I spent 4 years as an unprofitable trader

In the last year, I’ve made $10-40k in prop firm payouts every single month

Here are the mistakes I was making that were holding me back from becoming profitable (you’re probably making them too): 1. Strategy hopping

Every time I went on a losing streak, I would convince myself that my strategy was broken

I’d move onto another trading system, try that for a few weeks

Eventually I would go on another losing streak and I’d repeat the same process

This held me back because it meant that I was never making any real progress - I would reset my own progress every time I changed strategy and it was like I was starting from the beginning again

I only started becoming consistently profitable after I had stuck to the same strategy for 2+ years

Just over a year ago I was working as a bricklayer

Since then I’ve made £300k+ trading prop firms while traveling the world

Here’s how I did it (and how you can too):
1. Take your time

At the start of my trading journey, I tried to rush things

I was greedy and wanted to make money ASAP even though I was just starting

This led me to change strategies every week, over-leverage and revenge trade

This was terrible for my trading - I went on like this for a year and literally made 0 progress

It’s only when I decided to take my time that I finally started making progress

I was working as a bricklayer and in Tesco and I made a promise to myself

“I’ll work these jobs and keep doing trading for another 20 years if that’s what it takes”

After I adopted this mindset I found trading much easier as I wasn’t trying to force trades or get rich asap - I was actually learning the process like I should’ve and I stuck to one system and learned it properly

I started trading prop firms 3 years ago with a $10k account

Since then I’ve been able to scale to 7 figures in funding

If I was starting again, here’s how I’d go from $10k to $1M of prop firm capital: 1. My risk management plan

For this thread, I’ll assume that all I have is a $10k account and don’t have money to invest in more challenges

In that case, here is how I’d trade the $10k account:

I’d risk 1% per trade unless I’m in -3% drawdown, then I’ll risk 0.5% per trade

If I hit -5% drawdown, I’ll then risk 0.25% per trade

This means it would take me 27 losing trades in a row before losing the account - which is very unlikely to happen if you have a good trading system that you’ve backtested (and you follow your rules and don’t over-trade)

If I only had one $10k account, I’d also trade it like this during the challenge as I don’t want to lose it

ALSO - I’d choose one reliable firm like FTMO or Funding Pips to start off

I make $30-50k/month from Trading prop firms

Here are X tools I use that helped me become consistently profitable: 1. FX Replay

I’ll admit it - I didn’t backtest much for the first few years of my trading journey

And looking back at it, that’s probably why it took me so long to become profitable (4.5 years)

In my opinion every trader should have 200-300 backtested trades of their system

If you do you will become 10x more confident in your system as you’ll have the data that proves you have an edge

So when you do go through losing streaks you won’t be worried or switch systems - you’ll keep faith in your strategy

The best backtesting tool in my opinion is @fx_replay

It gives you a ton of insights in your trading system that are harder to see if you backtest manually and collect your data on Notion or something like that

AND on things like Tradingview bar replay - if you’re on the 5min chart and switch to the 4H it will show you the full 4H candle and it’ll show you where price is going to go - which kinda ruins the backtesting

This doesn’t happen on FX Replay which is why I find it much better personally

Also I’m not affiliated with FX Replay, I just genuinely use the software and find it good

I spent 4 years as an unprofitable trader

Here are the mindset shifts that helped me become profitable and make $100,000s from the markets: 1. Spend less time on the charts

When I first unprofitable, I thought I needed to be on the charts for 3-4 hours a day

I thought that the more time I spent on the charts, the more setups I would spot and the more money I would make

This couldn’t be further from the truth

I ended up trading setups that weren’t high-quality, A+ setups and lost more money because of it

I became the most profitable when I started spending much less time on the charts (like 1-2 hours a day if even) and took less trades (3-4 a week)

I’ve made $100,000s trading

But I’m nowhere near done

Here’s how I plan to make millions and build real wealth from trading (and how you can too): As I’ve stated before, I’ve made just over $350k from prop firm payouts in the last year and a half

I was an unprofitable trader for around 4 years before this

I’m not ‘mega wealthy’ from trading or anything, but I do make a decent amount of consistent money with it

Here’s a roadmap of how you can build real wealth from trading (or at least how I plan to):

I’ve generated $350k+ from prop firms

And this is WITHOUT failing and buying new challenges every week

Here’s the Risk Management strategy that lets me make $10,000s every month from prop firms: Here’s how I’d manage risk and pass prop firm challenges depending on my financial situation 👇

I’ve generated $350k+ from prop firms

And I’ve never had a problem with getting a payout

Here’s how I avoid scam firms and get paid every single time: Before people say “of course you don’t have problems Tom, you have influencer privilege”

Yes, influencer privilege is definitely a real thing

But I’ve only been posting actively on X for the last month, before that I had 1k followers and no prop firm owners knew me

So for 95% of the money I’ve been paid out I wasn’t an ‘influencer’ or anything like that

Had to get that out of the way, no here’s how to avoid issues with prop firms…

It took me 4 years to get my first prop firm payout

Since then I’ve been able to generate $20-50k/month from them consistently

Here’s what I’d do if I had to start trading again to become profitable 10x faster: 1. Test multiple strategies

I don’t agree with people saying “choose one strategy and stick to it”

You should do that eventually - but first you need to find a strategy that actually suits your personality

You might be better suited to swing trading compared to scalping

Or you might understand ICT more than support and resistance

So you should try multiple strategies first to see what suits you

Give yourself 3-6 months to test different strategies - give each strategy 2 weeks. You’re not trying to build a crazy profitable system yet, just seeing what actually works and makes sense to you as an individual

I’ve made £250k+ from trading prop firms

Most people have no idea how to scale their prop firm capital

Here’s how you do it: 1. Get max funded with one firm at a time

This is what I did, and I recommend it to everyone

I don’t recommend just buying one $100k account from a bunch of different firms

A lot of people do this to diversify their risk (e.g. in case one prop firm rejects payouts)

But if you just go with reputable prop firms you won’t have to worry about it

The main reason I do this is because I don’t want to be trading a bunch of small accounts - I’d prefer to trade 3-5 large accounts ($300-400k+)

This is because a lot of prop firms don’t allow copy trading (which you’ll need if you’re trading on a bunch of accounts) and because it’s just easier to manage overall

I was a breakeven trader for almost 2 years

Then a few small tweaks in my process led me to consistent $10-20k prop firm payouts

Here’s what I changed: 1. I stopped forcing daily setups

This was holding me back so much

I was so motivated when I started trading - that every time I wasn’t in a trade I felt as if I was being lazy / wasn’t working as hard as I should be

This couldn’t have been further from the truth

Profitable traders don’t care about being ‘busy’, they care about making money

When I stopped forcing setups and only traded when my setup was there (even if that meant not trading for 2 weeks), THAT is when I started becoming profitable

I spent 4 years trading unsuccessfully

Now in the last 2 years, I’ve done £250k+ in payouts

Here are the biggest mistakes I made that were holding me back from achieving this sooner (learn from me): 1. Strategy hopping

Every time I had a losing streak, I’d convince myself the strategy was broken

So I’d go and chase the next shiny new trading system

This went on for over a year and in that time I literally made 0 progress

Only when I locked in on 1 strategy and committed to it fully did I start to see any sort of results