I Teach a Beginner How to Trade ($1,000,000 Prize Money)

It all makes perfect sense to me. Why aren't you making any money?

That is a good question.

15 traders are competing against each other today for €1 million and a free spot in my mentorship program, which is valued at €50,000. Each and every one of them has 10 minutes to present their trading strategy to me in its simplest form. But watch out! Out of these 15 traders, only 7 will get the chance to participate in this battle afterwards. In the last episode, I chose 2 out of 4. I'd like to take you with me. I want to take you along too. Today, 3 traders are sitting before me, and only one will move on in the end.

And I would like to take you with me.

I'm Janis, 22 years old, and I'm from Austria. I've been trading since March of last year, and I got into trading for the quick money. I trade futures and indices, preferably the FDAX in the mornings. Since that's rarely possible due to work, I usually switch to the ES and the Q in the afternoons. So I basically just take whatever the market gives me. So those could be counter trades or breakout trades. It's all the same to me. And as tools for this, I use market profiling. Additionally, for entries, I like to use the order book footprint charts combined with cumulative delta, price action, and the overall context. I usually define my take profits based on the volume profile. I like to look for low-volume nodes, naked VPOCs, value area highs, and value area lows. It's all quite dynamic. I also like to trail my stop loss and try to reach breakeven relatively quickly.

Hello there.

Hi, Hannes. So very exciting. So if you have the option, you prefer FDAX in the morning, S&P and NASDAQ you really only trade in the afternoon because that's how the time works for you.

That is correct, yes.

Okay.

You call yourself an all-rounder. That means in theory you're not stuck and you think you could use as many strategies as possible for yourself. But now what happens is that you also like to get into overtrading and then you sometimes drive an account into the wall. And that's because this here is the dumbest assumption that you should actually make for yourself. Instead of rushing, it is incredibly important to first take the time to establish a reliable process for yourself. And with this specific process in place, we are now on the path to reach profitability in order to earn money.

Mhm.

If you have already gone down this path for yourself, then you can certainly add the next process to your routine and say, now, for example, I have officially started earning money here as a breakout trader, which is a really significant milestone in this journey. Now I'll try my hand at counter trading. Right? And only when you notice there, both in terms of percentage and money, that it works, would I personally recommend that you say, I can successfully use the broad mass of day trading strategies for myself. I mean, is that really the right approach for you to take, right?

Mhm.

But please, definitely not before then, because what I noticed immediately when I also looked at your potential analysis structure and order, you know them, you're aware of them, but you just don't feel like it.

Yeah, totally.

Exactly. So, and the most important thing for me to share is this: if you want to earn money, you really have to start tracking all of your trades from now on. And all of them. And if you don't do that, then you can just forget about it and you'll just have a nice game that you can spend time on in the markets. And now we arrive at the next important step. You have to make a careful decision. You need to determine which market, or perhaps which specific markets, will actually provide you with the best opportunities to trade your concept.

Mhm.

I definitely recommend you choose something dynamic, like breakouts, for example.

Mhm.

And why do I recommend that to you? Because you get quick feedback from the market there. You're not someone, even if you might have that assumption, who waits very patiently for things. You're more of someone who likes to have quick feedback and then also sees it fits or it doesn't fit.

Generally, definitely, yes.

Exactly. Therefore, I would definitely recommend that to you. And if you've successfully tracked several hundred different trades over there now, yes, and then you will clearly see for yourself that exactly what I am doing here leads directly to our ultimate success. So, and now you're already in the process of using these IQ Capital accounts for yourself, and you also state That you have a risk of 0.3, 0.4% per trade. How is it then possible that you trash an account in a single day? Either you have 60 stop losses in a row, or you're pyramiding in a loss and trying to somehow get your money back quickly. What is the truth?

A bit of both. Well, I've had accounts where I definitely didn't stick to my risk rules. Lately, it's been more that I've tended to stick to them, but just stubbornly believed the next one will be it, the next one will be it.

Yeah.

And accordingly, then, like you say, I lose 55 trades in a row in that round. Yeah.

So from now on, the concept— yes, when you are looking at a Trend Profile, you want to be patient. Specifically, wait for that break in the market structure. Once you see that trend continuation pattern forming, you are welcome to go ahead and take those trades.

Mhm.

