Author: adrankone

Prop firms offer a golden opportunity for anyone who is interested in financial trading but doesn’t want to risk losing their own money. They provide fully funded accounts with high leverage and access to leading trading platforms. However, to be eligible for an account, you’ll need to prove a certain level of competence. 

This presents a common dilemma for more inexperienced traders: how can you learn your craft if you can’t gain access to an account? The answer is by signing up for a free trial for prop trading training. We offer anyone a 14-day free trial, where you’ll be able to trade in simulated forex market conditions. 

How does the free trial work?

You’ll be using the same platform as live traders, so you’ll get to find your way around the interface and familiarize yourself with the tools. You’ll also be able to trade with virtual money, learning how to manage risk, use leverage and draw down options and test out trading strategies. 

Any profits or losses you make during the trial will be virtual, so there’s no financial pressure and you can gain experience of making quick decisions without real-world consequences. The only thing you’ll need to invest is your time. However, no one likes wasting time, so we’ve put together some tips for making the most of your free trial. 

Remember that even if your free trial doesn’t go the way you hoped, the experience won’t be wasted: you’ll either decide that forex trading isn’t for you, or feel galvanised to work out what went wrong, renew your efforts and try again. If you are successful, you can progress onto the evaluation program, which is the final step towards securing a full live account. 

Making the most of your trial

If you are serious about making money as a prop firm trader, you’ll see the free trial as a training opportunity rather than just a casual dabble in the forex market. You might have heard that forex trading is an easy way to make a quick buck, but this is not true: you’ll need to put in some work and have a good understanding of how the markets work first. 

Forex trading can be complex and the markets are volatile, so they need to be treated with respect. To give yourself the best chance of success, take a strategic approach rather than try to wing it. Here are the steps you need to take.

Understand the prop firm’s rules

The business model of a prop firm relies on having successful traders on board, who will generate enough profits for the firm to provide funded accounts and cover any losses. They want you to do well, because this is how they sustain their business. Therefore they can’t afford to support unskilled traders who take risks and make heavy losses.

This is why you’ll need to prove that you can operate within the rules of the prop firm and hit your profit targets. The best approach is to understand exactly what’s required of you from day one, rather than get caught out unawares. 

All prop firms will require traders to manage risk responsibly, and operate within the maximum drawdown limits, leverage, and lot size restrictions. They will assess your trading performance based on consistency of approach, evidence of risk management such as appropriate use of stop losses, and the ability to meet a certain level of profitability. 

This information should be transparently displayed on their website, along with the trading styles they permit. 

Have a plan

If you want your free trial to go well, avoid diving straight in without a plan. Successful trading requires a strategic approach, so you should prepare a structured trading plan in advance. This will require a basic understanding of how the forex market works and the currency pairs that you want to trade.

If you are a complete beginner, spend some time brushing up your knowledge—there are plenty of free resources available on the web, and also books, courses, podcasts, and social media forums. Inexperienced traders are advised to stick to trading the major currency pairs, because they have liquidity (meaning that there are always buyers and sellers to be found). 

Think about how much time each day you will have to devote to trading, because this will influence which trading style will work best for you. 

For example, if you can spend several hours a day trading, then you may wish to try scalping or intraday trading, which are short term trades made within a day or even an hour or minutes, and require intense concentration. 

If you can only spend an hour or two each day trading because you are fitting it around a full time job or other commitments, you may prefer swing trading. This is a short to medium term approach, where the trades are made within a few days or even weeks, so will require less intensive day to day monitoring. 

Your personality and temperament also play a part in the type of trading strategy that will suit you best: if you are naturally quick witted and impatient, you may be more suited to scalping or intraday trading. If you are more cautious and prefer to take a methodical approach to decision making, then swing trading is likely to be your preferred option.

Prioritise risk management

Most prop firms are looking for traders who can manage risk well and stay within the prescribed drawdown limits. It can be tempting to over-leverage in an attempt to impress and exceed your profit targets, but this an unwise approach for inexperienced traders. At first, keep your risk per trade low, no more than one or two per cent per trade. 

Whichever trading strategy you choose, always define your stop-loss and take-profit levels to protect your trading account and ensure that you don’t make disastrous losses. Start small and set realistic profit targets rather than aiming too high at first. 

If you do make a loss, step away from the screen and give yourself some mental space to work out what went wrong, rather than jumping into another trade in an attempt to compensate. Rushing into ‘revenge’ trading is likely to exacerbate the problem and send you on a downward spiral, rather than correct a mistake. 

Establish a trading routine

If you are serious about progressing to the next level, treat your free trial as if you were trading with a live funded account. Trade during the times that you would in a live trading scenario so that you will have continuity when and if you do decide to move to the next stage. 

If you are trading majors such as the US dollar (USD) Euro (EUR) and British Pound (GBP), then the markets are most active when the New York and London exchanges are opening and closing. Conveniently, this is between 8am and 9am in the morning, and 5pm and 6pm in the evening, so even if you have a full time job, you will still be able to trade at peak times. 

Set yourself a routine, such as checking your open positions first, then reviewing any economic news or data releases that are relevant to your trading strategy. If you are using technical analysis, such as interpreting graphs and charts to identify historic price patterns for your currency pairs, carry out this step next.

When you are ready, identify suitable trading opportunities in the market and place your trades. However, avoid trading just for the sake of it; always stick to your trading plan and risk management rules. Even though you are not taking real financial risks, you still need to prove that you don’t make reckless decisions if you want to progress. 

