I would like to start off by sharing a little about myself. I’m a high distinction Finance graduate from the University of Ottawa. Upon graduating I jumped straight into the world of trading. My background stems from a middle-class family who immigrated to Canada as young adults. I never grew up with any privilege, started working at the age of 14 which allowed me to fund my studies and travels to over 10 countries. Fast forward 3 years, I’m now a proprietary currency trader with multiple firms as well as a money manager at Hannoun Capital.
Now that we got this out of the way, let me tell you about what really got you reading this article… The best approach to becoming a funded by a prop firm. Find below a step-by-step guide:
Step 1
Learn the basics of the foreign exchange market such as the macro and micro drivers of currencies, and most importantly the art of technical analysis.
A common path is through the FREE School of Pipsology created by BabyPips. You may also opt for any other reputable educational platform which may suit you better.
Step 2
From there, new traders will be able to build a trading system through trial and error. This process is formerly known as backtesting and/or livetesting. This is where you’re gathering roughly about 3-6 months’ worth of data to infer whether the trading system is viable or not. The reason behind this process is so that learners don’t tackle the foreign exchange market with a blindfold on. You can imagine how disastrous that sounds.
This process can be extremely lengthy regarding the basics of the foreign exchange market. It can be challenging to figure out what system works best when you are beginning. I was personally in this process for nearly 2 years…
NOW! How do we shorten the learning curve of this process?
Shortcut : Seek mentorship through an individual that has found an edge in the foreign exchange market. DO NOT be fooled by someone’s perceived wealth through social media. Unfortunately, this has been going on for too long in the space of day trading. Marketers frequently try to “lure” in rookie traders by showing off a lavish lifestyle. In reality, these individuals use fraudulent marketing tactics to mislead their following. You will soon realize that these fraudulent individuals only teach content that is readily available on the internet.
Why should you seek mentorship?
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others … You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself!” I think this is the essence of why you want to read and learn from the successes (and mistakes) of others.
Step 3
Given that the learner is now assimilating a viable trading system, the next step is to apply these concepts into reality. This is what I like to refer as “getting skin in the game”. Rookie traders will only be better than the trader they were the day before by journaling. Journaling allows you to build a set of data in which you can refer to in the future to figure out what has been working best for you. Just like in any other industry, firms’ management will go back into their marketing campaign statistics to figure out what has a better conversion rate to funnel their future efforts into what yields a better result.
Shortcut : Use a Forex Trading Simulator which allows you to simulate weeks’ worth of data within a few hours. Personally, I must attribute a lot of my success to this tool which I found myself spending many weekends trading in simulation. This tool allowed me to significantly shorten my learning curve as you can imagine how much data I would have gathered within a short amount of time. You can search for one on the web, or ask me in the comment section. I can recommend a few reputable ones out there.
Step 4
Unfortunately, the last step here cannot be shortened in any way. You must condition your trading psychology and mindset through EXPERIENCE in live market conditions. There is no book or psychologist that will shorten this learning curve other than YOU, YOURSELF, learning firsthand from the financial market. It is essential to not only reflect on winning trades, but most importantly focus on the losing ones. This is where you will find the most room for improvement and become a better trader from one week to the next.
Step 5
Only after you have found consistency within your trading journey, that you may apply to a proprietary trading firm. You may, or may not have noticed, however the reputation of prop firms has become increasingly popular in the space of retail trading. There is reason for their popularity as they provide something most retail traders lack – FUNDS. There are many firms out there, however the ones I am involved myself with and believe offer the best models are FTMO and The5%ers. Depending on your trading approach, one may be more suitable than the other. The access requirements of these programs include: a small initiation fee, upon completion of the evolution process, only then will firm allocate funds to your name. Finally, this allows you to partially participate in the upside with no downside liability. The profit split will vary from one firm to another, however in any case you have no liability except for your initial participation fee.
This is it folks! Above are 5 steps that will shorten your learning curve and to become a 6-figure funded trader!
If you believe there’s a better approach, feel free to contribute 
Maroun4x
