In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing the reality of online prop firms and getting funded as a trader. Do you need to get funded to succeed? When should you consider this option? When to avoid external funding, and how to succeed if you choose to take outside money. Choosing to get funded is a deeply personal choice, and most traders make their decision without knowing the full information.  All online prop trading firms will put you in a simulator trial at first, and charge you for it on a monthly basis. You are paying to trade on a demo account, so it's important to create an action plan. In this episode, George unpacks the following topics  & more: The online prop firm business model explained Advertised amount of money you get can be misleading How your fees will increase 1,000% for market data Story of a trader who grew a $500 USD account into over $100,000 in 18 months The real solution to low funding - the money you have is likely already enough! 9 recommendations if you choose getting funded is the right decision for you At the end of the day, choosing whether to try out an online prop firm is a very personal decision. Are you going for it? What did you decide? Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed the show. Resources Enjoying this podcast? We’d appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading room here

In today’s episode, George is joined by options trader Victorio Stefanov, of TRADEPRO Academy.  George and Victorio talk about the different trading styles, and how you can decide yours to match your personality and unique goals. During this episode, we deep dive into these topics and more: Breaking down the 3 styles: day trading, swing trading and investing Why new traders make the mistake to trade an asset that is not aligned to their goals Why new traders should AVOID scalping - and common misconceptions How social media sets unrealistic expectations Why people make the mistake to trade the asset they see successful people showing on socials George and Victorio discuss how they personally found their own style, and their journey getting there Tips on how to find the right asset and trading style for YOU How to set the proper time expectations while you are learning If you are just starting out your trading or investing career, you do not want to miss this episode.  This show can save you years of waste time, and thousands of dollars in learning fees.  The most important part of succeeding in trading is making sure you are doing what is best for you, and not just following others around. Also, we have a discussion around what assets are best for trading in different time zones around the world. I hope you find today's podcast episode extremely helpful in your personal trading journey.   Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading room here

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing the psychology behind trading news events, and how to actually trade them like professional traders.  The reality is so different from what new traders assume, it will shock you! George talks about the two different types of news events, and the different approach you need to take for each.  Also, he shares the type of news trading that new traders should start with, and one type to avoid that could be detrimental to your success. During this episode, George unpacks these topics and more: 2 types of news events you have to know about Complete trading strategy for news events The 3 waves to a news event and which stage to enter on How to get a free news feed so it can read out the news to you Sources for professional paid news feeds - and his favorite one Why you SHOULD NOT watch network news channels Plus much more! You are not going to want to miss this episode, it is jam-packed with value. George speaks on a very technical aspect of trading that can help you learn a new strategy and approach. Also, there has been a big change with the podcast that will probably catch you off guard at first.  However, it is a big opportunity for you going forward, to continue getting amazing value from this show. That's it for today, hope you enjoy the listen.   Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading room here

In this exciting episode, we have a guest interview with Twitter futures trader and former member Job.  You can follow Job here on Twitter. On the interview we discuss everything about order flow trading, and why this technique provides a trading strategy edge. We discuss why trading the future market is a great opportunity: Centralized order book  Transparency  Liquidity  24/5 trading hours  Our goal was to demystify order flow trading, how market participant interact with each other and how that creates a trading edge. We also discussed what order flow is not, and cleared up a lot of confusion about the topic from new traders. Job mentioned his favorite tools for futures market analysis and how he uses them: Market Profile Volume Profile Footprint Chart Time and Sales Delta We then proceeded to discuss our individual trading styles, as well as trading psychology hacks to help traders improve their strategy and execution. Importance of understanding not only your own psychology but mass psychology as it relates to the markets  If you understand how retail traders think & act, you can trade against them  The debilitating effect of cortisol on your trading, and how it shuts down your rational mindset and leads to enormous loss of control and destruction of capital  Important of having and following YOUR trading plan The episode finishes off with a fascinating discussion around how to treat trading like a real business, and the importance of shutting down your trading platform once you are done for the day. This was an incredibly fun podcast to record, and guarantee to set off some big aha moments for you.  Get ready for a ton of learning and takeaways, this is an episode you can re-listen many times and still pull away new information. We want to thank Job for appearing on our podcast, and for the awesome interview.   We look forward to having you on again for a follow up!   Where to find Job?  Follow Job on Twitter  Check out the Order Flow Blog that Job contributes to here  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here