Track your performance

A free trial is an excellent learning opportunity even if it doesn’t quite go as you hoped. Track and review your trading performance so that you can reflect in more depth on the trades that were most successful, and the areas that require improvement. Think about your reasoning for placing each trade, and identify patterns in losing or winning streaks.

If necessary, make adjustments to address any weaknesses you have pinpointed in your strategy. 

Moving on to the evaluation program

If you perform well during the free trial, you may wish to move on to the evaluation phase. You’ll pay an upfront fee that is refundable if you pass the program. The two-step option involves taking two tests, while the one-step option is a single test.

When deciding which option to take, consider how confident you feel about your trading skills and your ability to operate within the prop firm’s rules. The two-step option is best if you still feel that you are finding your feet: if you do pass both tests, you will feel much more confidence in your abilities than if you have just passed one test.

If you are confident you can meet the requirements, then the one-step program is suitable for you. 

The world of forex trading is exciting and offers the opportunity to make substantial profits. However, as well as reward, it also carries significant risks. That’s why it’s important to learn as much as possible about the process before you dive in. Here’s how to learn to trade forex the right way, so you will be ready and prepared to take on the challenge. 

Step 1: Learn about the forex markets

The first step is to learn about the forex markets and how they operate: essentially, they are global marketplaces where national currencies are exchanged. You’ve probably exchanged one currency for another when travelling abroad, but travel and tourism is a minor part of forex market activity. The majority of activity is driven by commerce and financial traders. 

Until the rise of fast digital communications, trading for financial purposes such as hedging against currency value changes, diversifying portfolios or speculating on price differentials for profit was carried out by employees of commercial and investment banks. 

These traders might be acting on behalf of high net worth individuals, but forex trading was largely inaccessible to independent traders. However, the rise of online trading platforms has been a real game-changer. It’s now possible for anyone to open a forex trading account.  

Different types of forex market

There are different types of forex markets, including the spot market and the derivative market, which includes the forwards, futures, currency swaps and the options market. 

However, as a beginner, it’s most likely that you will start with the spot market, which is the most commonly used market for forex trading. It’s the fastest and most straightforward type of forex trading, where currencies are bought and sold based on the current market price and transactions are usually settled within one or two working days. 

Time zones

The forex markets have no central marketplace or physical trading centre; all the action takes place electronically, and the markets are accessible almost round the clock. However, the most active trading hours occur within the time zones of the world’s major financial centres, including New York, London, Tokyo, San Francisco, Sydney and Hong Kong. 

Currency pairs

Forex trading offers high liquidity, meaning that it’s always easy to find buyers and sellers. The basic principle is to make money by accurately anticipating currency price movements. Currencies are traded in pairs, so if you believe the value of one currency pair will rise in the future, you would calculate the peak time to sell that currency in order to make a profit.

Most beginners start trading with the major currencies, such as the US dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR), the pound (GBP) and the yen (JPY). The fluctuations in the value of currencies are driven by a combination of economic and geopolitical factors. 

The currencies are always bought and sold in pairs, such as the EUR/USD. The first currency listed in the pair is known as the base currency, and the second is the quote currency that you are exchanging it for. Currency pairs are divided into three categories: majors; minors; and exotics. 

Majors are the most frequently traded currencies from the world’s major economies, and include the USD, GBP, EUR, JPY, and commodity based currencies, such as the AUD, NZD, and CAD. Minors are currency pairs from the major economies that do not include the USD, such as GBP/EUR. 

Exotics are pairs that include a major currency with one from a developing economy, such as USD/MXN (Mexican peso). It is not advisable for beginners to trade with exotics, because they have less ‘liquidity’ in the market, meaning that it will be more difficult to find buyers or sellers, and the currency price changes may be more volatile. 

Learn key terminology

Beginners often rush into trading without acquiring a basic level of knowledge, and are flummoxed by forex trading terms that can come thick and fast. 

Key forex terms to know:

• Pip: The smallest price movement in a currency pair. For most pairs, it represents 0.0001 of the exchange rate.
• Leverage: Borrowing funds from a lender such as a prop firm, in order to trade larger positions than your account balance. Leverage can amplify both profits and losses.
• Lot Size: The amount of currency units you trade. A standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency, while mini and micro lots are 10,000 and 1,000 units, respectively.
• Spread: The difference between the buy (ask) and sell (bid) price of a currency pair. Tight spreads are generally better for traders as they reduce trading costs.

Step 2: Develop a trading strategy

The next step is to develop a clear trading strategy. This could involve fundamental analysis, technical analysis, or a combination of both. It’s important to realise that forex trading isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Successful trading requires strategy, discipline, and emotional intelligence. 

Fundamental analysis

This involves studying the macroeconomic factors that influence the forex markets, such as inflation, interest rates, GDP growth, and unemployment figures. It also encompasses geopolitical events such as elections, wars, and natural disasters. 

Technical analysis

This involves using charts, graphs, and other tools to analyse historical price data and predict future movements in order to make informed decisions about when to enter and exit trades.

Types of trading strategy

Trend trading 

Trend trading is one of the simplest ways to trade forex, so you may wish to start out with this method. It involves using technical or fundamental analysis, or both, to identify the direction of the market. For example, if prices are trending upwards, then the trader would look for opportunities to sell at a profit or buy to sell when prices peak.

Breakout trading

Breakout trading involves identifying a currency pair that is breaking out of an established pattern. This type of trading can be very profitable, but it can also be risky for inexperienced traders. 

Scalping

Scalping is a short term strategy that involves making a high frequency of trades in order to profit from small price changes within a brief period of time, sometimes less than a minute. It requires intense focus, so it’s best for traders who have sharp reactions, good concentration skills and can work uninterrupted for a defined period of time.

