Earn2trader Funded Trader Vince

Funded Trader Interview: Vince, from the Philippines.

Updated on: 2022-11-10

We want to share with you today this interview with Vince: a Futures Funded Trader from the Philippines.

Originally published by Earn2trade, you can read the in-depth review and obtain a special discount here.

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Vince is a funded trader since December 2022.

Vince makes a living out of trading CME Futures yet he lives in the Philippines: the world's 3rd largest economy by nominal GDP in Southeast Asia, according to the IMF, second to Indonesia and Thailand;

it's a country made of over 7000 islands (how difficult must it be to govern such a country?!), and here is the most important piece of information: the 2022 GDP per capita is equivalent to 3.858$: considering 250 working days/year (for simplicity) that comes down to about 15$/day output per person to the economy.

What an amazing opportunity it must be for a citizen of Philippines, like Vince, to obtain access to the CME Futures where 1 point of E-mini S&P500 is worth 50$.

Let's hear from Vince how he managed to get funded in just 15 days with Earn2trade, and of course: CONGRATULATIONS on making it WITHOUT risking your savings!

Your opinion.

Your opinion matters! Come visit my Instagram or Facebook page, leave your comment: I post every video about the funders on my Instagram TV, let's have the conversation over there so as to include as many people as possible.

Interview with APEX Founder and CEO: Darrell Martin

Raffa

Darrell

Who are you? What’s your background?

I am a day trader and have been trading for 15 years. I started with options to quit my day job and now trade options and futures on a daily basis.

I have a bachelors and masters but they have nothing to do with finance.

I bought courses, went to seminars, and most importantly found other traders who knew how to trade to learn from them.

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? 

I am an intraday trader.

I focus mainly on futures scalps and trend trades. I also trade options when they are mispriced.

(Read the in-depth review about Apex Trader Funding and learn about the Strategies, Indicators, Copy Trader and Funding on offer.

Find a 50% Discount to any Trading Challenge by APEX on our Special Offers page.

What is APEX Trader Funding today and what will it be like in the future ?

Today it is among if not the biggest funding company with over 4200 people funded last month (interview published on June 2022).  We will continue to be innovative and bring the best possible options for traders in the funding world.

What’s the biggest achievement in your life?

A successful marriage of 17 years with 2 amazing children held together by a relationship with God.

How do you see the future of trading? More proxy traders or Robots/AIs?

There will always be AI and robots but with SEC regulations much of this will become more difficult.

There will always be retail traders looking to trade manually.

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s APEX Investing training approach?

I 100% agree that psychology is fundamental to trading that is why apexinvesting.com/mindmastery was developed for traders to be able to master the psychological part.

We also provide simple yet in-depth systems at Apex Investing for traders to learn to trade with defined entries, stops, and take profits.

Who are the traders that enrolled in 2021/22, and if you can say it, what’s the rate of those who succeeded to become profitable? What’s the “secret” of those who perform consistently?

We have traders from 130+ countries: male and female alike, and novice and veterans all part of Apex Trader Funding.

We have a high success rate with over 4200 funded accounts in May alone. Those who are successful trade small and quit when they hit their take profit or drawdown.

What is your personal key to success?

I agree that the personal life can pour over into your trading decisions.

A healthy life definitely contributes to better trading decisions.

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?

 

Because most people are not disciplined enough to learn and have a trading plan and follow it.

I suggest people take the least bought and most valuable course: Mindmastery to immediately improve their trading.

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?

 

There are definitely plenty of snakes out there.

It is important to find a solid community of like-minded individuals like at ApexInvesting that are committed to helping traders.

Our policy is Traders Helping Traders and we have over 30k members over the last 13 years. So it's definitely a solid community that helps traders.

Learn more about Apex in our review.

Get FREE access for 30 days, then 1$ for an additional 30 days, to have FULL ACCESS to APEX suite of Indicators and Strategies for Scalping Futures.

Then enroll in their trading challenges and Get Capital to trade.

For more interviews go to the Interviews page here.

Interview with AudaCity Capital’s Founder and CEO: Karim Yousfi

Raffa

Karim

Who are you? What’s your background?

