AscendX Review: The Easiest Forex Funding Challenge

AscendX Review: The Easiest Forex Funding Challenge 0

Recently, I decided to do a little Google search to see if I could find a prop firm with one of the easiest possible profit targets, while still maintaining a gratuitous drawdown allowance. 

I also wanted to make sure that the firm offered minimal rules on both challenge accounts and funded accounts.

And I think I just found one of the best possible prop firms to meet this criteria.

Here is AscendX. 

The prop firm is operated under the directorship of Scott Flook, a former investment banker, who has significant professional experience with markets. The firm is relatively new, as it was filed for incorporation in October of 2023. Scott Flook

In this article, I’ll cover AscendX’s challenge rules, funded account features, and other important facts about this prop firm that can help you decide if you want to pursue a challenge with them.

As always, be sure to review the prop firm’s homepage, FAQ section, and reach out to customer support before starting any prop firm challenge.

<<Receive 10% Off of Your AscendX challenge with coupon code “DFX”>>

One of the things I appreciate most about AscendX is that they have a very detailed and lengthy FAQ section, providing many details about their program, while other prop firms may hide such information behind terms, conditions, and contractual documents.

AscendX $100k Funding Evaluation Features

I’ll be using their $100k account funding evaluation option to help exemplify their evaluation rules. There are also options to pursue a $10k, $25k, $50k, and $200k account. Traders can hold up to $400k worth of funds.

ascendx prop trading challenge

  • 7% Profit Target For Phase 1

Offering one of the lowest profit targets in the industry, with only a 7% profit target for the first part of the challenge. The second phase is the standard 5% often seen with other verification round.

  • 10% Drawdown Allowance, 5% Daily Drawdown

Matches industry standard drawdown. No trailing drawdown. With a drawdown that’s bigger than the profit target, there’s ample room for managing risk along the way.

  • No Time Limit

There is no rush to hit the profit target in a short amount of time. Traders can scalp, day trade, or swing trade and risk their capital appropriately in order to meet the profit target.

  • Minimum 3 Trading Days

For traders who do scalp or can return high reward for their risk, AscendX has a low minimum day requirement – which means a trader could become funded in a little over a week.

  • News Trading, Weekend Holding, & EA’s Allowed

No need to worry about closing trades due to rules and not market conditions. There’s also freedom to utilize EA bots.

  • 2 Minute Rule

It’s important to note that this firm does require all trades to be held longer than 2 minutes. If a trader breaches this rule, they won’t lose their challenge, but they will need to restart their challenge.

  • $5/round Lot Commission

Reasonable commission and beats most Forex brokers.

Managing a Qualified Trader Account (aka Funded Account) with AscendX

Sometimes prop firms will give a lot of freedom to trading rules during challenge rounds but then add (often unadvertised) conditions to the funded account, such as with requiring stop losses or requiring a minimum number of trades taken per week. 

AscendX is clear about its Funded Account rules – there isn’t much difference from the challenge phases, but there is a max lot size allowed at a time. However, this amount is reasonable and prevents overtrading or overrisking on a single trade.

For example, for a $100k account, there is a maximum allowance of 40 lots. It is unclear from the FAQ alone, however, as to whether this is a total of 40 lots per pair or for all trades total.

Conclusion

Overall, AscendX offers a competitive trading option for Forex traders who wish to manage six-figures in funds but do not want to strive for a large profit target. I believe this firm shows a standard of professionalism and is offering one of the easiest possible challenge requirements in the industry. 

<<Receive 10% Off of Your AscendX challenge with coupon code “DFX”>>

How to Trade Any Prop Firm on Trading View in 5 Steps

How to Trade Any Prop Firm on Trading View in 5 Steps 0

Have you ever traded a prop challenge before?

If so, then you’re probably familiar with the limited selection of trading platforms that are offered by the firms with which you’ll need to trade.

Most prop firms offer the meta trader MT4 and MT5 as their sole offering for trading with the firm.

While this platform is the most ubiquitous in the market and there are many additional tools that can be installed unto Metatrader, much of its UI and UX design are a bit…outdated.

This isn’t much of a problem except when it comes to needing to use unique indicators, additional options on an order form, or to be able to take fast trades while scalping. 

There are a limited number of indicators already available on Metatrader – others need to be installed and require a multi-step process to do so. It can be difficult to calculate and manually enter orders by price (rather than pips) when trading as that’s the only input available for an order form. Trying to rely on a 3rd party position size calculator and typing in orders manually can be tedious and disadvantageous when trying to scalp.

In many ways, Trading View, which is one of the most useful trading platforms available, is the superior tool when analyzing charts and taking trades. Their order form allows you to automatically set your position sizes based upon the percent you’d like to risk and to set stop loss and take profit targets in pips on the same form. It takes a fraction of the time to set a trade on Trading View than it does Metatrader. This can make a big difference in profit or loss when scalping.

Trading View offers the easiest trading experience – and when applying a strategy and maintaining optimal psychology is already a difficult task, we don’t want to have to run into issues or delays with our platform and order entry as well.

Thus, it would be a boon to your prop trading career to be able to trade with Trading View and not have to worry about using the prop firm’s (suboptimal) platforms.

And it’s possible to do so!

Here I will show you, step-by-step, how you can trade with any prop firm on trading view.

Objective: Use a trade copier to trade prop firm accounts off of a demo account we can access on Trading View

We’ll achieve this in five steps:

  1. Setup a demo account with Oanda
  2. Sign up with a trade copier (TradersConnect)
  3. Use a prop firm login info to link that account to the Oanda demo
  4. Sign onto Trading View
  5. Test to make sure the connection is successful

For the purpose of this example, I will be demonstrating how I am connecting my Funded Trading Plus $50k challenge account to my Oanda demo account in order to take all of my trades off of Trading View.

<<If you’d like to take your own Funded Trading Plus Challenge, use coupon code “DFX10” at checkout for 10% off of your fee>>

Step 1: Sign up with Oanda for a demo account

First, we’re going to use one of the brokerage firms that can access Trading View as a platform. The best one that allows us to use a free demo account for our purposes is Oanda.

Google “Oanda” and pull up their homepage. It should look something like below (assuming you’re doing this in 2024):

oanda

You’re going to click a button to sign up for a free demo account. You’ll likely need to supply an email address, and identification information, and create a username + password, but you will not need to provide banking information or pay for anything.