Swing trading

Swing trading involves holding a position for a few days to weeks, while monitoring price movements over the medium term to identify opportunities to buy or sell. 

Position trading 

Position trading is a long-term strategy where traders monitor long-term market trends. The position may be open for weeks, months, or even years. It may suit new traders who need to combine trading with a full time job, because it doesn’t require close daily monitoring. 

Include a risk strategy

Your trading strategy should include a risk management strategy. Forex trading has the potential to make heavy losses. New traders should learn how to use leverage wisely: these are borrowed funds that allow you to control large positions with a small amount of capital. This amplifies the size of potential losses, but also increases the risk of incurring losses. 

Understanding the risks of forex trading

Market volatility

The main risk of forex trading is market volatility, meaning that the currency price changes rapidly. While this can bring the opportunity to make big profits, sudden price swings can also cause substantial losses, particularly if leverage has not been used with reasonable caution. 

Geopolitical and economic risks

Geopolitical events or economic announcements can cause sudden volatility in the markets, particularly if the outcome was contrary to expectations. Inexperienced traders may panic and follow the herd, only to be caught out if the markets suddenly rebound in the other direction. 

Unmanaged emotions

Trading is a psychological game, and new traders can often underestimate the importance of managing their emotions. Money brings out primal emotions such as fear and greed in people, because it’s so fundamental to our survival and comfort. When combined with the pressure to make quick decisions, this can lead to biassed thinking and impulsive behaviour. 

Therefore it’s important to work on mental resilience and always stick to your trading plan, rather than allow your instincts to take over. Successful traders always make objective decisions based on evidence and research, and do not react to market panics or allow themselves to become overconfident or too fearful and cautious. 

Step 3: Choose a trading platform

The next step is to select a trading platform that allows you market access from your device. One of the best ways to do this is to complete a free trial with a prop firm. This means that you can gain experience of using a trading platform of your choice such as Matchtrader, DXTrades and Tradelocker, with no fees and no pressure of losing real money. 

You’ll be trading in simulated market conditions, so your experience will be exactly the same as live trading, except that any profits or losses will be virtual. This is an invaluable opportunity to familiarise yourself with the platform interface and tools, test out your strategy, and gain risk-free experience of market dynamics. 

Forex Trading can be an extremely exciting and lucrative career, with those who are very good at it making a lot of money both for themselves and their clients. You may not land the big bucks every day, but the skilled operators will be in profit far more times than not.

However, getting into the business is not easy. Like many roles, anyone taking you on will want to see proof that you can do the job. As ever, for those just starting the question is: “How can I get the experience if nobody gives me the chance?”

There are different solutions in each industry, from apprenticeships to internships, but sometimes a trial of your skills, combined with training, is what you need. This is especially so in an industry like Forex, where a lot of money is involved. Unless you can prove your skills, it will be too much of a risk to gamble cash on an unknown quantity.

Alongside that, there is the reality that Forex is quite technical. You can read up on all the theory and jargon (and there is a lot of it), but there is an extra layer of knowledge and understanding that only comes from experience of putting it into practice.

Take A Free Trial

However, we offer a solution, which comes in the form of our free trial training. This enables you both to get training and fine tune your skills, while also being able to show off what you can do, using a dummy account that doesn’t involve real money, so if things don’t work out nobody ends up facing a damaging loss.

First and foremost, the fact that it is a free trial means it won’t cost you anything. The worst that can happen is you spend the 14 days on the trial and it doesn’t go well, in which case you might conclude that Forex trading isn’t for you, or decide to learn from your mistakes, study more about Forex and come back to try again at a future date.

Over the two weeks, you will be able to use this trial account on simulated Forex markets, designed to operate just like the real thing.

These will enable you to deal with similar situations to real-life scenarios (like making trades based on assumptions about interest rate decisions and how they impact the value of currencies), or the myriad of tiny fluctuations that create opportunities for the accumulation of marginal gains that are involved in scalping.

How You Get Started

In the trial, you will start off with a nominal £100,000. You can choose between two types of accounts, these being the Match Trader and DX trade platforms. Either of these will work along the lines of our two-stop evaluation account, which is used in recruiting traders for real. Because it is a simulation account, you won’t be able to convert it into a real one.

The experience of undertaking this trial will be very enlightening. First and foremost, it will demonstrate whether you have the basic skills or not. You will also get a very clear idea of how good your understanding and knowledge of the markets is and, ultimately, if you have what it takes to be a success.

If things work out well, you will have the proof to demonstrate to any future prop firm partner, including us, that you have the skills to make a great success of trading. You will have taken the vital first step towards this.

While it’s not exactly the same as passing an exam to qualify you for the job (as this is not a role with formal qualification requirements), it does provide a means of showing you have what it takes.

What If It Doesn’t Go Well?

If the trial goes badly, you can at least gain an understanding of why. It could be that you will conclude that this is not the career for you and in doing so, you should not think of it as time wasted. Instead, it will have been a useful learning experience and one that cost you no money.

It may also help remove uncertainty from your career decision-making, not least because if any trials you have in other fields that prove much more successful, you will know more clearly that this is the job for you.

On the other hand, if things go quite well up to a point but not well enough, the answer to the question of whether you should be a Forex trader may not be “no”, but “not yet”. That could be very useful in helping show you what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Being successful in any trade is about constantly learning, developing and improving, and without this solid foundation of skills, a career in trading, especially at an instant funding prop trading firm, will be particularly brief.