My name is Karim Yousfi, and I am the Founder and CEO of Audacity Capital (read our in-depth review here). Our company is situated in London and mainly deals with prop trading since 2012. I started my career as an intern in a German bank, and over the years, I developed the necessary trading skills. I am now a trader by profession.

When working for the bank, I traded for my employer using various financial instruments and in different markets. Apart from forex exchange, I also traded in stock index figures, equities and options. In other words, I can say that I enjoy my profession as I have a deep passion for the financial market.

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? 

As a trader who has developed trading skills over many years, I understand what struggles other traders face. This is why I founded Audacity Capital to fulfill the needs that were bothering me. I began developing Audacity Capital when I had just left my cushy job at a major bank to venture on my own. I was risking everything I had achieved to satisfy and fulfill my dreams during that time.

When my employer knew that I was planning to leave, he offered me more money so that I could stay. However, I declined the offer and proceeded with my plans because I wanted freedom. Along the way, I faced many challenges, and one was a lack of finances. Anybody who has ever ventured into this financial industry will confirm that you need to have enough capital to succeed.

What is AudaCity Capital today and what will it be like in the future ?

Our mission is to develop trust among the employees, management, and traders. The mission we have set is meant to capture the values and operating principles that should guide everyone in the company. It specifically encourages an environment that focuses on mutual trust, reliability, and ownership.

What’s the biggest achievement you have had from AudaCity Capital thus far? And in your life?

My biggest achievement in life is Audacity Capital. When I left my job at the bank, I was committed to following my dreams, which was developing Audacity Capital. I sacrificed all I had achieved to see my dream come true. Today, I can proudly say that Audacity Capital has assisted thousands of traders get the capital they need to begin trading. The program makes it possible for all traders to achieve and fulfill their goals and dreams in life. It is something that I have wanted to achieve ever since I started founding the organization.  

How do you see the future of trading? More proxy traders or Robots/AIs?

I’ve noticed that there are two extreme sides to this topic: The first is the school of thought that believes that robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the future of trading. The second is the school of thought that believes humans will always be essential to the trading process. While I believe both arguments have merit, I am inclined to side with those who say that human or proxy traders will continue to dominate the financial market. Let me explain that in a moment;

As much as machines are more efficient than humans and can do things much faster or calculate outcomes much more accurately than us, machines lack creativity and judgment, which are two things essential in making decisions while trading. Humans are able to see patterns or trends where machines cannot, and we possess several other skills that machines cannot duplicate. Therefore, the future of trading relies more on proxy traders other than AIs and robots.

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s AudaCity Capital training approach?

I agree with the statement that psychology plays a significant role in trading, and it is important to understand how you can use your own psychology to your advantage. I am sure that in my case, I have been able to identify my tendencies and have learned ways to avoid making mistakes by improving my psychology. Even though sometimes you might fail due to a lack of capital, psychology in trading will help you succeed as you can avoid common mistakes in trading.

This is why at Audacity Capital, we do not train our traders the same way a trading school does. We expect our traders to use their psychology to maneuver in the financial market. We do not focus on providing an education that will make you rich. However, we encourage our traders to be prepared to learn new things in the market. By doing so, they are guaranteed a rewarding career.

Who are the traders that enrolled in 2021/22, and if you can say it, what’s the rate of those who succeeded to become profitable? What’s the “secret” of those who perform consistently?

At Audacity Capital, we give all talented traders a chance to be part of our amazing platform. In fact, our Funded Trader Program is always on the lookout for skilled and talented traders we can nature and invest in. We process lots of payouts monthly, and since our traders are unique and approach trading using different strategies, psychology, and discipline and remain profitable, we do not have a specific rate for our profitable traders. We believe that there are so many paths to success.

Our program does not over-promise traders or convince them of overnight riches. Instead, we tell them that those traders who remain consistent are focused and contented with the small improvements they make daily, and that is how they become professional traders.

What is your personal key to success?

I suppose the first thing that comes to mind is a little common sense. I would say that having a good understanding of how the market works and being able to develop a trading plan with clear objectives, risk management rules, and money management rules is the key to success.