In today’s episode, we discuss why the trend is not always your friend when it comes to trading. There’s an old saying in the financial markets that the trend is your friend, meaning that you will do well as long as you place your trades onside with the current price trend.  The only problem is that you can never know what the current trend is -  you can only know what the trend was during some prior period. This can provide a false sense of confidence for new traders because the cleaner the trend, the more confident trader will be with taking a position In fact, many new traders take breakout trades “in the direction of the trend” only to see the market reverse on them and stop them out time and time again.  The trend can be your best friend if you are able to identify it in the early stages of development before the expansion phase of the mark-up phase and get in with low risk and high reward potential. Stick around for the full episode to get some great insight on why the trend is not always your friend and how you can put yourself in the best position to capture the most profitable phase of any trend   Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here

In today’s episode, we are going to discuss why it’s so important to trade what you see and not what you want to happen! You will often hear traders throwing around the phrase “trade what you see”, however, the reality for most traders is the opposite - they trade based on what they think will happen - driven by emotions and wishful thinking.   Psychological biases can explain how our brains are hardwired to make assumptions  This goes back to the subconscious mind and the filter from which we see things  Think about the scenario where you see a huge rally but did not take a part in it  You may enter long (despite not having a trade entry) because you calculate the amount of money you could have made, and then jump in long with the hope that the rally will continue.  You make your analysis, you follow your rules, you pick a trade that fits your criteria, and then it turns into a loss. No matter how good your analysis and how well you follow the rules, even the best setups will fail. How to start to trade what you see instead of what you think  Next time you are about to make a trade, ask yourself “Do I have an edge or is this something I want to happen”  Wait for more confirmation - Many traders jump into the markets in anticipation of a move that just might not materialize. If you wait for a market to break above resistance to buy will give you higher prob than getting long below resistance, hoping for a breakout  Use a trading checklist to ensure your trading decisions are objective and the trades are well qualified  If/then scenarios so that you always have a plan regardless of what the market does  Trust your analysis and your process; do not listen to other people’s opinions or trades; they may have a bias of their own.  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing some tips & tricks to help you grow a small trading account!  The best investment in life is one in yourself and when you are starting out in any new industry, it's best to start small!  The reason for this is that your mistakes are the cheapest at the beginning which is important because you will make mistakes while you are learning. Now just because you have a small trading account, it doesn't mean that you have to think small!  Trading live is not about making money; it’s all about seeing if you can execute a strategy with an edge and follow a process consistently over weeks and months  When you are starting in this industry, regardless of how much capital you have, you should be starting with a couple of thousand dollars (we recommend between $5000-10,000) until you earn the right to trade a larger size. What does it mean to earn the right to trade larger size? It simply means that you are rewarding good behavior and discipline by increasing your trade size using market money and not your own risk capital. The goal to start is to aim for small profits, even $25/day is a great goal to shoot for! While this amount isn't anything to write home about, if you can consistently make $25/day, then scaling to $250/day or even $2500/day is the same process, just with more contracts. Slow and consistent growth is the aim here - we're not going for wild outsized returns off the bat! So how can you put yourself in the best position to grow your small trading account? See the list of tips below: Set your expectations; the goal is not money it's perfecting the process.  Risk management is always important but even more so with a small account; the margin for error is smaller. Avoid setting daily profit targets; instead, focus on how much you are willing to risk a day and stay disciplined. Look for singles and doubles instead of home runs; get used to getting paid consistently before looking to run profits.  