Whilst it is always theoretically possible for any trader to end up in the right place at the right time, relying on luck rather than skill is akin to expecting lightning to strike the same place twice; whilst it can happen, it is not something you would want to rely on.

It is especially impossible in forex trading, where the kinds of volatility that make the stock market and cryptocurrency popular with casino capitalists do not really exist.

The alternative is the longer, more worthwhile road, and here are some top tips to help you travel down it.

Start With The Fundamentals And Then Build

In a world of increasingly complex derivatives and difficult computer-driven trading strategies such as high frequency trading (banned in most prop firms for obvious reasons), a good rule to start off with is not to execute any trade you do not understand.

Some people then stop learning, relying on the initial knowledge they started with and end up surprised that they are not seeing any improvement in their results. Instead of playing it completely safe, see it as a challenge to build your skills.

Understand What You Did Wrong As Well As Right

Reflection is a key part of successful trading, but it is also important to focus on the aspects of the trade that were within your control and that you were capable of changing. Only then will you be able to take the right lessons away from gains and losses.

As most traders can unfortunately attest, you can do everything right and still lose. That is the nature of the market, and in many respects to life itself.

The problem is that sometimes this sends out the wrong subconscious message that a sound strategy that was carefully executed but also unfortunately caught up in a black swan event was a mistake that you should avoid in the future.

Conversely, casino traders who gamble on a high-risk, high-reward trading play sometimes succeed. But anyone can win the lottery once. It does not take any skill. But even if you do hit the jackpot once, the chances of it happening again are as close to zero as making no odds.

By looking only at the processes and decisions you made, which were in your control and should be recorded in a trading journal, you can see the thought process beyond the result and get a better idea of which aspects worked, which did not and what you can learn from for next time.

Build Up Resilience Under Pressure

Financial trading is going to be filled with pressure, as many trades involve huge sums of money and some degree of risk in order to make a profit.

It is easy for that pressure to get to people, and the entire field of behavioural economics has emerged to try and explain how the market reacts when people collectively fold under pressure.

The best way to do that is to build up a trading plan and stick to it. It is your guide for handling any given situation and helps ease the pressure somewhat, allowing you to focus your mind on the big-picture decisions that you need your complete focus on.

Develop Your Mental Maths Skills

The most beautiful part of computer trading is that you do not need to solve any sums or have a maths degree to get by, but despite this, a good way to boost your forex trading skills is to 

develop your fluency in arithmetic and processing numbers.

There are a few reasons for this. The most basic and most important is that your brain is much faster than you give yourself credit for, and it is often quicker and easier to work out an equation in your head than type it into a calculator.

The difference is typically only a minute at most, but given just how fast the market moves, that can be enough time to let a potential trade get away from you.

Embrace Your Passion For Trading

Have you ever noticed that you find it so much easier to learn skills in fields that you are interested in compared to the ones you are not? If you have a passion for trading, then embrace it and let that enjoyment come through in how you trade.

There is a lot of pressure and it is a business decision rather than a hobby, but at the same time you can find joy in what you do and following the markets should at least at some level be a joy.

Forex Trading can be a highly exciting way to make a living, with those who do it well making a very rewarding career out of it. But, like any other high-skill profession, not everyone will be good at it and even if you have the necessary skills and instincts you will need to build up your experience and learn a great deal about what is involved.

As such, it is like many things that people can excel at but require hard work, dedication and talent in combination. However, this does not mean it will take anything like as long as some trades, such as the seven years involved in qualifying as a doctor or an architect.

Indeed, there is no formal qualification process as such. But you do need a lot of knowledge about the foreign exchange (Forex) market to start with, including different trades and, of course, prop funding.

The Basics Of Forex

You will, of course, have already understood that the Forex is the international exchange on which different currencies are traded at prices relative to their value at any given moment. For many who use it, the reason for this is to facilitate trade or tourism, such as when you change your pounds into a foreign currency before going on holiday.

However, for Forex traders, buying and selling currencies is not a means to one of these ends, but a method of making money, taking advantage of changing situations to switch between different currencies as their relative values change and end up with more money as a result.

This involves speculative buying and selling, in anticipation that various factors will cause the relative value of two currencies to change, for example, because a central bank is about to make an interest rate decision and this will impact the value of a currency if what you expect to happen does occur.

Other releases of economic data, major economic turbulence, elections, natural disasters and wars can all have an impact on currency values and a trader will seek to maximise changes in value that arise from this, often by ‘betting’ on a particular development to take place.

Why Headline-Making Forex Trades Are Not The Norm

There have been some spectacular instances of this down the years, a prime case coming in 1992 when trader George Soros bet against the UK pound, believing the UK government would not be able to keep it in the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which pegged the value of currencies against the German Mark.  

His shorting of the pound helped the exit of sterling from the system and earned him billions, while wrecking the government’s flagship economic policy. However, it should be noted that instances like this are exceptional. Most gains are quite marginal.

Indeed, there are different kinds of trading and it is important to know about them. The smallest gains are made through what is known as scalping. This involves lots of quick sales aimed at making the most of small, brief fluctuations in values.

You can also make transactions based on current values (the spot market), or based on a perceived future price (the futures, forward and options markets are variants of this). It is vital to learn about each of these, not least as you may not always trade in the same way.

Getting Started

Part of learning to trade Forex is knowing how to get set up, which involves finding the right broker and setting up a trading account. You also need prop funding, unless you have a load of money to start with yourself.

After this, you need to develop your skills in analysing markets, making trading pair selections, and monitoring and learning from them as you go along.

Using a dummy account is a great way to learn to trade, as these will not be real trades or use real money, but you can simulate the actions of a trader and develop your skills. This can help you show that you have developed the necessary aptitude to make a prop firm confident about funding you for real trades.

