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Proprietarytrading

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
FOREX TRADERS: What are you going to do DIFFERENTLY in 2022?FOREX TRADERS: What are you going to do DIFFERENTLY in 2022? Amongst many many things that we can do differently is crucial to havea CLEAR PATH to follow in our Traders Development. As we are learning in the FOREX COURSE 101 we have the next steps: This is a simplistic approach for the DEVELOPING TRADER to grasp an understanding about where he or she is in his/her development. STEPS TO CHECK: 1. Learn technical Anlaysis with the understanding of probabilities; 2. Form a Strategy that is easy to obey, easy to understand and easy to execute; 3. Collect 100 samples = Confirm your Strategy´s EDGE (positive expectancy / av. winner must be bigger than av. loser) 4. ****if you want ***Add a System to your Strategy for Automation 5. Congratulations ! You area TRADER! 6. Give back to the Community or in Knowledge Or in Money! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2022 LOVE FXP
by RealFXBoss
1
Day Trading ES with Simplicity! Initial Balance VWAP and LevelsHey everyone I thought I can share with you what I see working intraday trading the Futures markets. One size definitely does not fit all. Beware of people that tell you their way or the highway! This may resonate with some traders and not with other traders. Getting really good at identifying the Initial Balance, VWAP and Daily Weekly Monthly Levels for areas of Supply and Demand, (where macro traders sit) you can get a great edge over time with your trading and build a ton of confidence. Check it out for yourself. I also use order flow to actual enter and manage my trade ideas but that is for another topic. Everyone take care out there.
CME_MINI:ES1!Education
by ViperFutures
2
$AMC | Model Suggests Wild TargetsHello Traders, As a purely speculative exercise on the accuracy of my model, I'd like to publish this idea. The model tries to identify pressure points in any given market. The pressure points themselves identify the breadth and strength of the move to come. It exists in all time frames and can be applied to any market. The targets are printed as data is fed into the algorithm. The further away from the pressure point, the lower probability it has of attaining such levels and the higher the probability of a correction/reversal.
NYSE:AMCLong
by GWaves
9
GBPCHF POTENTIAL SCENARIOSGiven the recent market moves and macro economic factors surrounding the GBP, we have outlined two potential scenarios for GBPCHF given the current levels that are in play. The 1.22 level has not been broken since September 2019, if we see a bullish weekly close above the level as well as a retest, we can expect price to move (Long Term) to around the 1.27 region with areas of resistance coming it at 1.24. If price is to respect the 1.22 once again as previously done, we can expect price to push further back down to our 1.19 / 1.18 region once again. The first entry that was taken at 1.18 has been closed partially at 1.22, with currently 40% of the initial position running. (Stop Loss running at +200pips)
by umayrashrafi
2
A quick look at funded trader prop firmsI hear alot about those and I see alot of ads and get e-mails for certain of those and I am stubborn and refuse to acknowledge the existance of something if they annoy me through ads but I was genuinely curious (that's what they want us to think) because to me "I'm a professional prop trader" sounds alot like "I'm a professional poop sucker". Is this prop trading really for the experience very good traders? Well from my research no it is not. You get more funds to trade cool ok, with a regular broker you also get more funds to trade it is called leverage. You can change the name all you want it's still the same thing. Either: 1- They let you put your money at risk by requiring you to have a small stake in the whole pot (drawdowns eat up your part of the pot not theirs) 2- They entirely fund the account but actually not really, I explain in the next paragraph Here is 1 example (this is one of the best reviewed ones the bottom ones are not even worth looking at or yes but just for laughing): After asking you questions like "what do you plan if you lose 10 in a row", you know this kind of things, and more, and after a demo period of a few weeks or months , they will put you on an account with certain rules. Early on you have more restrictions like smaller max position sizes until you reach a certain profit. In this example to trade a $25000 account there is a $150 monthly fee and also I think a 150 evaluation fee at the start. There is a trailing drawdown stop of $1500 (6% drawdown), so after a couple months of paying subscriptions and making profit for them their "regular" risk is gone (not the swissie one). They do provide some content, like data feed (I don't remember how much brokers charge for this it's in the same area w/e). So they are not taking all the risk, clients (? what should we call them?) pay to cover the risk. Another example is really troll. Like I don't even see why they ask traders to write up so much and go through huge courses (no matter who they are even George Soros has to take the course) and then spend months on demo to be "really sure" and then they put you on a 1k account then 10k after 2 green months, then 20k after 2 green months jesus it takes forever to get some size. And the funny part? They expect you to fund part of the account like 20% and that's your drawdown limit basically (not written in any contract I don't think but they'll just cut you off when you run out of your own money). So you take basically all the risk and they keep 30% of the profit. I don't even get why they go through all these double checks... Most of their risks are with: - new random traders (they double check these guys but there is only so much they can do) - some idiot that scalps the swiss franc for 1 point above the floor and blows the whole account - the typical trash strategy that keeps winning until it does not and then it's the road to zero (the program ends once drawdown is reached) So the major advantages are: - access to leverage you get with any broker, - rogue traders with the discipline of a meth addict get something out of it which are all sorts of restrictions (so... useful for most people actually), - sometimes access to experienced traders & people that can help you out, depending how autistic they are or not, - proprietary tools, all sorts of goodies like a chart with the calendar directly on it, - Some serious capital obviously the biggest one, without the whole risk associated, which also means less stress (still don't get a salary so...), - also I guess telling clueless people you are a "professional" to help you sell courses & EAS weeell I mean if they have traded with the firm for a few months they have made some money and didn't drawdown 3% or whatever the limit is but doesn't mean they are Jim Chanos of forex most likely they have a trash system that works until it doesn't (not that bad if you stop using it