Australian Trader's SHOCKING Strategy Against Other Traders

Trading would give me some lows, but I had already been through you could call it hell on Earth. When I overcame that and became, you know, the person that I want to be, trading actually saved me. It was that one thing that actually gave me purpose again.

I did sort of have a period where I turned to drugs. Like it started off just kind of weed, and then there's like other things involved: cocaine, pills, whatever it might be. You just get into a bad sort of lifestyle, and the way it was going honestly, like there were two options, and it was it was jail or or dead. I lost a lot of money—250k of my own capital. Not only did I lose that money, but I put myself in six figures of debt. Like I would have $0 in the bank, but $20,000 in a trading account and nothing else to my name. Right? In reality, like the markets will completely screw you if you're not aware that you need to lose before you before you win with trading.

What do you feel like most traders should be doing in order to become profitable? Because, as you can imagine, most traders are obviously losing. What do you think they can actually do to to make a change to that?

It's a good question. I think uh, a lot's to do with…

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…the number one podcast in the trading space, the fastest growing, and that's thanks to every single one of…

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…you. Welcome everyone back to the Words of Wisdom podcast. We are back once again, still here in Dubai, and we are still the number one trading podcast in the world and the fastest growing, thanks to all of you and our incredible guests. Make sure you hit subscribe because this channel brings you the very best traders in the world, so that you can learn to be more consistent, more profitable, and just overall a better trader. And learning that not everyone is always hitting the highs; they've also gone through the lows. But without further ado, we have the very best, the number one trader from Australia, the one and only AJ Currency.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

My pleasure, man. Thank you for being here. I know you've just got back in the country.

Yes, um, literally this morning, so I I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah, literally straight off the plane, quick shower, and then straight here, so let's get it.

I appreciate the effort, man, honestly.

Of course. But let's get straight into it, like, you know, where I like to start really, just to set the foundation, is like, why trading? Like trading is one of the hardest things in the world. Yeah, it has immense lows that when coming into it, people don't see or hear about. Yes, uh, but why trading? Because you could have easily tried it out, felt some of those lows, and left, but you haven't, and now you're here today, so yeah, why trading?

Yeah, I think trading would give me some lows, but I had already been through, you could call it hell in my opinion, it was on Earth. And when I overcame that and became, you know, the person that I want to be, trading actually saved me, and it was that one thing that actually gave me purpose again.

Um, when I started school, I was, you know, early years, the teacher said, “This kid can do anything,” like to my parents. Like they even wanted to send me to one of those smart schools where they like uh, don't have uh, lunch breaks; they work like six hour, six days a week, um, that kind of thing. But my parents decided not to do that. Um, and then through high school, I was really good at AFL, which is like Australian Rules Football, and I also played basketball too. But when I dropped football, these people that, you know, I enjoyed being around and was kind of friends with, they kind of dropped me because basketball is not as cool as playing football in Australia. Football's like, you know, you're like, you're savage sport; it's like, it's like you're cool if you're like in the football team, and I was doing well, and I just kind of like dropped that. I wanted to pursue basketball, and what what came with that was like these people that, you know, were once my friends in football and that, you know, they would kind of like, you know, bully in a way—not extreme bullying or anything like that, just the typical like high school bullying. But I went from a kid that was like smiling every day, then like that smile went away, and I then developed a kind of hatred for school. I hated the system; I hated all that. Um, but I was really, really gifted in terms of like being naturally smart, and I I guess that was kind of like my strong point, because like I would still do like the high-level maths and get an A without studying for the test, but any other subject I would get like uh, let's say uh, English, they'd give me um an assignment, two weeks due; perfect, 30 minutes, I'm done, hand it in, play computer games to the rest. Like that was me; I just hated it. Had friends, sure, but wasn't like popular or anything like that. Like definitely struggled a bit um, during school. Um, and then I sort of with that hatred and kind of not liking the system and all that kind of stuff, I did sort of have a period where I turned to drugs. Like it started off just kind of weed, which is like, you know, normal. Um, then it's like, you know, you go to the club, and then there's like other things involved: cocaine, pills, whatever it might be. And for me, it was actually what I thought was having a good time, but for me it was just trying to escape reality, and that was actually not not good at all. And what happened was these people that actually bullied me in the early years of high school, now I start to like, you know, party, take drugs, all this kind of stuff, and they all come back now; they'll want to be my friend again. And now I think at this point in time, just looking back, I don't feel the same way. I think at the point in time, wow, like everyone likes me again, so I'm thinking that these drugs that I'm taking every weekend, you know, one time, three times a week, whatever it might be, I'm thinking that that's, you know, giving me confidence to, you know, be around these people that I want to be around. But in reality, it was actually destroying me because I was now needing these drugs in order to feel any sort of sense of self-worth, and what that was doing was that was actually making me feel like I was, you know, useless. And then when I was not on these drugs, I'd be depressed; I'd be lonely. I tried to get into uni, tried to do a year of uni; I dropped out; tried again; I dropped out. Two years went by, same sort of thing, like obviously just taking drugs every weekend, like partying again. This is not like an uncommon thing; like I know that I'm speaking to a lot of people as well that might even be in this situation right now, um, and I'm I'm here to also say that you can get out of that, and like there's much, much more to life than than the life that I was living. You know, people start to come around you because, oh, you know, he's going to have drugs and this and that, and you know, you just get into a bad sort of lifestyle. And the way it was going honestly, like there were two options, and it was it was jail or or dead. And I knew that, and I would joke about it; my friends would joke about it, but it's true; that's the only way it's going to go, and I was getting into like some bad stuff as well because of that, um, because of the drugs and you know. But it got to a point, you know, my family well was, you know, trying to help, but like, you know, it would end up me yelling and because you're aggressive, right? When you take drugs, you're aggressive, even if you're not on them, like days after, weeks after, something ticks in your brain when someone says something that you don't like, and so you go off at at them. And it got to a point where, you know, my family was just always trying to like talk to me or this, I would just get angry, yell, scream, whatever, leave the house, whatever. Um, same thing next weekend, same thing, same thing. Um, and it got to a point where like I knew that this was not this is not what I was meant to do. Like I was literally told by my teachers in school that I could do anything that I wanted to do, and like, what the [ __ ] am I doing? Like I'm just destroying my life. And so I got to a point where like I was like with my mom in the car; she ended up saying something, and I just I just broke down, like I just completely broke down crying. Like I just said, like, “I can't do this; I just can't do it anymore.” And uh, from that moment on, like honestly, like that she was like, “All right, what do we do? Like we we'll help you, blah blah blah.” Um, and from that moment on, I made a decision that like this person is never like that's not me, and that's not how I want to be. And from that moment on, I decided that I'm going to do something with my life. I was working as a tradesman for that period; I was working as a tradesman for about uh, five years actually. Um, even while I was learning to trade. Tradesman means like uh, you know, like plumbing or…

Yes, I was doing air conditioning and installing. Yeah.

