From $0 to $100k (whilst working full time)

[tr1ps_master]

Update time.

So since my last post, I was feeling good - deservedly so! (I call myself out when I am not doing well, so equally I will praise myself when I do).
I was completely disciplined.
Knew my stats.
Knew my slight adjustments for certain setups.

Folks, the whole idea here is to MAKE SOME REAL MONEY.

I explored the idea of Online Prop Firms - which is a great way to really increase returns on the amount of capital you have - provided you are a profitable trader in the first place. Let's see how profitable and consistent I really I am, was my thinking.

So naturally I took a $100k challenge.
Out of absolutely nowhere I was messing about with the process, it was purely mental.
- started varying risk (I am not at the stage where I can definitively say which setup deserves more/less risk).
- managing my trades like a tit, an absolute tit I might add.
I did this for a good 3 weeks. Nevertheless I managed to pass a phase 1 but lost on phase 2 - which I am glad about because it would have solidified tit-making decisions as the right thing to do.

I was absolutely in the Gutter, mentally speaking.

Trading is about strategy and process, the numbers are immaterial. Why on earth was I doing these crazy things?

I reviewed my trades. As always I screenshot before and after each trade, excel journal it and then analyse.
Found the errors I was making (already listed above), and what really hit home is that I would've passed the phases within 2 weeks if I simply followed what I was already doing before.

The mind is just a really funny machine - either you control it or it controls you.

 

[tr1ps_master]

After my review I realised one thing that the stats were missing...I was relying on the single challenge account too much, causing me quite a bit of anxiousness on the result of a single trade. I was either missing setups because I was watching too many pairs, or I simple simply couldn't take a trade because I didn't have enough daily drawdown available in my challenge account to take another setup.

I therefore:

• Cut the number of instruments I trade significantly - GU/EU, UJ/GJ, Oil, Gold/Silver and SP500 (this is basically 5 pairs).
• Took 2 x $100k challenges simultaneously, to not be limited to 1 trade at any one time.

One thing I was conscious about were the stats from before which basically only showed that T2 - Trend Reversals were my only profitable setups. I was determined to improve all setups so I can play both sides of the market...be like water...(hopefully somebody gets the reference!)

I really worked on why the setups were not working - just an FYI, I have a setup but the the entry is purely discretionary with the exit being at simple areas (but again using discretion).

I know that even with the above it was not going to be enough - I had to really dig in mentally why I was not following the process. Luckily I discovered a book about the mental side of trading and listened to a few podcasts. It reaffirmed a few things and gave me perspective on what REAL Traders do. It only took a few nuggets and things clicked into gear.
Just a tip - if you're going to listen to someone, make sure to do your due diligence on them so you know you're not getting guff.

So with that in mind...over the last 4 weeks, I took:
2x $100k challenges
Challenge 1

• Phase 1 passed - 8 trades - took 2 weeks +3.52R
• Phase 2 passed - 10 trades - took 2 weeks +3.05R
• Funded account - no trades taken just yet.

Challenge 2

• Phase 1 passed - 11 trades - took 3 weeks +2.76R
• Phase 2 underway - 2 trades - only 2 days in +0.02R

+9.35R overall

*Please note the below are stats and graphs from both challenges pooled.

This has been by far my best trading period ever, and its been a lot of hard work up until this point.

I managed to improve my setups dramatically. I have to also say that until 2 weeks ago, my T3's were absolutely dog****. I improved this also. Again, I am thinking about how to be in tune with the market and simply hopping on the ride. As long as I manage my risk the rest will take care of itself. Very pleased with turning every setup profitable.

I am constantly refining my process. It is all about the process. I find excelling late at night quite calming nowadays.

The book I am reading and few podcast suggestions I took on board - journaling your thoughts. This has really helped a lot and I continue to do this.

