Feedback from our new FTMO Traders

Are you still looking for the Holy Grail? Our FTMO Traders who passed the entire evaluation process can tell you that trading progress is about sticking to the trading plan, enforcing risk management and managing own psychology. Be inspired by what they have to say.

Trader Hassan - never ever force a trade

 

What was easier than expected during the FTMO Challenge or Verification?

The 1:1 ratio for the first step (being able to lose 10% to win 10%) was really helpful. Sticking to my strategy and my confidence, I passed the Challenge and Verification without letting my emotions and psychology influence my trades.

Describe your best trade.

While taking my trades, I always aim for a risk to reward ratio of a minimum of 1:3.

So in terms of performance, everything above it could be a "best" trade. But, I really enjoyed my GBP/NZD short on the first step, I had 7 confluences to take it that made me us nearly +3,5% profit. Here was my trade analysis: After a break and retest of the descending Trendline, break of a massive head & shoulders' neckline, creation of a smaller h&s pattern supported by a key resistance, and my two favorite moving averages the price could fall nicely to the 1,91539 price zone.

Has your psychology ever affected your trading plan?

As I said above, sticking to my plan and my precise risk management, I didn't really feel my psychology interfering with my trades even while I was in a small drawdown.

How does passing the FTMO Challenge and Verification changed your life?

It helped me prove to myself what I was and what I am capable of. I wanted to succeed in forex trading and this is the huge step I needed to boost my confidence to make a stable income out of it.

What was the most difficult during your FTMO Challenge or Verification and how did you overcome it?

The most difficult parts were the profit targets. As a trader having pre-set objectives can impact your trading plan and force trades. I surpassed this by trading normally without focusing on making a precise profit because I knew that by risking 1- 1,5% I was able to make a 10% profit.

What is the number one advice you would give to a new trader?

While suppressing emotions is mandatory I believe that sticking to only one strategy and never ever forcing a trade when there's none is also as important.

Trader Malaikah - learn to love your losses

How did you manage your emotions when you were in a losing trade?

Managing your emotions when losing trade is mostly to do with the way that you view your losses.

If you view your losses negatively then they will affect you more.

However, you want to take every losing trade as a lesson to learn from.

A lesson to learn about yourself as a trader, your strategy, your strengths, and your weakness.

Learn to love your losses. I have also trained myself to become numb to both my winning and losing trades, if you can’t manage your emotions while you are winning, it will be even harder to manage them whilst you are losing.

How does your risk management plan look like?

I aim to risk a maximum of 0.5% per trade.

This risk management plan ensures that I have low risk per trade, but high profits when successful.

This suits my trading plan best as I aim to catch 80+ pips per trade with tight stop losses between 10-40 pips so in the region of minimum 1:2 to 1:8+ risk to reward ratio on my setups.

What was the most difficult during your FTMO Challenge or Verification and how did you overcome it?

The most challenging part of the Challenge and Verification is remaining disciplined and sticking to your trading plan.

I set out my trading plan before starting both. Trading involves psychological warfare, focus, and discipline are key to overcoming the mental barriers we have stopping us from remaining disciplined.

This involves, sticking to your analysis, not revenge trading, ensuring each trade taken was thought about rather than gambling. Once you can overcome these psychological barriers, you can overcome anything.

What do you think is the key to long-term success in trading?

The key to long term success is having a trading log.

Documenting all of your trading and reflecting on them at the end of each day.

From this you are able to learn from your mistakes, evaluate why your losing trades were losing trades and why your most successful trades were successful. Through evaluating, logging and tracking you can start to understand yourself better as a trader and your thought process.

I also believe developing daily habits which you repeat consistently day in day out such as waking up early, pre-planning your setups for the week on the weekend when market is closed and time tracking how much time you are putting in on the charts each day and not just focusing on the results will give you long term growth.

How would you rate your experience with FTMO?

10/10 - FTMO has tested my limits and overcome them. It has not only helped me become a better trader but more disciplined in my day to day life. It has allowed me to focus on my longterm growth rather than just looking at the short-term.

One piece of advice for people starting the Challenge now.

Create a trading plan, have a solid trading strategy, log, and track your everyday input and output so you can monitor your progress.

I believe having a detailed trading log that you track manually (opposed to just exporting data from myfxbook) will keep you disciplined and focused.

Trader Aleksandr - be brave and do it :)

 

Do you plan to take another FTMO Challenge to manage even bigger capital?

Actually, yes; I'm constantly trying to improve my current trading methods, and once I do, I plan to start a second challenge as well.

How does your risk management plan look like?

Pretty standard really - thinking about risk/reward ratio, position size, and percentage of the account balance for each trade. Place stop losses to protect against the market going against their position. Keep emotions in check.

What was the hardest obstacle on your trading journey?

Definitely emotions and applying enough self-discipline in order not to rush/increase position sizes when nearing the deadline.

