Trader Talal – “It’s life-changing.”
How did you manage your emotions when you were in a losing trade?
Patience and managing risk furthermore, and in case I had a losing strike I would stay away from charts for a day and study the losing trades and identify what went wrong. In order to avoid any revenge trade.
What inspires you to pursue trading?
I found a hidden passion inside me for trading and numbers, freedom is the most thing I like about being a trader.
Has your psychology ever affected your trading plan?
I try always to stay away from charts when I am having a bad day in my personal life, or if I am busy I always avoid taking any trade.
How would you rate your experience with FTMO?
FTMO was a great experience for me I believe it will open many doors for me as a trader to improve more. Definitely, I will be taking more and more challenges to grow my account.
How did you eliminate the factor of luck in your trading?
Luck=gambling. I believe that as s traderS we can’t rely on luck. In order to do that, I always stick to my plan and edge and relay always-on analysis rather than luck.
One piece of advice for people starting the FTMO Challenge now.
Go ahead it’s life-changing, make sure to be ready for it with a good system and proper risk management.
Trader Richardo – “Take your time, don’t rush to the end.”
Do you have a trading plan in place, and do you follow it strictly?
After completing both challenge and verification I’ve realized that my initial plan was improved on at each stage as was demonstrated, I am more confident now to stick to my plan and yes follow it strictly.
Do you plan to take another FTMO Challenge to manage even bigger capital?
If allowed I intend to take two (2), $200k challenge in the coming months. With this $50k account I’m now going to be trading full time. Hence allowing me more time to perfect my strategy.
Describe your best trade.
After analyzing the charts and finding out that my initial setup was executed with almost 0 drawdowns… and I had the confidence to hold the trade to my TP. I now aim for even more of this type of trading.
What do you think is the most important characteristic/attribute to become a profitable trader?
Proper Risk Management, let me explain! Find a pair or 2 you can understand, study it, master it, calculate your highest lot size and never go above it.. when in doubt use an SL that doesn’t breach parameters.
How does passing the FTMO Challenge and Verification changed your life?
Words can’t explain…my biggest goal is the become debt-free…and after that the skies the limit.
What would you like to say to other traders that are attempting the FTMO Challenge?
Always take the free trials first… make all the mistakes there and NEVER make them again… when you are ready for the challenge, TAKE YOUR TIME, DO NOT RUSH TO THE END.
Trader Lazar – “Patience is the key to success in this business!”
Do you plan to take another FTMO Challenge to manage even bigger capital?
Yes.
What was the most difficult during your FTMO Challenge or Verification and how did you overcome it?
Definitely a time limit on 1st stage. I had unnecessary pressure in my head and I did let emotions play with me at the beginning because I was thinking too much because of the time limit. That even made me play with my trade plan and I changed it for the challenge.
But as soon as I did figure out, that the problem is overthinking I changed back to my original trade plan, which I feel comfortable with and as soon as I did that, at that point, everything was running smoothly like it supposed to.
I was able to finish the challenge and I had a completely different mindset approaching at verification stage and that led to finishing verification on the 4th day. So definitely time limit mixed with profit target is, I think, something that a lot of traders will keep struggling with within the evaluation process.
How would you rate your experience with FTMO?
10/10
How does passing the FTMO Challenge and Verification changed your life?
So I am a young father of one beautiful little boy and passing FTMO and managing high capital will mean that I can quit my current job and I can spend more time with my boy. Thanks to you guys!
How did you eliminate the factor of luck in your trading?
So yeah, in trading that is not the only thing u need to eliminate if u want to become consistently profitable and that’s the beauty in trading because not many people can eliminate emotions like fear or greed. Sometimes factor of good or bad luck will play part in our trading, and that’s a normal thing. We can’t control the markets and we just need to stick to our strategy and trade plan and let probabilities play out.
What is the number one advice you would give to a new trader?
Patience is the key to success in this business! Just don’t rush the process. The good thing needs time and just let time do its work. First focus on learning everything and then find a strategy and start backtesting it. Throw backtesting u will build up your confidence and your trade plan. Then u need to find your daily routine and u need to stick to it! For that, you will need a lot of discipline and just do your work and repeat it every day. When u do all thing above then focus on psychology and emotions. Everyone can learn technical analysis and risk management, but if you are letting your emotions get the best out of you you will certainly fail. So train your mind and combine it with all thing above and u will be set for success! A complete trader needs a lot of small things to be consistently profitable and if u miss or ignore one thing u will most certainly fail. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Trader Clement – “I don’t focus on the monetary amount but solely on the charts.”
What inspires you to pursue trading?
Besides the given opportunity for financial independence, financial freedom, low-cost business model and mobile flexibility, what inspires me are the incredible unique tool trading is for self-mastery. The never-ending psychological challenge and personal development brought forward in trading, I find personally satisfying. Furthermore, the unique medium provided through trading for freedom of self-expression I find personally invaluable
Has your psychology ever affected your trading plan?
Absolutely! Your psychology is everything in putting a trading plan to good use. Your trading plan is not the asset, you are! You are the one that is required to execute and effectively follow your trading plan. Your mind (psychology) influences your thoughts, your thoughts influence your emotions, your emotions influence your actions.
What do you think is the key for long term success in trading?
I’m not sure if there is ‘one’ key but a couple of fundamental imperatives would be, emotional maturity and discipline, independent thinking, self-belief and tenacity
How did you manage your emotions when you were in a losing trade?
When it comes to managing emotions, I start before executing on a possible losing trade, by making sure I have appropriate risk management & stop loss in place. This minimizes the potential intensity of emotions that may arise during a losing trade. Furthermore, during a losing trade, I don’t focus on the monetary amount but solely on the charts. I don’t open my trading software during live trades, only my charting software. This allows me to stay focused on the process, not the outcome. It also allows me to largely diminish the influence of emotions that may impact my thinking and stay focused on making decisions based purely on market structure and price action
Describe your best trade.
A quality trade for me is one that has been executed based on my trading plan. It has already been determined beforehand through technical analysis and forecasting that it is a high probable trade with multiple confluences to confirm the bias. I have appropriate risk management and a high risk-reward upon entering the trade. The trade respects structure and gives little to no drawdown before moving to my take profit level. I further manage my live trade effectively by locking in profit at appropriate levels according to my trading plan along the way to take profit target
One piece of advice for people starting the FTMO Challenge now.
First, make sure you have a proven profitable strategy and system. Sounds like a given but it definitely is not. This will eliminate a lot of stress, impulsive trading and unnecessary mistakes. By having this you can trust the process and not be stressed by the deadline and fall victim to forcing trades, impulsive trading and deviating from your trading plan.