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Proptrading

How to start as a trader, and have a good chance of making it.I have written on this subject before, see my signature. There is more though. If you are starting out, there is a LOT you need to know. I will start with some basics. Some of them you may scoff at, and say I am wrong, but I can assure you I am not. Truly. Read my previous post here: After reading that, you may well think again about trying trading. If the idea of taking a long time (at least 6-8 months for a natural) to learn something bothers you, or you need to make money NOW , then I would advise you that trading is not for you, or not yet, at least. For a start, being impatient is the absolute worst trait you can possibly have. If you still want to continue, then I can help you. You will have to have the patience to read a lot of words. 1. Pick an instrument you want to trade. If you are a stock trader it's different, because you should be trading the stocks that are "in play" that day. Typically I'd recommend the day after results/news came out, rather than the actual day itself, when you are starting out. Why? It's easier to see the way the price is trending, and the trend is your friend. If you are not trading stocks, I would recommend either a share index like SP500 or NASDAQ or FTSE or DJ30, or an FX pair that is NOT EURUSD. Oil and Gold are Ok too. Crypto I would not recommend for a beginner. Reasons: Let's start with Crypto. The big players can pay the exchanges, perfectly legally, to see your orders and stop-loss levels. This is not a personal vendetta against you. They can see the aggregate levels of millions of traders, and thus learn how to trigger bulk stop losses to make money off you directly. This is not legal in the other markets. The same manipulation is still possible, but not to the same extent. Why not EURUSD? It's the biggest and most popular FX pair, so the most big-boy games are played there, see the Crypto explanation above. The banks have access to millions of client positions, so they can see when their clients get squeezed, and they assume (usually correctly) that other banks' clients will be in the same boat. Why the rest? Tight spreads are common (look it up if you don't know what a spread is). Banks exert less control (though still some). Why pick one instrument? because you need to LEARN how it trades. This may seem weird, but each has its own character, and if you trade more than one, you won't notice it. You may be saying "But one pair will only give a few opportunities each day/week, why not trade more than one? This is related to a recurring theme in the way I teach: "Fewer trades, more quality trades, higher confidence trades". If you properly learn the character of one pair, then it's better than guessing in 3-4 pairs. A LOT better for your profits, and that is what counts. Next I am going to say only risk a max of 1% of the account per trade, and again your reaction might be "How am I going to make decent money with tiny risk like that?" Do the maths. If you do four trades a week(yes really just 4 a week), two wins and 2 losses at 2.5R (R is risk reward, so you lose max of 1%, and make 2.5% if you are right, then you will be up 3% in the week. 3% compounded over a year is 330%. Wow. How many hedge funds make that? You won't make as much as 3% a week, probably, but hopefully you can see that this is not too small. When you consider that a loss of 10% will blow most prop firm evaluations (see later), and even a good trader will some day lose 10 in a row just from bad luck, then 1% seems fine. So, we have one instrument and 1%. Next, paper trade first. Make your foolish mistakes on paper. Select a demo account and do not lodge funds with any broker at first. Choose a broker that offers consumer protection. This means that they are authorised/regulated by your country's regulator. Always do this. 2. Let's say you have succeeded at paper trading over a couple of months and you are tempted to start trading your own money. Stop. Lodging $5000 or more and just kicking off is not the way. 90% of new traders lose 90% of their money in the first 90 days of real trading. Instead, look up prop firm evaluation accounts. Also look up how to choose one, as they are not all the same by any means. This will give you the opportunity to trade a $10k account for $100. Your risk is $100 only. Typically, if you make 10% (ie $1000 in this example, then you get a "real" $10k account. Don't buy any more than a $10k account at first. You will learn so much more from this account (where if you lose you lose real money, even if it is only $100), than you did from the paper trading account. Real money = real pressure. You will really want to convert the account, and not blow it. It's pride I know, but it is much more realistic than a demo account. Paper trading is crap, really. Just use it to find the pitfalls of trading and learn the character. More tips in Part 2, but till then, think on this: Pass your $10k evaluation. make another $1000 in real money, keep $500 and pay $500 for a $80k evaluation. Now we're cooking.