Yeah. Balance Profile, please wait until the market has gone above the previous day's high or low.

That's right.

They have officially formed an acceptance. The price attempted a pullback, but then it moves back into the acceptance zone and pushes right back above that level. Before that, fast trading doesn't make sense. That way, you have opportunities to look for trades in all market phases. And now comes the most crucial part on top of it all. Please do this in at least 2 to 3 markets. So that you have enough to do. And now, moving forward, I would definitely expect you to document all the trades you make here. Specifically, please ensure you are recording them exactly according to what I have laid out, especially when it comes to those breakout trades. It is really important to keep track of every detail.

Mhm.

When we are looking at trend continuation trades, there are really 2 main things to consider. Additionally, I always make sure to look at either my trend profiles or my balance profiles to get a clearer picture of the market.

Mhm.

And then apply that concept accordingly in your workflow. So effectively, you are left with 2 distinct setup possibilities to choose from, which are the same in both variants. But you must please do the work and document the whole thing separately for balance days and for trend days.

Understood.

Understood?

Yes, I'd have one small thing. You would describe trend continuations basically as the break-ins into the profiles, right? That means, assuming the price is somewhere in the middle here, there's strong buying pressure, Delta continues to go up. And I'm of the opinion that I recognize a trade here, I don't take a trade.

Very good.

Understood? Okay, that means I categorize by breakouts, trend continuation, balance, or trend profile.

That's really boring for you.

But it's important for me in that regard so that I have a framework for once. I had major issues with journaling. I mean, I've easily started over 50 journals.

Oh.

And I never finished a single one. Yeah. For that reason.

That's simple.

Yeah, exactly. I questioned too much. I couldn't categorize it all. Now I have a clear framework where I know 1, 2, 1, 2. That's the end of it.

Cool.

Sounds relatively simple at first.

It is simple. It's just not simple in the implementation anymore. Since you no longer have that in between, I see something here that feels good. You're not allowed to do any of that anymore.

Throwing all the bullshit away, right?

You could put it that way too.

Cool, fits.

Yes, in summary, I would say that the process wasn't really difficult at all. This is because from a conceptual approach, it was simply a matter of recognizing that you are still somewhat malleable and open to change. Open to it as well and not stuck in your ways somehow? And what was immediately obvious to me was that there needs to be momentum. And momentum is always there when you can engage in trend continuation or breakout trading, and always where markets are in imbalance, so out of equilibrium. And then it'll be great.

Yeah, awesome.

That's it.

Thanks.

Thank you too.

My name is Gabriel. I'm 22 years old. I'm from the beautiful Lake Constance region, and I used to work in the fitness industry. I've been trading for 3 years now. My stats say I'm profitable, but I haven't seen any real results from it yet. So I'd say the biggest challenge in my trading right now is more on the personal side, basically the gap between planning and execution. I trade the concepts of market profile and volume profile, and the strategy behind that is intraday swing counter. The zones where I enter are always dependent on the volume profile, so value area low and value area high. So I've adjusted the risk to my win rate based on the maximum allowed drawdown. To keep that under 20%, I'm at 0.2 to 0.3% per trade.

Hello.

Hello.

Gabriel, I've been listening for a bit now.

Yes.

You trade using the market profiling concept, which is something that Mr. Steyer from Trade to Traders more or less pinned on you.

Yes.

And maybe first to give a little preview of what this is all about. You just talked a lot about volume profiles. In the end, it's simply about one thing: seeing if a market is in balance or not. We always talk about these so-called value areas here. That's up here, down there, and the so-called equilibrium. That's the so-called volume weighted point of control. That's called VPOC. And ultimately, the concept is when you're identifying trades for yourself in the future, let's say here's your trading day starting. and the market moves up, that you look for areas where you'd even want to trade.

Exactly.

Looking at it like this, what would you say, which areas are exciting for you if the market starts down here, for example, at the opening? What can you tell us about that? Feel free to go ahead.

I'd love to. So I'll just go through how I normally do it. So I definitely look at the price action first. That's not visible here right now.

What is price action?

