"The number 1 rule of investing is to protect your capital"

Do you know the rule “it is better not to be in a profitable trade than to be in a losing trade”? It is the same as the rule in the title. When you are patient, don’t rush, and think in a long term, you have a chance to be a good trader. Read what our FTMO traders think about it.

Trader Harry: "It is always best to trade conservatively in order to have consistent gains in the long term."

What does your risk management plan look like?

Always risk between 1-2% per trade. The number 1 rule of investing is to protect your capital. This can only be done by cutting your losses and letting your profits run. I always ensure that my R:R (Risk to Reward) is minimum 1:4. As this allows me to lose a few trades and still be in profit from just one trade alone.

Describe your best trade.

I was trading in the 4HR timeframe and was in drawdown, though there were two trades that were congruent with my trading plan and tested all my confluences cleanly. Therefore, I executed that trade, however this time I increased the risk from 1% to 3% as high risk = high reward and this led to a 22% gain over the course of 2 days. However, I still think that it is always best to trade conservatively in order to have consistent gains in the long term. It was just that back then I had a specific target to reach.

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

Honestly, resilience. Trust me, the number of times I wanted to give up or thought this was not for me because I wasn't getting the results. I wanted yet I saw a lot of people on social media get them. You, honestly, just need to keep going, never give up. One quote that has always been in my head and on my whiteboard that always keeps me going is: "winners never quit, and quitters never win" it just makes so much sense, because how can you ever win anything in life if you quit. Then I imagine the greats like Michael Jordan or Usain Bolt, like, imagine if halfway through the 100m dash Usain Bolt decided to quit, then how would he ever win if he quit, and he wouldn't have even known that he was the fastest man alive. That’s crazy. So yeah - winners never quit. And you are a winner so do not quit!

 

What inspires you to pursue trading?

Freedom. The amount of leverage I can use with this capital will allow me to invest in a multitude of other streams of income that will allow me to generate wealth for my family and my community.

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

Luck does not exist. Everything happens for a reason. Practice, practice, practice – backtest, backtest, backtest! Those who plan and those who narrow their focus on fewer things are the ones that tend to succeed in their specific goals.

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

Learn from your mistakes. AMP = A - Accept M - Move on P – Plan. Take time to solely focus on yourself and ignore all the opinions of others, whether that is social media or negative people. Focus on you and only you. Only listen to the people that are going to support you and speak from logic that they have actually researched instead of those who speak from emotions and insecurities that they choose to inflict onto others. Focus on you, so that you are at a better place where you will soon be able to successfully focus on others.

Trader Amy: "Don't let emotion take over and do not change your trading plan."

Has your psychology ever affected your trading plan?

Yes, however I follow a very strict plan and have learnt that losses do come and never to revenge a trade.

Do you have a trading plan in place, and do you follow it strictly?

Yes, it took me 2 years, but it works well.

What does your risk management plan look like?

My risk management is currently using a 5% daily drawdown. I scale down my trades after losses so as not to exceed the max equity drawdown.

What was the hardest obstacle in your trading journey?

In the beginning (5 years ago) it was the psychology. Chasing losses and trading with emotion.

Where have you learnt about FTMO?

I saw it on a YouTube blogger's channel.

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

Don't let emotion take over and do not change your trading plan. Only start a FTMO Challenge after using the free trial or a demo account to test your trading plan, once you know it is profitable and when you have a plan for managing losses and emotion then give it a go, it's well worth it!

Trader Ubaid: "Focus on the process not the outcome."

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

The most difficult stage was going into a 7% drawdown, my mental state took a hit, but for the most part I was okay, because I was sticking to my plan, and they were all high probability trades. Again, all I could do is follow the process, losses are inevitable, but the success of the strategy was shown as I turned it around from 93k to 110k to complete the challenge.

What does your risk management plan look like?

I risk 1% per trade, I trade without discretion, so essentially if a trade fits my plan, I will take the trade without hesitation. Win or loss is not a major factor because through backtesting I know that the individual trade does not matter, over a large sample size I will be consistently profitable.

Has your psychology ever affected your trading plan?

Yes, with previous strategies it has. But with my current strategy, I am trading with guerrilla trading, and what is great is that there is no discretion, meaning that individual trades have less impact, furthermore, at guerrilla we are low risk traders, so taking losses in a row is something that can occur, but the winning trades are uncapped, which allows the strategy to provide consistent profitability.

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

Passing has challenged my life in a massive way, it has allowed me to leave my 9-5 job and trade full time!

Describe your best trade.

I wouldn’t say I have the best trade, because for me it’s just the probabilities playing out. But a trade that played out well was on the 21st of May, on which I banked +5.7%, EURUSD short. I executed the bullet strategy from guerrilla trading, a nice ascending nature which provided the ideal entry and continued to the downside.

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

Focus on the process not the outcome, consistently backtesting, forecasting, self-reviewing trades are all the characteristics of a consistently profitable trader. By focusing on the process, I guarantee, consistent profitability will come as a side effect of putting all of that work in!

Trader Darrene: "The most important attribute has to be execution."

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

The most important attribute has to be execution. A person could always predict a move or always talk about where the trade is going but if the person never executes then he will always have the mindset “I should have got in”.

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

I think something that was easier than expected was the idea of using bigger lots to achieve more profit in the FTMO Challenge. At first, I would only use standards cause that’s all I know how to use but once I started to use 2.0 or 3.0, I never went back any lower.

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

When I was in the losing trade, I accepted the risk before I got in, so I knew anything could happen. So, I never let a losing trade get to me because with a good RRR I could shake back multiple loses with 1 winning trade.

What was the hardest obstacle on your trading journey?

Managing work and trying to trade at the same time during the Verification phase which ultimately led to me taking more than expected. Had to change things in the last week so I can execute more, with this account I will not have to work and can focus more on trading.

What does your risk management plan look like?

I only risk 1-2% on every trade, to spread my leverage out I will only use 3 percent if the opportunity presents itself, with a very low stop loss. But every trade has the opportunity to run in my favor, I just have to execute to the tee.

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

Advice for new people starting the challenge would be a very good discipline to your strategy, never deviate from it because once you start going against it you will get mixed results and ultimately take more losses than wins from it. If you know your strategy works, don’t go against it.