What was easier than expected during the FTMO Challenge or Verification?

Can't really point out anything, in particular, I would say the fact that I successfully managed to trade a bit of BitCoin over some weekends, that was easier (and more profitable) than expected.

What inspires you to pursue trading?

The chance to be independent of corporate jobs!

One piece of advice for people starting the FTMO Challenge now.

Be brave and do it :) no amount of "dry testing" or demo accounts would ever give you the same (or near enough) experience for what the real deal looks like, feels like, and handles like! Be patient, be brave, and be ready to pick yourself from the dust couple of times!

Trader Garrett - work on your mindset

How did you eliminate the factor of luck in your trading?

Well, there is no way to fully eliminate the factor of luck. Nobody can win 100% of the trades they take. With that being said, I did the best I could to put the odds in my favor by having a minimum of 4 confirmations that I look for before placing any trade.

What was the most difficult during your FTMO Challenge or Verification and how did you overcome it?

Probably the most difficult part was when I would have a losing streak.

To overcome it, I analyzed each of my losses, took notes on what I did wrong and how I could change what I do in the future, and simply moved on to the next trade.

I did find that one of my strongest confirmations (double mitigation off the last swing candle) resulted in a winning trade the majority of the time, so I no longer take trades unless that is one of the confirmations.

What do you think is the most important characteristic/attribute to become a profitable trader?

I believe that the most important characteristic to become a profitable trader is to work on your mindset just as much if not more than whichever strategy you choose.

I strongly believe that there are many profitable strategies out there, but the main reason so many traders fail is that they second-guess themselves or their strategy, end up getting out of trades too early, or revenge trade.

I’ve worked on my mindset a ton and try to just trade like a robot as much as possible - setting pending orders where the odds are in my favor, with a specific stop-loss placed as well as a profit target placed, and taking time away from the charts so I don’t overthink the trade and make mistakes.

How would you rate your experience with FTMO?

I would rate my experience as excellent so far. I really enjoy the analytical tools provided through FTMO and used those to further my understanding of where I’m strongest and weakest to help in making future trades.

How does your risk management plan look like?

My risk management plan is fairly simple.

Before each trade, depending on how many confirmations I have aligned and how good I feel about it, I will risk between 0.5-1.5%.

I never risk more than 1.5%, and I pay close attention to my daily risk limit to make sure I don’t go past that if I happen to lose all of my active trades. I use an app called Stinu to calculate how much I can risk based on a specific stop-loss pip number I have counted up before placing any trade.

What would you like to say to other traders that are attempting the FTMO Challenge?

I think that the most important thing other traders should do is make sure they place a pending order for their trades with a stop-loss and take profit, and rarely (if ever) market execute any trades. The next most important thing I believe is for them to walk away for a while because retail traders always tend to overthink their trade when they’re watching it live. Find a strategy you like, suck it up and create your own trading plan (actually type it out, put it in a binder, and follow it strictly), and analyze both your winning and losing trades afterwards to see if there is anywhere that you’d like to alter your trading plan after each month. Try to take the emotions out by ensuring that you are comfortable with losing whatever amount you’re risking BEFORE placing a trade.

Trader Ahmed - never jump in without a proper plan

 

 

What was the most difficult during your FTMO Challenge or Verification and how did you overcome it?

The most difficult thing was, trying to cope with winning a streak.

Since as everyone know that when you trade and you’re on a winning streak.

A psychological thing happens called strategy slips.

The way I overcame it is by trying to always remind myself that even though I’m on a winning streak, losses can rack up quickly if I get unfocused. I went into every trading day thinking I’m under no pressure to take a setup today. Risk 1 percent only. And if you win, or lose always tell yourself. Okay, cool. What’s next?

Describe your best trade.

My best trade was on GBPUSD, I was playing call of duty, modern warfare, as people know it Warzone. I was in the Warzone Turing to get a win with my friend Hisham, and the other one was also called Hisham. I saw a valid setup on GBPUSD, and went to take it. As soon as I take it the market started going against me. Did I panic? No, I just trusted the plan that I had. 30 mins later TP was hit for 40 pips, and 1:3 RR achieved.

How did you manage your emotions when you were in a losing trade?

I just remind myself that there will be more opportunities to fall, and not to chase loses. Always remind yourself that the market is open the next day.

How does your risk management plan look like?

Whether I find the best setup in the world, or a normal setup. I always risk 1%, and never take a trade that’s less that 1:2 RR.

What was more difficult than expected during your FTMO Challenge or Verification?

I mean for me I have 2 years of experience in the markets. Was it difficult, I’d say no? But it was a little bit stressful.

One piece of advice for people starting the FTMO Challenge now.

Before starting go on a Demo account, try to achieve the challenge rules. If you can do it on demo, then you know your system works. Never jump in without a proper plan. If you do then just know that you’re going to fail a lot.