How To Become a Funded Forex Trader

Forex traders are individuals who speculate on the future price of a currency pair. They stake positions and profit when the change in price of the currency is in line with their prediction.

To the layman, forex trading is a blanket term for all forms of financial instrument trading. But in truth, there are different fields in financial trading and investment.

Forex traders trade the currency pairs and usually focus on just that.

Stock traders are more interested in company stocks while futures traders focus on futures.

Some traders focus on currency pairs and indices.

Now if you know nothing about financial trading at all, you could feel intimidated by all the charts and mathematics that is required to perform in this field.

The good news is that while forex trading requires great effort (in terms of time and studying charts) to learn, it is not as complex as it seems. The complexity of forex trading depends on how you go about gaining your education.

And if you are diligent with studying, backtesting and forward testing, you could find profitability and consistency in trading after studying for 9-12 months.

If you are so green in this field that you have no idea what backtesting and forward testing is, don't worry.  The most important thing to know at first is where to begin your trading education.

Again ignore fears like, I'm not good at maths (you don't need maths except for the basic addition and subtraction) or I don't know how to read charts. Learning how to trade is much easier than you think. The most difficult part of Forex trading is sticking to the rules and controlling your emotions.

Fear and greed are the bane of existence of every forex trader. These emotions influence even experienced traders and can cause losses. This is why it takes such a long time to become consistently profitable.

Where To Get Your Trading Education

Finding a genuine trading mentor is one of the most difficult aspects of learning how to trade. 

The industry is full of scammers who don't care about you and only desire your money. They just whip up a trading course that would make sense to you if you are a novice and then take your money.

But the trading educator you would find in this article is genuine, teaches in a way that is easy to understand and teaches for free.

You may have been preparing yourself for the huge cash grab. This article is not meant to make you spend money. And you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to learn how to trade and trade like a pro.

So if you have decided to roll up your sleeves and start an exciting career in Forex trading or index trading, then consider The Inner Circle Trader aka ICT.

Just go to his channel on Youtube and go directly to his playlists. Start from the 2022 ICT mentorship playlist.

His channel is full of content and it is easy to get lost, wondering where to start. So start from the 2022 ICT mentorship playlist.

This playlist consists of 41 videos that if you watch them patiently (do not rush them) could grant you a great understanding of the financial markets.

You would read price better than professionals.

You would learn how to identify the points where price is most likely to draw to (liquidity pools).

You would also learn about where trades with minimum risk are most likely to occur.

You would also learn about the exact time zones to trade for the highest probability of success.

If you are a complete novice, learning from ICT will save you from the potholes of retail trading that relies on ineffective concepts like, trend lines, support and resistance,  demand and supply, volume profiles and other concepts that have no basis in how price really moves.

You should focus on learning ICT concepts because you would gain the ability to understand the market simply by looking at the charts. There is no need for indicators or robots or trading tools. You just have to understand what price is doing simply by reading the chart.

But you have to take the time to study and practice. Binging through the playlist or other content on the channel without practicing will result in failure.

Try to watch just one video per day. Watch it several times and then practice on your charts. Mark out your charts (as explained in the videos and see price action by yourself). The effort and dedication you give your learning will determine your success.

The good thing about ICT is that anyone from any field can approach his channel and understand trading. All concepts are simplified so that you won't need any extra background knowledge to understand the markets.

All you need is the ability to understand English, a laptop, internet access and time to practice. You need a lot of time for practice.

Another great advantage of learning from ICT is the eager and vibrant trading community he has built on twitter. He normally analyses trades on twitter for his over 100,000 followers. This community is helpful for fledgling traders. You get to see others who are on a similar journey like you. You can even ask questions under his tweets and possibly get answers.

Check out the community on twitter @I_Am_The_ICT

Tools You Would Need For Your Trading Education

You need to have some tools if you truly wish to put in the work of studying charts and backtesting.

You need a trading view account for studying charts. You can get a free account at tradingview.com.

The free account has some limitations. You won't have access to the seconds timeframe unless you pay for a premium account. Lucky for you there are free alternatives.

You can open a dukascopy demo account for free. The demo account usually expires after 14 days. The best way to go around the 14 day barrier is to create a new demo account. You can even use the same email to create a new account.

Once you have the account, download their Jforex platform. It has a lot of capabilities including the ability to view 10 seconds charts.

The platform is easy to learn and once you use it for a few weeks, you would get conversant with it.

If you find it hard to understand, just leave a comment on this post and I would create another post with in depth explanation of how to use the platform to study price, demo trade and backtest.

Prop Firm Companies To Consider

After taking the time to study ICT content and backtest and practice which should be no less than 8-12 months, you should now be confident to go for a prop firm challenge.

Prop firms are companies that provide funding to eligible financial traders. Most prop firms have a way of testing your trading skills over a certain time period to see if you can trade the markets using their funds.

The funded account sizes you can expect from prop firms range from $5000 - 400,000.  This account sizes can enable you earn returns ranging from $500 - 100, 000 per month. Whether you believe it or not, a lot of successful funded traders make over $10,000 every month.

So if you have consistently gained 10% returns or more on your demo accounts for two consecutive months, you could try out for a prop firm challenge.

MFF or myforexfunds is a great prop firm for you to consider.  This prop firm has cheap evaluation accounts and has no monthly charges. So once you pass the challenge and get your funded account, you won't have to pay any extra charge per month.

MFF has a $10,000 evaluation account which you should start with. It will cost you $84 to get one.  Remember that you should already be well versed with ICT concepts before trying out for a funded account challenge unless you just want to blow your money.

The challenge requires you to make 800 dollars in one month for the first stage. When you accomplish that, you go on to the next stage. At the second stage, you must make $500 in 1 month. Once you hit the required profit targets as explained, you would become the proud owner of a funded account.

Of course you can meet both trading objectives within one month depending on how good you have become. But don't force it. Don't try to finish the challenge too fast, go at the pace that price dictates and avoid emotional trading.

MFF profit split is usually 75% for you and 25 for them for the first month of funded trading. After that, you get 80% of your returns. And they even pay bi-weekly.

This article does not go in depth into aspects of Forex trading and prop firms because you don't need to know all this when you are starting out.

All you need to know is where to get the right trading education because this is crucial to your success in this field. Once you have learned and understood price action and how to control your emotions, getting funded would become a walk in the park for you.

Note that getting your trading education is the most crucial aspect of trading. You don't have to get funded. Once you have learned how to trade, the possibilities for making money are endless. In fact, money will search you out once you can prove that you know how to get 5 - 10% returns per month.

There are individuals and companies that would be eager to gain your services. You can even start a YouTube channel to educate others. So put in the time and practice and develop yourself. The sky is the limit when you do so.