How Novice Trader Harry Scaled To $100k In Capital In Just 5 Months

Would you sell your work van to pursue a career as a full-time trader? Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't, but that's exactly what my client Harry has done. And in just 5 months, he's been able to acquire £100K in funding, and he was just a beginner trader when he started. So strap in, give this one a watch, let me know what you think in the comments below, and I'll see you in the next one. Thanks for jumping on anyway. So I guess to start, let's, let's go back to the beginning because I think it's only about 5 months ago, right? Yeah, yeah, about 5 months ago.

So I guess before we started, so like, yeah, yeah.

And it's been a pretty, pretty up and down journey as well, to be fair. Very, very up and down journey. So let's, let's start from the very beginning. I guess just give people a little introduction as to, as to who you are.

Okay, yeah, I'm Harry, uh, I live in Bromley, you know, sort of Southeast London, Kent. Um, I've been a builder most of my— all my life, basically, in the building trade. Um, yeah, I've tried to pursue other things like fitness, um, but that just wasn't me. So yeah, I've just always been in the building trade. It's a family thing. I've worked with my cousins, worked with my dad. It's just done that all my life, but, um, just never sat right with me. Never sat— like, the fitness side of it's good if you like keeping active, but it's just the money and, and yeah, that sort of stuff, it's just not, not for me.

Yeah. So, so how, how did, how did trading come about for you? Obviously I know that you had a conversation with, with Joshua and, and we ended up getting you on board, but, but I guess what sparked your interest in trading? I mean, did you do anything before joining us, or—

I've always— it's always interested me, but I never really looked into it properly. I have, but never took it serious. Um, I'll say like everyone else says, I did join a, uh, signal group, but I literally was there for about a week, two weeks, and I thought, nah, this is bullshit. Like, even got to be right stupid to believe it, in a sense, you know. Um, And then, because I've been trying to get out of building trade for so long, I thought, I've got to try something, I've got to find something. And it just really interested me. So I started watching YouTube videos and this and that, um, and the more I started watching it, you know, like it comes up on your algorithm, and then, and then you just popped up, um, and it just sat well with me, um. So that's, yeah, that's how it started.

Cool. So obviously you had a conversation with Joshua. What was it about what we were doing that sort of got you to commit to working with us? Because obviously we're not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. So what was it about what we were doing that you thought, okay, like, this makes sense?

Just seemed genuine, do you know what I mean? It wasn't like a lot of bullshit, if that makes sense. It was just genuine, just not flashy, none of that sort of stuff going, do this, I'll make you this, I'll make you that. It was just you just seem more professional, so it just attracted me.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, if I don't know if I remember this rightly, but I'm sure when you joined, you like sold a van or something to, to join, didn't you? Something along those lines?

Yeah, yeah. I had a Citroën Berlingo van, got rid of it. I mean, it wasn't really a problem, but it did— just got rid of it. Got like, um, I got enough to pay for the course, so it was all good.

Real commitment, that. Real commitment.

Yeah, once I sink my teeth into something, there's no going back.

No, 100%. 100%. So obviously took the plunge, got into things. I mean, it's only like 5 months ago. So how did you sort of find that first, I guess, first couple of months or so, sort of getting your teeth stuck into it? How was that sort of first couple of months of, of working with us?

I really enjoyed it, actually. I really enjoyed doing the course. It sort of, it sort of, I sort of started getting it quicker than I thought I would, to be honest. Um, I had a few people say to me, yeah, it's quite impressive what you've, what you've done, and things like that. It just, yeah, it just seems to sync with me really well. Um, and I remember thinking, God, this is quite easy, isn't it? But once you learn the edge, it is easy, right? Like, once you get it, it is. But then all the shit starts, doesn't it? All the all the mindset stuff like patience, greed. My biggest killer was greed. But because of my situation where I shut down my building company, basically went skint just to pursue this, obviously the pressure of getting money— I've got a daughter— I get pressure getting money was higher. So I think that's when my greed really took over, you know. I was just trying to get money quick, pass challenge quick. And it ended up just backfiring massively. I was just taking stupid trades, just, just market execution, buy, sell, like silly stuff. Weird stuff. I look back now, yeah, some of the conversations we've had, and you just—

I've done it again, I've done the same thing, I've got stupid, I lost my head.

Honestly, like, yeah, it's embarrassing, like, but yeah, sometimes you can't help it. I was just in a spiral of it.

Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, looking at— obviously we've worked pretty closely together throughout these 5 months, and I think that you definitely, you definitely did get to the stage where I think there was only— the only thing that really made sense for you to do was to go into live markets and, and put yourself in a real situation where you're trading with the right— with the same emotions as you would be normally. You're executing in live markets, and I think it was quite important for you to go through that because that's when you really see the real problems. I think that's kind of what we, what we figured out pretty quickly. It's like okay, these are the real problems that I've got to deal with now. How do I overcome the greed? How do I remain patient? All of this stuff. And I don't— I think if we were to delay that any longer, I think that we'd have just— we'd— well, we would have still been dealing with those issues now. I don't think there's anything that we could have done to mitigate you going through that. I think that was just— that was like a personal thing that you had to go through, learn that from being in live markets. And, and that's obviously what, what led you to actually get funded within 5 months.

Yeah, I think when I was doing some, um, uh, what you call them, not live markets, the, uh, demo. Demo, that's it, mate. Yeah, when I was doing demo, I found that you sort of don't really care because it's not— doesn't really mean anything. So you do, but you can pick up some bad habits. You're just like, oh, like, eff it, I'll get in there. If I get in there, so I thought, no, let's get right in, stuck in. Um, and yeah, I think it is the quickest way to learn, to understand and deal with their emotions when it comes to live, live trading.

Yeah, no, for sure. And I mean, I don't think we did anything particularly irresponsible. Like, you demonstrated that you knew how to follow the strategy, right? And we both agreed on that. You could follow things right. Everything looked good that you were doing on demo. All your trades look good, and you were demonstrating that you, that you could have an edge. So then it is just like the psychological side of things you need to, need to deal with. Um, so how— I think how many, how many accounts did we— I think it was 2 challenges you failed, but you, you passed phase 1, failed phase 2. What, what, what's, what's gone on? What's going on?

How many challenges in total? I think about 7. About 7 challenges, but I've passed 2 of them. I've passed phase 1 on one was a 50K, one was 100K. But then I failed Phase 2 on them. Um, and then, then yeah, passed the, passed the 100 both. I think what it was, I think when you pass Phase 1, I think a whole new level of nervousness kicks in for 2 because you're so close, but you start panicking a little bit. So I think on the last 100K, it was a bit of a nightmare. I had, I had nightmare going on outside the house at the time, and I was in Detroit. I just ended up with a crazy day that they ended up blowing account, um, which was devastating. I think that's— that was the most stressed out I've ever been when I failed that one. Yeah, because I knew that there was no reason really for me to fail it. I knew I was going to pass it, but it was just— I let— yeah, again, it was just my mind lost the plot and ended up blowing it. So I thought, no, it's not happening again. So I ended up getting it eventually. Yeah.

So what did you do this time around differently to what you've done the previous times? What What do you think changed?

Uh, so plans. So I only trade New York. Um, I just find it works better for me. Most of my losses were in London, so I thought let me do just New York. Um, I started, um, I started meditating before, before, before New York session, and that just sort of just relaxed me, chilled me out. Um, because I'm quite, I'm quite a 100 miles an hour person. Obviously being active in the building trade, you're constantly active. So for me, even just sitting at a desk was a task, you know what I mean? And sitting there watching candlesticks. So it's always been a massive mindset shift for me as well, and changing habits and everything. Um, so I just decided, yeah, do a bit of meditation, which really helped.

Yeah, just chill out, focus. Yeah, go over the rules in your head, know what you're doing.

Yeah, just wait for the nice clean setups. Just, yeah, when, when they're there, I just find it's just like, I call it, the market's got his hand coming out the screen just offering you the money, do you know what I mean? It's clean, you just go, just get in. But I was, one of my other stages, I was hesitating a lot. Even though they was coming at me, I'll be like panicking. Um, yeah, I think it's just, you just got to get through all these little mindset things.

Yeah. Do you think that hesitation came from kind of being damaged by the other trades you were taking? So you were taking losses in London session, or you were taking trades that you shouldn't have, where you were sort of jumping in a bit too early, and then that damages your psychology. So when there is a trade that it's like, oh, this is like a perfect setup, you're like, ah, do I want to take another loss? You don't want to take the risk, and then you hesitate and it goes to TP, and then that's a big spiral. Do you think that might have been, or that could have been potentially one of the reasons?

Yeah, sort of like the fear of losing money. With so many losses in fear of losing it. But, um, now I'm not— I mean, taking a loss still, still stings, you know what I mean? It does sting. But I'm so much better now. I just, I can just go, okay, right, is what it is. When you, when you understand it, it's just part of it. You can't— it's hard to— it's hard to get your head around losing money in a space of such a short time.

Yeah, I'm being okay with it.

And being okay with it. It's, it's like, it's, it's, it's strange. It's like going to work all day, not only not making but losing money. It's just a weird feeling to get your head around.