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by Paul_Varcoe
1
How to win a PROP FIRM? Some life-changing trickSome people asked me a system to win prop-firm challenge and be funded. I decided to share some mind blowing trick that can really let you win your first prop firm and became really, really profitable. Lot of people ask lot of money for this, i am just asking a like, a follow and your support. So, let's start with some trick: - If you have a $10.000 account, what lot size will you use? - Most traders use 0.50/1.0 Lots a trades. Let me say, especially if you are a beginner, that this is wrong and you will fail 100%. Why? Because it will be really hard for you to manage emotions and be accurate. I know, some systems use 1:3, 1:6 or above R:R and you can also have a 30% win rate to be still profitable. I know that, i know how to increse accuracy, i know the best level to enter, the inducement entry, the high accuracy setup and most of the shit you can find online. But let's be honest, most of the traders that start a challenge account, sucks with system and will fail. And, most important, traders that start a challenge are not professionals that can spent 8/10 hrs a day waiting for the best entry. - So what system should i use to win a challenge? - Swing. Probably, if you start a challenge, you will fail in the first week. Go swing, wait for the profits, manage the entries, and using my money management system, you can chill and don't be worried during the challenge. - What about the money management so? - I will explain you better in a new thread, if this ideas will reach at least 15 likes. - This shit is not helpful, i there is nothing new that can help me. - So, i will show you something so simple that will change your trading style in a second. I suggest you to use cTrader. In cTrader, when you open a pair, you can see market sentiment. this will show you a ratio about long/short. When you see that the sentiment is imbalanced (More than 60% are long or short) you know that you should wait and not open a trades. You will see the sentiment increasing in long or short (it will be 80/20, and probably more in the next days). I am pretty sure your analysis are agree with the market sentiment. So, if 97% of the traders loose money and, for example, 85% of traders are short, what do you think the price will do? There are high chances will go in the opposite direction. So wait, and don't be worried to miss a profitable trades. Every trader is thinking exactly like you. Sentiment is telling you that. They will loose money at 97%, do you? I have lot of trick more that will really help you win a prop firm, and be profitable. Support and follow me and i will reveal more
Education
by SaliJournal
PROFIT! How to get past your lizard brain and make money!There have been quite few books written about this, and mainly, they deal with how to avoid being defeated by your own fear and greed. Fair enough, and this article does NOT replace them. The books are best suited to those who have traded for a while, and need to improve their performance. If you are a beginner, you won't know the first thing about the various emotions that grip you when you are trading, so reading about them at this stage is futile. However, there is a way to immediately benefit from one simple thing you can do. See my profile for reasons.., everyone should use a dummy account at first, but it's very hard to know when to switch to real money. For a start, the emotions are really not there at all when it isn't real cash you are risking. It's almost a game, because it doesn't matter if you win or lose. Many new traders will switch after some decent results over a month or so. I'd recommend 3 months minimum before risking real money, but whatever. Doing what I suggest below is really good advice anyway. Once they switch to a real money account, they find it is a lot harder, and they start taking losses of hundreds or thousands of dollars, and at that point they either blow up, trying to trade it all back, or give up (possibly the right option!). Maybe you have done this already? This is because they are risking their own money. A typical account is $5,000-$10,000, and as I have mentioned many many times, 90% of new traders will lose 90% of their account in the first 90 days. Again, see my profile for a guide to how to avoid this. HERE'S THE REALLY GOOD ADVICE RIGHT HERE: You may have heard of Prop Firms before. One hit the headlines recently and not for the right reasons. PSA: These firms are not generally regulated, BUT read on. This article is not about how to make millions from prop trading. It's about conquering your ability to naturally lose money. Everybody is literally PROGRAMMED to lose. They have to deprogram themselves, and using a prop firm is the best way to do this. Instead of putting $10,000 into a trading account and risking $100 at a time (a reasonably sensible course of action), only to find that after a month you are down $500-$1,000, and starting to worry that trading is not for you, pay $160 for a $10,000 prop account. Let me explain how this works. I will use an anonymous (but real) example. Shop around to see what suits you. They give you a demo account with $10,000 in it. You have to make 10% ($1,000) to pass the first test, and your time is unlimited. If you lose $1,000 overall or lose $500 in one day, you lose your $160 and have to buy a new one. If you pass, you have a second test where you have to make 5% ($500). The rules for losing are the same. If you pass both tests you get a new $10,000 account and your $160 back. You then trade the new account, but they will pay you 80% of your profits. You have the same rules for losing, at which point your account is closed. Q: WHY IS THIS USEFUL TO YOUR BEGINNER JOURNEY? A: Because you are only risking $160. This sits in between a dummy account and a real one. It means something , but you can retain the ESSENTIAL mood of detachment that you need to carry on treating it as a game. If you are trading a real account, you could lose $500 in 5 trades at some stage (statistics say it is inevitable over time), and that is something a professional can shrug off, because they have confidence and they know it's part of the game, but you can't when you are starting out. You need to build your confidence, and this is the best way to do that. Losing $500 in 5 trades is OK with the prop account, as long as you don't do it one day! Your $160 will last a while, even if you are having a bad time. In that time, you will learn a LOT. If you lose, it's only another $160 to try again with all the knowledge you have learned. If you win, you are trading with free money as you have your $160 refunded. Don't go mad. If you like this, please take the trouble to hit the like button.