Its an absolute grind. Work full time, family, gym, excel journaling, written journaling, reviewing trades, planning for week ahead - BLOODY LOVE IT and feel absolutely drained now also. Last 4 weeks have completely exhausted me. So I am gladly going to take this Christmas break to recover.

I will keep you updated as and when there is something noteworthy. Right now, the goal is to trade my funded account (and pass my other phase 2 account) and really increase the bankroll.

Merry Christmas and I wish everyone a Happy New Trading Year.

Let's do this!

 

[tr1ps_master]

Hello all,

I managed to pass my second Phase 2 account on the 6th January - was a very nice start to the year.

So I have now been funded with $200k, it took the prop firm an absolute age to give me my 2nd account, I don't know whether it was the holidays backlog but it took a good while like one and half weeks, I actually got super frustrated with them, but we got there in the end. Right now I am trading each account on its own, not trade copying (just now).

I can now show you - Stats from 2x$100k Challenges

With my particular challenges the rules were - you need 10% Phase 1 and 5% in Phase 2 - and you can see I returned just $30,000 (so 15% each account).

Interestingly enough, you can see my T3's have been my most profitable setups - even though everyone says never trade against the trend!

I will follow up with Funded accounts stats shortly.

 

[tr1ps_master]

Funded Accounts - $200k
Now I am funded, I am trading 0.50% per trade, on some instruments its a little different due to certain account limitations.

So how was my trading once I got my accounts?
Well I was just trading as usual and I had the worst 2 weeks of trading.
First week, my first 4 trades were losers and first trade in the following week also a loser - was down 5R of the bat = 2.50% (will show you on the graph below).
In total, first two weeks - 14 trades - 10 losers, 4 winners = -3.07R
This was a pretty low point mentally speaking.

Absolute sod's law!

These days, I literally always think that a downturn is just around the corner so I do not mentally prepared for it much more.

I tightened up a bit on my entries and kept at it and you can see how my R curve stopped the bleeding and started to turn in the right direction.

Just an FYI, I convert my funded earnings from $$$ to £££.

So on my funded account, I have started to make a respectable amount of money. I can definitely say that leveraging prop firms has been so far so good as I effectively converted $450 cost for each account into $10,000 (10% drawdown allowed).

The very observant eyes will see I have included a new category of trades - Day Trades. I am still trialing this and it is not always possible due to work/life commitments. But I am just learning as I go, definitely do not want to stretch myself too thin.

So my combined trading stats look like this now:

From the end of November 2024 to 14th February 2025 - I have made 20.68R which is quite respectable in my opinion.

More importantly, I am focusing on my R curve and how I manage the drawdown, as there will be down periods and they are only round the corner!

I will do a tally of trading profit deducting challenge account expenses in another post. To be honest, I would like to do it when I have made around £10k profit from these two trading accounts.

All the best to everyone out there, stay hungry, stay on the grind and importantly don't go on Tilt.

 

[MonicaGong]

Good to know your progress. Looking forward to more.

 

[tr1ps_master]

For those interested in how I trade, I will share a glimpse, because it is rather straight forward.

T3 - Outright Reversal trade

GBPJPY +1.18R
Reasons for the trade:
- coming into previous resistance
- hovering around a zero level - 189

As you can see my TP was previous intraday area which was support turned resistance. Not trying to shoot the lights out, just simple stuff.

 

[tr1ps_master]

Another example of a T1 - Trend Continuation.

This is a trend continuation on the H1, you might not see it as a such, but I do have strict criteria on how I define my setups. If you look on H1, we have LL/LHs forming.

Gold +2.09R
Reason for trade:
- We have been trending up a very long time, it looks super extended to me, so if I see a reversal of any sort I will go for it (but being mindful we are still in an uptrend)
- H1 shows this best - has resistance just above 2,900 level. then this turned to support, then resistance again...therefore, to me on the H1 we were starting to trend down

I got out right at the lows, and I am super happy about this - but not because I got out at the lows.
I am super happy about this, because I used to want to RUN MY TRADES and get great R.
This would be the ideal statistical play, however, we live in the real world, and if your equity curve looks crap...well...As Keynes said "Markets Can Stay Irrational Longer Than Most Bears Can Stay Solvent". One of the few truths to come out from that field of study (I studied it...I am allowed to mock it). Basically if you want to make money, your equity/balance needs to have an uprising slope, especially if you plan to trade for a long time or professionally.

