why funded challenges & retail forex 'prop firms' are dumb

Trading is risky, and most people lose money.

FTC/CFTC Risk Disclaimer - Please read this so you're 100% aware of the extreme risks associated with any type of trading and investing.

I’ve said for years and years and years - trading is extremely risky, and most people will lose all the money they try to trade with - even the people who follow the information I provide. Trading is a skillset that is difficult to learn, and I make it look easy because I’ve been trading for 7+ years. As with any high performing skillset in life, trading is NOT easy.

Your likelihood of consistently making money trading is abysmally low, whether you learn on your own or whether you follow the things that myself or others teach.

It’s like becoming a doctor, many people start pre-med and medical school, but only a tiny fraction of them succeed and actually become doctors. The average success rate of trading is even worse that that! Becoming a doctor is obviously not for everyone, and becoming a trader is obviously not for everyone, too.

I (and my company, MissionFX, LLC) make NO guarantees/promises/express direct or indirect representation that you’ll achieve any specific result trading, regardless of whether you’re following my free or paid content.

I’m just some random guy on the internet who is sharing what’s worked for me - I have no clue what will work for you because there are a million contributing factors that will determine whether or not you will make money trading.

Do NOT take into account any information that I share anywhere on the internet as the basis for your trading decisions. I’m not responsible for your success, nor am I responsible for your failures.

Read the full risk disclaimer on my website below, so that you’re 100% aware of the risks associated with trading - then you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you want to continue following any of the information I share (or continue to pursue trading in general).

[NickShawnFX]

For anyone who doesn't believe me - this gentlemen did a video where he literally took metrics from MyForexFunds actual website and showed the metrics.

99.5% of people do not receive a payout.

This is objective reality.

Don't be upset with people like me who expose the truth.

Video from JORFX's YouTube Channel:

[ddupont]

The big picture is if a trader knows how to trade or not. I failed many challenges and now im on the way to recieving nearly 30k in payouts. I feel the prop rules made me a better trader instead of a gambler

[spdrge]

Nick I will gladly give you my rational reason for trying to get funded and adding more funded accounts. For me personally I didn't have the capital to trade. I had a very small amount. Lets' just call it 2k for simplicity sake. Personality wise I am a very conservative person and I lost nearly 77k in the past (of my own funds). Stepping back into FX lets call it 2k. My reasoning for wanting to go the funded route is I'd rather spend the challenge fee (call it $250) and lose all of that and make all sorts of mistakes then trade my 2k account and lose the $250 get angry and do something stupid.... which has happened before. The rewards of being funded say on a 50k account and making 5% far out-weigh the funding fee if you are a profitable trader and consistent. I may be an exception and I understand that. My 2nd point is the challenge also force you into discipling and holding you accountable for risk. That 5% daily DD instils proper trade management and keeps people like myself grounded who in the past would just trade the house on the next trade through anger and revenge trading. I can see your point at the same time, but I lean on the funded side because it makes sense for my situation personally.

[devereauxadams]

Being funded changed my life but I get your point! Funding helped me transition to a personal account

[zombiekillerronsta]

i disagree i got my money back and madethousands from a 10k account

[mcintoshbrooke]

A few things I’ve learned when trading a funded account…even if you do FAIL:)
1.) A bigger account put a magnifying glass on my MAIN problems when it comes to trading!
2.) It helped me stick to my plan!
3.) It helps to grow your live account if you do get the pay out!

[RainBreakerGOD]

Ppl who have 20-30k to spare on funding fees yes, trade your own capital but for others who have the skillset and don't have the capital Props is an easy way to level up. Calling prop firms "dump & stupid" is unnecessary and you failed to outline the pros, and who should be going for a prop challenge. I dare you to trade $100 and compare that to a profitable trader with 100K prop for 6 months. lol

[timbuktu]

You didn't adhere to their rules that's why you didn't pass the challenge. I agree with the time limit challenges but now there are challenges with no time limits.

[hansonhughes]

I will be forever grateful to you, you changed my entire life and I will continue to preach on your behalf for the whole world to hear you saved me from huge financial debt with just a small investment, thank you Veronica Hoy.

[lpsminecrafter-jsix]

Well if you have no money to trade and you don't trust non regulated brokers( see one of the last Nick's videos) prop is the only way to maka some money. Some props providers for a 100 dollars give you access to 35k. Of course what nick said is true that not many get to pay out but...Nick's strategy is based on hedging and he suffers horrible drawdowns sometimes which disqualifies his strategy from being suitable for props.