So I was doing that, but what was that mindset shift for me and thinking that like this is not like you need to stop this; you need to you need to fix yourself, and you need to do something because you know you you're here for a reason; you're just wasting your whole your your chance here. And like, do you want to make like, do you honestly want to make it to like 30, 40 years old or do you want to be either [ __ ] or in in jail or or dead? Like what what do you like, what's wrong with you? That kind of thing. And from that moment on, I decided that, you know, this is it; I'm going to do something, and I'm going to make a change. And randomly at that time, trading fell into my lap. Uh, I heard about it online, and I was instantly hooked, right, instantly. Um, but in that same period as well, I started reading books. In about a year, I read about 120 books. It's like, you know, self-help, motivation, trading, business, success, and I just learned so much all while I'm learning to trade, right? So even though I was like losing money trading, like I was still gaining so much value from what I was learning outside of that, which really, really helped me to keep that mindset on trading, even though I was doing the um, traded jobs. Yeah, I would go to a trad, do do a job, come home, no worries, start reading a book, start learning to trade London session in the evening, let's start getting some like trades in, all that kind of stuff. So in a way, like trading more or less saved me, um, and that's that's why trading…

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. One thing that really um, you know, I resonate with as well in terms of, you know, being that aggressive nature, you know, and and you know, those friends and people being around you and when you're in that cycle. So for me, it was just like weed; I was addicted to weed for a long period of time, doing it every single day. But the main thing that really resonated was like all your decisions then become based off that. So like who you hang with and who your friends are, you base it off the drug rather than if they're good people or if you actually like them or anything like that. Um, and same thing with that aggressiveness is based off; it's like this little layer in between everything. Um, so it's really good to hear obviously that you've turned it all around there and and able to have that moment because, as you said, like loads of people go through that; loads of people to this day uh, you know, still struggle with that. And hopefully, you know, being able to hear and sort of highlight what you've gone through…

Yeah, like if I can get out of that, then anyone can. Like I'm saying that with 100% truth. Like if I can get out, and trust me, like I was in a bad way, and you know, doing bad things and all this kind of stuff, like if I can become who I am by changing my life, it doesn't matter what situation you're in or anyone that's watching this, um, you can seriously get out of it. Definitely. Yeah, you can change your life. Just briefly, let's touch on that just that moment, you know, that that switch in the mindset, as you said it, it was like you broke down in the car. Was there anything leading up to that moment though? You know, was there like days or weeks before that where you thinking about things?

Hon… yeah, honestly, it was like it as much as like um, I love my family; they weren't the reason that I was able to um, change myself, actually. The reason, the reason was my girlfriend, which is now my wife, at the time this was, you know, uh, what was this? So yeah, seven years ago, so like when we were like a year, a year in, kind of thing. Um, and literally she would always say, like, “AJ, stop, like like just get out of that lifestyle; like you just don't need that,” and you know, after, you know, just completely like repetition in my head, I'm like, yeah, like I need to I need to. And it got to a point where like I knew I needed to get out, and I would say I needed to get out, and she would kind of be like, and it just wouldn't happen, right? I'll just continue with that, continue, continue, uh, and it I'll try, and it got to a point that with all that's happening and her just telling me, telling me, telling me, when I broke down in the car, um, that's when it was kind of like that decision to like, yeah, like this is this is when you need to really just go all in, and and I cut everyone off, like everyone I like, no, I spoke to no one for like literally a year, maybe two years. I literally was just me and my uh, which was my girlfriend at the time, and I was just working on trading, and I I it took me four years to make money, but like I didn't just two years lock myself away and be profitable. Like I'm not saying that's going to happen, but two years where I just spoke to no one, and I just worked, saved my money, learned trading, reread, and just hung out with my girlfriend and really just, you know, changed my whole perspective on everything. And the more kind of books I read, um, and the more kind of I delved into kind of the mindset, psychology, spirituality, then, you know, I started to have a different outlook. Um, and I could definitely thank meditation a lot too, because at the end of the day, um, you know, people say meditation and trading, this like, you know, meant to be, this has meant to help you, all this stuff, but it was meditation had nothing to do with trading for me; like it was actually there to heal me, um, and it was there to kind of fix any kind of problems I had. Uh, it was there to kind of um, heal my trauma and my uh, negative beliefs. And for me, it was actually the way that I kind of went from being this kid that stopped smiling to now, like if anyone knows me, they know that I'm smiling all the time; like I'm just seriously so grateful to everyday wake up and do what I love and build my businesses and trade; like nothing makes me happier than that. Um, and that's a lot to do with meditation to be honest.

Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that as well in terms of the the books, the amount of books that you read in in in just a year, so almost I think like two to three books a week. Yeah. Um, you know, are you someone who can read quite quickly? Were you someone who read before that as well?

Never read, never read, cuz again, I just hated school and stuff, like I was just naturally smart, so I would just breeze through. But um, read, maybe… well, it's like if you're reading half an hour, hour a day, you get through a few a week easy.

M. Yeah. And uh, was there any sort of books that really resonated with you during that period of time when you were sort of consuming knowledge and making this transitional change?

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To be honest, um, not not no one really stands out because I just got value from all of them, like even when if it's to do with sales and Grant Cardone's books, you know, like learning his stuff 10x and all that stuff. So could be could be that, or it could be trading, Mark Douglas, you're learning trading stuff. So each one had sort of a different aspect; could have been like a a spirituality book; it's like, all right, cool, learning more about, you know, uh, meditation and breath work and and negative beliefs and all that kind of stuff. So as every kind of different topic is is different value for me, definitely. And then going into that trading journey, as you mentioned, so you'd work, read, and then, of course, do your trading as well, the evening. What was that that process like, you know, that learning phase for you? You know, what did that look like? You said it took about four years to become profitable.

Yeah, it did. It did, which is a long time when you consider that you lock yourself… like you'd expect it to be a year, but for me, it just wasn't like that. And I think it had a lot to do with um uh, the negative emotions around money um, at the at some point, um, especially when you don't really have money, it's very hard to kind of bring it to I guess fruition, like uh, have it come out to you. Um, so it's more like it's more like uh, it's going to take a long time to kind of uh, build that, and as well as the intuition that it takes to be a trader, cuz I think that's what honestly takes years, going through what the markets… and from beginner to to profitable, I think it's actually so much… it's not so much following the rules; well, it is, you got to follow your rules, and you got to have your strategy, but we did a trade breakdown before; you can see that, you know, there's strategy, but there's also intuition there. It's like, you know, that people are going getting into a trade one way, so you go the opposite way, and it's kind of like just feeling the market out, and I think that's what takes years. Cuz you can't just kind of, you know, see that enter CU, you get you take loss, loss, loss, and then you have a win, but it's about being patient and having that intuition to know that now's the time. That's what takes years in my opinion.

Well, in terms of that intuition, like what would you describe that as? Like if you were to describe it, what does it rely on? Does it rely on data? Does it rely on repetition?

Yeah, repetition more, but it's almost like uh, I think it is like a it's like a what do they say, six sense? Is that what it's like, a sixth sense? Where it's like you just know that this is this is this is happening; you can see um, you know, traders are going in here; traders are getting manipulated, and then that's my time to go the other way, but being careful that there's not more, you know, manipulation, manipulation to one side before price ends up going in in your direction, and you have an unnecessary loss. So um, it just takes years to get that kind of knowledge and to get that kind of uh, feel with the market. But I think that's why it takes so long to be profitable, but once you get that, that's when you kind of like you don't even need a chart half the time or like, you know, you don't need to draw anything, so you can just see it happening over and over again; you just know now's the time. Well, you back test and like, you know, 80% profit, whatever. Um, yeah, it's just something that gets built up over time, but I think it's the the key to being profitable is building that intuition.