There are tons of different business strategies out there, but for me, the most important part about trading in the financial market is having your personal strategy and then just committing yourself to it 100%. The next important thing is that you have to be disciplined. It's easy in this business to get excited or overconfident, but you can't let those emotions take over.

I always ensure I am in control of my trades to run my business effectively. I don't want to be the one who's being driven by the market. Rather I want to be the one who drives the market. I do this by setting up clear trading rules that help me achieve my goals and stay focused on what matters most.

While discipline, risk management, and trading skills are important to becoming a successful trader, I also believe that a healthy and satisfied person can become profitable in the financial market.

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?

 

While there are many things for traders to do to become profitable, it is essential to focus on the main ones to improve your chances of getting better results. First, traders should find free resources that will help them improve their trading skills. I would also advise traders to start using a live account instead of a demo account, no matter how much money they have.

Trading with a live account or real money brings a whole new experience as it exposes you to a different environment and a new way of thinking. This is something a demo account doesn’t offer. However, it is wise to start small and know yourself better. Ask yourself, what kind of a trader am I? What is my level of self-control? among other questions that will help you understand yourself better.

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?

 

I have had my fair share of ups and downs in my years of trading, but what is important is never to give up. It is important to understand that many trading myths make people believe that trading is a scam. Trading is a real profession, and here at Audacity Capital, we do our best to encourage our traders to improve their trading skills by allowing them to test their strategies. Our program promotes a continuous learning process for all traders. 

Learn more about AudaCity Capital in our review: get instant funding! Or the Ability Trading Challenges.

For more interviews go to the Interviews page here.

Interview with Savius CEO: Tiziano Brunno

Raffa

Tiziano

Who are you? What’s your background?

I have been a full time trader since 2014, clearly my studies began a few years earlier, trying to make my job coexist with the study of financial markets.

In 2016 I learned about Savius and a public contest sponsored by the infinity futures broker.
I sign up and qualify for second place after exchanging the first position with the winner practically every day, eventually finishing just behind.

Savius still decides to reward me, having seen that for the entire duration of the contest I had been playing for the victory, giving me the opportunity to manage a funded account.

From there, through many ups and downs, I went from Junior trader to Senior and since 2018 I have become an integral part of the company with the role of risk manager.

In 2020 Savius was acquired by a new owner and I am offered the opportunity to fill the role of CEO, a position that I fill with great enthusiasm today.

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? (Intraday or multi-day?)

I am an intraday trader, even though I have changed my approach over time.
Initially I worked exclusively on medium-long term charts, more because of work and time reasons. Subsequently, by transforming this activity into my main job, I changed tools and time horizon.

What is Savius today and what will it be in, let say, 2025? Will you add Forex as well to the challenge?

We are investing and growing a lot on the Italian market and beyond.
I believe that in 2025 we will be the reference reality for the European market at this rate.
We currently do not operate on Forex or CFDs.

We specialize in futures and we strongly believe that it is worthwhile to operate on regulated markets. Furthermore, with the arrival of micro futures CFDs are becoming less and less useful even for low-capitalized traders. As regards currency pairs, we offer the opportunity to operate on their respective futures currencies.

What’s the biggest achievement you have had from Savius thus far? And in your life?

As mentioned earlier, I joined Savius as a user and grew up within it.
Without this "lever" I would hardly have been able to take the step to go "pro".
Before being funded, I had limited personal capital with which I felt the constant pressure of performance.

At the same time, I feel like saying that on a professional level being where I am now is already an "over target".

Obviously, as is normal, with each goal reached, the bar must be moved to a higher level.

As far as private life is concerned, I have other targets to reach that concern exclusively my family.

How do you see the future of trading? More and more small proxy traders or will the robots take over? :-)

 

Robots or rather AI in general is growing very rapidly in all sectors.

I believe that there is still room on the markets to invest with the discretionary human component.

In my imagination I still see the man able to beat the car (I'm an 80 ', grown up watching terminator and robocop)

Back to serious, I'm not entirely convinced that automatic systems, robot advisors, etc. will take over 100%, at least as far as our sector is concerned.

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s Savius training approach?