Once you’re signed up, log into your demo account on the Oanda homepage and access the account dashboard by clicking the “Oanda Web Platform” button:

oanda dashboard

Then, select your “My Account:” button on the top of the screen to access the account dashboard.

You will not be able to connect your accounts to the v20 main account number. It must be a MT4 account. If one is not there, you will need to create it/add it to the account.

In order to move onto the next step, you’re going to need the demo mt4 account login information provided here. Click on the dots to access the account information. This should provide you with the MT4 login number and allow you to update the password for this MT4 account. 

Note your:

  • v20 MT4 Demo Account Login
  • Password
  • MT4 Server

We’ll need this to connect our accounts on the trade copier and to log into Trading View

Step 2: Sign up with TradersConnect to access a trade copier

Next, you’re going to need to purchase access to a trade copier. There are few major trade copiers on the market, but I suggest using TradersConnect, as they have a smooth service and a very easy-to-use design. 

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to demo copiers so you will need to sign up for a monthly subscription or yearly subscription in order to access a copier.

With Traders Connect you can pay for the number of accounts you wish to connect. You’ll need a spot for each account, including the Oanda demo account.

TradersConnect is often a cheaper option from other trade copies if you only want to link one or two accounts to the Oanda demo account.

Follow the directions for signing up with TradersConnect or your chosen trade copier. Once this is set up, you can add your accounts: the Oanda demo account and your prop firm account(s).

Step 3: Connect the accounts

Next, you’re going to connect the accounts. Notice that these are two separate steps – you need to first add your accounts to TradersConnect and then connect them as “Master-Slave” accounts. (Personally, I really wish they would use other terms, given the horrific connotations of this type of relationship in history, but the trading industry generally doesn’t seem to care about such things. For example, consider the term “scalping”…)

Under the accounts section, add your accounts one at a time and enter information concerning the account login ID, password, server, and brokerage.

Once all of your accounts are added, next, you’ll go to the “Trade Copier” section and select the button to add a new master copier.

You’ll need to connect each account one by one by using the “Add slave” button on the master account. Provide the details needed to set up how you want the trades to copy over to the slave account. I personally like to use the option to copy lot sizes, and will usually ensure that if I am trading with 0.5% of my account on the master, then I also want the slave to execute 0.5% of its account as well.

For example, my Oanda demo is set to about $200,000 (I have other $200k prop firm accounts that I want matched). Since I want to risk 0.5% on both the $200,000 and the $50k Funded Trading Plus account, I set the lot multiplier to 0.25. That means the lot size on the $50k account should be ¼ of the Oanda account, since $50k is ¼ of $200k. Thus, my risk percentage on each account should be the same.

You can also change the size of the Oanda demo account to match your other account by “withdrawing” or “depositing” simulated funds to your MT4 Oanda account on the Oanda site.

Once you’ve set your master and slave accounts, it’s time to log onto Trading View.

Step 4:  Sign into TradingView

For this step, you’re going to use Trading View’s Trading Panel to log into your Oanda Demo account.

If you don’t already have a TradingView account, sign up for one. You should be able to use the Oanda account with a free Trading View account, but there are so many added benefits to having a subscription that I recommend checking out their services.

You’ll need to access a Trading View chart and click to show the Trading Panel near the bottom of the layout.

Select the Oanda login option and make sure you select the “Demo” login panel on the right. Sign in with your MT4 login and password that you used to set up your TradersConnect master account. 

You may need to give permission through your Oanda account in order to sign in.

Once you’re logged on, you should see your Oanda account balance and all other information concerning your demo account. As long as you followed all of the above steps successfully, the account should be ready to trade.

Step 5: Test to see that the copier is working

Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that the account is properly connected to your prop firm account and that the position size conversion amount is correct.

First note that you can ONLY TRADE WITH OANDA CHARTS. When you access a chart or create your watchlist, make sure they are the pairs or securities offered by Oanda. 

I recommend creating a watchlist of Oanda pairs you like to trade so that you can quickly access them.

Select a pair you want to use for testing. EUR/USD is a good choice, given its low spread.

Select the TRADE button and you should see an order form pop up on the chart. Pick a small enough lot size that your prop firm will accept – since I was trading ¼ the size of my Oanda account, I needed to be sure to test with at least a 0.04 lot in order for Funded Trading Plus to accept the trade.

Once you place the order, you should see an open position on your Trading View dashboard. Next, go to your TradersConnect dashboard. Sometimes it may take a minute, but shortly after you enter the trade, you should see an open order on both your Oanda demo and prop firm account.

Success! You can now trade your prop challenge off of TradingView!

However, if you run into problems with connection, try troubleshooting with one of these ideas:

  • Check whether your login information for all of the accounts are correct – make sure you’re using an Oanda MT4 demo account (not the primary v20)
  • Check your master-slave multiplier
  • Check whether you’ve risked enough for the order to be valid for the prop firm account
  • Consider reaching out to TradersConnect support if it’s a network issue on their end
  • Check/change your Oanda MT4 password
  • Attempt to log off/remove accounts off of TradersConnect or TradingView and attempt to log in again

Overall, I hope you can see how useful this is for your trading, especially when trading with multiple prop firm accounts while using Trading View for analysis.

As always, best of strength and luck with your trading!

My Plan for Swing Trading Funded Trading Plus’ $50k Challenge

My Plan for Swing Trading Funded Trading Plus’ $50k Challenge 1

As 2024 rolls along, the number of resilient prop firms seems to continue to dwindle as more regulatory fears are changing the online prop trading industry as we know it.

One of the most professional and respectable firms I’ve ever traded with is Funded Trading Plus (FT+) and I am seeking to test a simple and objective higher time frame strategy to see if it’s able to withstand the trading conditions of the Experienced Trader challenge.

Full disclosure: I am an affiliate with FT+ and have voluntarily chosen to be so after I thoroughly vetted the firm for its trustworthiness and reliability. I cannot emphasize enough just how much I believe this is one of the very few professional firms that I have ever traded with.

If you’d like to receive 10% off of your FT+ challenge, use “DFX10” at checkout.