I look at how the, how the market forms the structure. So is it generally trending upwards or is it trending downwards? Is it forming a large range? So basically, is it just chopping around? That's step 1 for now. Then I have the overall structure. Then comes step 2. I look at the weekly volume profile, where we are and how last week looked. That just gives me another confirmation. Are we still in the trend? Are we still in the range? And then I go deeper into the daily profile and look at how the value areas are shifting. How is the POC shifting? Are there selling tails, buying tails? So basically, if there is rejection up here where the price only stayed for a brief moment, I take that as a signal. Then I start to build the story from that observation to see where the market is heading. Exactly, and for this specific example, if we open down here, the key point for me would be that we are leaning more short. The underlying strength is currently firmly in the short trend simply because the balance was established right here and the price, or rather the broader market sentiment, has now clearly agreed on these significantly lower prices.

Let's take an example. We've been rising for 3 days and this is your profile.

Yes.

But we see that the market is actually showing weakness at the opening. What's the next thing you do then?

Then I'd definitely mark the zones first and see how the market behaves. So for me, it's important to have patience with the intraday swing counters. Then I mark the zones.

Okay, let's do it. Let's assume for a moment that we have a zone right here, and then perhaps we also have another zone located over here.

Yeah.

And here's your opening, and the market comes up here. What's the next thing you do there? You're welcome to also—

So I still like to have the CVD here under the chart, so the cumulative volume delta. There I simply see the aggressiveness of the market participants compared to the price. And if I were to see here, for example, so that would basically be the short continuation. I always distinguish between counters and continuation counters.

Those are already many, many eventualities that you consider before you start, right? Yeah, I see that correctly. So now let's keep it simple. Let's say the market runs up here. The first thing you said here was short is the first initial idea you bring, although we said the trend before was upward.

Yeah.

And you're looking at the cumulative delta now. So you're looking at whether the rise is confirmed by rising or falling prices. What takes place in the price ratio then? And when the market comes up here now, you look for exactly these setups.

Yeah.

What do you use in depth to locate setups there for yourself? What really gives you an idea in that moment?

For the entry itself, I use, as I said, the CVD, then also the footprint, and also order flow in that case.

So that means if the cumulative delta is rising, for example, that means more is being bought than sold, to put it simply, in this trend. That's obviously broken down very simply now. And the market runs up here and you actually want to go short. What do you do in that moment?

Nothing.

Nothing, exactly. If you see that what you need isn't coming, then you do nothing. And that's often a very big challenge in trading, to do nothing, because waiting is perhaps not the greatest passion we humans have when we're actually supposed to be working. And how often do you succeed in doing nothing when you see that happening?

Lately, I'd say more often. So it's also, it's gotten significantly better over time, I must say.

And this doing nothing is one of the biggest characteristics that leads to not earning any money.

Yeah, but also not losing any money.

Exactly.

So now let's go in there with a magnifying glass and say that's your zone. Here is the magnifying glass of this image. Yeah, the market runs up to here. And now you said in the next step, you look at the footprint chart, for example.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're assuming now that the cumulative delta is rising. That means there is more buying in the total sum of the traded orders than selling. The market is trending up here, and actually you still have the assumption that it should fall from here, theoretical assumption. So, and what would you like to see up here now so that you might make a different decision, or is there no other decision that you would make?

It depends. So if the market is really being bought aggressively at this zone here, then I won't do anything. But if, for example, there is an absorption candle up here in the footprint, and then the delta, for instance, well, the delta rises and rises, makes a small low, and then hits new highs again. And at the same time, I have the absorption candle in the footprint, and the price doesn't make new highs but makes lower highs. Then I have this classic divergence of price and delta, and. With the combination of my footprint entry, I have the entry.

Now the question arises: those are quite a few pieces of information you're gathering there. How many trades do you even manage to locate in a day with such a structure?

Well, focused, the first one goes quite well. Two, the second one is also okay, but from like two to three, it starts to get difficult.

Yeah. And in how many markets do you do that?

Mainly six E, and then my second market is the ES.

Okay, so that means you have 2 markets.

Excuse me.

And in these 2 markets, you basically do the preparation. That means the profile structures, as you just explained. Then in the next step, you go into the execution expectation. That means you see if what I have prepared comes into play there or not. And then you make the decision where you say, I will enter a position accordingly or not.

Okay, great.

It all makes perfect sense to me. Why aren't you making any money?