That the emotional component is very important is beyond a shadow of a doubt and I believe that any pro trader cannot contradict me.

It is also true, however, as I usually repeat during coaching with the guys from the "Savius trading camp", that the markets do not move with the power of thought.

By this I mean that both the emotional and behavioral aspect but also the technical aspect must be weighed on the scales.

I can also be a "Buddha" on a psychological level, but if I have a losing strategy, I will continue to lose money on the markets.

So I would feel like summing up our approach with a 50/50.

Who are the traders that enrolled with Savius in 2018 and have succeeded to get funded? What’s the “secret” of those who perform well and obtain funding?

In 2020 we mainly restarted from the Italian market, therefore for now we have a majority of Italian traders. They are predominantly male and 25 years of age and older. We currently have some traders in the bargaining phase who will start “live” shortly.
The secret, after years of monitoring, I believe is to proceed step by step.
All those who exaggerated in terms of size and careless risk management did not last long.

It is essential to have the patience to grow your equity without excessive shock by controlling the risk as much as possible. Performance in absolute terms is of little use if the risk profile adopted is oversized. Remember that we operate on futures and that market swings are sometimes violent and without warning.

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.

 

You said something very important. Success, as I see it, is not measured by the amount of money accumulated. Personally, my goal has always been to be the master of my time and not depend on anyone. Ambitious target, but not impossible.

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?

 

Good question that deserves a very detailed answer.
First of all, it is not certain that a strategy used by one trader can be good for another ..

It is often not understood how important it is to develop a “tailor-made” methodology.

Each of us has a different personality, comes from a different social and cultural background, has their own beliefs matured on the importance of money and consequently each trader has his own risk profile and his own personal approach that cannot be replicated. faithfully.

Mismanagement of size is often the main cause of the negative loop on a psychological level.

My advice is to create a "confident" operating environment within which there is the margin to collect losses without excessively affecting the economic and above all psychological capital.

Once we have learned how to manage emotionality with small sizes, the gradual transition will lead us to progressively rise in level, a bit like a sportsman who lifts weights in the gym.

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?

 

Unfortunately, people with very low ethics have over the years ridden the world of online sales of courses and webinars in an incredible way.

Having no barriers to entry makes trading accessible to anyone, which translates into misleading advertising where dreams and false hopes are sold.

Clearly, the unwary on duty, once they have experienced the negative experience due to these characters who promote themselves as trainers without being real traders, point the finger accusing the entire sector.

The minimum fundamental requirement that every trainer should publish before proposing anything, is the real trading results achieved with the operation of him.

I am affiliated with Savius hence I'm able to offer you DISCOUNTS:

50€ for the evaluation program click here Limitless, and e-mail me for the code at raffa@funded-trader.com .

100€ for the evaluation program click here Limitless Pro, and e-mail me for the code at raffa@funded-trader.com .

Interview with Earn2trade lead education coordinator and trader: Christopher Gray

Raffa

Chris

Who are you? What’s your background?

My name is Christopher Gray, and I am the Lead Education Coordinator at Earn2Trade. I have been an active forex/futures/options trader for approximately 15 years. 

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? 

As far as my trading style goes, I am strongly rooted in price action, and piecing the “puzzle” together with coordinating time frames. I generally start my weekly analysis on monthly candlestick charts, marking off key levels, and progressively working my way through each adjacent timeframe lower. I tend to execute around 2-5 trades a day.

What is Earn2trade today and what will it be in, let say, 2020? Will you add Forex as well to The Gauntlet?

Earn2Trade represents an amazing opportunity for aspiring professional traders and will continue to do so in 2025. We bridge the gap to one of the most crucial tools a trader uses on a daily basis, funding capital. Making an income trading no longer needs to be reserved for those with a gigantic bank account, and with our Gauntlet series of examinations candidates need only focus on the skills required. We expect the company to continue to grow in new and existing markets while maintaining the "safe-environment appeal" to prospective candidates. The company is looking at opportunities to provide the same service in Forex, but is doing so cautiously to ensure that it can be done in accordance with any regulatory frameworks.

What’s the biggest achievement you have had from Earn2Trade thus far? And in your life?