In this article, I want to share with you:

  • Why I chose this particular firm to test this swing strategy
  • The conditions of the Experienced Trader challenge
  • Some of the fundamental aspects of the swing strategy I will be using
  • My risk management plan for this experiment
  • Some final notes on trading psychology while trading a challenge

Why Funded Trading Plus?

As I mentioned earlier, I believe Funded Trading Plus is one of the most reliable and sophisticated firms available. They are based in the UK, and the founders have a handful of years of experience trading and running a business in the Forex industry. 

They were the first prop firm to offer a “no-time-limit” challenge and have always done so since they were established. Their motto is that they wanted to “create a challenge that, as Forex traders themselves, would want to trade.” Their trading rules are realistic, they offer news and weekend trading, and there are no hidden rules around lot sizes or the use of stop losses.

So too, they are transparent about utilizing demo accounts as part of the simulated trading experience – this is particularly important for the current challenges that are arising in the prop trading industry. Many government regulatory bodies are looking to crack down on the availability of online live prop firm accounts and the trading of Forex CFDs to retail traders. It’s no secret that many prop firms use simulated accounts as part of their challenge experience – however, when firms like MyForexFunds failed to disclose this information, they were sued and shut down.By offering a simulated challenge, FT+ is protecting them (and us traders) from losing accounts over regulatory changes. 

What is the Experienced Trader Challenge?

The Experienced Trader Challenge is Funded Trading Plus’ 1-phase challenge. This means that traders only have to hit one simulated profit target of 10% in order to qualify for a funded account.

It’s important to note that the max relative simulated loss is 6%, their daily max loss is 4%. If you want a quick explanation of what is meant by relative drawdown, click here. EA’s, weekend trading, and news trading are all allowed.

After receiving funding, FT+ also has a generous scaling program with an increase in funding granted at 10% profit.

My Higher Time Frame Swing Trading Strategy

Timeframe: D chart

Assets: Majors & a couple of popular minors

Time of day for order placement: 5pm EST (New York Close)

Order types: Market and limit order (retracement)

Time spent trading each day: 15 minutes

Main entry criteria: engulfing candle at key levels

daily chart forex strategy

While I won’t be sharing all of the indicators and rules involved in my strategy, I’ll list for you some of the main features that give this strategy an edge and why I’ve chosen to apply this style of trading.

For over two years, I’ve been working on formulating a strategy that could be easily utilized by people who have a full-time job and very little time to trade. I find that the daily chart offers great opportunities for getting a good vantage point of what the market is up to.

Trades taken on the daily chart also allow for large enough stop losses so that the trader doesn’t have to waste a lot of money on commissions or be at risk of getting taken out due to market noise seen on lower time frames.

Price action trading is a fairly popular style as it helps paint a picture of how market players respond to certain price levels. Engulfing candles, on the daily time frame in particular, tend to show how both the high and low of the previous day were tested and the direction of the close engulfing candle won out in favor (Bullish when closing near the high and bearish when closing near the low). The daily open, high, low, and close holds a lot of weight in the eyes of bankers. 

The market rarely moves in a straightforward line. Instead, price tends to pulse and retreat in waves. When engulfing patterns occur at certain levels, such as just past a whole number, among other areas, this gives emphasis that price reached a certain limit and is ready to retrace back to a previous price.

Taking a market order and then leaving a limit order at some part of the retracement of the engulfing daily candle gives two possible opportunities to get in on the trade with the market having a slightly lower risk-to-reward than the retracement order.

By checking the daily charts once a day, Monday through Thursday, there are often opportunities to get in on a trade with my particular setup at least twice a week. Often these trades return between 1.4 and 3 R with a profitable outcome.

My Risk Management Plan for Funded Trading Plus

For this particular challenge combined with this particular strategy, I am looking to risk no more than 0.5% of the initial account balance per trade idea (0.25% for the market order, 0.25% for the retracement order – sometimes only one order of the two is hit).

I intend to use this precise risk amount for the entirety of the challenge, except when the account falls into drawdown.

When the balance falls below 2% of the initial balance, so in this case, to $49,0000, I will cut my risk in half to 0.25% of the initial balance (0.125% for market order, 0.125% for retracement order).

When the strategy can recover half of the drawdown (so when the balance is back to $49,500 or higher), I will return to 0.5% risked per trade idea.

However, should a losing streak continue to unfold, I will reduce my risk by half again. Thus, when price reaches $48,000, I will risk 0.125% of the initial account balance per trade idea. I will return to 0.25% risked per trade when the balance is $48,500. 

While this can make for an extended challenge, such a risk management approach helps me stay level-headed during a time when the trader feels the most fearful. Reducing risk can significantly reduce the pressure placed on oneself during a drawdown.

I have yet to meet a trader who wins 100% of the time. More often than not, even the best strategies can undergo a losing streak for a few weeks, a month, or longer. Thus, this risk management approach prepares for the losing streak in advance.

Due to the nature of the trailing drawdown, I will not increase my risk beyond 0.5% per trade should the account reach higher in profit.

A Final Note on Psychology

There is something about prop challenges that can make a trader more emotional than just trading one’s own funds. 

Perhaps it’s the mix of more restrictions plus the hopes of a greater account size than anything that could personally be saved for in cash.

It’s important to remember that it’s okay to lose a prop challenge, oftentimes that’s part of the process of learning how to manage this style of trading. Thus, be sure to buy a challenge that doesn’t break your break – risk only the funds you are comfortable losing. For many, that could be the cost of a $50k challenge.

I want to also note that I have addressed psychology through choosing a higher time frame to trade and using a very algorithmic approach to limiting losses in drawdowns through my risk management strategy. 

When trading the daily time frame, I am merely setting an order. During the New York close, the market is barely moving. There is nothing to chase. I merely follow my rules and if all the box marks are checked, then I take a trade. If not, then I patiently wait for another day to offer a setup. 

It is all very rudimentary and securely…boring.

Higher Time Frame or Swing Trading can be quite methodical and relieving especially after many long mornings of scalping. It’s also nice that I have the option to continue to scalp (with other accounts) while letting this account do its thing in its own time.

More importantly, I’m going into this challenge with no expectations for how long it will take. I’m not in a rush, and it’s likely that it could take multiple months to reach 10% in profit. I’m okay with that. 

I think between taking less than 15 minutes to trade each day and risking very small amounts of funds helps make this a calm experience. With a calm mindset, I trust that I will continue to show up, follow the rules, and let the process take care of itself.