That is a good question. Well, in the beginning, so over the last few months, it was often due to the challenges in the prop firms that the risk, or rather the number of contracts, was limited. And because the tick size in 6E is so low, I could never fully exploit the risk. That means the good trades had a high risk-reward ratio, But the nominal profit was just very low because I could not trade the size.

Okay.

And because I also blew a few trading challenges before that due to oversizing my positions, I sometimes find myself struggling with the lingering problem that I am still acting a bit too conservatively with my sizing, even when the setup is actually quite good. So there is just a bit of fear behind it, even though I actually know it is a good setup, that I would rather be a bit more conservative and then build up the profit over the long term.

But in the end, if I'm hearing you correctly, you need more capital to properly implement your trading style? Or are you just being too cautious?

I'd say it's a mix of both. Sometimes it's really just the size, you know, the allowed contracts, and sometimes it's actually a bit of fear. I often notice that if I've had a good trade, for example, where I've made 2 or 3R, then I'm even more cautious because I don't want to give back those gains. So I've also given myself the rule, one good trade a day. It actually works quite well. But then again, I don't know if that's just masking the symptom or if it's really a useful rule.

The question I hear behind that, which has relatively little to do with trading, is a completely different one, right? What do you think that might be?

Yeah, probably something along the lines of fear. How exactly?

Well, it's about fear, of course, but it's actually in the other direction that you're worried that what you've already achieved will be taken away from you again. And if you look at it mathematically, that's nonsense, right? I think you know that best yourself. What would be the solution?

Good question. I'd like to know that too.

Okay, let's assume we were to take this path with you now and I were to force you to give me at least 10 trades every day. Could you do that?

Depends. Not always. So 5 to 8, yes.

Okay.

10, I don't know.

5 to 8 trades.

Yes.

Good.

Now, uh, I'll be sitting at the computer all day.

Exactly.

Now we've just learned that you might not have enough, uh, options in terms of your buying power. Now, one could say that's the first expectation I would have of you. Of course, you can only fulfill the second expectation if you also have the corresponding buying power. I would make a commitment and just say, I'll talk to my colleagues at IQ Capital. They should provide you with an account where you can trade in a way that feels good monetarily. Let me just give you an example. A $300K prop trading account from IQ should be large enough to implement that. Or is that wrong?

No, definitely.

Okay.

It even works with $100K.

It even works with $100K. Okay, then we're good. So now I have the next expectation, that you document for yourself. How do you feel when you've had 1 or 2 winners and have to keep going? That's a path of self-discovery that isn't always so great. But you have to document that. And then recurring patterns will emerge, and now we come back to what I'll do then. And I'm going to observe these recurring patterns. And from this observation, a process will emerge that leads 90% of the time to you no longer minding going Now, of course, one could say there are also shortcuts. Yeah, for example, you can look at all sorts of different ways and see what's actually happening here, why I keep struggling with myself and don't want to give anything back after those 1 or 2 winning trades, right? Yeah, that would be the step I'd only take afterwards on the, let's call it, emotional level, just to really see how we can best resolve that underlying stress there. And honestly, that would be the specific path I'd recommend. really hope we can take together moving forward step by step. And then I can imagine that we'll get it done conceptually. That means my job is actually almost no job with you. I think that's really cool. But my job then essentially is to see if you are truly able to document these recurring patterns consistently, and then of course to make sure you are able to submit them on a daily basis.

Yeah.

And you must, and I'm serious, do at least 5 trades. But on average, I want to see 7 to 10 trades that you do daily, because otherwise the time investment isn't worth it.

Yeah.

And possibly add one more market.

Okay.

And then it'll be great. And then we'll see where you stand afterwards.

Great.

Commitment?

Definitely.

Commitment. Maybe a quick summary of what I was able to see here. In my eyes, Gabriel works extremely smartly. I can't add anything to that either because it wouldn't improve it. It would just make it bigger. The strategic approach is smart in several ways. On the one hand, support and resist, as he defines them, are our creation anyway, and I can see immediately from the metrics we keep on them that it's a mathematical probability that leads to the goal. The second thing is, before he enters a trade, he checks if this trade makes sense right now and if it's supported by liquidity in the direction you also want to trade. So you can see right away if the big money is for you or against you. The third thing which then becomes the issue is that if he finds several trades for himself, it can lead to him simply having a barrier because he's worried he might give money back if things go badly afterwards. And exactly that, and this is my final result which I really wish for you and which I'm convinced will happen, will lead to, if you push past this resistance more and do it, it will automatically lead to you achieving success on your own. and then I'll be looking forward to it. It's going to be great. Yeah, yeah, that's how I'd sum the whole thing up.

