Pipsbasketings:
Your answer is right here: 20mins long - he broke down the top 7 best trading prop firms, cons, pros, lot ratio, etc.
After you identify your best choice, visit their sites to know more about them.

Wishing you success in your prop career direction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Ioo1irvCI&t=183s

thanks sir

more experience still welcomed

Good evening bosses in the house
I have a little issue.
I am planning signing up for a prop firm.
now the purpose of online threads like this is to learn from experience.
so I therefore beg any experienced fellow in the field of prop trading to enlighten me.
@pipsbasketings @infofirst @teemy @sycheven @meshpips @many others

afobam:
Please honest advice. This ROI forex traders that promises 20% monthly. How safe is it to invest with them?

after reading that post.
ask yourself this:
1. are you willing to accept the risk that comes with investing in forex?
knowing that the rule states that past performance do not guarantee future performance. also that you risk losing your capital,
2. have you checked the past records of the trader to at least be sure he has a good track record.
3. do you expect to receive the 20% monthly?
cause that is not possible. if you follow around here you will understand that a contest has been on for consistency in terms of returns and the numerous people that participated only one is left in the final evaluation period. The funny thing is people doubled account within a certain period and yet things took a dramatic turn.

so get this straight, it is very possible not to be able to make a consistent result from the market even if you are a pro and have a 99% working strategy, cause if your strategy is too good, you may find few setups some months and good number some months, so your inability to make a consistent return is not because you are bad or not good enough, it base on market condition and opportunities. now, if you try to force things, the market gives you a slap in the face, which you can do nothing to but only to accept and humble, if you refuse, and try an act of revenge, he gives you an uppercut punch the second time, still has not learned? the third time is usually a smackdown or Monday night raw, ask the wrestling fans about that

ZedFX:
That's why if people should first understand where and what they're investing in.

for example I believe the idea that you'll see people put a fix ROI to pay people monthly from trading forex is not ideal.

now before you even invest with someone who claims will make profits for you from trading forex.

you should understand that this is a risky Investment. you can loose your money.

so what you do is if you want someone to trade for you, you look at their past results, first try to understand their risk management level, by this try the see their max drawdown between certain period, then proceed to look at their gains.

if everything is good.
you give the person money to trade with. now the expectation is not to be paid monthly ROI and now tell yourself sit down and enjoy your money work for you. no!

you ask for either a myfxbook or any analytics you can get from their trading each month.

now you expect the person to drawdown in a certain month, break-even in a certain month, make gains in a certain month.
so for me that's 3 month waiting period before you can look to see if there's profit you can split. if no, and everything looks good. you continue to wait for another 3 months.

for me in particular, if I am to manage money for people, the minimum waiting and evaluation period is every 6 months before we can look to share profits. recommended sef is 1 year.

but all this thing people do is nonsense.
you'll either get burnt sooner or later.

even the hedge funds, am not sure the do profit share monthly.

I read about Ed Seykota taking a 15k Investment to some million, it took him years and surely he wasn't doing any monthly 10%, 15% or 20% rubbish.
he trades and after certain period he looks to share gains.

so what am saying is that most of this people who gives money for people to trade are not investors in any sense of the word.

they don't accept the risk, the don't know what they're doing

here is it Afobam

afobam:
Please honest advice. This ROI forex traders that promises 20% monthly. How safe is it to invest with them?

read the next post am going to quote

karkinase:

So easy.. if life were this easy everybody for don blow oo . Why not wait for a confirmation first .cos I feel that pair is still bearish @ the moment except a strong rejection is formed @ monday close.

what if monday close is a bull momentum candle?

XAUTrader4L:
would be looking at those zones below to see how price would react if it gets there.

for Gold, am monitoring the 1850 level
if the bulls struggles to run above that level, I'll look to short it.

That's why if people should first understand where and what they're investing in.

for example I believe the idea that you'll see people put a fix ROI to pay people monthly from trading forex is not ideal.

now before you even invest with someone who claims will make profits for you from trading forex.

you should understand that this is a risky Investment. you can loose your money.

so what you do is if you want someone to trade for you, you look at their past results, first try to understand their risk management level, by this try the see their max drawdown between certain period, then proceed to look at their gains.

if everything is good.
you give the person money to trade with. now the expectation is not to be paid monthly ROI and now tell yourself sit down and enjoy your money work for you. no!

you ask for either a myfxbook or any analytics you can get from their trading each month.

now you expect the person to drawdown in a certain month, break-even in a certain month, make gains in a certain month.
so for me that's 3 month waiting period before you can look to see if there's profit you can split. if no, and everything looks good. you continue to wait for another 3 months.

for me in particular, if I am to manage money for people, the minimum waiting and evaluation period is every 6 months before we can look to share profits. recommended sef is 1 year.

but all this thing people do is nonsense.
you'll either get burnt sooner or later.

even the hedge funds, am not sure the do profit share monthly.