The key is to be ready to learn, by finding out not only the technical details of different means of trading, but also growing your understanding of how and when to use them.

Key skills include managing risk, so that you don’t end up blowing all the money you might have gained. In the 1992 George Soros example above, he could have made big losses had things turned out differently and on other occasions he did, but when starting out you will not have such financial leeway.

This means knowing when to hedge and when to use measures like a stop-loss (which halts a trade when losses on it reach a certain point) will be vital to ensure you get your career off to a sound start.

You might be wondering if you’ve got what it takes to be a professional forex trader. You have some knowledge and skills, but what you don’t have is a way to test them out in real time, or a lot of spare personal capital to play with. 

Here’s how you can use our free trial to test your trading skills in simulated market conditions, so you can find out if you are the real deal without any personal cost. 

Why a free trial is a window of opportunity

A free trial is not merely a fun feature to let curious bystanders have a play around in the markets: it’s designed to help would-be traders gain experience of using a professional trading platform and of making decisions in real time. This is an exciting and valuable opportunity, so to make the most of it, planning and preparation are required.

The forex markets can be volatile and many an overconfident or underprepared trader has been caught out by poor decisions. It’s true that there is the opportunity to make substantial profits, but the flip side of this is that there is the risk of incurring heavy losses. 

Therefore, while forex trading is not as impossibly tricky as some people make it out to be, it does take some practice and experience to become a good trader. But not many people are prepared to risk frittering away their own money while they learn on the job. It’s the frustrating classic jobseekers conundrum: no experience, no job; no job, no experience.

What happens during the free trial?

During your free trial, you’ll be working with simulated live market conditions and any profits or losses you make will be virtual. There’s no risk involved, only the opportunity to learn. 

If you perform well on your free trial you’ll feel confident and well prepared enough to begin the evaluation program. After passing this phase, you’ll gain access to a live funded account with a prop firm. Any losses you make will be covered by the firm, and you’ll get to keep between 50 to 80 per cent of your profits. 

However, prop firms naturally want to work with good traders who can make consistent profits rather than lose all their money…so how do you get to this skill level and prove your worth? By starting with a free trial! 

How to ace your free trial

So, you’ve got the memo: a free trial is a gift if you are serious about being a forex trader, and is not to be taken lightly. Here’s how to make the most of it. 

Define your goals

Think about what you want to achieve before you dive in. What is your current level of skill and knowledge of forex? If you genuinely know little or nothing about it, your best bet is to go away for a while and do some research. There are loads of free online resources where you can learn to your heart’s content about the rules of the game. 

If you already have some idea of what it’s all about and have a shiny new strategy ready to roll, then your goal might simply be to roadtest this strategy. If you already have some experience under your belt, you might want to work on improving your risk management or your trading mindset, or just get used to the interface of a particular trading platform. 

Test different strategies

One of the great advantages of a free trial is that you can stress-test a few different trading strategies to find out what works best for you, without the pressure of losing real money. This means that you can also gain experience of a few different trading styles, such as day trading, swing trading, or scalping.

When you have the opportunity to trade in live conditions, you’ll feel more confident and will be more able to handle those situations where a trade isn’t going your way. 

Be proactive about risk management

One of the key skills prop firms are looking for in traders is the ability to manage risk well. You’ll need to prove that you can operate within the firm’s risk management rules and draw down limits. This is understandable when you consider that the business model of the prop firm relies heavily on traders who can make consistent profits rather than losses.

Although you won’t be personally liable for any losses you incur when trading with a prop firm account, your account may be closed if you do not actively manage risk and are making persistent heavy losses. Therefore, during your trial, you should practice using stop loss orders to set a limit on the potential loss of each trade.

You should also practice calculating risk-reward ratios for optimum position sizing, so that you are neither being too over-cautious or taking unjustified risks. 

Playing the mind game

Forex trading is not just about interpreting bar charts and tracking economic data: it’s also a mind game. You’ll need to have the mental resilience to bounce back from mistakes and stay calm under pressure. You’ll also need to have the emotional discipline to avoid impulsive decisions that are driven by fear or greed. 

During your free trial, you’ll be able to practise making objective decisions even when the heat is on, so you’ll be more confident in live trading situations. 

Track your trades

During your trial, get into the habit of keeping a separate journal of your trades, which you can look over during and the trial is over. You can use a physical notebook for easy access, or a digital spreadsheet if you prefer. This is not just another piece of admin, but a valuable record and learning tool. 

Write down the factual information, such as entry and exit points and the outcome of the trade. Also expand on your reasoning for making the trade, and why you chose the currency pairs, exit point, and so on. This will help you to identify patterns in your trading behaviour, so you can see if there are any areas that require improvement. 

So you’ve smashed your trial: what next?

Let’s assume for now that your trial was a walk in the park and you’ve smashed your profit targets. The next step on the ladder is to take the evaluation program. This is technically similar to the free trial: it lasts for 14 days and you’ll be trading in simulated market conditions. 

One-step/ two-step

Depending on whether you opt for the one-step or two-step evaluation, you’ll be taking one or two tests during the program and will need to hit your profit targets. This is designed to make sure that you are at the necessary level of skill and experience to let loose with a fully funded account. 

The one-step program is ideal if you already have some experience of forex trading and are reasonably comfortable with the process. You’ll take one test only during the two week evaluation. If you are a more inexperienced trader, the two-step program can be more valuable, because you’ll have the opportunity to consolidate what you’ve learned. 