I'm Fabio, I'm 22 years old, and I'm from beautiful, sunny, um, southern Brandenburg. I've been trading for a year and a half now. Um, I'd say my biggest problem is psychological because I mostly, um, jump around a lot, have a lot of uncertainty, always look for the Holy Grail and hope to, um, find it. Um, I used to trade Forex mainly, um, XAUUSD, which is gold to the US dollar. Um, then I moved on to futures and I trade the NASDAQ there mostly. I trade the whole thing intraday, um, at rejection zones. So in other words, I get an overview of the past few days at the value area and then trade the rejections at certain zones there. Um, roughly since I've been in futures, I've been doing the whole thing with a 1:2 Or one to three ratio.

So Tom, hi, good to see you. Nasdaq is a favorite market of yours.

Yes.

How did you come to like it so much?

I traded gold at first because it has a lot of pressure because S&P was too boring for me. CL was too boring for me. So I picked the one with the most pressure. That pressure is often a big burden too. But rather that movement. But I've somehow fallen in love with it for now.

Okay, wonderful. Rejection zones. What are rejection zones?

Rejection zones, where do they even come from? For me, they arise in certain areas, for example, from volume. So from value areas, from extreme points, not just from the previous day, but also from the preceding days, sometimes even weeks.

Mhm.

So I go, I break the whole thing down from week to day to 4 hours/day to, um, 5 minutes, and then I look there, um, at what interesting zones the market is offering me. So I don't have fixed ones now where I say only at extreme points or only there, but I vary, vary a lot and try to take as much as I can of what the market gives me, mainly focused on placing the rejections and especially in the current direction of the daily or weekly trend and not against some previous— yeah, so that the probability is higher on my side, I try to take it that way.

You try to take it that way.

Exactly.

How would you be able to localize how a trend is currently formed?

I would do that quite simply on the weekly chart or daily chart based on how it has moved in the last few weeks.

So whether it's simply trending upwards or trending downwards.

Exactly.

Okay. And then you basically go in a multi-timeframe way and set up so-called volume profiles. And it doesn't play a major role for you directly whether it's a daily profile or a weekly profile, but you take it over a longer time horizon, however it's most effective for you. Or is that how I should understand it?

Um, no, the complete perspective, what my whole trading in the 5-minute time frame is based on, are the respective daily, um, areas or volume areas of the respective days. When it comes to my personal overview for determining whether we are currently seeing a bullish or a bearish trend, I actually prefer to do that analysis more on the weekly timeframe. So it basically all takes place on, on the daily level.

Super. Let's assume that this was, for example, some profile that you're basing the whole thing on. And now we have down here, when the market starts ticking, we still have turnovers and Then you also use the cumulative delta. You said right whether it's rising or falling, depending on what the market is giving us at the moment. And let's just imagine that we're on our way here now. Okay, now we're here. What's the next thing you're deciding to do for yourself now?

I'm interested in knowing where's the POC. Mm-hmm.

It's right here.

Exactly. Here I would first mark the. Previous day's volume edges, and then carefully enter both of the extreme points from the previous day to establish our baseline for the trade.

This one?

Yes, exactly. And now I'd know if I started right here, I'd see if it goes up to volume blue to volume no to high to low.

Yes, I have two. You're absolutely right. Yes, yes, yes.

And then I'll see how it reacts there. I really like it best when I have a sturdy hammer right there.

Mhm.

Alternatively, consider what happens if the entire candle is completely enclosed.

Mhm.

So I have 3 patterns in total. One is the hammer, where I don't really care if it's bullish or bearish.

Mhm.

Um, then I have one where it depends. So if we have a normal small candle and then it reacts right at this zone, an opposite candle comes with a lot of pressure. How do I recognize this pressure? That it has a very large candle body and relatively little wick or tail and completely encloses it.

So completely.

