Prop Firms: I passed the test, becoming a funded trader

Do you know what is a Prop Firm? In short, you pay them to allow you to prove to be a good trader; they give you a paper account, some rules to follow, and a target to achieve. If you get the target, they give you another paper account or real money account to allow you to trade and keep the profits, always following specific rules, like a maximum lot of Futures, no overnight positions, and others…

I decided to try one of them when I discovered that they allowed trading Futures. The name of this Prop Firm is Topstep. I paid 100 USD, and in about 4 weeks, through a Live Paper Account that they provided to me, I have reached the target of 106.000 USD, starting with 100,000 USD. Now that I have achieved the target, I had to pay 149 USD and they are giving me a new Paper Account of 100,000 USD, but now I can hold the profits I make (always under certain conditions and rules). So, I paid about 249 USD to have the opportunity to trade with 100,000 USD and keep the profits I would make on them. Wow! It is incredible!

The next video wants to be a proof of the target achieved:

Let’s reply to a few questions that may arise. In the account name (top-right), you see there is written “zanoni”. It is just an Alias that I use because I like the book Zanoni by Edward Bulwer Lytton. Zanoni is the main character of the book, and I love him. I am not using my voice because I am shy and my accent is ridiculous, I am Italian! But one day I will use my voice, I promise. I am not promoting Topstep at all, they do not pay me or whatever. I tried Topstep because I saw someone talking about it on Socials. Frankly speaking, I think it is very hard for anyone to be able to reach the target, and I honestly feel quite lucky to have achieved the target. I am not sure I would suggest to anyone this kind of intraday trading adventure.

Back to the video. It was not easy at all! There are some rules that make the possibility of reaching the target very low. You must be very precise and very patient. You must have great skills in intraday, which is the hardest part. The rules are explained in the Trading Combine Program section of the Topstep website. Starting with 100K, you have a maximum permitted loss of 3K. However, the maximum loss works as a trailing stop based on the close of the day. I mean: if today you end at 101.500 USD, from tomorrow your capital cannot move under 101.500 – 3000 = 98.500 USD anymore. Trust me, this rule is a great rule, but makes things very hard. I started in August and I failed a few times before to be able to pass the Combine Program. I had to work on my intraday patience and precision (I am much better at forecasting daily movements than intraday movements, as you probably know). But hey, I did it! And I kind of love it! I know how to do it now, and it helped me to believe in myself because I was not confident in trading only intraday; honestly, I thought I was not good enough (I have always struggled with intraday patterns and strategies; I have always worked in positioning in intraday to let the profits run for days). However the fact of having a target to achieve pushed me to study more about the market and about myself.

Considering that I am confident now in covering the rules and skills necessary to pass the Topstep Trading Combine, I want to add an Educational Program Module where I teach all the rules and techniques I have implemented to get funded. It will be a Module of the larger Educational Program I am about to start around mid-November 2023. The plan is to achieve together more funded accounts. Time and Price at an intraday level, stay tuned!