Conclusion

Overall, this is my plan for taking this FT+ $50k challenge while using a swing style strategy. I recommend checking out the complimentary video for more information and to subscribe to the DisciplinedFX channel or the newsletter to receive updates as this experiment unfolds. Again, if you’d like to take a Funded Trading Plus challenge with me, be sure to use “DFX10” at checkout to get 10% off of your challenge. 

As always, I wish you all nothing but the best of strength and luck!

 

  

This is the Only Safe “Prop Firm” for US Traders

This is the Only Safe “Prop Firm” for US Traders 0

We’re only two weeks into the beginning of 2024 and the first major prop firm change for the year is already upon us.

FTMO has announced that it will no longer be accepting new US clients – based upon the fine print, it sounds like current accounts held by US customers are unaffected but all new and future challenges are for non-US clients only. However, this is not explicitly stated in the written announcement and any questions current US customers have should be brought up with a FTMO representative.

This update comes a few months after one of FTMO’s major competitors, MyForexFunds, was shut down by US regulatory bodies in the fall of 2023.

It seems like the prop firm industry is currently going through a shake-out process. Legal definitions of what an online prop firm is, the transparency and trust of firms, and other boundaries surrounding the sale of challenge accounts are coming under vast scrutiny in some of the largest nations that allow the sale of these products.

In some ways, this regulatory shake-out may mean better transparency and protection from firms that are solely out to make money from failed challenge accounts. But in others, it may mean that certain nationals may be barred from the prop trading experience altogether.

As we move forward from yet another hurdle to overcome in the prop firm industry, US traders especially may be wondering if it’s even worthwhile to trade with a prop firm if there is a risk of the company going under once one is funded.

While the future of this industry is unknown, for the time being, I believe there is one prop firm in particular that is taking extensive measures to present the opportunity for successful traders to earn a cut from their skill while also protecting themselves from regulatory upheaval. 

This is the only prop firm I have extensively written about because, from the get-go, it is one of the few prop firms that behaves in a profoundly professional manner: Funded Trading Plus, aka FT+.

The reason why I believe this is one of the safest trading experiences available to traders who do not have substantial capital of their own is that FT+ is not, technically speaking, a prop firm and therefore not subject to regulation of prop firms. They offer opportunities for traders to exhibit their skills on demo accounts and win money from what is essentially a pool of funds. Legally, they are differentiating themselves from this industry so as to avoid regulatory issues.

funded trading plusThis business is also dedicated to better understanding trading strategy data that it collects to differentiate strategies that are effective and exhibit a high probability of success over the long run.

I’ve written about the high professionalism and benefits of this firm in other posts and recommend checking out these articles for a further breakdown of why this firm is one of the best choices.

Also, you’ll get the most up-to-date information and most accurate answers to your questions by checking out FT+’s homepage. If you’re interested in getting 10% off of your challenge, use coupon code DFX10 at checkout.

This is a trying time for us traders who seek to earn side income from resources that allow us to overcome the barrier of limited capital. Hopefully, at the end of this, we will be left with truly trustworthy firms.

Top 3 Forex Trading Strategies and Courses for 2024

Top 3 Forex Trading Strategies and Courses for 2024 0

Hey there trader, I invite you to do a little reflective exercise with me right now. 

I want you to answer the following question off the top of your head. 

Ready?

 Ask yourself: After I add up all trade outcomes, was I profitable over the last year? 

This is a basic yes or no response. 

You shouldn’t have to guess, this is a number that should be apparent from your trading log or your account balance. 

If you answered “no” to this question, then what I’m about to share with you should be your guide to how you approach 2024. 

And if you answered “yes” to this question, then ask yourself whether you are proud with the amount or if you think you could have performed better. In that case, this guide is going to help you as well. 

We’re going to cover what the top 5 strategies are for the fast approaching 2024 and how you can combine these with a solid risk management plan to get you on the path to your best trading year ever. 

risk managrement forex

But First..Let’s Talk Risk Management

So before I give you a list of top trading strategies, we need to have a little talk about risk management. 

I’m starting with this topic because without a proper risk management plan, none of the following strategies are going to work for you.

 I recommend checking out the article I posted on what the true holy grail strategy is, which is your risk management strategy, where I discuss some ways profitable traders setup their risk management approach. This should give you some ideas. 

But for now, just know that your risk management plan should include:

  • Rules for how much you risk per trade
  • Whether you increase or decrease your risk per trade depending on your performance
  • What your rules are for trade management, such as moving your stop loss to break even once your trade hits 1R in profit
  • What your conditions are for withdrawing or adding to your account 

So too, you should have a list of conditions upon which you will refrain from trading – such as during news events, during holidays, and when you’re not well-rested or you feel ill. 

You will likely tweak your risk management plan to make sense for your trading strategy, so you can develop this plan in tandem with developing your strategy. 

It’s also important to remember that a fundamental aspect of profitable trading is self-management. This includes your trading psychology, your rules you keep for yourself so as to avoid overtrading or trading under conditions you know you are subject to impulsive behavior.

This could look like having a practical, hard rule to stop day trading after two losses. But this also implies that you are developing yourself as a trader who is responsible, calm, able to handle losses and losing streaks, and can behave like a professional in front of the charts.

Please don’t underestimate the importance of risk management and self-management in trading.

Top 3 Forex Strategies For 2024

Okay, now that we covered a crucial element of profitable trading design, let’s go over the list of the top high-performing strategies for trading Forex in 2024. 

#3 Indicators + Price Action

Number three on this list is a trading approach that often receives a lot of flack but in the right context, it’s actually quite durable and that’s trading with a mixed modality of indicators and price action. 

Indicators on their own are often unreliable as their signals and data lag behind current market price action. In my experience, strategies solely dependent on indicators tend to work well for specific market setups or for a certain month or two, but often fall apart once markets change. 

However, when combined with price action analysis, fundamental analysis, or a way to scan which pairs or assets are better suited to the strategy on a certain day, indicators still hold significance in today’s forex trading. 

andrew mitchem indicator trading

Some professional, seasoned traders who use and teach indicator-based strategies include:

Andrew Mitchem of The Forex trading Coach,
Karen Foo, and
Ezekiel Chew of the Asia Forex Mentor.