Exactly. The previous candle then? Yes, basically. Um, yes. And if all that is given, then I sometimes look— say we have here, for example, we look into the hammer. Um, was there clustering, for example? Or if we're here at the volume high, then we usually have the wick pointing upwards. We check if there was clustering in there once.

What does clustered mean to you?

I have my bid and my ask set up, and then I look closely and see that in the main part of the candle body, significantly more contracts were actually traded compared to what we see in the, in the candle wick itself.

Yes.

So I can see that a huge amount was shot into a price range where, for example, a big player is sitting. They didn't like that, wanted to defend their position or whatever. At least that's what I think.

The big player was in this area here?

No, they were a bit further down. The area was briefly touched and immediately they defended sharply, for example here below, and it went down.

Okay.

Yes. After that, I also look at the delta. Consequently, there should also be a delta switch. Before that, I could also look at the CVD, the cumulative delta, to see what happened there. Maybe confirm it for me with a divergence. Um, exactly.

Cool.

Those are the main arguments that occur to me now.

I think that's cool for now. And now I wonder, if you were to stick to this concept, where would your stop loss and where would your take profit be?

Um, my stop loss is maybe 5 ticks above as a safety measure, so that I simply suffer as small a loss as possible.

And where do you enter?

If we were to apply this to this example here, I would say now that we have— well, the candle as it is actually suits me already. Here we have both factors present.

It is a bearish engulfing pattern. That is what it is called.

Yes. And I would wait for the next candle that comes along to also make a brief pullback upwards. So in the bullish direction to retest this area very briefly and then head downwards. And as soon as it basically grazes the candle here, so it goes upwards, I place my order here. And as soon as it turns bearish, I get picked up and I am in.

Here is your entry.

Correct, exactly.

Great. So, and now I am interested, where is your take profit? Where do you want to take your profits?

I have moved away from a fixed risk to reward of 1:2 or 1:3 and have currently looked for the next major resistance zone. Which in our example here would be the POC, the Point of Control.

Good.

That would be my problem. Now I know that unfortunately I would not exit, but I would watch how it reacts. And even if it did react, I'm honestly not 100% sure if I would choose to exit the position or if I would just move the whole thing to break even.

Greed eats brains or something like that, right?

Sadly.

Yeah, that is really cool. So first of all, just conceptually speaking, I honestly think that what you are doing over there is actually quite cool and impressive. It can certainly be specified and improved.

Yes.

But your problem is the trade management and not the strategy itself, because this strategy in itself is a strategy that can work.

Yes.

Right?

It will of course work much better if you know whether there is a higher probability that your take profit should be taken at the VPOC, or whether the market will not run down to the next balance. You can achieve that by being able to distinguish, what kind of profile shape do I have? If the profile is a trend profile and the market was up, it likes to stop at the VPOC and go back up again.

Yes.

Because that is the equilibrium of the big buyers, if this is a trend profile here. If it is a balance profile, the probability is higher that it will play the balance game.

Okay, yes.

That also explains the following: if you have a Trend Profile here that is bullish and a counter-trade against the trend comes up here, the probability is also higher that you will be stopped out.

Okay, I understand. Yes.

However, if you are dealing with a Balance Profile, then the probability is significantly higher that your idea will actually work.

Yes.

Because the market runs back into balance above the equilibrium and back into balance below the equilibrium. I think it is conceptually cool. What I would definitely do in addition if I were you is to start tracking the whole thing statically. What do I mean by that? You have to track the key figures of your stop-loss size. You have to track the key figures of your take profit, and of course your entry in relation to that. Then you first have to be able to justify an average risk-reward ratio for yourself, because you have no idea what your win rate is.

Yes, that's right.

So if you are genuinely looking to make consistent money on the stock market over the long term, I can promise you one very important thing: You do not need a complex system. Instead, you really only need one, or at the absolute maximum, 2 rigid, well-defined concepts. These are frameworks where you can really focus on collecting reliable data backed up by clear, verifiable key figures that guide your every single investment decision. Because if you think you recognize dynamic different things, believe me, they will change again.

If you want to work with chart patterns, it's a bit of an older process, like the Stone Age, you know, with the bearish engulfing and Harami and what have you.

