Interview with The5ers Founder: Gil Ben Hur
Raffa
Gil
Who are you? What’s your background?
My name is Gil Ben Hur. I am a forex trader since 2007. Actually I was doing my first stocks journey at age 18, but this episode last less than a year with my first losses.
I only got back to trading later at the late age of 34. Before that, I was always in a creative business. As an advertising copywriter, and a television producer and creator.
I started trading after I realized I know nothing about money and economics. My knowledge about business was too naive, I didn’t know what it takes to run a business properly. I had plenty of clients for my production company, but I didn’t make any money.
At one point I decided I had to resolve this ignorance of mine and went to study. I took endless courses and seminars on investments. Real estate, internet entrepreneurship, and financial market trading. I have introduced to Forex soon after and got hooked on this specific market. Mainly because I had only the nights to study and practice. So Forex was very accessible for me.
I was investing all my free time learning systems, looking for mentors, I taught myself to code MQL, and made hundreds of tools and scanners.
I had many downs, but the ups gave me the drive to continue and acquiring the profession of trading.
Up to 2011, I was a struggling trader like many, with ups moments and depressing regressions. Then I was introduced to the theory of Supply and Demand by Sam Seidan. Finally, I found a true logic and reasoned explanation for why the market behaves the way it is.
I joined a group of experienced traders who combined Supply and demand with advanced price action techniques. They were just have created their own platform, and I was lucky to join at the right time. With my experience in coding and the internet, my skills got to me to partner with them, and I was in the core circle of these traders.
Eventually, we were forming one of the most extensive free education community dedicated to price action, supply and demand and way beyond that. The name of the site was Read The Market dot com, it was my foundation to deeply understand price. A few months in this group I become a consistent trader.
Our community was prospering, we had nurtured great traders. Demand for premium education came from below, so we did that too. Eventually we had gathered few very top quality traders. I brought the idea we will create a trading community, and started working on that solution.
Long story short, when the fund was ready to start, the traders for some reason didn’t collaborate. So I was left with the business structure. And decided I am opening this for the public.
This is how I have formed The5%ers. With few tweaks in the model, it was ready to launch. I was very surprised at how well it caught and attracted traders.
Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? (Intraday or multi-day?)
I am a short term trader. My trade last from minutes to hours. However, if I catch a good move, I can let it run for a few days.
My method is to look at charts and read it as a narrative story, where institutional traders play and set traps. What they want and how they play it.
As much as it sounds sophisticated, it is actually four to five very simple reading concepts, it doesn’t involve indicators or secrete tools and methods. Pure naked charts and a lot of common sense.
You just need to know what you are reading.
I am teaching this every now and then in workshops I am invited to, and in webinars we do, and leave out there in The5ers youtube channel for anyone who is interested to learn.
What is The5%ers today and what will it be in, let say, 2025? Will you add Futures as well to The Challenge?
I think The5ers is a unique program in today’s funding industry. We are the only ones offering true funding of real trading capital from day one on the evaluation phase. And we offer a very hard to imitate growth program.
I am very proud of our achievement so far, but looking ahead years time, we are working hard to keep the leap ahead of the industry. I have a very creative team, and we have some surprises to be presented for 2020.
What’s the biggest achievement you have had from The5%ers thus far? And in your life?
I am mostly proud for the fact our traders are happy trading for us. We receive great feedbacks with traders at all stages, including from trades who did not make it through the evaluation, yet are appreciating what they get from just participating in the program.
I think we have a unique program we can be proud of. But the traders faith on us, where we are in a mistrustful industry, and we are so young (only 3 years on air), this it really warms my heart.
How do you see the future of trading? More and more small proxy traders or will the robots take over? 🙂
I don’t like the word robots. But I do believe the future is going to be much more automated. But for the foreseen 2 decades human will still be needed to drive these machines.
Many think robots are set and forget tools that can rip the market. I know these robots will be a more and more sophisticated algorithm. But it takes a human mind to develop better code or to decode a rival machine.
We should not forget that the market is made to serve the human need for commerce and economics. Once these robots will divert the market aways from this purpose, and humans will not able to relay on the market for their commerce and business, the market will be no longer relevant and no longer tradable.