Progressively scale up your position size as you build up the account - in our futures course we offer an account scaling grid, like the ones you get at a prop firm. Don’t quit your day job; have other sources of income while you learn. Avoid comparing yourself to others (social media is full of traders posting massive profits or losses - the thing is that you never know the full story of what it took to get there).  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing how traders can deal effectively with execution mistakes!  Mistakes happen to everyone and they can be extremely frustrating especially because, in this industry, they can and often do, end up costing us money. What defines you as a trader is not whether you make mistakes or not, but how you deal with these mistakes when they end up occurring!  So what are some of the most common trading mistakes traders make?  Fat fingering trades (putting on more size than you want or fumbling your order executions)  Hotkey execution error (Having trading hotkeys enabled that are the same as other hotkeys for other applications) Taking trades in live account while thinking you are in SIM (or vice versa)  If you've been trading for any amount of time, you will likely have experienced one or two of these mistakes in your career. Reflect back on that error and ask yourself what lessons you learned to avoid making the same mistake again? For me (Mark), the mistake that comes to mind was having trading shortcut keys enabled on my platform that were the same as the ones I used for zooming in and out of my charts. One morning when I was completing my pre-market analysis, I was trying to zoom out of a chart and while the chart was not moving, I noticed that my DOM was filling trades at market. Just before the opening bell, I was short 5 NQ contracts and managed to close them out for a manageable loss...but the damage had been done and an important lesson was learned! Since then I have personally avoided using hotkeys on my platforms and have disabled this feature so as to avoid this mistake in the future. What is important for new traders to understand is that trying to be perfect and avoiding mistakes will not get you anywhere in this business; you need to embrace that mistakes are part of the learning process. On that note, some of the most common things that lead to these sloppy execution errors include: Being mentally fatigued or tired when trading  Lacking concentration due to distractions  Not being prepared for the session (Fail to plan, plan to fail)  Lack of execution skills on the trading platform  Now that you are familiar with the common mistakes traders make and the catalysts that lead to these mistakes, let's take a moment to touch on how most traders actually react when they make a mistake! Most traders take losses personally and point the finger outwards, effectively adopting the victim mentality - "The market is rigged" or " My broker is hunting my stops"  are common statements- and then they proceed to try to make the money back by trading emotionally.... digging themselves into an even deeper hole.  Professional traders, on the other hand, adopt a different approach to dealing with mistakes which can be broken down into two main categories:  Preventative strategies   Recovery strategies Preventative strategies are rules or guides the trader creates in order to avoid making these common mistakes. Some of the strategies traders use include: Building execution skills by practicing and mastering the execution tools in your trading platform through the simulated trading environment Maintain energy levels throughout the session (starts before the trading day and include proper sleep/hydration & nutrition) Monitor mental capital levels before trading and stop trading once mental capital drops below the required criteria Set up a trading environment that minimizes the potential for distractions during the trading day Even if you have preventative measures in place, mistakes can and will still happen because, at the end of the day,  we are human. In the event that a mistake is made, you can use the following strategies to effectively recover and deal with it: Accept what has happened and take full accountability for it - only when you live at cause do you have the POWER to enact CHANGE Do some breathing exercises { 4-7-8 breathing} if you feel stressed or angry and also repeat to yourself “I am in control” - You can do this exercise either sitting or lying down. The next step is to extract the learning lesson from the mistake and then to "release" the mistake and let it go (some people prefer to physically gesture themselves “throwing” it away). The final step is to rehearse successful execution by imagining what you would do should the same situation happen in the future and affirm that this is WHAT you will do! Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here