I read about Ed Seykota taking a 15k Investment to some million, it took him years and surely he wasn't doing any monthly 10%, 15% or 20% rubbish.
he trades and after certain period he looks to share gains.

so what am saying is that most of this people who gives money for people to trade are not investors in any sense of the word.

they don't accept the risk, the don't know what they're doing

Karleb:


Those people are fools.

Entrusting 300 million into the hands of a 19 year old.

Most Nigerians are dupable because of their greediness.

They age of the big is not even my concern.

Why can't people ask for simple record or proofs?

A fellow here will always insist on show me "6 months of trading history" before he can talk of any other thing.

why blindly give someone money and expect a specific return without knowing if the have records of having done that before.

even as at that we are told every time past results does not guarantee future performance and people don't even check past results.

Most of this people just want money but don't care about the proper approach

good day all

@meshpips talked of signing up for a proprietary trading firm.

this was actually in my mind to discuss today.
so it seems no much interest.

Anyway, seeing again that we have experienced fellow in the house and ones who have also tried out many things, so base on this, there is an expectancy to get proper or useful information in the spirit of honesty in the house.

so on prop firm, I will take the liberty to ask for any recommendation? any suggestion? any knowledge? and contribution? any information? on proprietary trading?

respected friends and fellow help out.

Shevychen2:


This is a fantastic question. In simple and clear terms, if you still feel the need to keep learning and tweaking your strategy, you are still a learner, pun intended (even if you're no longer blowing accounts).

Every successful trader will tell you that trading is boring. Why? They only repeat specific steps day in day out, year to year. Get a strategy, backtest it for 5-10 years, if it delivers good results (this is relative, but for people like us anything above 60% per year on average), forward test with real money for 2-3 years. That gives you over a decade of various market cycles. Any system that passes the test is good.

Don't forget to make a note of how different risk profiles affect the strategy. A strategy that will give you 350% a year but can go in 50-70% drawdown is useless. You will most likely crash that account when the drawdown hits. Reducing the risk to allow for a max 20-30% drawdown and making 100% per year on the other hand is a good way to ensure longevity. Some people with big capital (7 digits) will further reduce the risk to allow a max 10% drawdown and maybe 30-50% return per year. This explains why one trader can blow their account in one month while another trader using the same strategy keeps making money for decades non stop.

Make a note of the steps in the system and your ideal risk profile, then keep repeating it forever.

If you want to keep reading all the hipster forex strategies and techniques on the Internet in the name of gaining more knowledge, you're wasting your time. The teachers of the bulk of the so called knowledge don't have an account with a one year track record that hasn't blown up. Find what works, shut out everything else.

My answer goes against the grain of what the average person believes, but normal human psychology is why forex is hard for 99% of people anyway. Forex is different from other life scenarios where more learning improves expertise. In forex, more learning often means analysis paralysis or uncertainty in your mind.

If you haven't perfected a strategy, however, keep learning and keep looking for your own system.

Thanks @Shevychen2
great insight.

Pipsbasketings:
These are my answers (personal), trading is personal and my answers may not tally with others here, the reason why we are different as traders.

My issue goes as this, is there any point in the process of becoming or a trader that you can stop to learn something new about the market? or once you get pass the knowledge phase all you do for the rest of the years is focus on the practical, trade and trade and trade?

"A basic condition of human existence which means that people are never totally satisfied with the quantity and variety of goods and services they consume. It means that people never get enough, that there's always something else that they would want or need". We always believe that we can get more from our strategies, like filtering out bad trades, like finding a perfect entry and exit even though our systems are already working.
Since there is no 100% perfect system, we try our best to become open to learning and see how we can achieve a 100% trading outcome. I don't think we want to stop to learn something new about the market or especially our already working trading strategy. Based on the journey to becoming a professional trader, the question is: where do you belong. For me, I believe as you move higher in the rank, the less and more specific you want to learn - just like an inverted cone.

is there at any point in time a need to learn or relearn about the market?
Of course, who wants to remain the same forever, why would Dangote start to build refineries despite being the richest man in Africa for many years. There is always a need to learn and relearn, but when I relearn - I don't dump all I already know. From experience, you will get to a point where you already have a believed working system, cos you are not patient enough to do adequate testing, you become swayed by another strategy while thirsty for knowledge, learning, and unlearning. You then completely forget and abandon the already believed working strategy which you should have practised for confirmation. So be careful when learning and relearning, keep what you already have so you don't forget and so you can return to it when the new knowledge fails.