Personally, I am not the type to boast about large winnings, and as such , I would say my biggest achievement in the trading world is my ability to be in a position to work with traders from around the world on a daily basis. This allows me to feel a sense of true worth when I see them better themselves after my help.

How do you see the future of trading? More and more small proxy traders or will the robots take over? :-)

 

I believe that trading will always have a degree of human accessibility, because after all, the survival of us is beneficial to those that own the robots ;)

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s Earn2Trade training approach?

 I would say that psychology is easily one of the largest factors that determines the success of a trader, but obviously a sound strategy is also a requirement. At Earn2Trade, our examinations help candidates to refine their psychological approach to trading by maintaining their discipline and not breaching any of the well-defined rules.

Who are the traders that enrolled in The Gauntlet in 2018 and have succeeded to get funded? What’s the “secret” of those who perform well and obtain funding?

Our biggest market presence is in the Americas, although we are growing rapidly in other markets as well. We have candidates of all ethnicities, throughout the world, and while the majority of our candidates are men there is a significant female minority. It is one of the amazing things modern technology has allowed: our ability to interact and help people far, far away.We haven't finished 2020 and specifically only calculate these rates annually as there is a lot of work to do, including removing duplicates. However we can say roughly 10% of individuals who take the exam acquire funding. While that number may seem small to some, it's a significant percent when it comes to trading, and in the last six and a half months the company has helped over 550 traders get funding.

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.

 

The most important thing I personally focus on, is my mental state as well as my discipline while trading. I make sure I am not allowing myself to become emotionally compromised, positively or negatively, while also adhering to my predetermined rule set to allow post analysis/critiques to be far more possible due to constants.

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?

 

Trading is different for everyone. No two people are alike. The speed at which an individual’s brain grasps a topic is unique to them. At Earn2Trade, we do our best to expedite this process through the wisdom of those of us that have already walked that path. The number one thing I would recommend for new traders is to stick to a demo account until they have at least a solid month of sustainable, repeatable results. Don’t let your ego control your actions.

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?

 

The financial world is indeed a world full of snakes and scams, but, it would be incredibly incorrect to assume that everyone is out here to take advantage of you. The trick is using common sense and asking questions to discover if someone really has your best interests at heart. 

I am a Funded Trader with Earn2trade, see how I passed my 150K$ Gauntlet Mini with my indicator.

Learn more about The Gauntlet here.

For more interviews go to the Interviews page here.

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.

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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.

Interview with Liberty Market Investment and Volfix Founder: Vasyl Gryshchenko

Raffa

Vasyl

Who are you? What’s your background?

I’m Vasyl Gryshchenko, a co-founder of Volfix platform and Volfix limited CEO. In 2018 I became a co-founder of Market Investment.
I entered the trading business in 2003. In 2004, alongside a group of other traders, I made my first trades on CME exchange. I was trading the S&P500 futures, through the Refco broker.
In 2005-2006, when the key CME group floors began to switch from pit trading to electronic trading,the main session trading volume became publically available for all traders. That was the time we began our research to interpret the volume data. This is how Volfix 1.0 first appeared, which opened up new possibilities for a vast circle of traders, us included, to make full use of volume analysis.

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? (Intraday or multi-day?)

 

I made my first trades in 2004 on the CME exchange on Big S & P500. We used to be day traders back then and our typical trade duration would be around 2-3 hours.
As the markets were progressing towards electronic trading, we came to a conclusion that however far you plan your trades, you need to be grounded on the intraday data to make your entries more accurate and reduce potential risks.
We, as a team of traders, are of the opinion that, for any trade length, there needs to be a thorough assessment of both long-term trends and intraday volume accumulations. The latter ones are capable of abruptly changing the trend at any point of time.

What is LMI today and what will it be in, let say, 2025? Will you add Forex as well to The Challenge?

At the moment, LMI is a company that unites the best prop trading practices under a single roof. We have great plans to become the most transparent, competitive and flexible company on the prop market. We would like our traders to have the best trading conditions, best support, fastest withdrawal options, etc. We always add features both to our trading platform and Recruitment Program as per traders’ requests and will continue to do so. As to Forex, we are currently doing market research regarding the viability of adding Forex markets. For now, we haven’t had much demand about Forex. And we’ve always believed that the Futures Markets with clear and visible trade volumes have a great advantage over a broker-dependant Forex industry.