In this episode, we provide you with a layout of what the journey to consistent profitability actually looks like so that you can set your expectations for what lies ahead!   A trading journey is never the first thing a trader really considers..in fact, it’s the end result you crave. The money, the cars, the freedom - that’s what you REALLY want.  But if you don’t know a realistic route to get to your destination, you’ll never make it there.  A large part of performing is about setting realistic expectations, because when they are sky-high, even if you are doing well and making progress as a beginner, you will inevitably be disappointed in comparison to what you expect. So start by releasing all expectations! That’s not to say you shouldn’t be committed and have goals, you absolutely should. But your only expectations right now should be to learn. Think about this, there is a good chance you are looking at trading as a career change opportunity. Now ask yourself, what job are you currently doing it? How long have you been doing it for? What did you sacrifice to get here? As you answer these questions, you’ll begin to realize that trading is no different than any other job. It takes patience and hard work to make meaningful changes and to become amazing at it. The Reality of Trading Forget about the marketing promising overnight riches, it doesn’t work. The reality is that it will take you longer to become consistently profitable than you might think.  However, when you do become profitable, you will be able to make way more money than you ever thought possible. The 3 different paths of a trading career: How it’s sold by marketers: instant overnight success – which has worked for 0 successful traders we know Retail reality: how most new traders exit the industry because of mismanaged expectations The TRADEPRO Path: how the journey should look  What Might Your Journey Look Like? We've seen a lot of different reality paths, and they are all unique.  The timing might be slightly different, but almost certain that your path will follow a similar trajectory. It’s all about the work, effort, and commitment you put in – which can supercharge the results and learning curve. But typically, from our experience and that of our profitable community members, here is how reality plays out: Month 1: You will be creating a schedule to go through trading education & content, organizing yourself and preparing to embark on this journey.  This month is all about making the decision to commit and put together an action plan. Months 2 to 6: You will be learning, watching trading videos, applying concepts to charts, and gaining experience through screentime. The expectation for profit at this stage should be $0. Months 6 to 12: During this period,  you will be applying your trading strategy and risk management plan with live capital, and you’ll find out it’s more challenging when real money is on the line.  At this point, if you are breaking even or down some money, it’s a normal part of the learning curve.  You are right on track, even if you are losing capital!  That’s the reality of this stage, which is where most traders begin looking for a magic fix.  The truth is, there is no magic fix, it’s about accepting and embracing the fact you are close and you just need to put in more time. Months 12 to 19: You will finally decide to treat this like a business, and put all your learning and experience together to form a bulletproof trading plan that you will follow with diligence, discipline, and patience. Months 19+: You will start making consistent income, and constantly be learning, adjusting, and improving your process.  This phase will last a lifetime, the only thing that will change from this point forward is that you will gain more experience and comfort, which will ultimately lead to more confidence.  You will make more because your confidence will mean you trust yourself to start trading larger position sizes. So that’s what your next 1.5 years could look like. As we said earlier, it’ll take longer than you expect but it can make you way more than you ever imagined! Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here       

In today's episode, we discuss how bull markets, much like the one we are currently in, can let new traders get away with some bad habits that will eventually lead to blowing out unless they get corrected as soon as possible.  A False Sense Of Confidence Beginner traders often get overconfident when they find a strategy that works -  which may lead to some early success, and then come the plans for how they'll spend those millions. But at some point, when market conditions change,  the golden ticket strategy will stop working.  The resulting losses burn out several months worth of hard-earned gains in just a few days, along with your confidence and will to trade.  Anybody that has started trading in the latter half of 2020 and through 2021 has experienced nothing but a strong bullish stock market. Bad habits such as chasing the markets and FOMOing into trades may have even been rewarded in recent months but where new traders tend to get into trouble is that they can engrain these habits in their subconscious, and these programs will run on autopilot even when market conditions change. How you start influences the rest of the career and sets your expectations so it's important to get started off on the right foot. Traders need to have an arsenal of tools to adapt to changing market conditions  How can traders adapt? Trade less size and be quick to take profits when trades go in your direction  Aim to take your risk off the table and leave a small runner, Remove all profit expectations and be grateful for the opportunities the market gives you! Do some research on how great times end (Ray Dalio - The Big Debt Crisis) Join a community and be a sponge Set some hedging points in your portfolio - there’s no need to get smoked and watch it happen Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Join our FREE trading chat here