or look to get any information, in that does the market change?
The market is dynamic and many times is radical, you cannot take or choose to trade all. Be specific in what you look for to trade. This makes your trading strategy.
In this dynamic and radical market, do you want to trade it ONLY when it is chaotic? or when it is calm? do you want to pick tops and bottoms? (these are people that wait for a bounce at resistance and supports. Do you want to trade when price returns from the tops and bottoms and complete a formation (these are chart patterns traders), do you want to follow trends? continuation? reversal? pullbacks? do you just want to swing the price? Do you want to trade only candles, do you want to be fundamental? Or technical? or mixed? A lot more questions to ask. Until you answer these questions before you can define who you exactly are in the forex market. The fact remains, you cannot trade all, if you try it, you will be swayed away by the market. Chose a position and stand by it throughout your trading career.

Cause, having clocked a 1 year with months now, I reach a point that looks like if I continue to learn more, it is harmful, instead it looks as if I should now go forward into the process of trading and trading as a technical trader?
Yes, what you feel is very normal. A time will come where you will be very confident to believe FX is a scam and no one can convince you against your belief. Almost every successful traders passed through this stage.
I believe one year and a few months is not enough to define where you belong in the business, you are still in the formation stage. If you are consistent/persistent, in about 1yr more you should hatch and crack up. In another 1yr of consistency, you should breakeven or make small money but may not be enough for a living. Trading professionally and full-time (FX is the sole and ONLY income to live on) may require 7-10years depending on many factors. So don't worry, keep on pushing, what you experience at this stage is normal.

Hope the insight I require is clear?
It is very clear.
My advice is:
1. choose one specific trading strategy and one specific trading style,
2. backtest it with historical data, IF IT FAILS, GO BACK TO 1
3. forward test with a demo account for about 3months. IF IT FAILS, GO BACK TO 1
4. put say $100 and try exactly the same thing you did on the demo. IF IT FAILS, GO BACK TO 1

Regards

Thanks, very insightful

Karleb:
@Binary Options

I remember reading about binary options for the first time on babypips.com some years ago .
It was exactly like Bet 9ja to me, I made a little research and majority of forex trader felt the same way.

In fact, forex traders hardly talk about it. I can bet that for a binary option topic/article there are upto 100, 000 forex topic/articles/books on the internet. Binary options might suits someone who don't know the market and don't wish to know. Seriously, there a lot to gain in forex than that bet 9ja thingy.


@on whether there are a lot to learn in forex.

There a lot of topics in forex. If forex was a course in the university, these topics can be taught from B. Sc level to P. Hd level.

I must say though, forex is learnable between a few period but so many people abuse this hence the reason why so many people lose.

Take for example, I have a book with almost 500 pages on Harmonic patterns. I'm very sure it will take upto a year to sincerely dissect this book to fully understand this patterns.
What about Elliot wave theory? People still firmly believe the 3rd wave has to be the longest but it's not always so especially in forex market (Elliot discovered his waves in the stock markets), not all waves has the ABC correction, some extents to 7th, 9th wave but how many people know this?

How many traders can correctly draw fibonacci?

What about the fundamentals? Without news prices don't move. We have no, low, medium and high impact news, although traders are advised to focus mainly on the high impact news as there are the ones with huge impact.

How many people know of sentiment analysis? What about the numerous candle patterns and chart patterns?
It's not just about when 20 SMA crosses 40 EMA alone.

My point is, the topics are limited but when you go in depth there are a whole lot to learn and it might take decades to master this is why forex traders specialize and you don't need to know all to make decent and consistent profit.

you see this is my point, believe me I have read a lot on forex and understand a lot.

but there always seems to be something else you don't know.

so am like do we ever reach a point we can say okay, I'm done with my PhD, now is to work and get promoted and work more and get promoted?

WallStreetfx:


it's high time you creats a rule based strategy that you will follow strictly

yeah, this is the point.
do you just have a rule based strategy and that's that for years.

no need to seek to learn more about the market anymore assuming your strategy is already solid.

why am asking this is that, you'll come across a video on YouTube, a post or whatever on FX especially technical and you still want to know more.

that looks like it can be never ending path

Pipsbasketings:
These are great questions, true answers should be provided guys. I beg you all that have positive experiences in fx to reply to him with true answers.