[banginzaza]

5:36 50 times more likely to succeed on your own.

[rdtradecraft]

True Story: I have been trading profitably for years on a personal account, mostly as a hobby. I am very risk averse, but I manage risk well and generally traded small accounts until recently. Looked into a couple of different prop firms and tried two out. The max risk per trade was 1.5% with a 10% daily drawdown on a $25K account with 10:1 leverage. The strategy I traded at the time traded pullbacks to support in the direction of a relative MA and let the trade run with a trailing stop as an exit(Since watching Nick I have started using resistance zones to create profit targets. Thanks, NIck).
My first trade was a short trade in EU. The trade was immediately profitable and ran for two weeks with me just trailing the stop and watching open profits accumulate. Lo and behold, the following day I see an email saying the account was closed due to inactivity. Yes, and open trade in which the stop was being actively moved in every couple of days was closed for inactivity. Moreover, to keep to the drawdown limits and be able to lose more than 2-3 of trades in a row, requires risking about 0.6% of the balance per trade. This means it takes a big move in your favor to make much money when you are right, and the profit targets are usually 6-10% of the total account size. Given the low leverage, you need several winning trades in a row to hit the profit target and get funded and compounding is very slow. These places are the modern incarnation of the 19th century bucket shops as described in Lefevre's Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

[FindingForex]

I have personally taken funded challenges, passed and uploaded proof. Although I agree with what you are saying 100%. Sometimes people don’t have the required capital to make any decent financial gains. Prop firms are such a blessing but a curse

[robertdeli]

Well, average funding challenge for so-called $100k account cost $500. By buying it, one can trade 5-10-15 lots of any currency pair or several pairs. Yes, your risk is $5k a day, but if you target 5-10 pips and you are good at it, you can make decent money ($500-1000) a day relatively easy. If you put $5000 of your own money - most likely the max size of position you will be able to take is 2 lots. That’s a huge difference and huge factor

[lirrflaco]

I hear you but I disagree… If a trader can’t pass a prop firm challenge what makes you think they won’t blow their own 5k live account… The challenge isn’t the problem, it’s ALWAYS the trader.

What people should do if they feel like they’re ready is take the $20k challenge (which I’ve seen range from $125-150) and scale up from there with the pay outs. At $125 you’d have to lose 40 challenges before spending $5k. If you lose 40 challenges that should tell you something.

Also I get the whole “it’s not really a $100k cause there’s a $5k draw down rule”, BUT the profits are based on $100k not the $5k draw down rule… I think we can all agree that 1% profit on $100k is much different than 1% profit on a $5k account. And you should probably have a 5% draw down rule on your own personal love account anyway, it only makes sense…

Basically it comes down to are you ready for the big leagues or not? If you are then prop firms are an amazing opportunity.

[ndoboalan]

What if you risk 0.25% to 0.33% per trade? Did your sources talk about how much those traders risk per trade? If you risk 1 - 2 % on a funded account, you will definitely lose the funded account in case you go into any sort of drawdown.

[banginzaza]

This is aging perfectly because prop firms suck. Lol

[mikolots]

A lot of people on here that are defending props are maybe speaking on behalf of gurus they saw on Youtube claiming to be making big money but they haven't themselves or luckily made big money but then blew the account thereafter -- giving more money every time they fail to prop firm's net worth. Wake up.

[kevinwortz]

BLUEHOST ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY.
BLUEHOST is an American Internet company that advertises heavily on You Tube.
They are NOT WHAT THEY CLAIM TO BE and anyone doing “business” with them should be very wary. Also a guy called SCOTT CHOW who advises you how to make a blog, recommends BLUEHOST. You may want to be wary of him too.

[ellcafe]

Before anyone gets discouraged by our Demo Guru Nick lol..
For someone like me who does not have enough capital to start trading, a small account in South Africa is less than $100 and it will take for ever to grow the account
Getting funded will be a great adavantage regardless of the rules and percentages that Nick cannot comprehend.
Lets say you practice on a demo or FTMO free trial and train yourself manage to follow all the rules to pass the challenges ..
A $5000 account will drastically change your life
The Prop Firm industry is even growing now as we have companies with no time limit and they differ..
So before you give up start doing more reseach then maybe you can consider our Guru's opinion.