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Otakar Šuffner is a young entrepreneur and stock trader who is also the co-founder and CEO of the FTMO proprietary trading platform. As a passionate trader, he co-founded FTMO in 2015 with his classmate and friend Marek Vašíček.
Otakar Šuffner’s Early Life and Education
Otakar Šuffner was born in Prague, the Czech Republic’s capital city, in 1993 and was raised there by his parents. The 29-year-old CEO graduated with a degree in Banking and Insurance from the University of Economics in Prague before earning a master’s in Economics.
Otakar is one of those people who think a university degree is unnecessary. But, after starting a firm, he realized the value of education in becoming a successful trader and businessman. Additionally, he spent some time studying at Seoul National University in South Korea. He started trading while still in college, but only to execute swaps, which are financial instruments that involve the exchange of cash flows or financial instruments between two parties. He didn’t start regularly trading as he does now because swap trading doesn’t have a profit and loss statement, which shows a trade’s realized and anticipated financial results.
After 11 years of relationship, Otakar is now married to his first girlfriend.
Hobbies and Inspirations
Otakar Šuffner has always been passionate about sports, and in his youth, he competed in semi-professional tennis but wasn’t skilled enough to earn a livelihood. Tennis’ individualism, where you cannot hold other players responsible for your faults, and even the slightest error costs a lot of money, are why he compares it to trading. However, he still has a strong interest in sports and regularly exercises three to four times per week, mainly for fitness, concentrating on calisthenics and kickboxing.
He was inspired to become a trader by the success of a futures trader named Iryana, who supports basing predictions on statistics. Since then, Otakar has continued to employ this strategy. However, his trading approach is distinctive in that he trades statistics rather than indicators, and the FTMO founder believes that numbers do not lie.
Otakar’s Trading Journey
Together with his friend and classmate Marek Vašíček, he conceived the idea to start a proprietary company while studying finance at the Prague University of Economics and Business. They became fascinated with capital markets and began their first project in a Žižkov office in Prague. After graduating, they opened a trading office close to their university and began trading. Otakar began trading futures but eventually switched to forex and CFDs since he saw that these two gave traders more flexibility regarding position sizing.
Initially, there were five individuals in the company, which included Otakar and his colleagues; they traded futures, forex, and CFDs. The initiative to expand came from their demands; even though they could trade successfully, they needed more capital to continue their trading journey to the next level. This led them to investigate other proprietary firms thoroughly, and they discovered that these firms had some restrictive standards that didn’t apply to their trading stock. In addition, they observed that no comparable firms in the Czech Republic catered to lower-caste individuals. Hence, they seized the knowledge and chance and decided to launch their own trading business.
It took them around two years to start a business and get it off the ground. Before the firm took off and later expanded to become FTMO, it began with a Czech project that only catered to Czech residents.
From a Czech Project to FTMO
The vision for the project FTMO, which was initially known as Ziskejucet.cz, which means “Get your account” in Czech, was hatched in a small Prague office in 2014. The concept was primarily aimed at citizens of the Czech Republic when it was first launched by the current CEO and founder, Otakar Suffner, together with two future founders, Marek and Thomas, who joined forces with a few other young day traders.
Each person contributed to their trading strategy and had unique thoughts on finances and risk-taking. However, despite diverse trading strategies, they all understand that professionalism can only be attained by adhering to one’s principles with strict discipline.
The source of FTMO’s funding is an investor who discovered them during one of the startup competitions they participated in after three years of having little to no funding. He agreed to provide them with the funds they needed to finance their traders since he believed in them and their idea.
Many traders in their networks saw the need for greater discipline, feedback, and capital, which is why they started the initiative. Although they faced several setbacks and challenges at the beginning of 2015, they managed to launch the Czech project “Ziskejucet.CZ.” They now enjoy assisting traders who initially appeared unsure and helping them gain confidence and success. The most inspiring aspect of their project is that if one of their traders is successful, they will also be successful; therefore, supporting others is in their best interest.
As the project expanded, they were able to get more funding, and in May 2017, they prepared to launch the project’s worldwide version, known as FTMO, which is now well-known among Forex traders.
After years of effort and research into ideas and demo versions, the company has become the world’s first Forex trading platform. As CEO, Otakar now determines the company’s course, coming up with innovative concepts and large-scale initiatives that go beyond the trading model of the platform and elevate them to a position among the finest globally. FTMO was established in September 2017 and operated in more than 180 nations, making it a genuinely international business. With the US and Europe as its two most important markets.
About FTMO
In a nutshell, FTMO is a proprietary online company that gives funded accounts and capital to traders — successful traders who complete their trading task known as the FTMO challenge. The company’s primary goal is to identify skilled forex traders and transform them into Fund Managers by letting them trade using FTMO-funded accounts and receiving 70% of profits while putting none of their own money at risk.
Otakar Šuffner’s FTMO Impact on the Trading Community
FTMO is well-organized and seems genuinely focused on its clients (traders), unlike its competitors. The company offers additional tools to assist traders with their trading, daily access to fundamental and technical analysis, own account metrics, and most importantly — a Trading Psychologist. This is true even though each challenge participant must pay to participate in the challenge and have the opportunity to manage FTMO’s capital. In addition to an Algo trader, fundamental trader, and futures trader, FTMO also uses a trading psychologist. A free trial is another standout feature Otakar Suffner makes accessible to FTMO traders. Traders can experience the challenge’s framework through the Free Trial, gain access to all the tools, and essentially put themselves in the shoes of a paid challenge member without having to pay anything.
The two steps that make up FTMO qualification for traders are as follows;
• The FTMO Challenge: a simple test of a trader’s discipline and skill. Fees for participating in the challenge depending on the chosen risk mode, leverage, and account size.
• FTMO Verification: this is the phase after the challenge has been completed. The rules are similar to the Challenge rules with a longer time interval and half the profit target, and verification is free.
FTMO traders who are successful can earn up to 90% of their monthly profits and have their accounts scaled up by 25% every four months without a limit as part of the platform’s scaling-up plan.
Awards, Goals, and Recognition
For the third time, FTMO has been named the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe winner as the fastest-growing tech firm in the area of “Rising Stars” 2020.
Goal: FTMO aims to establish a worldwide network of prosperous retail investors and develop an investment portfolio beyond comparison.
Conclusion
Otakar Suffner and his co-founder have created a platform to assist traders in conforming to the fundamentals, such as discipline and risk management. These are essential traits that traders must have. In addition, the fairest rules for acquiring the opportunity to do capital management and providing clients with customized trading software after analyzing their accounts make the FTMO platform unique.
He endeavored to find a solution to his undercapitalization issue as a trader. The outcome is the FTMO platform, which employs cloud computing and cutting-edge technology to enable traders worldwide to trade profitably on financial markets even without enough capital and with virtually no risk.
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