I'm a living testimony of a working forex business: before I provide my own answers to your questions, pls digest this one here - The journey to becoming a professional:
1) You lose a lot of money
2) You lose a small amount of money
3) You break even
4) You make a small amount of money
5) You make a lot of money

The question now is: What category do you fall?

I'm not saying this to lure anyone to give me his account to trade, or to take your money, I'm never interested in such. The fact here remains the fact, I make good money from this business, FX with proven results.

2,3&4
don't know if is possible to categorize that way for now.

cause those are my main experiences. those two groups.

atleast one thing I have learnt is how not to loose lot of money

Tsetsyfly:
How profitable is this forex.

profitably unprofitable

hello to everyone.

@pipsbasketings @every experience trader(4+ years) in the house.

I'll love to know.

it is true that we need to learn everyday.

now why am bringing this up is that luckily we have access to people we can verify that truly the have done this thing for atleast 3yrs+

My issue goes as this, is there any point in the process of becoming or a trader that you can stop to learn something new about the market? or once you get pass the knowledge phase all you do for the rest of the years is focus on the practical, trade and trade and trade?

is there at any point in time need to learn or relearn about the market?
or look to get any information, in that does the market change?

Cause, having clocked a 1 year with months now, I reach a point that looks like if I continue to learn more, it is harmful, instead it looks as if I should now go forward into the process of trading and trading as a technical trader?

Hope the insight I require is clear?

Karleb:
Who else remember this particular trader that buys gold every January?

you eerrhhh
let us wait for the 100:1 trade alert

blackman007:


Seconded....... price is at a critical level of supply, could be a massive sell, but then to be on a safer side, we might have to wait for a reversal candlestick at a higher timeframe to signal our reason to sell, please take my words with a pinch of salt, cuz I'm still learning....

Couldn't get filled.
price just ran too fast downward.
the 1hr "switch" candlestick pattern is actually a reversal pattern on h4.
anyways if it comes up to a good area, I can look to get filled

Looking to sell GBPUSD

Good morning house.
AUDJPY
this could have easily seen a continuation upward, but who sees the anything within that range?

recommendation sell

how the week went. NZD clear winner, JPY looser. Fully risk on week

Seunisco:
thanks so muchhh Zedddd, was really insightfullll. I'm gonna draw up a trading plan that sticks to the 1 percent risk rulee.
it's only my trading psychology that scares me you know. I pray things work out fine. BTW are you on telegram?

Yes, I'm on telegram.

Pipsbasketings:
Hi ZedFX, I tried to bold some of your points and write: bolded , but I realized too many things would be bolded and would seem like spam cos they are long.

I cannot agree less; with this psychology/mindset, I surely see greatness in you. Keep it up.

Thanks sir

See live or demo there's no big difference people.

is very good and advisable to trade demo first.

but all this stories of doing so well on demo and them going live to blow the account is fully about approach.

last year when i got deep with this FX thing, I started trading my demo and thank God by then I didn't have the idea or rather the adequate funds to go live.

so I got to grasp the basics and once I was done I went straight to trading proper.

now my very first issue with demo was that it gave me goosebumps at first, large capital, so high risk, massive profits quickly to the point you think, I wish this demo was real.

Sooner or later I found out inconsistency with my approach, switching strategy and at the end of the day couldn't still find one that clicked well.
okay, after research and studying the risk management is important school of wisdom was what I found out.
okay, now I can manage risk.

but still after this, I still didn't know what worked and what doesn't work(even uptill today, I still question how the market works)

Little more reading, studying and finding holy grail, I got to discover that actually nothing works(sad truth), only certain clues that leads to bias that seems to work.
so tweak a little risk management and everything became a bit clear.

now back to the demo trading
I then understood things clearly.
opened a new demo account.
blew it off the 200$ very purposefully.
that was my expected capital to go live.
I set target that is common to a beginner how I will make 20% monthly and do the math and double the account by 3 months.
very soon the new Seykota is coming through.
lols that didn't happen.

but what was frustrating was how I constantly went up and down in the demo. I'll be up like 10% and down 5%, this circle kept repeating and at first I saw it as frustrating but later on to discover I am grabbing bit by bit.