In the DisciplinedFX Scalping Course, I teach an indicator-based strategy that is used on the best-trending pairs for a given day. 

#2 Pure Price Action Trading

The second most effective trading strategy is to use price action alone to spot high-probability setups. 

This is the art of reading candlestick patterns in the context of price levels. 

You can use a variety of patterns to understand whether trends are continuing, reversing, or entering a range. Signals to enter or exit a trade can come from price action on lower time frames. 

For example, perhaps you specialize in head and shoulders setups as well as breakouts of flag patterns. Or maybe you mark support and resistance areas and look for engulfing candles or pin bars off of these areas.

This approach requires monitoring your charts as each new candle offers new information, but depending on which time frame you use, it may not take much time for analysis.

rayner teo forex trading strategy

Some reputable price action traders include:

Rayner Teo,
Steven Hart of The Trading Channel, and
Nial Fuller.

#1 Smart Money Concepts 

Lastly, the number one trading strategy for 2024 is ultimately smart money concepts or ICT trading. 

This is likely YouTube’s favorite trading approach, as many traders have visibly shown their profit from smart money concepts trading. 

Trading smart money concepts follows the underlying market structure and order flow of the market player’s with the deepest pockets, that is, the banks and financial institutions who more or less control the market. By understanding where these players are putting in their positions, retail traders can ride their backs and make significant return on high-probability trades. 

ict trader strategy best forex 2024

The Inner Circle Trader, who claims to be the father of Smart Money Concepts trading hosts all of his teaching content for free on his channel. But be warned, ICT’s approach to smart money concepts is highly advanced and takes a lot of time to learn and master. 

Nonetheless, one of FTMO’s reigning leaderboard traders, Paladin, is an ICT student and can attest to its validity. 

Other notable smart money concepts traders include:

Abdullah Rasheed of ProfitX,
Anton Calmes of MentFX, and
Matt Donlevey of Photon Trading

The intermediate level of the DFX Scalping Course teaches an easy-to-learn, rules-based smart money concepts strategy that simplifies many of the concepts taught by these other traders.

Time to Get Started

If you don’t know where to start your trading career or if you’re in need of a strategy that will help ensure your success (after also developing a solid risk management and self-management plan) then selecting one of these approaches and learning from one of these resources can get you started!

While I believe the strategy (or set of strategies) you’ll use as a consistently profitable, high performing trader will likely be unique and a collection of the most useful things you’ve learned on your journey, it’s highly beneficial to begin your success by using a time-tested and results-guaranteed strategy already designed by someone who has experience.

And once you’ve found your approach that suits your trading and you’ve shown yourself that you can trade it profitably, I recommend checking out one of these trustworthy prop trading opportunities!

May 2024 be the year that you reach all of your trading goals! 

How to Draw Market Structure with a Rules-Based Approach

How to Draw Market Structure with a Rules-Based Approach 0

It’s no secret that one of the most high-return and successful styles of trading taught for contemporary markets is the application of smart money concepts. 

This is the art of analyzing where institutions with deep pockets and massive order sizes place their trades. Then take those trades alongside them rather than against them. 

If you find yourself wanting to learn how to trade smart money concepts or if you’re already well on the path to profiting through this effective approach, then it’s likely you’ve learned a thing or two about market structure. 

Accurately drawing market structure is the most important step to successfully applying smart money concepts and it’s also one of the hardest to master. 

This article will help you understand what market structure is, how to draw it, some of the common mistakes you should avoid when drawing market structure, and a step-by-step approach to easily draw market structure in an objective (rather than subjective) way. I’m going to teach you the mechanical process I use to draw market structure for my own trading and help you clearly understand how to do so for yourself. Let’s begin!

What Is Market Structure?

To recap, market structure is the underlying trend and direction of price movement. 

When looking at price over time as it’s drawn visually, an uptrend is considered a series of higher highs and higher lows. 

profit market struc ture smart money concepts

A downtrend, conversely, is a series of lower lows and lower highs. 

market structure downtrend dfx

When a market is in a trend, it’s assumed price will continue to go the same way until a previous retracement is broken. 

continuation of trend break of structure smart money concepts

So with the example of an uptrend, if price were to come back and break through the previous higher low, then this trend is considered broken and price will likely begin a downtrend or oscillate in a ranging market from that point. 

When market  structure is accurately drawn, it’s possible to make profit by entering on pullbacks and exiting with the next wave in direction of the trend, like so.

trading smart money concepts market structure

<<<By the way, want to use the best company for receiving payouts for successful smart money concepts trading? Check out FT+! Use “DFX10” for 10% Off Your Challenge!>>>

Common Mistakes When Drawing Market Structure

This model of market direction is easy to understand and makes complete sense when describing price action by drawing these clean arrows. It may also appear logical when drawing market structure on past data in hindsight. But when we look to live charts, it can be much more complicated to determine where market structure is continuing or breaking. 

Many traders subjectively draw market structure as they see fit. Often, traders will draw a pullback or breakout with nearly every change of candle color. 

trading market structure smart money concepts

Here’s a common example of how a trader might subjectively draw market structure on a live chart. If we fast-forward a bit, we can see how this trend looks like it’s broken. 

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

If you’re trading smart money concepts, then this may seem like a good area to start shorting against the trend, by placing a trade like so.

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

However, if we fast forward a second time, we can see that the market is actually still in an uptrend! 

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

How to Draw Market Structure

So how can we possibly know when a pullback is over or where to accurately draw the pullback wave?

The key is to focus on pullbacks that have enough evidence or “weight” to be considered a valid pullback and to focus on continuation of structure (AKA “break outs”) that have enough price power behind them to be deemed valid.

With a handful of rules that follow these underlying principles, the above example would have a more accurate market structure that looks like this:

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

See how much cleaner this market structure looks? 

And you would have profited with a trade that focused on entering with the trend, like so:

profit market struc ture smart money concepts

The way I learned how to draw market structure with greater precision involves simple rules for designating valid pullback waves and valid breakout movements.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus on teaching you how to draw market structure, so if you’d like to learn more about how to trade off of market structure levels for high-probability profit, then I invite you to join and learn how to do so in the Disciplined FX Scalping Course.

Draw Market Structure According to a Rules-Based Model

Here’s how to draw market structure in a nutshell:

  1. Draw valid pullbacks

  2. Draw valid breakouts

Let’s go over the rules for each one. I’m going to teach you by using an uptrend as our example, but you can apply the same rules to a downtrend, just inverted. 