Yeah, no, it is, um, it's very, very difficult. And I think there's— you either you're born like that, like gamblers, right? A lot of gamblers are like it, like they're, they're okay with losing money because they know that they'll just go lump on the next horse and they'll make it back. But You're either born like it or you really have to build that resilience to be able to trust your data. And I remember that trading isn't like a daily thing. Like, you're not going to make money every day. You have to look at this, okay, how have I performed this month? How have I performed this quarter? How have I performed this year? And you look at the ups and downs, and as long as you've got the edge, as long as you've got an edge in the markets, then it should be your profits are, are trending upwards. But it's difficult to— it's difficult to be able to build that psychology to be able to ride that wave.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think my other problem was as well was taking about 7, 8, 9, 10 maybe trades a day. I remember, oh, just, just take a couple of losses. And thing is with me, I'm like, I'm one of them, I'm determined to win. So like, I'm like, no, I'm gonna make that back. And don't get me wrong, sometimes I did. But others, you know what I mean, it just is so, you know, 2-3 trades a day. When I've stuck to that, it's definitely been more beneficial massively. Yeah, I thought you—

yeah, I also think that, I think that you'll, you'll start trading less than that anyway. Like, you look at, like, you have the, the sort of typical, like, A+ normal edge trades, then you've got the continuations that you play in it. But I think that as you, I think as you build capital, you'll start to even do less of that, and you'll start to just want to preserve your money more than anything because when you've got $500K, $1 million in funding, you're only looking to make a few percent a month. You want to keep things as chill and as easy as possible. So you're going to take maybe 1, 2 trades a week, and you'll continue as it moves. You'll start to— that table will start to shift.

Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to that, to be honest, because the days when you're sitting there for all that time, all them hours taking silly trades, it's draining. It's more knackering than working on a building site all day. I mean, it's exhausting. Um, but I think what it was when you do— when I was doing a challenge, because I was so eager to get there, so for me it was like, I'll sit there all day, try and pass as quickly as possible. But now I'm going to try to— now that I am funded, you know, if I take a trade, a winning trade, I'm done. Laptop's down, I'm gone. Because like you said, the more capital you've got, the more— the bigger that profit, why would you want to carry on? Even on 100 grand, why would you want to carry on? That's some 3 hours, really, that's some good money for the day, you know. So I feel like I'm going to switch that mindset because I'm not, I'm not really chasing it anymore. I've got it. I'm also going to be chasing more funding. Yeah, I feel like I'll be more relaxed with it now and just, you know, because I'm there.

Definitely. Yeah, well, again, it's like, it's like, when do you have the opportunity to have the buying power of $100,000? It's not like it's no money. It's a lot of money. So it's like when you have that sort of money there, you need to focus on preserving that capital and not just trying to make all your profits in month 1. Like, make a few percent, bank your profit, reinvest that money back into some funded accounts, and then, then that 2 or 3% makes even more money, and that 2 or 3% makes even more money, and it just grows and grows and grows and grows. But having that priority on capital preservation as opposed to looking for that 10%, 20%, 30%, like just take it, take it slow, and then you, you can be aggressive with your funding. You can get more, more aggressive with getting more funding, but you have this pot here that you know is only ever going to grow because you're doing it nice and safe, not overtrading, and you're just getting consistent payouts from what you're doing. And then, yeah, and then you can trade full-time really comfortably.

Yeah, that's it. That's, that's exactly the mindset I'm gonna shift into now. I think it's, it's just the way— because I think one of my— like I said, greed. I was taking, trying to get like 8 Rs, 9 Rs, 10 Rs. Mhm. I'd get to 3R, and for some reason it just wasn't enough. Because this just sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's because when you're in a challenge, you just— I was just trying to, like I said, just trying to get it done quick. I tried to get it done in one trade if I, if I was like, if I could. But when I realized that, just slow down, take your time. I think when I realized that, let's pretend that that money is is going in your pocket, you know what I mean? Then it's— you should take it a little bit easier.

Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, we've had a lot of conversations along those lines where you've either just gone and placed like 50 lots in 10 minutes and blown the account because you've lost your head, or you're trying to— you like— it's like the TP should have been there. Like, why are you trying to take it down to like 2 months ago's lows, like, for like a 17-hour position? It's like, why are you doing that? Just, just take your profit, walk away. We've had a lot of those conversations and yeah, I mean, I guess like you've taken all of that on board, you've implemented it, and you have started to really just taper back in and keep things simple now.

Yeah, that's it. I think it is just simplify it, just keep it simple. And I felt from— yeah, to keep it simple and it makes you feel more relaxed. You just wait for that setup to come to you. Jump in, you know, and that's it. It's just— it is quite simple. Just gotta just be chill.

