With us having run a forex trading community for the past two years, we’ve seen first hand what beliefs and expectations are commonly held in regard to goals and desires for up and coming forex traders. It’s standard for people to come into the game with an expectation that they’ll be quitting their jobs within weeks or months and pulling 5 and 6 figure sums out of the markets very early in their trading career.
This has surely happened in the past, but it is by no means commonplace. In this article we want to break down how to go about setting expectations as a trader and how to actually realize the reality you want, which is consistent profitability with a healthy amount of funding. The ability to generate returns month over month consistently and to have the confidence that you can do it on repeat without doubts is what you want. It’s the income generation that you can rely on and support yourself with. Below, we’ll cover how.
The Process
From beginner through to pro, there is a process traders progress through phase by phase. Here at Phantom Trading, we have what we call our Funded Trader Roadmap which covers this step by step, phase by phase process in great detail, but to keep it simple, what you focus on in the early months of your trading journey will be less so what you focus on in the later stages of your journey. When you first get started, you’ll be entirely focused on learning from those who are already walking the walk, doing what you want to be doing, trading consistently and profitably. You’ll want to model someone who’s got the skill and has proven themself as a mentor who can help students achieve the same.
Studying content, backtesting the strategy, applying it to your own charts, this is where you’ll start out. As you start to become familiar with your chosen strategy, you’ll start experiencing successful trades here and there and your confidence will build. We typically recommend being in this content revision, practice stage for a few months to get the hang of it.
From there our students will oftentimes start familiarizing themselves with the various prop firm companies available out there now. Each of these companies offer free challenges where you can test yourself and your newly developed skills. We recommend passing a few of these free challenges to prove to yourself that you’ve got the competency to go for the real thing and actually pursue real, live capital funding. Again, these companies offer similar sized accounts and with challenges structured in their own unique ways. At the end of the day, your goal is to become proficient at trading and to be able to generate consistent returns month over month on whatever sized capital account(s) you have. Everything else stems from this ability to execute profitably, consistently.
As you develop and begin passing these free challenges consistently, that’s when you’ll want to go after your first paid challenge account. Every trader goes about this differently. Some like to shoot for smaller sized accounts to begin, others like to go for 6 figure accounts from the get go. There is no right or wrong, you simply need to gauge your confidence level and how much you’re willing to spend on that challenge fee. Note that even if you go small for your first one, you can pass multiple challenge accounts of larger sizes later and essentially combine them with tools called “trade copiers”. These trade copiers allow you to execute positions on all of your accounts simultaneously essentially pooling all of your accounts into one.
As you begin passing accounts and becoming verified FTMO, MFF, E8 funded traders (our preferred prop firm partners), you’ll begin generating cash flow. This is what we’re all after. The aim of replacing our day job income with trading income and scaling that income infinitely. This is where we want our traders here at Phantom Trading. We do everything we can to help our students stay on track and keep their minds in the right state along the way so they see their trading through to this stage of consistent profitability.
Where To Go From Here
Consistent profits and funded capital seems to be the end game in the mind of most driven, newbie traders. This couldn’t be further from the end game though. There is so much more to a career in trading than funded capital. We want to make that abundantly clear!
As you collect funded accounts and scale them, you’ll want to begin looking at additional ways you can invest that capital and scale it even further. We covered in another article here, a few ways on how you can invest that capital to get it working for you.
Becoming consistently profitable and acquiring capital as a whole is stage one of your journey to financial independence and freedom. It’s you developing a high income skill that can provide for you for the rest of your life. Getting your income up and having that skill set that you can rely on is your best protection in the event of a recession or any financial hardships society may face throughout time. It’s hard to beat that reassuring feeling of knowing that regardless of what happens in the world, you’re good because you chose to spend the time honing a skill set that can provide for you and your family forever so long as you keep it sharp.
How To Assure You DON’T Get To This Level
It sounds counterintuitive yes, but oftentimes we take things in better when we’re taught what not to do. In this case, we’ll be breaking down exactly what not to do if you’re serious about achieving financial independence and freedom via becoming a top 1% trader.
Expectations are everything. They will support you in your goals or they will hurt you and hold you back from your goals depending on how they are set from the start. Traders who go into the markets assuming they’ll be rich and driving lambos within 6 months are those who will struggle. You’ll be fighting an uphill battle in your mind the whole time as you endure the learning phase. Those who are patient and understand that it takes time to learn new things and even more time to become one of the best, will see it through and actually reach the other side where consistent profits and payouts reside.
Next, definitely go it alone if you want to experience unnecessary levels of adversity. Those who try to save a few bucks by consuming books and youtube videos rather than investing in a proven mentorship program or community to coach them and provide step by step guidance along the way are those who are simply pushing their trading goals out further. Those who invest in their education and get proper guidance are those who will have a much higher probability of seeing success in the forex trading game.
Do yourself a favor and find a good program with proven results and great reviews. You will back what you spend 1000x over if you actually put the information to use and stay the course. See the program through, get funded… and when you receive your first payout it will cover the cost of everything you invested into mentorship and then some. From that point on, everything you make is pure profit. Start seeing yourself as a business. Every business requires investment in the beginning stages to get off the ground. Invest accordingly and you’ll reap the rewards.
Closing Thoughts
Although the stats about forex trading conclude that a very small percentage of traders ever go on to see consistency and real profits, the data is skewed. We want you to understand that with proper guidance and the right mental frame, your odds of success differ greatly from those you’d find on google. We’ve worked with 1000s of students and many hundreds of them have gone on to acquire capital in the 6 figure ranges. Many have left their jobs. Many are passing challenges as we speak and are on their way to joining those at the top… and we’ve only been around for 2 years.
Commit to the process. See it through. Remain patient with yourself… and your goals of consistency and funded capital will become a reality for you. We’ve seen it time and time again and so we can say that confidently. Don’t give up on yourself early. Give yourself the time required to master this. It will be worth it.
Looking For A Strategy To Help You Secure Funding, Get Profitable And Start Generating A Full Time Income From Trading?
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Robert Castillo
@coldwaterfx
FX Trader & Analyst
Writer & Editor
Rob is a funded trader from Toronto, Canada, and has been trading currencies, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies for over 7 years. Outside of trading, he enjoys making music, boxing, and riding motorcycles.