To draw a valid pullback, we want to focus on areas that will most likely have a lot of big orders where institutions are accumulating entries into the market.

Remember, when big money comes into the market, it leaves a footprint. When orders cost millions of dollars, they’re not taken with one singular order (otherwise the market would move too much from the displacement!). 

Instead, big money needs to enter gradually, over a series of many smaller orders. This also will show some push and pull even done on a smaller scale.

Thus, one little pullback candle isn’t likely a sign of big money entering the market. So too, a tight ranging area might not be the right place.

We want to see the markets pullback from the recent high with a bit of conviction.

One way we can make a rule for this is to consider pullbacks that are at least two candles closed opposite the trend, the second further from the first.

This is an example of a valid pullback. 

Draw Market Structure According to a Rules-Based Model

These are not valid pullbacks.

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

We also want to make sure that the second pullback candle closes outside of a range. So if the first candle makes a pinbar, then the candle that follows need to be sure to close outside of that candles low. The low of the second candle isn’t the signal, it must be the close. So these series of lows don’t count.

From our example chart, here is a valid pullback. The boxed area is an invalid pullback because there isn’t another candle that closes below the first pullback candle.

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

Now for the rules of a valid breakout. 

With a breakout, we want to be sure that the market intends on moving higher and isn’t just making a fake breakout to trick traders into buying. 

Therefore, we want to see at least two candles close outside of the previous high. 

Here’s an example:

Draw Market Structure According to a Rules-Based Model

It doesn’t count if the second candle opens above the previous high but closes back below that previous high price. Also, the highs of candles that don’t close above the breakout area now create a range from which we want to see a break out of. Even if we see one candle validly break out of the previous high, the next valid breakout candle must close beyond these candle highs.

how to draw market structure smart money concepts

Here’s a valid breakout from our example trade. In the box is an example of a fake breakout.

how to draw market structure valid breakout

So using these two sets of rules for valid pullbacks and valid breakouts, you can now see how we can avoid a lot of noise on the charts and focus on the strongest areas of underlying market structure. 

This model helps us drastically simplify chart analysis and allows us to focus on areas where price will most likely react.

It’s important to note that this model is not perfect.

It just gives us a “probabilistic” edge. Sometimes the market is more volatile than other times. Higher time frames may respect these rules better than lower ones.

These rules, however, allow us to focus on best-case areas and to simplify a typically subjective and haphazardous analytical process.

Try it out for yourself! Backtest on your own charts and see if this rules-based approach to drawing market structure helps you better understand the underlying trends on the charts.

As always, I wish you nothing but the best of strength and luck in your trading!

The True Holy Grail Strategy

The True Holy Grail Strategy 1

Since you first had the realization that it’s possible to make consistent money from trading markets, it’s likely that you subsequently formed an idea that “there must be a strategy out there that always, or at least almost always, makes a profit with every set up”. 

Forget your psychology, how much money you have to trade, or your level of experience: if you could follow a strategy with the right analysis and rules, you’d always make money, right?

This notion of depending on just one kind of strategy to repeatedly make money each week or month is often called a “holy grail strategy” – a mythical, catch-all approach that will practically print dollars right out of your computer. 

If you’ve been around trading education blogs or channels for some time, then it’s likely that you know what professional traders think of holy grail strategies: they don’t exist. 

The belief that depending on one profitable strategy for the entirety of one’s trading career is often what leads traders to hop around (or rather, shop around for) different strategies and approaches. This can lead to a vicious cycle of losing more money than what was earned as the trader jumps ship at the first sight of a losing streak.

I’m here to tell you that there IS a holy grail strategy.

But it’s not the kind that you’re anticipating.

First of all, instead of looking for a simple, “run-like-clock-work” strategy, I suggest that you learn an approach to trading that teaches how to analyze case-by-case scenarios and take trades depending on specific market conditions. Smart Money Concepts, the Wycoff Method, ICT, and the structured smart money approach I teach in the DFX Scalping Course are all examples of learning a trading approach rather than a strategy.

But once you understand your approach and build your trading system around it, even the most successful of systems will run into periods of drawdown and strings of losses. 

Therefore, the REAL holy grail strategy is involved with how you MANAGE YOUR MONEY and MANAGE YOURSELF. 

This idea isn’t my own, I first heard the suggestion from an Inner Circle Trader video about risk management and it really lit a lightbulb in my head. 

Risk Management

Yes, it is important to trade a strategy that actually has an edge and can make more money than it loses. 

But what’s also important is how you behave when the strategy inevitably faces a losing streak.

Risk management is an art form and depends entirely on one’s appetite for risk and overall trading goals. Michael Huddleston, the man behind ICT, gives the suggestions to adjust your risk with every loss by cutting it in half with every subsequent losing trade. 

So if you risk 2% on a trade, cut your risk in half to 1% for the next trade. If the following trade after that also loses, then its subsequent trade should have a risk of no more than 0.5% and keep it there until you make back at least half of the total amount of drawdown. 

I want you to understand the power of this model. If you took four losses in a row at the original 2% risked per trade, then you’d be down 8%. However, with Huddleston’s suggested risk model, you could lose 12 times in a row before hitting the same 8% drawdown as the first. Remember that we’re playing a probability game, not a prediction game. With a solid strategy, hitting 12 losses in a row should be a rare, albeit possible occurrence. You’re much more likely to hit 4 losses in a row (Which, under Huddleston’s model, means losing 4% when risking 1% per trade). Either way, by dynamically adjusting your risk amount according to your profits and losses, you protect your capital.

inner circle trader risk management

Another possible approach for managing risk is something that one of Huddleston’s famous YouTuber students, Paladin, suggests (and is a model I’ve used for myself in the past). Basically, you adjust your amount risked per trade according to whether you’re in profit or in a drawdown. Paladin tells his students to trade 0.5% per trade until you make 2% profit on your account. Then you can double your risk to 1% per trade as long as you hold over 2% in profit in your account.

The benefit in reducing risk during losing streaks is that sometimes a strategy conflicts with current market conditions for a period of time – be it days, weeks, or even months. By tightening your risk while you’re in a drawdown, you’re keeping your losses small in the event of a major losing streak. 