So as this H1 bar was forming, some news comes out and it pushes the price towards my target, I am loving it, the bar is completely bearish, I am thinking... "here we go son, this is the big one", but then I sit back and think about it and realise that more so than not, when I let these things run it eats away at my profits.

What I realised is Large Momentum is not always an indication of continuing momentum. Hence nowadays, when I have a large candle in my favour, I start to get suspicious of it.

Have a look on M5, you can see, a massive M5 candle close with a bit of a wick.
This is why I am happy - as we are 2m away from this bar closing, I said to myself, "don't be a prick for a tick", yes my TP was 2.5R but I am around 2R in profit, the dynamic RR is not starting to make any sense. Why would I risk 3R (1R for SL, 2R of existing floating profit) for an additional 0.5R return. So I decided ahead of time on the close of m5, well actually it was m15 (it was half past the hour mark) I will close no matter where price is.
I got out as planned, the trade reversed and it was the reversal after my exit which made me even happier.
The fact that it completely reversed the way it did, obviously it makes me look like a market whisperer - this couldn't be further from the truth. I just had a plan and stuck to it, and on this occasion it worked out perfectly (probably should've bought a lottery ticket that day, next time!)

As time has passed, I am starting to see patterns in my results and with my psychology and importantly trade management. The trade management I deploy is discretionary, and it varies on the setup I am trading.

 

[tr1ps_master]

As you can see, I do nothing fancy.
I do not have any indicators - just simple support/resistance, HH/HLs, LL/LHs.
I want to trade both sides of the market, and I do.

 

[tr1ps_master]

Hello All,

This is going to be a post probably more for my own thoughts and reflections.

What has happened since 25th Feb 2025:
- I traded a shit ton, meaning over traded

I will be honest in part this is because I had such a good, steady run and I believe the Ego kicked in.

The thing that put me on absolute tilt was the bloody prop firm and their rules. I won't put them on blast because at the end of the day I violated a rule, however it is a rule which I believed to have been suspended for my account. It unravelled in the following way.

I had been trading between 0.50% - 1% risk per trade. I had a lot size restriction on the account lets say 50 lots. Now this was not a problem at all for FX pairs, however if I traded commodities, If I put this lot size on I would've only been risking $100 which is nothing on a $100k account. This is absolutely nothing and there is more of an opportunity cost for putting this trade on. If I had used my 50 lots trading oil and I have a EURUSD setup, well I could not take it as I have a combined lot size of 50 lots already 'in play'.

So I reached out to the company, after 3 successful payouts, and they agreed they can take this restriction off now.

I thanked my lucky stars that I could trade unrestricted - still only going to 1% max. Anyways was trading well (still overtrading, I understand now in hindsight) and had a couple of trades on a commodity. I had like 200 lots on which was 0.50% of the account. I requested a withdrawal for just over $3,000, and they not only denied the payout, they closed my account. Absolute bastards!

The explanation was - I breached 100 lot limit. WTF!!! You just told me via email that you had removed all restrictions. I was absolutely livid. So I got on the phone with the risk team and they said, The General Rule of 100 lot still applies even though we took away previous restriction. They even agreed on the phone that it was not clear in their email. Went on to say, if I violated this only once then they would simply remove profit and let me carry on. But because I had a couple of trades that violated this rule (which I thought was removed) then it is an instant account closure.

Go figure.

This tilted the fuck out of me - because here I am grinding away trying to change my life and these bastards are NOT clear on their rules.

Suffice to say I went into a bit of a mental dark hole after this.