Yeah. Is there any sort of common pitfalls or mistakes that you made during your learning phase that really stand out to you and and things that you learn from them?

Yeah, so I I lost a lot of money—250k of my own capital. Yeah, it was devastating. Um, so that was not the right thing to do; like I should have just been on demo or um, small live accounts, not trying to blow all my money, pre-tax money, which ended up meaning six figures of debt. So uh, as you can see, um, not only did I lose that money, but I put myself in six figures of debt due to being stupid and thinking that… and I I've heard this story before; I had a student that took out 60k on top of his mortgage; he bought a house, took 60k out, traded with that, blew it, and then he can't pay for his house cuz the payments went up; now he's probably going to lose his house. Like I I hear this [ __ ] all the time, but people just the the greed takes over, and the emotions take over; they think that no, it's different with me though, and I'm going to make money. But in reality, like the markets will completely [ __ ] you if you're not um, if you're not aware that you need to lose before you before you win with trading. With that those heavy losses in the debt, like most people may not be as significant in terms of the number, but most people go through that, and majority people don't overcome it. Like that is something that sticks in their mind consistently, always; that holds them back, like every time they go to trade again; that's what stops them because they're constantly thinking about the losses they need to make back; FOMO, greed, then kicks in; they over-leverage, they over-size, over-trade, normally blows up, adding to the losses, and then that's just a cycle they find themselves in until they quit. Um, there's very few people who turn that around. Like what was it that allowed you to turn that around and make those changes?

I don't know; like it's just one of those things. So even I look back at that; I'm like, damn, like how like you know. But I think with what I went through previously in my life, I think that that something inside me, whether it's God or whatever, talking to me, my higher self, whatever, something inside me was saying that, you know, whatever happens, like you're good; like you're going to be good; just keep sticking to it; stick to the path. I knew that trading was for me. Did I only try trading? No, I tried dropshipping; I tried all these other business models, and it never worked, and I had people laugh at my face telling me that oh, why you selling these uh, like I had dog uh, little dogs; why you selling these dog clothes? Like, oh, it's so stupid, ha, like…

Bro, like I'm trying here, like leave me alone. Like this is the sort of thing, like you know, cut out that negative energy and then focus on trading. And I knew that, no matter what, even after I'd lost all that money, I knew that it's all right, because you know, you've got your whole life ahead. Just pay your debt off slowly, keep trying with the trading. And then after four years, I think that's why as well, it took four years, cuz that's a heavy hit as well, like that psychologically. I had to take several months off at different periods. This is not working, like I'm over it. But then after four years, finally becoming profitable, then it was like, great, like now I can finally live the life that I always wanted to live. So I, I, I stopped doing air conditioning at that point, after I made some money, of course, had a bit of a buffer there. Uh, moved to the Gold Coast. I used to live in Australia, like right at the bottom. Now, not many people know—H, sorry—I used to live in Adelaide, at the bottom of Australia. Not many people know it; it's very small, especially from overseas. But yeah, it's right at the bottom, uh, and then moved to the Gold Coast for a year. While I was there—again, four years into trading, not one year, not two years—I started a mentorship program, and not long after, I started my prop firm, Funex. So from there, I moved to Dubai, and now um, trading full-time, building businesses, and honestly, living, living the dream for sure.

I love to hear it. Obviously, going from such lows and before training, even in terms of the addiction, etc., to be able to overcome that, do you think that helped though, like knowing that, okay, I've overcome something much harder than taking losses?

It helped a lot. It helped a lot. It was, it was like knowing that you got through something that traumatic and, like you know, you put people through hell, as with you. You're not just going through it yourself; that's what people don't realize when they're going through something like that: you're dragging people along, you're dragging your, um, partner along, you're dragging your family along, and you know that's, you know, people are seeing that, and you know you're building this now reputation for being this, you know, party of this, you know, you don't want that, um, so but going through that and, and allowed me to have that, that, that knowing in my, again, high self, whatever, that you know, everything's going to be all right, just keep trying, keep trying, and, and it'll work out.

What do you feel like was the pivotal change though, from losing to winning for you in trading?

Um, the pivotal change for me was just, again, time, time number one, um, going back to a demo account after blowing 250k, number two, um, prop firms helped as well, number three, um, and just that intuition that was built over the years, um, would probably be the, the biggest reason I would say was, was journaling ever part of your routine? Is it something you still do now?

Yeah, still journal, um, not, not as detailed as I used to, uh, but still journal every trade that I take, mainly just, uh, because now it's like I've seen these things a thousand times, I don't need a set screenshots in, I just need to see where my entry was, where my exit was, and kind of what my emotion was; that's all that I, I just keep it simple, cuz if I do it too, if I do too much detail, then I actually just can't be bothered some days, and then it just, it's bad habit. If I keep it simple, basic, then I know that, all right, tomorrow I'll do it, the next day, the next day, every day, so it keeps it, by keeping it simple, it keeps it consistent for you.

Yeah, that's it, that's it, simple is good.

Yeah. When you originally started journeying, what were the main things you would focus on?

Uh, everything, everything, the, the, the screenshots, every single timeframe, the entry, the exit, the emotions in the trade, um, how the trade went, the trade management, but it's good, I think as a beginner it's probably worth it, but it's just very time-consuming, and you know, there's platforms now that cut that time down, um, but for me, I still, I still like it simple.

Do you feel like it was necessary though at that time to build your edge, to see the mistakes, etc.?

100%, it's definitely necessary early on, like you just have to do the work, otherwise you'll never be profitable.

Do you feel like a lot of traders—where you observe, obviously as you said you like you've taught traders as well—what was one of the biggest common mistakes you see them making? Is it doing the little things like that, like journaling, just not putting in that time and effort into building an edge out?

I would say yeah, journaling is a big one, um, and then just taking the time, taking the time that's necessary to be profitable, like you don't need to rush. Think about it, if like you're 20, even 25, even 30, 35, it doesn't even matter, like if you are going to take four or five years to make money, just go slow, stick at it with your normal job, do funded challenges when you can, load up small, um, personal accounts when you can, when you can afford to, don't go too all in, of course, and just take it slow, like once you build consistency, then all right, cool, I built consistency on a, you know, $4,000 personal account, I've built it up to 8K, risking 2% per trade, now I know that I've got what it takes to, you know, maybe it's funded challenges, maybe it's increasing the capital in personal, if I've got money sitting there, you know, there's endless opportunities there, but the rush is what kind of ruins people in my opinion.

Definitely, because I feel like a lot of people, people, they, of course I get it in terms of everyone wants to become profitable as soon as possible, but equally it's like, what is your goal? Is your goal to trade for just a year, quickly make much money and leave, or is your goal to trade for 10, 20 years, really scale your capital and invest and, and do other things as well?

Um, how, how helpful was it to you though, creating a side income, whether that's through courses or anything else? Yeah, but how important was that to you in terms of creating and relieving pressure from your trading as well?