What’s the biggest achievement you have had from LMI thus far? And in your life?

For me, trading has become a road to financial freedom. And even though my trading path was not easy, my experience with Volfix and LMI gives me an opportunity to share what I have learned from the markets. It is worth remembering that trading is always hard work, because it requires a lot of effort to change yourself and work on your discipline. Even if you have a reliable trading system, discipline should come first.
Each trader, whether starting their journey or well on its way, would always be exposed to the risk of losing their funds. The reason is simple - it’s hard for human nature to strictly comply with rules and discipline. That’s why if you choose to take part in our Traders’ Recruitment Program, it saves you from huge losses of your own capital. In fact, your expenses are limited to the cost of the Practice Session subscription.At the same time, you learn to control your losses and reach profit targets.
Once you are well trained and have a profitable trading strategy, we will fund you. Therefore, you gain invaluable experience without risking his own capital. I wish I had an opportunity like that 16 years ago at the start of my trading career. It would definitely help me cut the edge on my way to freedom and independence.

How do you see the future of trading? More and more small proxy traders or will the robots take over? :-)

 

I believe that manual trading will never die and there are a few reasons behind that. First of all, it’s only the chosen ones who truly have access to the highly costly HFT technologies. Second of all, there will always be both big market players and small ones, like private traders. We’ve seen them fight for best prices and the more we study volume, the more effects of this can be observed.

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s LMI training approach?

We do believe that trading psychology matters. Having seen lots of people succeed and fail in the markets, I can say this. If you have the right trading system but can’t follow your own rules, you will likely over-trade, revenge trade, etc, and finally see your account ruined. And before you learn from your mistakes and get your trading discipline together, you might lose a few accounts. My advice is that those are prop accounts and not your live trading accounts! That’s why we are here to help our traders improve their psychology by taking part in a Practice Session without any risk to their funds. They can trade and rest assured that they have a personal automated risk manager that will intervene if the rules are broken. Moreover, one of the LMI advantages is that our trading platform provides for manual risk management tailored to your needs (e.g you can cut risks even further than required by the Practice/Qualifying Session rules).

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?

Most of our traders come from Europe and North America. A typical portrait of a proprietary trading firm trader would be male, between 20 and 50 years, having a full-time job. Having said that, we see more and more successful female traders coming in to get funded. Usually our traders start their trading career by looking at it as a backup job opportunity until they earn their capital and are able to actually make their main job part time.
The “secret” of success is as simple as you can imagine! A good basic understanding of what the market is doing and why. Are we trending or ranging at the moment? Is it the beginning of the end of this market phase? This market knowledge must go hand in hand with a great discipline - no more trading if profit targets or risk limits are reached for the day. It might sound simple, but from what I know, it takes at least 10,000 hours of screen time to achieve this level of proficiency. And understanding how volume works helps A LOT!

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.

 

As I said earlier, one of the key components of successful trading is discipline and the ability to overcome stressful situations. It is sports and regular workouts that help me quickly develop these qualities.
I’m also positive that the family support, outdoor activities, travelling and close friends help us find the inner balance that we need so much to make important trading decisions.

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?

 

Everyone is different in their trading style, psychological habits, and the time they can devote to studying the markets. I believe that 4 months can give you some basic understanding of market behaviour, but hardly will you be able to sharpen your risk management/psychology. That’s the key reason why you need to trade a Practice Session in a safe environment, see whether it works or not, and if it does - get funded in less than a month! By the way, even if you fail in your Funded Session account, we are always there for you to provide a free Re-Qualifying opportunity so that you can quickly return to live trading and start afresh.

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?

 

The best thing we can do is do our job well! Be clear and transparent with our trading rules, have great support for traders, and always keep our promises. There are lots of traders relying on us in terms of their trading career and we haven’t failed any of them yet!