Yeah. That's nothing new now. Then it's still important to maybe look into these candles with a magnifying glass and see what the volume is in your respective candle, and then see where the VPOC is. Okay, yeah. And if you just take the VPOC, you don't necessarily have to work directly with footprint charts and so on, but if you see, here is the VPOC, so the highest volume in this candle with this bearish engulfing. Yes, and the market really goes below that. Then please place your entry 1 to 2 ticks below this VPOC, otherwise you won't get the trade.

I see.

And then you have to put your stop loss above here, as you've been doing. I don't want to mess around with that now. You could perhaps perfect it, but I wouldn't do that at all. And so you have a very clearly defined risk area, and then you have to wait until the market hits a predefined profit target like a POC or a value area. If you don't do that, well, that's your chance. Then you will realize, and believe me, 90% of traders realize this, that your planned RRR and your actual RRR deviate incredibly from each other because you always take the trade too early. So you might be wondering, what exactly do I spend my time doing these days? It is a question I get asked quite often, and honestly, my daily routine has evolved quite a bit lately. I have been focusing my energy on a mix of creative projects and personal development, which keeps me pretty busy. I have key figures for my different trading philosophies. Yes, for example, with this setup in a balanced market. And now I know that my win rate is 50%.

Yes.

That means every trade with a risk-reward ratio greater than 1.1 is basically classified as profitable.

Yes.

And if I enter here, for example, and it goes up a bit and then comes down here, and I have a risk-reward ratio of 1.5, and I suddenly get the idea that something is happening, you can exit.

Okay, I see.

But please, only once you really have your metrics clear. Because imagine this, if you've tracked this rigid framework here and you've created a clear win rate, a track record for yourself based on that rigid concept, and it's at 50%, then the probability is there that if you take it earlier, the win rate might even increase.

Yes, exactly.

And that's why if you don't have that, you'll never be able to trade profitably.

I see, I see.

Yes.

And that would be all I would do.

Okay, how does that look? I have one more question.

Sure.

Um, I would basically take my rejection up here, then run all the way down. I've already passed the VPOC, for example, and now I've come down to the value low. Should I consider exiting the position right here, for example, because I've decided it's enough for me? Don't be too greedy, just be sensible.

Yes.

And then, rather than avoiding it, you might choose to take the rejection all over again, so to speak, should it ever arise in the future?

Look, it's also a very simple matter mathematically. If you were to take 10 points and then repeat that process 100 times over, you would see the total grow.

Yes.

Then that's 1,000 points. But you only want to do that 30 times and hope 70 times that it gives 30 points. Instead of 10. Okay?

I see, yes.

Let's be honest, 50 times it just runs back.

Yes.

And so you might find yourself scoring those 30 points perhaps 20 times over, but unfortunately you also have to account for the fact that you will hit 0 or even suffer a loss 50 times.

Yes, indeed.

Notice anything?

Yes, definitely.

That makes, that makes no sense at all. Even if you think, oh damn, I should have stayed in. If you look at it over the volume of trades, you'll see it makes no sense.

Okay, I understand.

Let's do a quick summary. First of all, I think it's great what he's constructed for himself here. That's smart. It's anything but stupid. But if you don't have the discipline to really determine your metrics sustainably, then it won't work. And if you have the hope that trades will run longer after all, once you've seen the mathematical concept behind it, you won't do that anymore. But then maintaining the discipline to really stick with it every time is of course not that easy. But if you don't do that, you can forget about making money with trading in the long run. So that's my conclusion. It was cool. Thank you.

Thanks.

First of all, thank you for being here. Thank you for your trust. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the time we'll spend together in the winter. We'll have to spend a lot of time together in small groups to see how the whole thing feels for you in trading. Yeah, because in the end, checking that is the most essential thing, and I'm up for that. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'd love to take you along.

Mega cool feeling today. The trade basically hit the take profit. Um, mega cool thing. The next step now is to unlock the account, meaning to win the challenge and just show what I'm made of, what I can still improve, and to deliver there.

And that's the decision I've made now. And to everyone else here, I thank you sincerely, and I'll give you some really great input along the way. And whoever is here in Lanarka and wants to stop by, you're always welcome. I'm happy to give you feedback. You just visited us recently, you know how it is with us. It's a really cool togetherness, but unfortunately I can't manage to look after all of you around the clock. And for those I do look after, I want full commitment, because that's what we give too. Thank you very much.

Thank you.