It was, uh, well, at the time actually it didn't really matter because, um, I had, uh, bought a property in Adelaide, um, on the water, and I actually sold that, so that gave me like a decent buffer, like a, like a six-figure buffer, so I didn't necessarily need a second income, like I had like a couple years of living expenses there, so I knew that, all right, cool, like if I don't make money trading, I've got a couple years, like that's it, so to make it work, of course, which I knew I was already profitable then, I wasn't taking the risk, but, but having, of course, a second income for anyone that doesn't have that buffer, it's huge, whether it's a job, whether it's teaching on the side, whatever it is, I think it's worth doing. If you're a trader and you're profitable, you're stupid not to teach other people how to trade, also, um, I guess my, my thing is, when traders are not profitable and they're trying to teach trading, it kind of pisses me off, cuz like it's just like, if you're teaching trading, you're not making money yet, the, the everyone that you're teaching is not going to make money, because I mean, how can they? It's not working for you, why would it work for people that you're trying to teach? Um, that's what pisses me off a bit, but other than that, uh, I think it's worth doing if you are profitable.

It's, as you said, like once you have that cash buffer, whether it's a cash buffer or an income, like either of the two, maybe even both, you know, combination of the two, but the cash buffer really makes a difference, I think, and a lot of people unfortunately don't discuss it too often, um, because maybe she's not what, what people want to hear. That's what I always say is like, you know, you can use short-form content to tell people what they want, like hook them in, but then give them what they need, especially on the long-form side, because you know, otherwise people really get this false idea of trading, and I think a lot of people get into trading with zero money, like really very little money, and they don't, a lot of people that I've come across don't have like a good paying job either.

Yeah, um, and that's like, I think one of the worst combinations, because then you're always desperate for money. At least the people who say have some decent, high-paying job, whether that's in sales or they have a degree and they're an engineer, let's say, um, but they're getting a good salary, they're in a much better position. It's hard for them to trade; they still have struggles because timing-wise, that's a big part of this, U, because they're working a lot, but otherwise though, a big part of the struggle in terms of finance is off the table, and I think that's where we see a lot of issues with today's trading is that a lot of retail traders, the barrier to entry is so low, there's no checks, there's no nothing, nothing like that, and therefore people can literally just throw their last few dollars or last $100 that's meant to—it's not their class is spare, but in reality should be their savings money to help them start building that buffer. Is that something you've reflected on as well?

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Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think I totally agree. I think that, you know, especially if you own a business, then you're in the best, you're in the best state, cuz then you can kind of leverage that, but yeah, high-paying jobs are very, very key. If you don't have a high-paying job, then save and, and like, let's say you want to trade your own money, just start really small. If you want to trade prop firms, start on a 5K challenge, like don't rush, take it easy, slowly, don't try and blow the, don't try and high-risk the challenge, don't try and, you know, flip your account, just nice and slow, take your time, cuz once you're profitable, the world opens up for you, and that's what's should be the goal, and that's what the only focus should be.

You mentioned prop firms being part of that journey, you know, one, one of the reasons why you were able to turn things around, you know, what do that look like for you, your, your prop firm journey?

Yeah, so I mean, essentially, you know, because of course with the leverage of capital, you can get 100K for, you know, $500 or, or less, $400, um, so what, what it's, what it did for me was it allowed me to kind of recoup my investment quicker, make money quicker, and allow me to then filter any profits into personal. I've always traded a personal account; I'm very big advocate in trading personal capital also, because I think it keeps you disciplined, and there's, there's a lot of people out there that flex, you know, huge payouts and all this stuff, but they're not, like I can tell they're not profitable, because I mean, I, I have a prop firm, I can see that, you know, there's, you know, you, you, you can see that there's, there's risk involved with taking a challenge, and if you're kind of only relying on props to make money without a track record on personal, for example, there's a guy in Australia trading pool who trades with us in Funded X, he makes really good payouts, and he also has his personal account, he actually has a track record where he shows every month that he's made money, great, but then there's people that you see that they have props and they blow, blow, blow, blow, blow, big payout, it's like, well, you know, how, how, how do, how can you sleep at night marketing that when you know that you know it's gambling, like it's gambling, some of these guys with the biggest payouts and props, they're gamblers, and it's like crazy to me to see that, um, and I was shocked honestly, cuz I'm like, wow, like even, even me looking like, damn, like this much money, this much like, this much like, and you realize like it's all like just complete, it's, you know, hit or miss, or reverse trading and hedging, I'm like [ __ ] like there's a lot going on here.

Yeah, there's a lot, like people hear of it, but then they think of it's like an excuse prop firms use, but there are so many cheaters in the space, which is unfortunate, CU, they make it harder and worse for the legitimate people trying to trade, um, and then yeah, like you said, there's the gamblers, CU, that's why props are great for people who have an edge and, and can utilize the capital right. It's also great for those people who can play the numbers; it's great for them. It might not be good for the prop, not be good for the wider community, but for them it's great, right? It's a great opportunity for them to make some good money, as we've seen a couple of people do in the space, um, where they would do very high risk and they made very big payouts, right? Um, but as you say though, in terms of as a trader, an actual trader on a personal account, it doesn't reflect, because you know, as the, you know, the $500 for $100k account on average you get 10% drawdown, cool, you might blow 10 accounts that, that in reality would be 100%, right, 100K gone, but then all it takes for you to do is that would be about 5k, right? All it would take is that one account you make 20%, right? So now you're technically profitable on the model, but in reality you, you would have blown your accounts, you wouldn't have even had money to, to make the 20%, and I think, um, I mean, people just forget or don't really think about in that way, I think it's dangerous. I think that's why a lot of professional traders really don't like prop firms for that very reason, I think, because they don't, they say it's not real trading.

Yeah, I agree, in a sense, I do agree, because have I see it all the time, um, and I think that, you know, this is why I think, you know, you've got to trade that personal and show people that, you know, you actually can be consistent over time, because yeah, like if there was a copy trader link, like that personal is empty, and if you're funneling your prop firm profits into there, like you've made 0, in fact, you've lost all the challenge fees that you've paid along the way, right? So it's, it's a bit eye-opening, but of course, when, when you kind of have a prop, you can kind of pick up on this kind of behavior and see it, um, and it's very, very clear, um, but man, it's, uh, it was, uh, it was a shock at the start, cuz I'm like, damn, like, you know, this guy's flexing this and, and, and, and this is the reality of that, it's like, you know, the P&L on the props is like negative hundreds of thousands, but the profit that they've taken out is plus hundreds of thousands, cuz they've kind of played the system in a way.