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In the meantime go ahead selecting which challenge is best suited to your trading strategy and give a go to the FREE TRIAL offered by LMI!

Read here why I strongly believe that trading in a challenge is way better than trading in demo!

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Interview with FTMO’s Founder: Otakar Suffner

Raffa

Otakar

Who are you? What’s your background?

Hi Raffaele, thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed for the funded-trader.com. My name is Otakar Suffner, 29 years old, I was born and raised in Prague. Even though I believe there is no need for a university education to be a good trader or a businessman, it certainly helps. I have a master’s degree in Economics, which I obtained from a major Prague University. I also studied in South Korea for some time (Seoul Nation University). I have always had a passion for sports, when I was growing up, I played tennis quite well, but I wasn’t good enough to make a living from it. Nowadays I do sports 3-4 times a week, mostly just fitness, focusing on (calisthenic) and kick-box. After 11 years of relationship I married my first girlfriend, if it ain't broken, don't fix it, right?

Can you tell us a little bit about you as a trader? (Intraday or multi-day?)

 

I started to be addicted to trading about 8 years ago. I initially started on Futures, but I moved to Forex / CFDs, because it allows you to have more freedom with your position sizing, especially when you have a smaller account. Back then, I did not have such options as I do have now. Beside the currencies, I strongly believe that for example Dax is better to be traded on CFDs rather than on Futures.

I am very statistics-based person, I believe in numbers which do not lie, unless you make a mistake in the formula. I like to know probabilities, which I can use to create trade ideas. My view on the market is that it is mostly random with some tendencies, which keeps repeating all the time. To illustrate this, let's imagine that you throw a coin, the long-term probability is 50:50, but when you throw just 10 times the ratio between tails and heads could be easily 7:3. I trade probabilities with at least 65% in my favor, but I always know that the outcome of the trade is random. It costed me lot of money and nerves to realize it. To execute on such a probability, I use simple price action. The most important things in trading are proper Risk Management – “there is always another trade”, track record keeping and knowing when to stop.

The beauty of trading is so diverse. Personally, I do not understand and believe in pure technical based systems. I just think it can’t work, but sure it can. One of our in-house traders, my friend who I know for a long time, just made 420 % in January. He trades well consistently for a long time, but this result is incredible.

What is FTMO today and what will it be in, let say, 2020? Will you add Futures as well to The Challenge?

FTMO today is like 2% of what it can be. The plans are huge. We are working hard to open a branch in Hong Kong, which is a well-known financial center and a gateway to Asia. My personal dream is to open an in-house trading rooms in multiple locations.

By the 2020 we might apply for a central bank license. With that license, we would be able to create a fund based on FTMO Traders and accept deposits from third parties.

What’s the biggest achievement you have had from FTMO thus far? And in your life?

I am truly grateful that thanks to FTMO, I met co-founder Marek, with whom I share same values, plans and he has become one of my best friends. You don’t meet such a like minded person every day. It is going to sound like a cliché, but I am very proud that the FTMO is 100% credible business. We always pay in full to all our commitments and traders. We always deliver what we promise. I am glad that FTMO is changing from a small Prague based firm to a respected company.

It is important to mention that FTMO is a younger brother of the same Czech/Slovak project called Ziskejucet.cz, which does absolutely the same as FTMO. However, FTMO was launched in 09/2017. The Czech project was launched in early 2015 and it is very well known and is well respected in traders funding. Before we found an investor, we were offering accounts of 2000 USD. The beginning was extremely tough and expensive.

I cannot probably name any achievement that I am particularly proud of, but I am grateful that I am confident and a very persistent person who believes that we can overcome any hurdle.

How do you see the future of trading? More and more small proxy traders or will the robots take over? :-)

 

Before I answer this question, you must first think about why markets exist in general. Markets are here mainly not to make money on speculations, for this reason we have horse races. Markets are here to allow businesses and individuals to exchange currencies in order to facilitate trade more effectively and to hedge. As traders, we are blinded by the flashy indicators and price action and we tend not to see the real reason why markets exist. During my studies, I was lucky enough to work in a huge firm which is physically trading corn. In 2016, we were buying crop to be harvested in 2019 and already hedging the bought harvest using futures contracts.