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by Paul_Varcoe
7
How you can make 6 figures a month using prop fundsFirstly you need to be able to acquire one account such as a 100k account. Assuming your target is $110000 you start by risking $500 a trade until you reach $3000. if you take losses you continue risking the same until you're back at the starting point. once you reach $3000 of profit you now up your risk to $1000 until you get to $6000 and then $2000. This should easily allow you to pass phase 1 of the challenge, you then repeat the same for phase 2. Once you receive your first funded account, you are now going to purchase another challenge and copy trade your funded account (master acc) onto the challenge. Repeating the above and considering you have a strategy with a good win rate, you are now able to make money while passing the challenges without having to trade 2 accounts manually. You continue this process and max your funding with one prop fund, and then move on to a second and so on until you have 7 figures in funding under your belt. The key is to remain focused and have your psychology and mindset on point. making a mistake on your master account is going to reflect on all accounts. The same goes with profits however. If you have 1 mill in funding and make 1% in a week on one of your 100k accounts, then the other 9 will also make 1% bringing you to a total of 10% ($100000) in one week. My favourite prop fund atm is properfunded.com
Education
by opes_trading_group
Advantages of Trading with Prop FirmsProprietary (prop) trading firms offer traders the opportunity to trade with the firm's capital, rather than their own, in exchange for a share of the profits. Here are some of the advantages and benefits of trading a prop fund account: Access to More Capital: Prop trading firms typically provide traders with access to significantly more capital than they would have if they were trading with their own funds. This allows traders to take larger positions and potentially earn greater profits. Lower Costs: Prop firms often provide their traders with access to discounted commissions, lower borrowing costs, and other benefits that can help reduce trading costs. Training and Support: Many prop trading firms offer training and support to their traders, which can be especially beneficial for those who are new to trading or who want to improve their skills. Shared Risk: Because prop trading firms are providing the capital, they share in the risk of the trades. This can be beneficial for traders who want to take larger positions but don't want to risk losing all of their own capital. Performance-Based Compensation: Prop firms typically offer traders performance-based compensation, meaning that traders are only paid a portion of the profits they generate. This incentivizes traders to focus on making profitable trades and can help align their interests with those of the firm. Overall, trading a prop fund account can offer traders access to more capital, lower costs, training and support, shared risk, and performance-based compensation. To find out about my favourite prop firms, comment below
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by opes_trading_group
8
What is really up with the Funded Programs?Before we go any further, I want to state that 1) This post is NOT PROMOTING ANY prop firms/funded trader programs, 2) I do not hate or have anything against any prop firms/funded trader programs, I am just sharing my understanding from what I have read and experienced, and 3) Info here is not complete. If you choose to embark on any programs, please make sure you do your own due diligence. Traditional Prop Firm Typically refers to a group of traders that focus on buying and selling financial assets with the firm’s capital. The trader uses that firm's money to trade and in exchange receives a small wage and a large percentage of the profits. In practice, proprietary trading firms provide the capital, proprietary technology, training, coaching, and mentoring for you to become an elite trader. Funded Programs