Yeah, um, I think props as well that they, they should all kind of go into a, like it's like, should be like a, we don't want gamblers movement, or in a way, so you know, what, what, what's going to help a trader and what's going to help a prop as well to have a good relationship and a long-term relationship is not to come on and try and gamble your way to a payout, cuz either one thing's going to happen, you're going to blow, you know, people come in and they'll spend 25k in, like, you know, a few weeks and never get a funded account. It might be the opposite where someone spends 10 or 12K and they get a huge payout, no problem, but I think what the best thing is for everyone is to adopt a non-gambling mindset. This person that spent 25k might have spent two or three, they might even got to a funded account if they took it slow. This person that did 10 or 12K might have, again, spent a lower amount, maybe gotten 10 or 12K payout, which again, the P&L is the same, but it's like, it kind of helps the trader be a better trader as well, kind of not thinking about getting funded straight away and getting a huge payout, but actually taking it in a kind of respectful manner where they're, they're thinking about their future as a trader and not just this prop firm payout that they're trying to get to flex on, on Instagram, right? I think that's a, that's a big difference, and I think that's going to actually help traders to treat it like it's an actual hedge fund or like a legit, like funded firm, like with the, with the money, yeah, then the trader is going to get 10 times better, the payouts are going to be literally every single payout cycle, they're going to be getting paid, yeah, and you know, they're not going to be having that, that negative gambling mindset, because once they take that into a personal account or try and get hedge fund capital, they're going to get denied, or if they do, like they're going to blow their accounts. So I think as well, like it's going to be a huge, a huge thing if people can, like, uh, really treat it like it's a real account on a challenge.

Also, I think it's important, and I think certain things have changed in the space over the recent months, some good, some bad. One of the good things, I think, is creating slightly stricter challenges and rules; the bad thing being that some firms aren't clear enough on their rules. I think the hardest one is, as you mentioned, like the, the risk, you know, like not over-risking, but then the, the daily drawdowns quite high, so you know, then the, the trader's argument is that, you know, why have the daily drawdown that high if you're not happy for us to use it, right? But then equally, I'd say that the prop firm's argument to that would probably be like, but then you can trade, you know, if you only had 2% risk per day that you're allowed to use, you then, if you had two trades you want to take, that's it, you know, you'd use one on each, you might, you might breach it if you lose both accidentally, versus okay, you can have 5% as a daily drawdown, that's it, but maybe you can only have 2% max per trade or something, but then it becomes like this huge logistical issue, cuz then all your, you know, you have to have a whole team who's going to monitor all these trades all the time.

Yeah, you could try and flag it, etc. They're the problems that other people have to deal with. Yes, luck knows, but in terms of trading-wise, your strategies, I, you're someone who has like transitioned your strategies over time as well, not maybe massively, um, you know, from maybe where you started it probably looks hugely different, but, um, but even like as you've come in, I know you were like SMC trading for a bit, now you're doing more liquidity-based trading. Can you talk to us about like the transition through strategies, what that look like for you?

Of course. So I started out mainly 2017 was like patterns, like triangles and support resistance and wedges and that kind of like really basic, I think everyone kind of starts out somewhat like that, um, and then from there was actually like an Asia high and low strategy, so maybe combining the liquidity of the Asian high, once that's taken out, looking for a sell, uh, maybe like a rejection candle on the 15-minute for a sale, something like that. Then it became sort of smart money concepts. I learned this from first from a guy in Australia, don't know if he's teaching anymore, maybe he is, I'm not sure, um, but he was doing quite well at the time. This is when smart money was, I think what this must have been 20, 2020, I think, so this is like the peak of like when I, when I think anyway that it was profitable, super profitable, and then it kind of the profitability kind of went less and less and, like you know, you're trading the same way, but the losses are increasing, the win rates are decreasing, the, the profit overall is decreasing, uh, even, even though it's somewhat profitable still, I think that this sort of had alarm bells go off, and then over time you're starting to see that the entries that used to be A+ entries, they're not A+ entries anymore, and then for me it was like, all right, cool, well, what can I look for? There was looking for like sweeps and inducements and stuff, let's take a trade based off of that. I think there's somewhat value there; it's more or less a liquidity sweep, um, it's, it's, there's a lot of, you know, noise in the middle, but at the end of the day it's a liquidity sweep, looking for a buy, um, after a low's taken, which might be a demand zone, whatever. Uh, I think that's, that's good in a way, um, I think it can be simplified, it's just liquidity taken, get into a buy, simple, but now it's like, instead of simply understanding that price will go and take this liquidity, now my thinking is like, how do I target that liquidity? Yeah, and now I'm looking for like, if price is bullish, comes into a demand zone, does a few bullish breaks of structure, whatever it might be, creates more lower timeframe demands, like that's every time that's a sell for me, because I've seen time and time again these obvious early entries, like think about it, how many people in London session wait for a break of structure on EU, take a sell or buy, everyone, millions of people, maybe, I don't know, like, so I'm trying to do the opposite. If I see a break of structure, the 15-minute to the downside, every time's a buy for me, I'm targeting the supply, I'm targeting the high, so I'm targeting the actual liquidity itself instead of waiting for it to be taken out and then go in the other direction, cuz that's hit and miss, sometimes it takes the liquidity, reacts a bit, keeps going in wherever direction it was going, and sometimes it takes it and just completely goes, sometimes it provides an entry, sometimes it doesn't. I don't want to have to guess; like I just want to be simple and target the liquidity, have a 20-pip stop on gold, easy.

Do you feel like a lot of people are constantly trying to get the reversal, so like you said, like the sweeper liquidity, then try and get the pullback or the reaction versus just the targeting of the liquidity? Sounds like it's more going with the trend, with the momentum.

Yeah, because if price has a resistance level and a trend line and equal highs and, and a supply zone all in one spot, people want to wait for that to be all taken out and get into a sell, but for me, I just, why don't I just target that? Like, if price is going to go there anyway, I just got to get into an entry with a safe stop loss, and then more or less price will make its way into that area and I can close my trade; I don't care what happens after that, simple.

I do find it fascinating. What do you think?

It is that people always focused on trying to get those retracements and pullbacks or reversals. Um, I think as well smart money has a lot to do with it, like smart money, and then they see a sweep, and then they're calling it—I don't know, I don't know what they call it—like sweep and juice, too many names, all these different names. Yeah, so for me it's like, yeah, makes it makes sense; it does. I get it because you're actually waiting for liquidity first and then taking a trade. Yeah, but for me it's like, well, I'll just be—I'll just be smart and take a trade into that, and I don't need to have to worry about it because, like, at the end of the day, a supply zone is a supply zone. For me, that's that's resistance, whether it's swept or not; it's still a resistance. Cuz, uh, see a resistance level which is a supply; if price sweeps it and then pulls back, what are these resistance traders doing? Oh [ __ ] price is respecting resistance; it's swept it; let's go for a sell. It's still a resistance level that you're trading at; people don't realize that. So for me, it doesn't make sense; like I—I need to target that resistance level, which is a supply, not worry about the liquidity taken and going the other way because that could be, uh, you know, resistance holding. For me, it doesn't—that's not my trade anymore.

It's interesting because obviously even the people who would go for the reversal—like the liquidity sweep and then reversal—technically as part of their analysis, they're still saying that price should do that; they should move towards that liquidity. So essentially the trade you're taking—yeah, that's—you're essentially saying the same—you're—you're not saying the same thing in terms of, okay, the reversal might happen; it's more so like that could happen, but either way, regardless of whether it happens or not, it's going there, so I'm might as well take that trade. That's it. 100%. I don't have to see if price will react because I'm already in. Um, and it's a very easy way, like, you know, I might look for a bearish break or something out of supply; I might look for two, and by that time it's like, yeah, price is showing me that a lot of traders are starting to go short now; I can go long and have the target at the liquidity.