Several times, my boss came to the office and told me to buy a huge position of corn futures contracts just because the corn was cheap in his eyes. As I was buying, the price went up. My boss had absolutely no knowledge about the technical analysis, SR levels etc. He did not care whether he is buying against the double top. This firm is just a needle in a haystack.

So, back to your question, I believe that we will see more robots executing trades, but I do not think that any robot will outperform an experienced trader with intuition and experience. However, the nature of markets will stay the same, because the volume from speculators is relatively small to what large institutions trade to facilitate their businesses.

Some people say that Trading success is due for 80% to the right psychology, would you agree? What’s FTMO training approach?

From my point of view, lets exchange the word psychology, which is too broad, with discipline. You must have discipline in order to follow your risk management, execution and positions sizing. I’ll give you an example from my own trading. Sometimes when I start a trading day with 3 - 4 losses in a row, I lower my position size because I am afraid of losing money. As soon as I lower position size, good trades start coming, which are not enough to cover previous losses. Everyone knows that, right? For this reason, the positions sizing is so important.

The performance of the FTMO company is very closely connected to performance of its traders. We are lucky that we have partnered up with a performance psychologist called Nikola, who obtained a master’s degree in Sport Psychology in Scotland. Her services are completely free for FTMO funded traders. She knows how to strengthen discipline through various exercises so that traders can benefit from it.

Who are the traders that enrolled in The Challenge in 2018 and have succeeded to get funded? What’s the “secret” of those who perform well and obtain funding?

To be honest, there is absolutely no connection in the case of profession or age. Our capital is managed by CEOs, mothers on maternity and people with absolutely common professions. In some cases, our clients are wealthy individuals, who are not interested in the trading capital. They just want to pass the Challenge, use our applications, receive account analysis and start trading their own account. In many cases, these clients lost unbelievable amounts of money in trading, mostly because brokers wanted them to see trading as an easy endeavor. The truth is that trading is very, very difficult. Our Challenge gives everyone a reasonable boundary, in which their trading style should fit in.

As you probably guess, most clients are men, but surprisingly, women have higher success rate. What is interesting is that the highest success rate falls on traders from India. The general success rate fluctuates around 5-10 %. The key to success, as you probably guess, is discipline and strong work ethic.

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.

 

Firstly, I don’t see myself as a successful person. There is just so much to do and so many things which can be improved. Nothing from what I have achieved, I have achieved alone, there would be no FTMO without Marek and other colleagues. I was lucky enough to be raised in a safe country where I got educated. I am grateful that I am healthy, these things should not be taken as granted.

Raffaele, we probably share the same passion for a healthy living. I also like to study our inner self, meditation techniques etc. However, some of our traders are very far from living a “healthy lifestyle” and yet they perform well ?. So, I will stick to my previous answer, the key to success is strong work ethic and discipline.

I guess that your trading has improved, because back home in Italy you just feel better. Trading must be done only when your mind is razor sharp and in an environment where you can focus. If the outdoor lifestyle works for you, just stick to it, but I think that some people would be just stressed out from regular exercises.

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 basic principles of trading are simple: follow your plan, stop trading when you hit your daily loss etc., but who can do it, right? Most people learn it the hard way by losing money. They change the self-destructive behavior only when the pain is just too big to bear and there is no way around but to follow the plan. Many people just don’t want it bad enough and they stop or realize that trading is not for them, which is also good. Our performance psychologist is here to shorten the painful learning curve as much as possible.

I think that I might disappoint your readers, but I would recommend traders to base their trades on probabilities.

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?

 

When we launched FTMO, we were really surprised on how much negativity is there about Forex trading. People having no experience with us were doubting our company and we were not quite prepared for that, because our initial Czech project is popular and we are not really used to negativity.

I don’t want to end this interview on a pessimistic note, but in general, people like extreme stories, extraordinary successes or miserable failures. People who are unfamiliar with trading will usually get to read some mainstream articles related to financial crises, greed or lavishness of Wall Street traders. What we can do is to do the best we can and do it in a way we would like to be treated by other people as well.

Thank you so much and have a great day!

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