{"id":651939,"date":"2025-03-14T15:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ftmo.com\/?p=651939"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:38:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:38:51","slug":"top-ftmo-trader-leo-trading-is-the-hardest-way-to-make-easy-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ftmo.com\/en\/top-ftmo-trader-leo-trading-is-the-hardest-way-to-make-easy-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Top FTMO Trader Leo: \u201cTrading is the hardest way to make easy money\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have here the next part of our series on successful FTMO Traders who have made impressive profits or are able to achieve consistent results. Today it’s FTMO Trader Leo from Portugal, who has already received nearly $200,000 in rewards from FTMO.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like the vast majority of our traders, Leo started trading in 2019 as part of a social media trading group, but it soon turned out to be a group of scammers and influencers trying to push people into trading. So he started straight on a real account and skipped the demo phase. Like any young person, he had a big enough ego and dreams which is why he didn’t even go to college and instead wanted to make money as soon as possible. After he made some money, he wanted to invest and that’s how he eventually got into trading.<\/p>\n

Of course, it didn’t work out right from the start, so despite starting in 2019, he didn’t get his first paycheck at FTMO until March 2023, when he was already even an employee of FTMO. He realises that it’s not about the strategy, because he’s been using that since 2021, but about mind-set. Psychology and people’s big egos make traders blame their failure on strategy, and Leo himself has made virtually every mistake traders commonly make because of it. This is also why he hit rock bottom, where he realised he had to start doing things differently.<\/p>\n

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GBPUSD is a guarantee of volatility<\/h2>\n

In his trading, he focuses on one instrument, which is the currency pair GBPUSD. Initially, he tried multiple pairs with the British pound, which guarantees high volatility, but in the end, looking at the journal and the history of his trades, he found that he was most successful on the GBPUSD pair. He also admits that if a trader is not successful on one pair, he cannot be successful on a larger number of pairs. Thus, for his intraday style, one currency pair is quite sufficient.<\/p>\n

The basis of his approach is pure price action, and besides he only follows the opening hours so he trades during the London and New York sessions. Of the news, he only follows the most important ones, such as the FOMC meeting, NFP, inflation, when he tries to stay out of the markets. The strategy he uses to trade has been in place since the beginning and the fundamentals are practically the same all the time. He has adapted it to his style based on thorough backtesting, so there is no reason to change anything about it.<\/p>\n

Backtesting is fundamental<\/h2>\n

According to Leo, backtesting is an integral part of success; he tested his strategy on 10 years of data, long enough to have a good statistical advantage, which then gives him confidence. Traders, he says, need to realise that trading alone without backtesting cannot work and is just the tip of the iceberg. Ultimately, trading has to be boring and easy because backtesting will provide the edge. He likens it to a sport, which also cannot be done at the top level without proper and long-term training, and this must be continuous because it is simply a never-ending process.<\/p>\n