In other words, once the market stops representing true value for its assets, commerce and economics will for another channel for transactions. Meaning real commerce will always balance the mechanical algos.
Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s The5%ers training approach?
I could not agree more to this. In my years behind the hood of trading, I have seen som nay people succeed with various strategies. I have seen people winning where others were losing with the very same methods. Trading is first and foremost a mental game where you rival only your own self.
I can tell the majority of successful trader I have withness are the ones with no EGO issues, these are the ones that have an inner ear that can listen and have a keen self-honesty. They are focused in being better rather than showing off with flashy trades.
Who are the traders that enrolled in The Challenge in 2019 and have succeeded to get funded? What’s the “secret” of those who perform well and obtain funding?
The majority of traders are male, at age 26 to 37. We enroll many traders at an intermediate skill level, and some good portion of pro-level although it is much less.
The reason for this is that the pro-level might already have enough funding to maintain a solid income. Among the pros, we have mentors and educators, and some that are just happy to take the challenge to climb up in our program for the 1 million accounts.
Intermediate traders find our program very rewarding. They have honed the skill of trading and now are looking for the right platform to help them leverage their skill with more capital resourcing.
The success rate really depends on the level of trading skill is. From our end, there is no consistency of the success rate throughout the year. We can only explain this by understanding that every season has a different blend of novice, intermediate and pro traders signing up. It really depends on what conversation had started on youtube or in a forum.
I can tell you, that our program is designed to be achievable. The simple thumb rule for if you can make it with the5ers or not would be two questions: Can you win positive pips in the market? Do you manage solid and healthy risk management? If both the answers are yes.
The majority of traders who get disqualified are usually the ones that are lacking a trading plan with poor or none risk management.
What is your own key to success? I, for myself, believe that only a content and healthy person can be a profitable trader: my performance improved drastically since I returned in Italy (from London) to my family and friends, and have an active outdoorsy lifestyle.
Absolutely right. You cannot trade if your surrounding is pressuring you. I also have mentioned this before, No EGO is a big contribution to success. I would add persistence and dedication because you have to go through very hard times and not quit this cruel and frustrating profession.
But foremost I thing almost every situation can be resolved for creating the correct trading atmosphere. The secret is to have a setting in space and in mind that allows you to act professionally no matter what the surrounding circumstances are.
For each and every trader it is a different thing. For me, it was very stressful knowing I am relaying on the money for the monthly income. Only when I find a way to not think about it, and to embrace professional action items for situations I am facing in my work, was when I de-coded this challenge.
If trading can be taught and learned in just 4 months, why isn’t everyone we know a profitable full time trader? The 1 thing you would recommend traders start doing today so to get better results tomorrow?
The one thing you should be looking for is “Understanding The Why”. In your trading, you must be able to always explain WHY price did that or WHY price will do this…
And WHY I decided to play the way I do.
If you don’t have a decent honest answer for WHYs., and I mean answeres that have true logic. Not because price hit EMA 46 and STOCH was diverging. Not because someone told you this system SHOULD work. No. Know the WHY in the essence of the market.
And know the WHY in the essence of your reaction to market situations.
Once you know the WHY, you know the market and yourself well enough to play pro.
People unfamiliar with the world of trading believe it’s a nest full of snakes (Hollywood movies don’t help..), I’ve had very positive experiences so far from very nice and enthusiastic people: what can we all do to improve on this?
It’s funny. The image the public has on this profession is a narcotic profession for hyper-energetic young wolves with suits and ties.
The opposite is the truth. It is a tee-shirt and shorts with barefoot. Almost zen. In our site we don’t show glassy skyscrapers buildings and handsome youngsters playing smiling and driving Ferrari.
Trading is hard work, and so we show the common people. We talk the common language, no fancy words. And we try to interact in the personal level. In our fund, I am talking to many of our traders myself. It is important for me to know the traders that are collaborating their skills and time with us. I believe with common respect being authentic people will get the true essence of this profession.
I’m affiliated with The5%ers that’s how I obtained a 5% discount for you all!
Read here why I strongly believe that trading in a challenge is way better than trading in demo!
For more interviews go to the Interviews page here.