If you are successful, you’ll have the confidence of knowing that you didn’t just wing it through, but have really proved you’ve got what it takes to be a competent forex trader. Traders who pass either the one or two-step evaluation program will have their fees fully refunded. 

Instant access

Another option might be to pay an upfront non-refundable fee for instant funding. This is not advisable if you have no previous experience of trading. However, if you’ve got a proven track record and are attracted by the prop firm’s scaling plans or trading tools, then this could be the way to go. 

The real deal: a funded trading account

The options we offer for free trials include Matchtrader, DXTrades and Tradelocker.

If you are successful on the evaluation program with FTUK, you’ll be rewarded with a full fee refund, and given the opportunity to open a funded account to trade with your choice of platform. You are now a proper forex trader with access to an account funded by the prop firm with high leverage, no personal financial risk, and a scaling profit share plan. 

If you continue to perform well and prove you are capable of managing risk, you’ll be able to scale up to a larger account size of $100k + with a maximum profit share of 80 per cent and bi-weekly payouts. 

This can provide you with a very comfortable second income stream to supplement your lifestyle, whether you enjoy frequent holidays, fine dining or designer clothes. Maybe you want to invest your gains to maximise them further, or to build up a nest egg for the future.  

All this is really much more possible than you think, and it all starts with taking the first step

Futures trading online is an exciting opportunity for individuals to speculate on the global financial markets. It’s accessible to anyone who is willing to learn and develop a good trading strategy, regardless of their education or career background. it does not require significant upfront investment, particularly if you choose to work with a prop firm. 

For those who can prove their skills, trading futures online can become a lucrative second income stream or even be a gateway to a whole new career, with minimal personal financial risk. Here’s a guide to the first steps you need to take to get started as an online futures trader.

Understanding futures

Although futures trading is opening up as an option to a much wider range of investors, it’s not a new form of trading. It first emerged in the 19th century as a way to allow farmers to sell their produce on the markets at a guaranteed price. It involves a contract between the buyer and seller to transact an asset at a fixed price on a predetermined future date.

This allows sellers to hedge against future falls in the price of the asset, and for buyers to hedge against potential future price rises, or to speculate on prices rising after they have purchased the asset in order to sell it at a profit. 

For example, you might have a futures contract to transact 1,000 barrels of oil. This could either be to sell at a fixed price point in the future if you believe prices will fall, or to buy at a fixed price point if you believe from your market research and analysis that prices will rise by the agreed transaction date. This locks in the price and hedges against sudden swings. 

What are futures assets?

Futures assets are commodities such as oil, forestry, coffee, livestock, gold, and grains; and also financial asset classes such as foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, stock indexes, bonds and shares. Traders can specialise in a particular asset, or create a diversified portfolio to manage risk and take advantage of a wider range of market conditions. 

What type of parties partake in futures trading?

Sometimes, the trading parties are businesses who need to take physical delivery of the underlying commodity because it’s required for them to operate, such as a coffee shop chain who wants to lock in the price of coffee beans. 

However, the trading parties can also be speculators or investors who do not intend to use the commodity or financial asset for any other purpose than to profit from price changes in the contract itself. This means that they do not need to deal with the administration costs of delivery, storage, or transportation of the commodity. 

The advantages of futures trading

High leverage

For speculators, one of the biggest advantages of futures is the high amount of leverage available (leverage is borrowed money, such as funds supplied by a prop firm). This allows them to control a large contract value with a smaller amount of capital. This increases the potential profit size on a trade, but also heightens the risk of greater losses. 

Portfolio diversification

Futures trading allows individuals to trade across a wide range of markets and asset classes, allowing them to take advantage of different market conditions and diversify their portfolios. This opens up greater opportunities for profit making, and helps to manage risk. 

Round the clock trading hours

The futures markets are global and it’s possible to trade at almost any time of the day or night, wherever you are in the world. This opens up the possibility of more flexible trading styles, allowing the investor to take advantage of unexpected market movements outside of their regular trading window. 

It also means that individuals who want to combine trading with a full-time job can have access to the markets at a time that fits in with their schedule. This makes futures a very attractive option if you are looking for a way to supplement your income as you work from home or any other location of your choice.  

The futures markets also have high liquidity, which means that due to the high volume of daily trades, there will always be a plentiful amount of buyers and sellers available. This minimises volatility and allows transactions to be completed swiftly.

A well-regulated market

Most futures are traded through a centralised exchange that are regulated by accountable bodies. This means that trading conditions are transparent, and the risk of unfair practices is minimal. 

How to get started with futures trading

We’ve already explained the basics of what futures trading is, who does it, and the main advantages. The next step towards a career as a futures trader involves learning the key terms. 

Margin and leverage

Margin refers to the initial upfront payment a trader must place in an account in order to open a futures position: it’s basically a deposit. In futures, initial margin requirements are low. They are calculated as a percentage of the total value of the futures contract, and typically are around ten per cent, although it can be even lower than this. 

The maintenance margin refers to the minimum amount of funds that must be kept in the account to accommodate price changes in the contract. Low margin requirements mean the trader has high leverage, allowing them to control much larger positions than the initial investment. 

Contract specifications

Futures contracts are standardised documents that set out the specifications of the contract. Study examples to familiarize yourself with the content. This will include the unit of measurement, such as barrels of oil, bushels of corn, and so on. Units may also be given in metric tons, pounds, or ounces, depending on the type of commodity.

The contract will also state the quantity of goods to be delivered or settled under the contract, the currency unit of the contract, the grade or quality of the commodity if this is relevant, such as a particular grade of fuel oil. The contract value is calculated by multiplying the contract size by the contract price.

