Funded trading programs offer an appealing opportunity for traders, particularly newcomers, to demonstrate their profitability and secure trading capital far beyond what they might personally afford. However, the allure of these programs can sometimes cloud traders’ judgment, much like the distraction of an attractive person. This often leads traders to focus solely on the benefits while overlooking potential drawbacks.
When embarking on a funded trading program, it’s crucial to thoroughly and objectively assess every aspect of the program and to remain honest with yourself. Trading Funder advises that the first steps include careful research into the program’s rules, risks, and requirements, followed by a disciplined approach to trading. In this guide, we’ll outline the essential steps to take when starting a funded trading program and share valuable tips and tricks to help you succeed on your trading journey.
Set the strategy that you want to use
Test your strategy:
You shouldn’t leave it to chance, trading is not having luck, it’s actually having a winning strategy that makes profits in the long term. When you want to start a funded trading evaluation, you must already have a strategy that worked for you for at least 3 months, you must be completely honest with yourself about your profitability.
Your strategy should also have a good idea about all basic things like:
- Number of trades per day
- instruments you trade
- indicators do you
- Ratio
- Stop loss and take profit limits…
If you don’t have enough money to test your strategy, You must at least test your strategy in a virtual account.
Risk management strategy:
Even though all funded trading programs force you to follow their own risk management strategy, which is not as bad as it looks, you must also follow your own risk management strategy. It is very important to set a Risk/Reward Ratio.
The risk management strategy can be already implied in your main strategy, if not, it is very important to set one. This should include:
- Knowing when you can or you can’t make trades
- Set a stop loss and a take profit for every trade depending on your daily objectives and in your capital.
- Knowing the percentage of the capital you want to risk in every trade, most traders follow the one percent rule for this.
- Diversify your trades in a way that you don’t put all your eggs in the same basket.
Choose the right program for you
There are plenty of funded trading programs out there waiting for you, but their rules and risk management instructions are different from each other. This is why you need to choose the right funded program for you.
- Check whether the program supports the instruments and the markets that you are trading, whether it is a Forex program like FTMO, City Traders Imperium or The5%ers, or if it is a Futures program like Earn2Trade, Leeloo Trading, Apex or Topstep Futures. Or also stocks.
- Even if most programs support the most used instruments, you still need to check if the instruments you trade are available.
- Check the max losses per day, per week, per account, and see if it’s suitable with your risk management strategy.
- Take a look at the rules, a very deep look, you will find all information that you need in the FAQ section of every website.
- Check the pricing of every program and see if they are affordable to you. Most offers prices start from $90⁓$150 You must also check the reset fees that will help you continue trading if you broke a rule.
Practice in the free trial
The best way to practice your trading with the rules and instructions of any funded trading program is to use their own free trials. Almost all funded trading programs have their own free trial where you can trade according to their rules.
It is very recommended to use the trial at least for a few days.it will help you get used to the funded trading program that you chose and practice your skills.
Every trader has the opportunity to use the free trial at least one time, that’s enough to test any strategy they have. In that time, You will have access to the funded trading program dashboard where you can follow account metrics, trading journals, statistical information, and much more.
Here are some platforms that provide free trials:
| Futures Programs | Forex Programs |
|---|---|
| Earn2Trade | FTMO |
| Leeloo Trading | The5%ers |
| Topstep Futures | City Traders Imperium |
Don’t rush to start the challenge and read the FAQ section
This is one of the most common mistakes that traders make when they start a funded trading account.
The idea to start trading in a funded trading program is very exciting and very unique for a lot of people, it comes with a lot of benefits for traders as well. New traders love the percentage of the earnings that they will get after being funded, they read a few lines about the rules and immediately get started with the evaluation.
Anyone who starts like this probably will fail the evaluation process.
We recommend anyone who will start any program to fully understand the rules and instructions given by the platform, like the scaling plan rule, the trailing drawdown rule, the daily and weekly losses limit, and all other rules. so you have to check the FAQ section of the program that you want to pass to get detailed information.
Try multiple times
This may seem bizarre as advice, but there is a reasonable reason why we said that. And we will explain it to you.
But before we do that, you must be sure that your strategy can make profits and you are not just a gambler. Check the first paragraph of this section for more details.
Explanation:
Let’s say that you choose the account size of $25.000 from Leeloo Trading, the usual price for this account is 150$, and the target profit is $1500.
- You tried the first month and you failed = – $150
- You tried the second month and you failed = – $150
- You tried the third month and you failed = – $150
- You tried the fourth month and you failed = – $150
- You tried the fifth month and you failed = – $150
- But finally, you succeeded in the sixth month. = – $150
That costed you until now : $150 * 6 = $900
- And the seventh month you got a funded account and you made $1500 profits. Leeloo Trading will take $300 (20%), and you get $1200 (80%)
This means that even if you did lose the monthly subscription fees of 6 months, you still made a profit of $300:
- $1200 – $900 = $300.
Conclusion
As you can see the funded trading journey is not that easy as most new visitors think, you must study your choices very carefully and be completely honest with yourself. Most traders fail to get a funded trading account because they didn’t follow the tips above.
When starting a funded trading program, it’s important to approach it strategically and not rush into it. As analyzed by Trading Funder, successful traders prioritize testing their strategies, practicing with trial accounts, and thoroughly understanding the program’s rules before jumping into evaluations. Choosing the right program that aligns with your trading style and market is crucial for long-term success. While setbacks may occur, persistence combined with a solid strategy can ultimately lead to profitability, as illustrated by the potential for gains even after multiple attempts. Following this disciplined approach is key to maximizing your funded trading journey.