when it drawdowns too much as those firms are doing). Seeing that some profitable "investors" (over a few months or years at most imo) end up joining the ones that let you take all the risk and charge you for the priviledge really tells that yes an idiot with the rational analytical abilities of a potato can come up with a profitable strategy if he puts the hours in. But trust me, the road will be hard and the individual won't become a "big short" hero or Soros. Kweku said he knew he wasn't the smartest but he made sure if someone put 1 hour in he'd put 2. He got promoted too fast, they pushed him for more performance, he was afraid of getting deported and then he went full commando and lost billions and got deported to Ghana. Now he give seminars where he whines that bankers are really mean people or something. I don't know what really happened, couldn't he put his foot down? I hate bankers too but I haven't heard bank traders complain only rogue psychopaths at least Nick Leeson or whatshisname Nikkei futures gambler that tried to manipulate the market and "averaged down" (lmao) didn't come up with all these excuses. Reminds me SocGen where I worked (not as a trader) are just so damn annoying with security now, and I read a comm from them where they invested (in hindsight, it's always in hindsight) I don't know how many millions into failsafes and risk management etc. Should have invested way less millions and way earlier than this guys 😬 They won't make you profitable (ok unless what's keeping you from making it is you are a psychopath that can't help it or as they call it "undisciplined"), but you have less risk than if you just went *100 on mex, your risk will be spread over time through the money you made for them and a part of the monthly fees. It's not that bad but it's not that great either. I didn't go into the full calculations you'd have to check risk over time and so on. The coolest part is the ease of mind (chf) but I couldn't care less I live in Europe and we got negative balance protection and guarenteed stops haha what a scam for brokers. Hey actually I already abused that with Oil a few months ago my broker ate the full losses and I got the full win on my other broker. Wups my bad I'm a retail trader no one told me Oil could go negative (really) I thought I clic then lambo. It is not crazy either for the company I don't think. All in all both sides get something out of it. It is better at the start for traders and better as time goes by for the firm in my eyes. They invest time and take most risks at the start, then month after month cash in with less and less risk. Talking about the ones that aren't complete scams obviously this does not apply to "put 10% in that's your max drawdown" these guys for real? 😆 They have some additional rules, for example you might not need to pay for the data (if you already have it via tradingview for example), oh and if you just afk for several days they fire you (you are allowed to take holidays relax but you have to warn first). I'm not sure but I think those are mostly for day traders. They can't sit with someone for 3 years before knowing if he is good or not so wouldn't make sense otherwise. This depressing grind is not soon over for me I'm afraid. Slow feedback sow growth. And without any upside. Not a day trader at all but I STILL have to check charts every day and do research all the time oh gosh why oh why I tried to write down a process and use combos of indicators to make it as easy as possible but I STILL have to scan through 40 charts all the time AND set alerts AND not overfocus one 1 strategy then miss out AND check these alerts over and over AND make a full preliminary TA I estimate on average once a day (2 charts a day so it's not that bad) then full TA set entry etc then watch my position over the day I don't just abandon them and if I look away that's when they'll move and need my attention. 10*40 = 400 alerts a year so about 2 a day (not counting the "other" alerts obviously, only the initial part that is really anoying) Little deviation here xd Why can't I just press a button and have it do every thing for me? I don't want to miss anything, I don't want to spend to much time on boring repetitive tasks, I don't want to forget doing my boring repetitive tasks, but there is no hope there is no cure there are no tricks. Grind the charts, grind the account size. Basically I can make it quite simple I don't need to go draw every level and everything. So I get 40 signals a month or what? I end up having to TA 40 times a month, mostly false signals. Opposed to this I just TA everything - 35 charts - the week end, and then not sure if I keep it like this charts get dirty or re-TA. Damn the result is almost the same. As much work. No way around it I have to TA false signals I thought of 10 other methods it always comes back to the same. With the alerts first it is better I TA useless things less, but I won't see as much, but I will because when I get an alert I do my TA regardless, and only in one direction not both so I gain something. I just want to hire a wagecuck intern to do the dumb boring part xd Found a use for these 80 IQS that society left on the side road. Wait no they'll mess it up 100%. Maybe I can put dancing squirrels shouting motivational orders on my screen to get me through it. Or give myself a reward. Help plz someone I'm desperate this bores me so much. Ok that's it not going to make a full in depth review either just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.
Education
by MrRenev
4
EURUSD - what to expect next week (24-28 Aug)After a month of sideways price action, it is amost time for EURUSD to pick a direction. Indeed, as we can see, the price will face a compression soon as the ascending trendline and the channel midline are about to meet. This attention area is indicated by the orange triangle. The direction of the breakout will most likely indicate which side of the channel be broken also. This compression will lead the breakout to reach the respective target box.
by FTMO
1
GOLD WEEKLY - 17 JULGold spot seems to be taking a break from its astonishing ride in the last couple of months. SHORT SCENARIO Despite still quoting above the previous all time high of 2011 highlighted with the blue area, at the moment the priority is downwards. Indeed, the price of XAU is currently below the 8daily moving average (which was strongly broken downwards ) and inside the Fibonacci retracement area of the last leg down (the small green rectangle), meaning that if not broken to the upside, the next movement will be a continuation of the short term downtrend with another leg down. Any level within those could be good for opening a short position, even if a retest of the moving average would be the perfect signal, with targets indicated by the arrows in the chart LONG SCENARIO Instead, should the price broke both the 8 moving average and the Fibonacci retracement area to the upside with a daily close, the two targets would be the previous high and the green rectangle (Fibonacci extension of the last leg up), respectively.
FX:XAUUSD
by FTMO