The contract will stipulate a tick size, which is the minimum price that the contract can fluctuate. It will also state if the trade will be settled with cash or the physical delivery of goods, so pay careful attention to this as it is unlikely that you will want to deal with the storage of a physical commodity or have any practical use for it. 

Select an online prop firm that offers futures trading

The next step is to choose a prop firm that will offer you access to a futures trading platform. Most prop firms will require an initial fee, and they may require you to complete an evaluation program in order to gain access to a funded account. This is to ensure that you understand the trading process and are able to manage risk. 

Look for a prop firm that offers competitive fees and has a clear and transparent trading policy. If you pass the evaluation phase, the prop firm may refund your fees. You’ll be given access to a funded account with a scaling profit share. 

For example, when you first start trading, this may be a 50 per cent split. As you prove your skills as a trader by managing risk well and hitting your profit targets, you may be able to scale up to a maximum profit share of 80 per cent. You will also be able to trade with a larger account balance, further increasing your potential profits. 

Develop a trading plan 

It’s essential that you put together a solid trading plan before you begin trading on the live markets. This will ensure that you are always making rational decisions based on your research and analysis, rather than being led by your emotions or swayed by hype on social media. 

You should also put a strong risk management strategy into place before you start trading. High leverage can magnify profits, but the downside is that it can also magnify losses. Therefore you should always set a stop-loss order on each trade, which will automatically execute the trade once a certain price point has been reached. 

Start with a free trial on a demo account

Even with a lot of careful preparation and planning, jumping straight into live trading can be a daunting prospect. Therefore it’s a great idea to look for a prop firm that offers a free trial with access to a trading account in simulated market conditions.

This will give you the chance to familiarize yourself with the trading platform and test out your trading strategy without the pressure of risking real money. When you are ready to try the evaluation program or move to live trading, you’ll feel a lot more confident and well prepared. 

The world of trading is now much more accessible than it was even five years ago. Even if you do not have a background in finance or substantial private funds to play with, it’s still possible to gain access to the markets with a funded prop firm account. This lowers the barriers to entry for traders with little or no previous experience. 

However, it is important to be aware of the business model that most prop firms operate with: they require the profit share generated from traders in order to survive and keep growing. Therefore, although it’s possible for inexperienced traders to gain access to their platforms, they need to know that you can follow certain processes and avoid making poor decisions.

The no experience, no access conundrum

So, how do you gain this experience and prove your skills unless you are actually able to trade live in the first place? One of the best ways to do this is by undertaking prop trading training with a free trial. This way, you will be risking none of your own money, and will have the chance to test your mettle in simulated market conditions. 

The first rung on the ladder to a profitable career

Many traders graduate from a free trial to an evaluation program, and if they are successful, gain access to leveraged accounts of $10k – $100k, with a scaling profit share of between 50 to 80 per cent. The most skilled traders will eventually be able to command accounts of $6m + with bi-weekly payouts, offering the opportunity to make substantial profits.

Trading forex or futures is a really exciting journey, and could even lead to a whole new career. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you choose to begin your journey with a free trial, then you really have nothing to lose. However, you will travel much faster and much further if you do some prior research and learning.

Common errors new traders often make

Here are some of the most common trading pitfalls awaiting new traders, and how training with a prop firm trial, such as those offered by FTUK, can help you to avoid them.

Jumping in with both feet

If you are drawn to the idea of trading because it seems like an easy way to make a quick buck, then you need to think again. Successful trading requires a good level of basic knowledge about what drives the financial markets and how trading works. You will need to know different trading techniques and terminology, and the relevant economic data to follow.

Both forex and futures trading can be complex, so it’s essential that you equip yourself with a certain level of knowledge before you dive in. This will make you more confident in your trading decisions and help you hit the ground running. 

This might seem to be a rather daunting prospect, but it can also be stimulating and enjoyable: the very best traders are not focused with a basilisk stare on turning a profit, but relish the whole process of researching, evaluating, and speculating. 

There’s a wealth of learning resources available that provide useful and clear information and tips about all aspects of trading, from risk management, putting together a strategy and developing a strong trading mindset. There are also forums and social media accounts where you can interact directly with other traders, and exchange advice and ideas.

Why a free trial will help

When you undertake a free trial, you will be able to apply your learning directly to live trading situations, which will reinforce your knowledge and transform it from abstract concepts into an active process. This helps to build your confidence and will also highlight any gaps in your learning that you can work on.

Not having a clear trading strategy

One of the most common mistakes new traders make is assuming that all they need is a hot tip from social media to place a trade, or even that they have an ‘instinct’ for finance and that their trade will turn out fine. However, this is little better than gambling and is definitely not the path to making consistent profits.

Experienced traders will never enter a trade without first defining their exact entry and exit points on the market are, the position size, and the maximum amount they are willing to lose. These decisions will be based on objective research and analysis to anticipate future price action. 

No one can ever be 100 per cent correct all the time, but it greatly lowers the element of risk to have a clear trading strategy. 

Furthermore, you need to have the strength of mind to be able to stick to your strategy even in the face of market volatility. New traders often panic into buying or selling at the first sign of a downturn, only to get caught out when the market rallies. 

How a free trial can help

During the trial, you’ll be able to roadtest your strategy without the additional pressure of generating real profits or losses on your account. You’ll gain exposure to making real trading decisions, helping you to develop the mental resilience to stick to your plan, and how to bounce back quickly from any mistakes you make.

Neglecting risk management

Successful trading is essentially about managing risk effectively. New traders often focus too heavily on making big profits, and neglect to put in place a robust risk management strategy. 