There has been an ever-increasing number of funded trader programs, marketing to retail traders about the huge profit-sharing potential (75-90%) when they become "a funded trader." And all that is required is paying for and passing an evaluation/testing period. You would pay anywhere from $84 to $184 for a $10,000 account and it could go as high as you want (almost) A trader in the evaluation/testing period would have - Profit target of 8-10% in phase 1 (typically 30 days) - Profit target of 5% in phase 2 (typically 60 days) - Daily drawdown of no more than 5% - Overall drawdown of no more than 10-12% From my experience coaching retail traders, newbie or average trader has an account size of no more than $10,000. This makes the idea of being funded to trade become really attractive, limiting the downside while almost maximizing the potential. However, there has also been a lot of negativity about these funded programs; - the evaluation and actual trading accounts are demo accounts - the company makes more money from traders failing than from profitable traders - some traders claim to have never received their payouts Are funded programs scams? Again, I have not evaluated ALL funded programs to say this, but probably not. (Do your own due diligence!) Companies running funded programs are likely just deploying a good business model, addressing a pain that most retail traders have (funding their account) and filling that gap. Should you jump into a funded program? There is a lot more information (more than discussed above) that needs to be considered before you jump in. A brief checklist: 1) Do you have a profitable trading strategy to deploy? ( if you don't have a profitable strategy, keep reading, learning & testing ) 2) Have you used it for at least a year? ( avoid using funded programs as a testing ground, it can get costly! do it on a demo or even a $1,000 account first ) 3) Does the strategy meet the max drawdown conditions? ( 5% a day, 10% total? For example, a martingale strategy is not likely to work ) 4) How likely are you to bend your trading rules? ( rules set by the programs are set in stone, a breach even by the slightest and you would have failed ) 5) Is it the right time to start? ( are markets in consolidation, on a holiday period, or super volatile with no clear trend ) Remember that the average annualized return of the S&P500 is 11.88% (1957 to 2021). Trying to make 8-10% in 30 days and then 5% in 60 days just to pass, tends to put the trader under a lot of stress. How do you perform under significant pressure? What are your views of the funded programs? Share it with me in the comments I have never thought much about the funded programs. But recently have been considering giving it a shot and live-streaming the trading process daily. Would you join me on the stream? Stay tuned, it might just happen.
SP:SPXEducation
by JinDao_Tai
2
Prop-firm Challenges (FTMO) Risk ManagementProp-firms tell us to come trade for them so that they can take trades off our ideas. In reality they make their money on relying on the fact that 95% of traders are unprofitable and will fail either the challenge or verification stages of their trading. People fail because either they do not have a real edge on the market, they cannot control their emotions, or some combination of the two. If you only have a 10% total loss before you lose the account, why are you risking 1% per trade? why are you risking 1% with only 2% left? The short answer is because you cannot manage risk. And if you cannot manage risk you with either fail immediately, or fail in time. This is a risk profile guide for attempts at FTMO or any other prop firm. The basic premise is to begin at 1% and raise it while in profit, and lower it while in loss. A new theoretical 0 point can be established even within profit in order to protect your gains. You must understand that no single trade is that important. If you are hoping for a trade to change your life you are going about this the wrong way. What is important is compounding profitable trades that outweigh the losers.