In terms of the changing strategies though, as you mentioned, you know, what were the difficulties you had with changing strategies? You know, was there any processes or systems you had in place before you would start, you know, implementing something live? Um, it's—it's honestly like, let's take a break for a minute there, guys, cuz I want to tell you about the best trading tool on the market: TradeZella. The reason why TradeZella is the number one trading tool that every trader needs is because you can do back testing, automated journaling, trade replay, in-depth analytics, and so much more. And the greatest part about TradeZella is that it's all automated; all you have to do is connect MT4 and MT5; it will pull all your data onto the dashboard; you can add playbooks; you can just add notes; you can add images from your trades, and you can get the insights that are necessary for you to progress as a trader. Now, TradeZella is for absolutely everyone, whether you're a crypto trader, whether you're a Forex trader, whether you trade prop firms; it is for absolutely everyone, and that is why thousands of traders have signed up using my link here through the podcast. Make sure you use the code Riz10 for 10% off your monthly subscription or WR for 20% off your yearly subscription. The link is in the description below, and let's get back to the episode.

The markets are always adapting and changing and evolving, and I was kind of like moving with that and evolving with the markets; like as they changed, I would have to change. As the smart money obvious entries stopped working so much, I had to wait for a liquidity sweep. As I see that a lot of people are trading now, like I'm looking to actually target that; I'm seeing it as a support level now instead. So just evolving with the market; I didn't really have any struggles because it was more like, again, the intuition side. Now seven years in, so now the intuition is stronger and stronger that these changes aren't like, whoa, what's going on? It's like this is just me just growing with the market. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like you're—you're just recognizing the patterns, you know, as you go along. Plus the transition from, let's say, like smart money concept um trading to then the liquidity base—it's kind of instead of—it's a drastic change in one sense, but it's not in another. In the terms that in one sense, yes, you are changing things, some things that you used to maybe enter from, and now you're just—you're targeting or—or looking and expecting to fail, but equally the—the big change is that you're removing all those things; right, you're removing all those things and now purely focus on say like a liquidity-based concept. Y—uh, but in terms of, yeah, trans—you know, the transition, it's not uh completely night and day; you know, it's more so just removing certain aspects, still using them, but in a different framework. That's it. Um, so that does make sense. Yeah, just finding what works for me at the end of the day; like I—I've always been one that wanted to kind of learn myself and find, you know, an edge for myself because someone—something could work for someone else, but it's—it might not work for me; it might not work for the next person; it might work for the next 10 after that. So it's like it's—it's just finding what works for you. Take—take a strategy if you know it's good and just see, oh, hang on, I've seen something happening here; it's something different, but it's—it happens a lot. Cool, add it—add it to your plan; test it; if it's good, then maybe you found something that no one else has yet, or you know, something that works for you.

I've seen you in the past use like very high risk-reward trades, but then now you're using, you know, sort of more one to twos, yeah, on a consistent basis. Like, again, transition-wise, what was that like for you? Cuz I know a lot of people do get stuck in their ways, even when they're not profitable. That's the weird thing; like they might be using one to fives, let's say, but they're not even profitable, but they just so struggle with making a change like that to one to two, for example. Is—was there any struggle when you first started doing that, and how did you get—honestly, no, because like—uh, yeah, like I see it a lot like, oh, 1 to 5; I only need a 20% win rate; I'm profitable. But like me, I just—I just see these things happen every single day in the markets; I see price, you know, getting traders in, whether it be a resistance, however it is, trend line, whatever. And if I can see that, it's like, well, I can just target the—the liquidity; I can't get a three-pip stop loss, five-pip stop loss when I do that, so I need to let it have some room to breathe. So that's why for me, on—on gold especially, it's 20 pips, and I don't need a huge risk-to-reward. CU I found like you can see on my charts when I showed you before that when you target that liquidity, it usually will be about 40, 50 pip move on gold, so you're—you're only getting that—that one to two sort of average risk-reward. Gold obviously is very volatile here, especially now; you know, it's volatile anyway, but especially now, obviously with all-time highs, a lot of things happening around the world. Uh, we have the elections coming up as well in the US. Like, what are your thoughts in terms of volatility? Is it something you're used to? Is it something that you prefer? Oh, I love it; I—I think it's—it's—it's honestly amazing at the moment; like you're just gonna get quick moves, but you're gonna get tons of manipulation to—to one direction, and that's just—that's my sign, go in. That's again why I'm leaving that 20 pips. I could do four, five pips, brag about a 1 to 10, whatever, but for me, that's—that's not going to work. If I do that, I have to take three, four losses before the win, and mentally I don't like that. I like to take one trade, one trade idea in one area; if I'm wrong, then I—I'm like, oh, that sucks; I'm out; I'm not re-entering another trade. Uh, even if I get wicked out and I'm like, price is going to go like—I—I can't enter; that's my rule.

Is that something you would have done in the past, where if you took a—a loss on a trade idea, you'd get in again, especially because high risk to reward, so you're kind of enticed to like re-enter, re-enter, re-enter, cuz eventually you're going to hit that 1 to 10, 1 to 20, whatever it is trade, and it can happen; it does happen. But with the one to two, like you have to be more careful, to be more calculated, almost like a—like a—like an assassin in a way; you're waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting; when it's time to go, like boom, you're in, and you got that confidence cuz you know that's—you got that room to breathe. Also, you've got your low below liquidity, great; you've taken liquidity, even better, and now you're in a trade; you can let it play out; win, loss, who cares. Uh, I won't take profit anywhere uh below 1 to 1.5. Mhm. If it is there, it starts to reject or react or whatever; I can close, or 1 to 2, 1 to 2.5, sort of thing. Would you take more than one trade in a—in a session or—or even in a day? Yeah. Oh, absolutely; there could be several trades in a day, uh, or there could be one trade; there could be zero; more or less, there's always a trade, um, which I think is great for me too because I don't like to sit there for hours and hours and just not have anything; like I need to know that if I jump on the charts, there's a high chance that I'm going to get into a trade. Mhm. And I like that cuz it stops me from gambling. I'm still very patient, but I know that like, say London open, like I'll be getting into one trade on—on one pair only, let's say it's gold; one trade, that's it, and whatever happens, happens.

Do you focus on that a lot in terms of uh timing-wise? Do you focus on the—the session opens? Yeah, yeah, of course. I think that's a lot of volatility, and the best way to trade because it's a lot of more manipulations at times, and gold, how it moves especially, or anything Euro—um, it's going to go and take out the liquidity, and the liquidity could be a supply, could be a trend line, whatever it is, um, but price is going to go there nine times out of 10. What do you think to that actually in terms of gold? Do you think like a beginner trader should start off with gold, or can start off with gold, or do you think it's best to maybe start somewhere else? No, I think you can; I think you can because the more you're watching uh a pair, the more you're going to start to understand, and if you're going to lean on gold, which is already super volatile, then once you—once you get that like if you—you're only watching gold for two years and you just started, like you're going to have some serious knowledge and—and when it comes to that, especially if you know how to trade it and like the profitable uh ways to trade it, then I think you're going to be setting yourself up pretty well.