Sure, you may miss out on the upside – while your risk is low you may experience a winning streak and fail to make as much as if you had stuck to a consistent risk amount. But seeing how most people have a problem with losing money in the markets (rather than having a problem with making too much money) it’s better to accept less of a profit in order to mitigate inevitable losing streaks.

These are just a couple of examples of how you can manage your risk and money while trading. There are other aspects of money management, like deciding when to withdraw profit or when to increase funds, which merit further research outside of this article.

Self-Management

The other aspect of the true Holy Grail Strategy is having rules for how you manage yourself while you trade. Oftentimes, sticking to strategy rules and money management rules can give you enough confidence and trust in yourself to behave appropriately. Nonetheless, certain emotions can arise while trading and these can cause impulsive reactions.

One common emotional reaction is to revenge trade after facing multiple losses in a single day or week. This could entail taking setups that aren’t there, doubling the amount risked in order to “make back” what was lost. It helps to journal your trading sessions and to get to know how you behave during these scenarios so that you can develop a set of rules for yourself.

For example, part of a personal risk plan could include rules for only taking 2 trades a day, or similarly, allowing for only 2 losses a day before you stop trading. Psychologically speaking, you’re more likely to let emotions get to you with the more decisions you have to make over time, so even if your strategy could profit more from taking all setups, it may be prudent to trade less so as to avoid impulsive decisions. These are just a few examples of self-management rules.

Conclusion

The big takeaway: the only holy grail strategies you’ll find in trading have to do with the unique set of money- and self-management rules you create for yourself to protect your capital and trade at your best. When it comes to deploying a trading strategy, it’s better to focus on learning a trading approach that teaches dynamic analysis rather than a singular strategy. You want to trade “If-then” scenarios that adjust to market conditions. 

Finally, don’t forget that trading is a marathon, not a sprint – the set of rules you’ll need to manage your money and your psychology will likely shift over time as your experience, skills, and personality change. Be sure to spend as much time researching and thinking about risk management as you do analysis and strategy. 

Funded Trading Plus Is No Longer a Prop Firm

Funded Trading Plus Is No Longer a Prop Firm 1

In this article I’m going to be talking about Funded Trading Plus and why it’s no longer a prop firm. Hereafter, I will be alluding to the firm’s updated name as FT+

For those of you who don’t know, a prop firm is a company that provides funding to traders in exchange for a fractional share of their profits. This can be a great way for traders to get started in the financial markets, as it allows them to trade with real money without having to put up any of their own capital.

However, in recent years, there have been a number of prop firms that have been shut down by regulatory bodies. This is because many of these firms were not properly regulated, and they were taking on too much risk while also misleading their clients regarding what was going on in the background of the firm’s platform.

One of the most high-profile examples of this industry infracture was MyForexFunds, which was shut down by the CFTC in September of 2023. The CFTC found that MyForexFunds had been making false and misleading claims about its services. While the majority of the issues relevant to the MyForexFunds case involve irresponsible business practices, another major reason for its closure is due to its failure to uphold the legal responsibilities of maintaining a proprietary fund.

As a result of these events, a number of online prop firms that are still in the industry have been forced to change their business models as they relate to the legal responsibilities of running a prop firm. FT+ is one of these firms that is making a massive shift in how it legally organizes and presents itself.

FT+s used to offer prop trading account challenges, but it has since discontinued this sort of service. Instead, it now proclaims to offer simulated trading accounts with payouts for achieved simulated profit. This means that traders can still use the FT+ platform to trade, but they will only be trading simulated funds and receive a performance-based commission representative of simulated earnings.

< GET 10% OFF OF YOUR SIMULATED FT+ CHALLENGE WITH CODE “DFX10” >

Funded Trading Plus says that this change was made in order to comply with regulatory requirements. However, it is also likely that the company was concerned about the reputational damage that was caused by the closure of other prop firms.

So, what does this mean for us traders who have depended on prop trading to access greater leverage in the markets?

If you were hoping to get funded by a prop firm with actual live funds, your chances at finding firms who still offer this option are exponentially dwindling as the industry shifts. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to avoid utilizing firms that claim to offer real proprietary funding, as regulation continues to disrupt the standard practices in this industry.

However, it’s still possible to make money using trading strategies on simulated accounts. 

In fact, it’s likely that many of us who have traded with “funded accounts” over the last few years have already been trading on simulated funds up to this point. I don’t have a way to back this statement with evidence, but I can make a fair guess after spending the last 3 years researching prop firms and watching a handful of firms get taken down by regulatory bodies.

The MyForexFunds debacle also highlights another important aspect regarding retail trading with online funds – now more than ever, it’s important to seek to maintain a portfolio of real or simulated trading accounts from various firms. It’s no longer safe to put all of your eggs in one basket. I go over a list of reliable firms in this article about the best prop trading firms for the remainder of 2023.

The best way to manage multiple accounts is to utilize a trade copier. This allows you to link all of your accounts to one main account, from which you place your trade, and thus copy that order onto all other accounts.

< My best recommendation for a trade copier: Traders Connect >

So apart from diversifying your accounts, it’s also important to stick with firms that are responsible, agile, and professional. 

I can’t begin to tell you how many of these prop firms are run by 20-something-year-olds with no education and no experience running a business. FT+ is not one of those companies. It is managed by a highly professional team who have the experience and responsibility to oversee the support and service of trading education and opportunities for millions of people. 

Here is an example of one of FT+’s updated programs:

Funded trading plus simulated trading experienced program

This is known as their one-phase, “Experienced” simulated program. Some of its main features are that it’s a no-time-limit, one phase simulated challenge with a profit target of 10%, a maximum simulated loss of 6%, a daily simulated loss of 4%, and a scaling plan that lets you bump up the simulated account size with every 10% increase on the account. Furthermore, you’re able to hold open positions through the weekend and for a $100k simulated account, the fee is only $499 compared to FTMO’s equivalent account program with a fee of $575. 

This is one of the best and most reliable account options available in the online trading industry right now. This is an educational experience that you can profit from by displaying your well-honed trading skills on a simulated challenge. Funded Trading Plus is being highly proactive and will continue to thrive and survive as the entire prop firm industry goes through a major squeeze.

I am an affiliate of this firm because it is one of the last few that I trust and have been thoroughly impressed by through all of these years of navigating the prop firm industry. 