Education
by akhena10fx
Lets talk prop firms❗Its the buzz words and hot topic of the moment! PROP FIRMS Before I start on this topic I want confirm I am a funded trader. This post isn't to promote this style of trading or prop firms. I am writing this post for those who may not understand what a prop firm is and to share my own experiences on the route to being a funded trader. What is a prop firm? Proprietary trading is where a firm trades for its own financial gain instead of earning commissions for clients. What is a prop trader? A prop trader is someone who uses that firms money to trade with and in exchange receives a wage or a percentage of the profits. Now those two statements above probably ring more true for those who work for financial institutes on trading floors all around the world. The propriety trading firms I want to talk about are the retail prop firms that usually for a subscription or a challenge fee will allow you as a trader to trade funds provided by them. Any profits you make on that account you as the trader will receive a share of the profits. Usually 70-80%. The business model has drawn a lot attention some good and some bad. So this seems a good starting point to discuss what we know of the business model. To become a funded trader with these companies you must either pay a subscription or take a challenge. You rules and conditions of which you have to abide by in order to gain and keep funded accounts. Subscriptions model This route to prop funding tends to be a monthly reoccurring payment. You are then given an account to trade with stipulations attached. For the subscription model the rules on the account tend to be very tight/strict and the fee can be quiet hefty. Challenge model This route to funding is where the trader pays an entry fee in to a challenge to prove their trading credentials. The trade will be set targets to meet over one or two phases in order to secure funding. The account will have rules and stipulations applied for example 10% overall draw down. If funding is secured then most companies refund the entry fee and you then as a funded trader earns money of any profits made on your funded account. So that's the options to becoming a funded trader. The retail prop firm business model has been criticised because some of these funded accounts are demo accounts once gained. Some say these companies only make money off failures and that's why even their funded traders who have passed are only ever trading demo accounts. Some prop firms on completion of challenges give you real accounts. But do we truly know they are real or does it just say real? A prop firm most definitely makes money from failed challenge attempts as part of it's business model. No one will ever know for real if they copy trade their top funded traders either. But in my opinion they would be daft not to copy trade consistent performers that take payouts of these firms every month because they exists. Prop trading pros and cons. Their is pro and cons to any choice in life and prop trading is no exception. I'll cover my personal pro and cons to the prop world below. PROS -For traders who are consistent and proven but only have small capital available, Prop trading is a good route to potentially larger trading pots. -Most prop firms have scaling plans -Prop firm gives trader the opportunity to funding most would never of got if they didn't exists. Most would never get an the opportunity to trade for a big institute. Prop firms bridge that gap. -Given the amount of firms popping up a consistent trader could soon find themselves with a diverse portfolio of accounts giving some life changing chances and monthly profit opportunity. -Most prop firms have favourable commissions and spreads with some having no commissions what so ever. -Reduced personal risk . Worse case scenario for a funded trader is losing the account rather than massive personal losses. CONS -Even when funded you have to adhere to rules and terms of the prop firm -You could spend big money getting traded -The health of the prop firm you trade for is unknown and one prop firm has already dis-appeared. -In reality the targets set are gain the funded account is quiet high at 8-10% in 30 calendar days. -Violation of rules ends in account loss. Summary I can only speak of the journey I have taken myself. For me the pros out weighed the cons when it came to seeking funding via these prop firms and the opportunities they offer. I personally don't mind paying a fee to enter challenges as you need some emotional attachment to the challenge in order for you to play your best trading game. If these were free to enter then everyone would just go big and all out to get funded then would do exact same if managing to get funded. That would be sustainable for no one. That's not what trading is about it's about risk management and emotional control which helps lead to consistent trading results. For a 100k challenge most prop firms charge between £400-£500 that is still a fair amount of money for anyone and you should be treating it as a serious venture if your not then you are simply gambling. Funded accounts being a demo account hasn't bothered me. I get paid when I'm in profit and that's all that matters. Spreading accounts over different prop firms lowers risk and exposure to losing all your funded accounts. One well known firm has gone and thankfully I wasn't with them but aiming for a few accounts with different firms lowers risk of finding yourself funded one minute then not the next. Are they a scam? In ever growing market place bad apples will be operating in the sector. As traders you have to do own research but plenty have been round for a while now with good reviews to boot. Trading in general is hard and gaining 8-10% in one month to pass then doing 5% the following is no easy feat. Get a game plan and strategy together, back test and forward test the live out of it and when consistency is there only then is it worth attempting funding challenges. Love them or hate them prop firms are here and making some noise. They offer opportunity a plenty but they do come with mystique attached. You as a trader and an individual have to judge if they are for you or not. Simple way I looked at the opportunity 1 Funded 200k account 3% profit per month = $6000 80% profit split= $4800 GBP= £3478 Approx equivalent to 57k GBP a year! Freedom can be closer than you think. Thanks for taking time to read my idea Darren.
Education
by pow_removetheguesswork