What do you feel like most traders should be doing in order to become profitable? Because as you can imagine, most traders obviously lose, as we know the statistics tell us that. What do you think they can actually do to—to make a change to that? It's a good question. I think uh a lot's to do with the inner work required to be a trader. I think that it's not as simple as like being a profitable trader; uh, I think it's uh learning to be profitable. I think it's a lot to do with maybe uh even religion, having some faith and how like, you know, like I see there's a lot of traders out there that, you know, are close to God and stuff like that, and I think that's—that's important cuz you have to have some sort of uh deeper belief in yourself. And if you kind of are just always in the conscious state, then it's going to be very hard to kind of tap into that, whereas, you know, things like meditation, prayer—I'm not like religious myself—um, but things like meditation, prayer, I think is very important um for a trader. Um, they—stuff like the reading books, the mindset stuff, of course. In terms of uh risk now, what does that look like for you? Are you risking sort of low amounts, high amounts, are you—cuz I know you're using a personal account, right? Yeah, so—so what sort of risk would you apply there? Um, on my personal account, it's like sometimes I load capital in; sometimes it's—it's not that much, like 20, 30k; sometimes I will put six figures in; um, it just depends, like. So I don't really calculate percentage risk; I just know that if I'm trading this amount of lots, then I'm risking x amount of dollars; that's all I really know. So I don't really even look at the capital that's in there; I could have one day could be on 30, could be 100, whatever, but for me, I know x amount of dollars per trade, um, and that keeps me in good standing for sure. And that's cuz also that you use a fixed stop-loss size, so you—yeah, that's it; that helps you then just know that, okay, if I've got this much capital, this is my stop-loss size, yeah, that means this contract or lot size. Exactly, exactly. So it's a very seamless way to trade. Is that—obviously, you, as we talked about earlier, actually risk-reward-wise, used to have high risk-reward trades, so stop loss is probably be a lot smaller, you know, five, six pips, maybe even lower, but now obviously having that fixed 20 pips—um, why—why make that change to have a fixed stop-loss size? It just works, and it's easy; like I don't have to think; I just enter a trade, and I'm in it, right? So I don't have to—I don't have to do all this risk calculator, all that stuff; like I just enter a trade; I know that it's worth the risk already because I've done all the pre-analysis; I know that this is where I need to get in; if it's a loss, it's a loss, but it just makes it easy for me; that's it.

And do you feel like that's what traders should do, that they should make it easier for themselves versus putting—trying to look for so much and you—conly having a change their—their lot size, etc.? Just that—that's an example, but generally speaking, do you think that they should be trying to make it easier for themselves? Oh, 100%, yeah. I think the easier you can make trading uh with still applying the right knowledge, then the better it's going to be for you. As soon as you are overcomplicated or do—do too much, uh, it's just going to confuse you. Like if you need 20 confirmations to get into a trade, then I—I think you're kind of more or less shooting yourself in the foot because yes, it's in-depth and it's technical, but at the same time, like you've got to really, you know, especially as a new, early-on trader, like you just need to make sure that you're following a strategy and you're sticking to it, and it doesn't have to be complicated at all. You think a lot of people assume it has to be complicated because obviously trading is so hard; therefore, comp—complicating strategies or complicating systems make sense to them? I think so; I think so. I think it's—it's—it's um like in a marketing sense; like if you're seeing someone like all these crazy things happening on a chart, you're like, w—like this is cool, and you might learn a lot from that, and you might pick up a lot of things, but you know, like, for example, like Omar Ashra, like you don't see crazy things all on his chart; it's very simple, very straightforward, um, and it works. So I think it's like simple is definitely better. That does make sense, and I, to be fair, most of the people I've had on the—the podcast, especially the—the more profitable ones, it does seem that they have just simple, very clear strategies, more so just have very strong systems in place, a lot of data behind them as well. Yes. Um, which again goes back to what we were saying earlier where people just—they're not—they're doing—they might put some work in, right? They might watch a few videos here and there, but in terms of like doing the journaling, doing the back test, collecting the data—so not just journaling in terms of—I think a lot of people mistake journaling for—can be anything, which—yeah, you could class taking some screenshots before and afters and then just writing a—this is what happened, could be a journal, right? Yeah, but reality being what we need—what we need to build an edge and what you really need to see that progress is as much detail as possible. You know, luckily there are, as you say, programs now that automate it and give you a lot of data, like TradeZella, but putting that to one side, even if you weren't using that, if you're doing it yourself on Excel or on a book, you—that's why it's a bit more tedious cuz you have to put in so much data. Exactly, but people just—they just don't want to do that extra mile, that extra work. Yes, but as we know, you know, we look at the trading statistics of like how many people fail versus how many people succeed, but those statistics are the exact same as life, you know, the people—people who uh are successful in absolutely anything, even in University, let's say, how many people get to a PhD level, probably the exact same statistics in terms of in comparison to how many people apply to University or go to a general University. Yeah, um, and I think a lot of people forget that; I think they just look at trading and think, oh, okay, you know, it's just trading; you—that's why we shouldn't do it, or that's why it's so hard, when it is a hard thing to do to master, but you don't have to make it overcomplicated. And equally those same stats are everywhere; it doesn't matter if you want to create Freedom Business; yeah, it's the same stats; it does not change. Yeah, I think it's just having that belief that like you really can do anything in life; I—I'm strong like if I can overcome what I—what I went through and—and be in this position now, like this is why I'm so grateful every day, but if I can do it, man, like anyone can; like anyone can do whatever they set their mind to; a big believer in that; like all you need is that—that belief in yourself and just taking the right steps. And even if you fail, like try again; doesn't have to be trading either; I'm talking about whatever; try again, try again on that business, try again on that—on that project, whatever it might be, on that job, whatever—whatever you want to do, like you can do it; just put your mind to it; stay consistent, and it's going to happen. 100%. Big believer.