I said to myself - I will just trade personal money. But again, after a bit of time I realised I have to stick with Prop because my capital is not sufficient. So I am stuck with Prop...for now.

---------------------
For anyone wanting to see an updating R chart - could not fill this out fully, a few days are missing as they closed the account and no transaction history available.

But my latest available data till 20th March is:

I mean I literally could not buy a winning trade.

--------------
Being absolutely real, with all challenge costs, payouts received etc and I am accounting for with wins that were not paid out and denied.

I am now -£4,400 overall.

Let's start clawing our way out of this !

 

[tr1ps_master]

What the experience of the last few months has taught me:
1. I did not review my trades enough. When things were going well although I recorded my trades, I did not review them enough. This would've saved my butt from taking all those losing trades. Looking at it now, it was a single setup that was causing my a lot of money - T3 - Outright Reversals.
2. If I am unsure of a rule, no matter how confident I am when I read the prop firm FAQs, in situations with certain account restrictions that may have been lifted I will check via email if any other restrictions apply.

What I have done since this happened:
1. No more T3 - Outright Reversal trades. I may take a Fade trade every now and again if I see crazy market conditions. So although I will not seek these out, I will not pass up a really good opportunity, but if I trade this I will do so with less risk.
2. I will only try to get max funded with the industry leader - FTMO. I have taken up their Swing Account challenge (no news restrictions or overnight/weekend holdings restrictions)
3. Review my trades monthly. Actually review them and run some alternative scenarios to make sure I am as optimal as can be.
4. Revert back to trading a couple of times a week with my swings - taking trades that are a must have only.

 

[tr1ps_master]

Update from early April till 12th May 2025
- I have taken a $100k challenge with FTMO and here are my statistics so far.

 

[tr1ps_master]

I am now just constantly reminding myself of the following:

1. It will take as long as it takes.
2. If I take a trade - I have to see an absolutely amazing set up and I will WAIT for the perfect setup.

I know I am a good trader, my recent tilt mode does not mean anything but that and I will keep this in check.
I have 2 profitable setups.
I must stick to those setups and execute, like I have been doing.

 

[BigDeal]

Hi tr1ps_master.

I've enjoyed reading about your journey and appreciate your honest open approach. I think novice investors / traders (and more experienced actually) should read through real life experiences like yours to show the highs / lows / challenges etc... of trying to make money from trading.
So sad to hear about your experiences with the prop firms; personally I've always been cynical of them, but you got further than a lot of people. The problem with all of them is that they shape one's trading approach, and for most people that means adapting what they normally do, and the criteria is just too tight.

Wishing you all the best, and hope to read lots of positive posts going forward !

 

[tr1ps_master]

Hi tr1ps_master.

I've enjoyed reading about your journey and appreciate your honest open approach. I think novice investors / traders (and more experienced actually) should read through real life experiences like yours to show the highs / lows / challenges etc... of trying to make money from trading.
So sad to hear about your experiences with the prop firms; personally I've always been cynical of them, but you got further than a lot of people. The problem with all of them is that they shape one's trading approach, and for most people that means adapting what they normally do, and the criteria is just too tight.

Wishing you all the best, and hope to read lots of positive posts going forward !

Hi BigDeal, your comment is very much appreciated. This 'raw' type of narration will continue in this journal because it is first and foremost for me to never forget my journey and if it is entertaining/educational for others then its a bonus. It is quite nice to hear you have kept up with the journey, gives me additional motivation to document going forward.

You are absolutely spot on that Prop firms' rules shape one's trading approach. Fortunately, I have somewhat adapted well to it, although keeping track of certain rules is really troublesome at times. Going forward, I do not want any restrictions hence only sticking to Swing accounts, where the main restriction is leverage (which with FTMO I cannot see as a problem at all, I can trade 3 pairs/assets at once and still only use 10% of margin - I am very happy with them so far). Therefore I do not have to worry about news events, closing trades before a certain time or closing for the weekend.