Yeah, I know, I know, I know. Obviously we're the ones that have been working together, so it sounds a bit stupid coming from me, but do you feel like without having a mentor there, somebody that you can turn to for advice and get support from, do you think that you would be way more now without that? Do you think the mentorship has helped you? What are your thoughts and opinions on that? I'm not gonna be offended if you say no.

No, no, no, no, you definitely, definitely need, need a, um, need a mentor. It's just nice to have someone to, to quickly message, you know, send a screenshot to, anything like that. And you're all very good at replying quick as well, which is good. Um, yeah, because it just, it just boosts your confidence, you know. Like, there'd be a trade which you know that it, you know, it's a good trade, but you're sort of doubting yourself a little bit. And so you can message, you know, you or G or whoever and then, you know, it gives you the clarification but gives you the confidence. So it's definitely worth having, 100%. Um, because like, it's like, um, like the community is good. Personally, I stay out of it. It's just because there's too many opinions. Yeah, everyone's got a good opinion, but it's too many opinions because it has confused me on times and it's made me question myself. And I think, right, let's get out of it. I just should speak to you and that's it. That's the only opinion that I, I really care about, you know what I mean?

Yeah, no, definitely, definitely. Yeah, I mean, it kind of goes one or two ways. Some people love having the community there and they want that sort of place to go and like sense of being around people and they're sort of supporting each other. But for a lot of people like yourself, it's like having that like, oh, let me just check the community, let me see what they're doing. Like, it's just having that like I mean, it adds to the hesitation, right? You see a trade and you think, let me see if anyone else is talking about this. And then by the time you see anyone talk about it, it's already played out and it's at breakeven or it's done, whatever. And it's just like, no, you really have to learn to execute on your own, build the skill set of being able to make decisions quickly and pulling the trigger, because otherwise it's just impossible to do anything really.

Yeah, I do. It's your own journey, innit? It's not team sport. It's just in a sense, you know, you can all help each other out, but it's just you. That's it. It's always like you said, all decisions are you, and you just gotta, you just gotta, you just gotta go for it. That's, that's it.

Yeah, no, for sure, for sure. So obviously, 5 months, we've got you that £100K in funding after a few, a few, few cracks of the whip. We got there eventually. What are your— obviously, I know we've spoken about this, but what are your what are your sort of plans with trading? What, what you sort of obviously going into the new year, what's the sort of main focus for you, I guess, for like Q1? What, what you sort of really looking to achieve from, from your trading?

Um, from now it's just building capital, to be honest, just building capital. Um, I've got a set target. My birthday's end of April, so I got like a set target for them for amount of funding. Um, and yeah, and just keep, just keep working towards it, just keep Cracking on.

And you're looking to do this full-time, right? Or are you doing this full-time now?

I'm going full-time now. I'm not hesitating, I'm going straight for it. Um, yeah, because I can, you know what I mean? I'm able to do it now, so I'm just gonna go full-time, head down, and yeah, and just build that capital over the next year.

Awesome. Solid, solid stuff. Solid stuff. So obviously, thanks for running us through all of that. And one thing that I always like to— one thing that I always like to ask people at the end of all of these interviews is, what would be your top 3 tips for somebody that is looking to build a career as a full-time trader?

Get a mentor, 100%, 100%, um, But I say just keep things simple, like ask questions, but just believe in yourself. Like, if you— when you learn it, just, just believe in yourself. It's just you and the markets, that's it, you know. Find your— find what works for you as well, you know. Like I say, for me, I just like New York. Bit of meditation, you know, just little things like that really, really help, especially for people like me that used to be on the go all the time. Um, I'm not good at giving tips.

Uh, I guess one, one that I can think of from your side is don't be scared of taking action. Because you, you weren't scared to take an action.

Yeah, I was just sort of about to say that. Just, just go for it. Like, yeah, you're gonna fail challenges. Like, you know, I've, I've heard people fail like 10, 20 challenges before, before they pass. Like, it ain't— it isn't cheap to do it. I get that. Like, they're not cheap to buy. Um, but just keep going. It's like Gio said on the thing last night, you know, if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.

Mm-hmm.

So you just gotta just go for it, and it's going to be stressful and painful, but once you come out the other side, it's a great feeling. But just don't stop. Just do not stop. Just keep going.

100%. No, I 100% agree with that. 100% agree with that. Well, yeah, I think, I mean, listen, you've, you've kind of done it to some degree textbook, right? You joined, you learned the strategies, you took serious action in making this work in real time, and in 5 months you've got 100K capital and you're obviously now ready to really kickstart your, your career as a trader. So thanks for sharing your journey. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of inspiration from it from people that sat on the fence right at the minute. So yeah, thank you very much, mate. And, um, yeah, I guess catch up, catch up next year, see where you're at, and, uh, and yeah, take things from there.