I think most people are scared to fail; you—they're scared to fail, and in trading in particular, it's a weird thing cuz I think that a lot of people when they lose, they think they're wrong; like yeah, they did—they did something wrong, or you know, their strategy is wrong, or whatever it may be, when in reality, in trading, you're always going to have a loss; you know, you're always going to take losses, um, and I think that's hard for a lot of people to understand because they assume that, okay, if I learn a strategy, I should never really lose because I've learned something that works. Yes, when in reality, even the things that work are going to have losses, of course. And is that something that you ever struggled with in—in your early days of like taking losses that were valid but you just took them so bad because you just assumed that this isn't working, this is wrong? Yeah, big time, mainly due to the—the capital I had at risk; like it was just a stupid amount to be risky at when I had like I would have 10,000 in the bank but 20,000 in a trading account and nothing else to my name, right? But I was just trying with that capital; I blow it, save up again, capital, blow it, rinse and repeat, and that was just a negative loop that I was stuck in, and that—that's what caused me to lose 250k is because again, I didn't take it—I didn't take it slow, and again, was like you said with the—with the trading and going through the losses and not being able to handle that, and the amount of capital uh it was just a—just downward spiral that ended up being uh disastrous really. Well, luckily it wasn't the end there, you know; wasn't the end, fortunately. A lot of people, that is where they end, um, but thankfully, you know, you pushed on, continued on, and I've done incredible things since, you know, and continue to do incredible things. Um, you—what—what is the future in terms of trading-wise? Is there an end goal for you when it comes to trading itself? Honestly, like you probably hear a bunch of different answers; for me, no. Like I love business, and I also love trading, but like I love business; like I just—I think business is—is—is just so fun, so exciting. Trading is that bit more serious where it's like you got your strict trading hours, your strict trading plan, but you're not like—you're not like, oh my God, this is so much fun, cuz you have to be—you have to change your like uh your energy when you trade, right? You can't just be like, you know, having all your friends around and like, you know, just like laughing and stuff and trying to trade; like you got to be focused; you got to be doing your thing; at least for a few years, you got to be focused, then like, you know, like now my wife can have a conversation with me; I'm watching a chart; no problem, right? Cuz I've—I've done it for so many years; I could be anywhere and—and have a trading thing out and be focused when I need to be focused and see what I need to see. But um, in terms of uh the—what was I saying? In terms of the future, yes. In terms of the future, um, yeah, so how I treat trading is just simply—um, it's a vehicle to—to move on to other things, and I don't need to bet the house anymore; in fact, I'd rather keep my risk how it is um and small and know that, you know, I'm going to be profitable; I'm going to make money trading, but I'm also going to be able to work on my businesses as well. Like if I double, triple my risk on trading, my businesses would now um suffer a bit; like not saying it can't happen, but I'd rather just stay completely emotionless when it comes to my trading, win or lose, whatever, and then give me the energy to as well work on business too. CU that's where I honestly—you like your passion for business is actually stronger than the passion for trading, even though you still love trading because that's what it's like for me; like for podcasts, I have much a stronger uh podcast passion I do for the markets, but I love the markets still. I personally have said this many times; I don't get to trade cuz I'm so busy with the podcast, uh, which I never thought was possible; I always assumed that you could do both. Yeah, but when you're doing it at such a high level, like business or the podcast or media, whatever, maybe it's—you can't give both—like all that will happen. I've said it so many times; if I force myself to trade, even because I want to, uh, I'll just end up losing because I'm just can't give it the attention and routine and discipline that it needs. Yeah. Uh, but

You would equally, at the same time, probably impact the podcast because I'd be sat here like, just all sad that just takes a lot. Um, so I had to make a choice, you know. I'm still trying to figure out a way that I can make trading work, probably more like swing or long, really long-term trading where it doesn't require as much of a routine. It's let the market come to your entry point. Enter if it goes, stop loss cool, if it goes take profit great. There could be weeks between those two points. Yeah, um, but yeah, like, you know, in terms of yourself, is it that a case where like business is just, we got a stronger passion for?

I would say for sure, for sure. I love it; it's it's what, but without trading, it's not possible to have the business, same vice versa. Yeah, so that trading has allowed me to be able to do that, but the the the the bigger passion lies in in businesses. Like I want to scale, I want to build, I want to grow, and that excites the hell out of me. But with trading, it's like I just want to stay safe, and then that's going to allow me to to do what I need to do here as well as loving trading as well as helping people with trading, but I let them with this with the businesses allowing that to like really just just like, uh, really grow. I think yeah.

One thing that um I did learn from you in terms of how your approach, even though you're scalping and you're getting the one to two trades, you still have a very strong emphasis or at least a lot of information taken from the higher time frames. Yeah, you know why is that important to you? Why do you do that? Because a lot of people who scalp, they just completely ignore the high TI?

Yes. Well, I think it's it's it's when you really zoom out, it's obvious where price wants to go. Like, like we showed, like price will create this big resistance level. I mean, if price is around that area, like it's it's more or less looking to go take that out. So having that and then stepping down to lower time frame and seeing like bearish structure when you know that price wants to go higher, it gives you more confidence in actually taking the trade against the structure because you have the higher time frame in your side.

Do you feel like when you said uh intuition, a part of that being that because your trades essentially are going against the narrative, going against what the normal people are doing? Yeah, you have to just trust that intuition is almost like the trust of, okay, regardless of what this looks like now, yes, higher time frame might be on my side, but lower time frames right now, everything else is saying bearish. That intuition is almost that trust in your analysis, that trust in your directional bias.

Yeah, yeah, big part of it, big part of it. I think yeah, one of the things that takes years to build. Once you get there, I think that's when it starts to really become super profitable. I've heard other people talk about intuition also, but yeah, big believer in it. I think that definitely uh the key, definitely.

And what is it that you have going on at the moment? Cuz I know like things have changed over over the years. Um, I saw recently, if I'm not mistaken, you got like free signals.

Yeah, yeah, through signals, uh, education as well, and the prop firm Fundex. How's that going in terms of fun? That was a good name. I don't did if I'm not mistaken you had the name before Twitter became X, right?

Yeah, yes, yes. Yeah, we did. Was amazing, amazing timing. Yeah, yeah, literally. Um, no, it's going really well, really well. Um, we have a 24-hour payout guarantee, which um means that if you uh request a payout, it's going to be approved within 24 hours as long as you follow our simple rules. Um, not many props can do that at the moment. Um, but yeah, we've been 14 months in, building slowly, not taking too much risk, not going too hard, um, making it a sustainable business, and it's it's been it's been hard actually. The first year is very hard; there's a lot of struggles, there's a lot of um lessons that get learned. You have to lose money as well, part of it, no problem. Um, but now it's uh looking amazing; like we're doing really well. Um, traders uh trust us; uh, we have amazing reports; uh, we have some big traders that trust us to trade with us too, which is it's a good feeling like as well. Like we've changed lives, like literally changed lives. Like 19-year-old kid from Switzerland, 50k payout, bro. This guy was in school, and he got 50k pay, like that's life-changing. So as well as, you know, you know you're making money off people trading, sure, that's, you know, that same as a broker, you know, there's lots of different business models. I think educators make money off people losing trading because 90% of their students will be losing money, and they're still paying them. So what's what's the real difference?

Um, you know, the the other side of that is that you're impacting people's lives, and you're changing people's lives, and even if they like an educator, for example, someone loses money, they're still gaining knowledge; they're still shifting that mindset now to think in abundance instead of thinking in a scarcity mindset, and I think that's worth spending money on. Same as a prop firm, like you take a challenge, you're going to learn a lot, same with like, you know, um, personal accounts, whatever. But yeah, more or less like, you know, you're you're creating opportunities for people, and I think that's where the power comes in, and that's where it's like a it's a beautiful thing.

Definitely. I couldn't agree more. Hopefully, we'll get an update of like where you get to in the future as well. Yeah, um, but you know, really appreciate you sitting down with us today, especially after coming off a back of a flight. If anything else, probably more tired than you. I don't know how that's possible. I don't know Dubai life, but um, no, it was great to catch up, man, and hopefully we'll see you again soon. Obviously, we did record a chart video. I don't know when when they'll be out, but I guess I've just announced it now, but we have a whole chart channel coming. A lot of you have been saying that you want to see more charts on the podcast. It's a bit hard to do logistically to, you know, get screens and stuff, so we created a whole channel for you. AJ will be on that channel too, breaking down some gold trades that he's taken recently. Um, so keep an eye out; that's Chart Fanatics. There'll probably be a link somewhere on screen. I don't know, but drop a comment if your biggest takeaway from this episode. Links for AJ will be in the description below. Um, but yeah, other uh, did I say other episodes on screen? If if I didn't say it, I just said it, but until next time, everyone, take care.