This is particularly dangerous with forex or futures trading, because of the high leverage ratios available, which means that you can open large positions with just a fraction of the capital in your account. This opens up the possibility of making substantial profits, but the downside is that it also exposes you to the potential to make damaging losses.

How a free trial can help 

If you trade with a prop firm, any losses you make will be covered by the firm, but most firms will require you to have a risk management strategy in place, or your account may be closed. You will need to operate within the firm’s in-house rules, so make sure you understand these clearly. 

The free trial is an excellent way to make sure that you can follow a risk management plan at all times. 

As a minimum, you will be expected to set stop-loss orders, calculate risk-averse position sizes, and manage risk-to-reward ratios. Your free trial will allow you to practice these skills in simulated trading conditions. 

Underestimating the importance of the ‘trading mindset’

New traders do not only need to have technical knowledge, but also some insight into the psychological side of trading. This might seem like something you can put off until you are at a more advanced level, but in fact it’s important to get to grips with it right away. 

This is because new traders will often subconsciously make decisions that are led by their emotions, rather than base them on objective research and logical thinking. This can lead to unprofitable or unplanned trades that are not aligned with a risk management strategy. 

For example, a common sign of a psychologically underprepared trader is cutting winning trades too early in an effort to secure a profit. This behaviour is driven by a fear of losing out and greed to make an instant gain, prompting the trader to deviate from their strategy and miss out on the full profit potential. 

Conversely, novice traders will often hang on to a losing trade in the hope that the markets will turn, rather than admit defeat and cut their losses. This can turn a small error into a much bigger and more costly mistake. The experienced trader knows how to take loss in their stride, and put aside any feelings of failure, shame or desire for revenge. 

How a free trial can help

It’s impossible to develop the emotional discipline necessary to be a good trader without any experience of how you are going to react in live market conditions. You may think that you have a cool head and are able to handle anything, but when it comes to making money, very primal instincts come to the fore and we are all susceptible to them.

In fact, traders who feel that they are invulnerable can fall the furthest, because they tend to be overconfident and assume they are always right. During your free trial, you will be exposed to live market conditions, and this is an invaluable opportunity to learn how to put aside those inevitable moments of fear, greed, and frustration, and manage your emotions. 

Your trial is your chance to prove to yourself and the powers that be that you’ve got what it takes. These important but achievable points of advice will help you to steer a steady course to success, and be ready to take the next step in your journey. 

The forex market has a rather ruthless reputation. Whilst there is the potential for traders to be successful within the right prop trading structure, there is also a sense that the market is remarkably difficult to learn.

There are two main aspects to this; the first is that forex works very differently to the stocks, bonds and options markets that many traders are used to, which can catch a lot of people off guard by itself.

As well as this, there are a lot of stories of people who entered the market unprepared and were wiped out by small, unexpected market movements because they took an extremely reckless approach to the currency market that is impossible to get away with.

Because of this, it can be difficult to ascertain just how hard it is to actually learn to trade forex, because it is both much harder than some “get rich quick scheme” peddlers like to make out but also easier than it may look when you examine the extremely complex variables that shape the market.

With that in mind, this guide aims to explore just how hard it is to learn forex trading, where you should start when it comes to practical knowledge and the mindset you need to succeed.

Why Does Forex Have A Reputation For Being Hard?

Aside from the horror stories of people who were unprepared for the realities of forex, the reputation it has is primarily caused by the nature of how people make money on the currency market.

Unlike other stocks, which can have remarkably variable price action, a common way to make money with forex is through somewhat leveraged trades of currency pairs, relying on making money through relatively small changes in price.

This means that undisciplined, emotional trading is far less likely to lead to a lucky jackpot run and far more likely to be punished with margin calls and big losses.

As well as this, forex operates at a very different pace to the rest of the market. It is extremely liquid but also moves in small waves rather than huge peaks and valleys.

World currencies, by definition, have to retain a relatively consistent value, otherwise, you are in a final crisis with rampant inflation or deflation of a currency.

They also have to be extremely liquid. If you spend money and especially if you use something like a bureau de change, you are interacting and shaping in a very tiny way the forex market.

However, all of this means that your position and situation can change dramatically from moment to moment, and that can make it difficult at first to understand the types of trading that will lead to success and the types that will lead to very quickly depleting portfolios.

That is not to say that it is necessarily hard to learn forex. Plenty of people have gone from beginners to long-term traders. But at the same time, you need to be prepared for a very long learning experience.

An absolute beginner could learn how currency pairs work and how to set up a trade relatively quickly, but not which factors make for successful trades, how to remain consistent, how to set up a trading plan and how to ensure consistent rates of return rather than wild oscillation.

Ultimately, you should always start out with demo accounts to see how complex it can be for yourself. Keep consistently trading for around six months and see how your demo portfolio gets on. If you manage to successfully trade in the long term, you are far more likely to pass the evaluation rounds at a prop firm.

However, arguably the most important skill to learn when it comes to forex is how to adapt and maximise a patient and analytical mindset.

There are some financial markets where you can get away with being reckless. Typically these are fairly volatile ones where getting out at the right time can lead to massive gains but also massive losses.

Forex is not like that at all, a portfolio needs to be carefully managed, maintained and treated with immense discipline, otherwise, setbacks, bumps in the road and the natural ebbs and flows of the market can lead to significant losses.

Ultimately, forex can be learned, and it does not necessarily require an intensive knowledge of technical analysis to succeed, but it also does take quite a long time to learn without intensive effort, and sometimes patience can be the hardest skill to learn of them all.