself to hold longer just to improve my RR, or is it better to trade in a way that fits my personality?  
Is moving to break-even too quickly usually a mistake?  
At what point would you stop paper trading and feel ready for a prop firm?

I’m genuinely looking for honest feedback, even if it’s critical. I’d love to hear from people who have traded like this themselves or have experience with prop firms.

Thanks!

Is taking quick profits a bad habit, or just my trading style?