Be sure to use my affiliate coupon code, “DFX10”,  for 10% off of your simulated challenge!

Best Forex Prop Firms for the Rest of 2023

Best Forex Prop Firms for the Rest of 2023 2

Last month, one of the biggest and most popular prop firms, MyForexFunds (MFF), was shut down by US regulatory agencies. [Above is a screenshot of the $200k challenge I passed, and have (sadly) lost through the shutdown.]

MFF is not the first firm to meet its demise due to regulatory or financial troubles. Other firms like The Prop Trading in Australia and Traders Central in Canada are examples of other short-lived prop trading enterprises that faced such difficulties (although The Prop Trading was able to survive its inquisition and launch its website again after a few months of shutdown).

More than ever before, it’s becoming increasingly important for prop firm traders in 2023 and beyond to do a thorough research of a prop firm before deciding to take a challenge.  

And it’s not only important to research the rules of a challenge, whether it fits your trading style or not, and whether its rules are meant to prevent fair funding or not, but also whether the firm shows signs of being sustainable for the long-term.

When you’re looking for prop firms that are responsible with their business activity and have a likelihood of staying unaffected by regulatory or financial issues, consider choosing one that has these features:

  • Publicly displays who the owners and operators are (as seen on an “About Us” page or similar featurette)
  • Ensure that the owners and operators have experience in finance or with running a medium-to-large business. (A popular YouTube channel is not valid evidence of experience in finance)
  • Ensure that the owners and operators are NOT in their young-20’s or at least have members on the team who are older and more experienced
  • Ideally operates outside of the United States and Canada – these two countries tend to have more strict laws regarding the operation of small financial institutions
  • Exhibits proof of payout
  • Has a reputation of being a popular and reliable firm

The Best Prop Firms for 2023 and Beyond

Given these recommendations, I believe the following are some of the best prop firms you can choose from as 2023 comes to a close and 2024 begins:

  1. FTMO

Location: Czechoslovakia

FTMO is one of the most popular and long-standing prop trading firms around. This year, the firm removed its time limit requirements on its challenges and continues to offer one of the most reliable 2-phase challenge on the market.

As an example, here are the Key Features of its sole offering:

  • Two Phase, Challenge Phase  10% target, Verification Phase 5% target
  • 4 minimum trading days
  • Daily loss up to 5%
  • Total loss up to 10%
  • Refundable fee with first payout
  • Can scale account by 25% every 4 months if meet target
  • Swing and regular accounts available
  • Restrictions around trading during news and weekends, depending on account type

 

  1. Funded Trading Plus

Location: UK

FTP is one of the most respected prop firms in the industry, with an experienced and reliable team that are available for email and chat whenever you need. They were the first firm to offer no-time-limit challenges and they continue to offer the best scaling program you can find. Their accounts are also appropriate for traders who wish to hold over weekends and news events.

[Use affiliate coupon code “DFX10” to receive 10% off of your challenge]

funded trading plus

As an example, here is their Experienced Trader Program:

Its Key Features are:

  • Single Phase, 10% target, no verification phase required
  • Daily drawdown: 3%
  • Maximum Relative Drawdown: 6%
  • 10% Profit Target for scaling-up the funded account
  • No stop-loss required
  • Able to hold trades overnight and over weekend
  • Additional $12.5k option

Now here is the Advanced Trader Program:

Key Features:

  • Two-phase: Assessment #1 (10% target) and Assessment #2 (5% target)
  • Daily Drawdown: 5%
  • Maximum Relative Drawdown: 10%
  • 20% Profit Target for scaling-up the funded account
  • Stop-loss required for each trade
  • Do not hold trades over weekend

Both programs cost the same for their individual account sizes. Both offer MT4/MT5 accounts, they each offer an 80/20 profit split, allow for maximum 1:30 account leverage, and allow EA bots.

 

  1. The 5%ers

Location: UK, Israel

The 5%ers have also been around for a considerable amount of time. They offer a multitude of challenge types and products, placing emphasis on rewarding traders for their long-term growth rather than the ability to scalp quick profits. They often offer low-cost small accounts that are meant to be scaled over time as the trader builds equity.

While the 5%ers offers many different challenges, here is an example of their Hyper-Growth program:

  • $10,000 account for $260
  • 10% evaluation target
  • 6% stop-out level
  • 3% daily pause level
  • Unlimited time
  • Double your funded account on every target

As always, I highly encourage you to do your due diligence and review these prop firms, their products, their FAQs, their rules, and never fail to ask questions of the staff, no matter how trivial! 

 

Prop Trading is not dead, it’s going through a shake-out process. 

I believe it’s best to have accounts from multiple firms as to avoid losing all of one’s access to trading capital in case of shutdowns or bankruptcy. Use the above suggestions to make the best possible decisions.

Best of strength and luck with your trading!

Is This the End of MyForexFunds?

Is This the End of MyForexFunds? 0

Prop firms, which grant capital to traders who can pass a challenge within a given set of trading rules, are often a beneficial resource for profitable traders who do not have access to large accounts otherwise. In many ways, they are a boon to Forex retail traders, but not every prop firm is trustworthy and the industry, itself, is subject to change and regulatory interference. Therefore, prop trading is inherently risky.

MyForexFunds has been one of the most reliable firms with realistic rules and many perks for prop firm traders.

It comes as a great shock that all MyForexFunds accounts are currently frozen while this firm is under investigation by United Sates and Canadian regulatory bodies.

If you attempt to visit their site, you will receive the below message:

While the court date is set for September 11, it’s uncertain whether accounts will even be available by then or whether they may be faced with closure.

This is not the first time a prop firm has gone under investigatory review by a regulatory body. 

Another case, with The Prop Trading, occurred last year. The firm went under review by regulatory bodies in its home country of Australia. It took a few months, but they were able to resume operations.

For now, it’s uncertain what MyForexFunds’ fate will look like in the coming weeks and months. If you were affected by this freeze, like myself, I empathize with your frustration. I also want us to remember that with great reward often comes great risk. 

Luckily, there are still other trading options. I believe using a non-US/Canadian prop firm may be the smarter choice for the time being.

I recommend Funded Trading Plus, which is based in the UK. FTMO is also based in Czechoslovakia. Both are highly reputable and reliable firms.

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