I never blew any of my demo account though I actually blew a live account in the early stages. just 10$ Sha lols.

so the issue of being great on demo and bad on live doesn't relate.

my heart use to pound when I open MT4 to see my trades on demo and early on in live.
so basically I was trading demo as if it was real. I cared so much about it.

so the idea is when starting especially starting out small, test your skill on the exact capital you wish to start trading live with.
cause, to be sincere it is not hard to trade small accounts but is limiting as I mentioned in my post above.
also, deal with percentages rather than figures. so when you're up let's say 50$ on a 200$ account in a week, you ask yourself how large is that? that 25% and if you're starting up newly you might then want to cool off small cause if you think it's just 50$ you'll want to go to 500$ without knowing you're up 25% already.
someone on a 10,000$ account having 25% is about 2,500$. so don't think your money is small, you have made enough.

now once you transition from trading a minimum capital demo account to trading successfully the same live account, then you can successfully handle anything above that and likely handle anything below.

sorry, that was long

Seunisco:
guys, I have been trading for over a year and a half, constantly trading and learning my forex skill, my mentor got impressed, been with him for over 2 years, more like a good friend to me, he got impressed and gave me about 4 million naira to trade with, I am to give him a 30% return monthly and I'll get rewarded. I'm officially starting on Monday. any advices you guys can give me I would deeply appreciate. this is the first time I'm handling so much equity, a little scared you know. Any advise would be deeply appreciated guysss. thanks so muchhhhhhhhh

Great! great!! great!!!

Time to go pro!!!

kidding man.

to be sincere with you, tell your mentor or agree with your mentor not to fix a percentage monthly
why?
I believe and trust you as a good trader, even though I don't know you.
I believe in a very good run you can do minimum of 50% return but here's the catch.
I have been through this and here's what I realized.
Going with fix return is a kinda bullying the market kinda trading
you go to the market and say, I want to trade you and at the end of this month, I should be up 30%. That's bullying and no one bullies the market.

If you accept this simple idea(nothing professional, wise or too wise with it, just simple)
You'll like experience any of this three, a winning month, a loosing month, a break-even month.
now the you can't tell the market how much you take out of winning months, that's for sure, some month 5%, some 10%, some 50%, some 100%
you can't tell.
but surely you can have a say in loosing months. maybe say, your max for a month is 10%. Now this 10% means you can go three months -5%, -3%, -7% and it doesn't bother you.

To tell you the truth, what I have learnt from people you can atleast call experienced traders are that, returns are random.
I have seen someone 500% up YTD
some months draw down was around -2%, some -5%, some month wins is around 2%, some 3%, some 10% and a certain month around 120%

also I saw a history of over 2 or 5( I can't really recall) years, 5,000%(if am right) return but there's a certain 6 month period that the person went with only break-even and that occurred for like 2 times.

In summary all am saying is
1. Don't bully the market, no fixed returns, just trade.
2. Manage Risk
3. Manage Drawdown
4. Manage losers.
5. Trade, just trade, don't over trade.
6. size your positions properly.

One benefits of large account we don't really tend to consider much is that it provides great flexibility for position sizing.

for example
you'll see Oga Pipsbasketings having SL of 100 pips and that's likely just 1% or a few percent at risk.
on certain account sizes, you can't afford 100 pips SL and trade a position equivalent to a certain percent risk like 1%

jbutney:
Someone tell NZDJPY and NZDUSD to cone down na. Those pairs have trapped my money for like 3days now *tears*
I don't want to enter another trade because I'm threading carefully on FX these days.

I'm also in on these.
the issues with trying to counter instead of waiting for outright formations is that you'll need to have the patience to wait for the switch over which may play with your emotions a lot.

Englishisamust:


I said it out of frustration pls forgive me.

forgive him wallstreetfx

IMAliyu:

I can't say I have enough of a grasp of fundamental analysis, but the price started making a move with the release of this.

pretty much the catalyst here but PMI's of late don't carry this severity of movement but all I know is that's the only thing that looks like the driver

jbutney:
why are pairs with the JPY currency behaving like this? so slow? �
if it's before, you've made like 20-30 pips if you set your trades at 1am

just wait for the stop hunts and watch as it might likely fly

pipnator00:
What a slow week!!!
The market is waiting for one thing alone. For DJT to concede.
Biden seems to have a solution to tackling Covid-19 and the markets accept that.
If you noticed, there was much movement, life came back into the market when it seemed Joe Biden was winning in the election.
I'm afraid if DJT does not concede over the weekend and the market sees nothing in that regard, there may be another week (next week) of less movement (Range market).
Good luck and a beautiful weekend to everyone.

you see this is my problem with fundamentals.
very good analysis but I just can't factor it in.
if DJT poses a risk to the market, abi we should see a risk-off market, runs to safe-haven till the future becomes clear but here we are not knowing how the fundamentals is playing out.
I just can't patch things up.
the other day EU talked about aggressive easing in December, I didn't still figure it out, sad one