Over the last five years I have seen data from prop firms on who fails and who succeeds. At one firm with tough conditions, only 1 percent of around 2000 traders passed step one, and just 0.2 percent passed step two.
With more competitive firms those numbers rise, to as high as 5 percent for step one. For this episode I brought on Mo, who has spent five years working with brokers and prop firms, to talk about what the successful traders actually do differently.
Key takeaways
There is a direct link between how long traders hold and how many payouts they get, and swing traders tend to be more successful.
The best traders stop when they are down for the day and stop when they hit their target, instead of chasing more.
Successful traders risk around half a percent per trade with steady position sizes, not two lots one minute and thirty the next.
Move from a 10k to a 100k account in steps, mastering each size several times, rather than jumping because you can afford it.
Big sudden position sizes make you focus on dollar amounts instead of the chart, which blinds your decisions.
Treat your next 30 trades as A grade setups only, and you build the discipline that keeps an account for years.
The numbers behind who passes
The raw pass rates look brutal, and they are low, but a lot of the people buying challenges have no idea about trading. Many firms target beginners on purpose, because beginners fail and that is profitable for the firm.
Mo has seen the funded stage numbers up close. At one firm around 98 percent failed before the funded stage, so out of 100 clients two got funded and one made a payout.
At a firm with fairer conditions and fewer restrictions on the challenge, that skews back toward the trader. In one example 20 or 30 out of 100 reached phase two, and most of those funded went on to a payout. Conditions and rules make a real difference.
Discipline and knowing when to stop
The traders with longevity treat a challenge account like their own personal account. They lose 1 percent and think, not my day, and they walk away.
Knowing when to stop is a massive skill, and it cuts both ways. You stop when you are losing, and you stop when you are winning, because the moment greed kicks in on a prop account people carry on and give it all back.
The biggest payouts come from traders doing the same thing every day. Same steady lot sizes, same risk, around half a percent per trade. It boils down to discipline, self control and thinking over the long term.
“Knowing when to stop is a massive skill, and it will save you a lot of headache, money and pain.”
Scale gradually so you do not shock your system
There is a reason firms offer 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k and 200k accounts. Not everyone can trade a 100k efficiently, so those sizes are stepping stones, not a menu to skip through.
Mo put it well. If you jump from a 10k straight to a 100k just because you can afford it, you shock your system, and your mind stops thinking about the trade and starts thinking about the dollar amount. That blinds you.
So master a size first. Pass a 10k, make payouts, then buy another 10k and do it five or six times before you step up. Done properly, just moving from a 10k to a 100k this way can leave you with 20 or 30 thousand saved along the way.
Consistent size and recovering from losses
Educate yourself on what a lot size really is. Half a lot is around 50000 dollars of volume on the market, so at one to one leverage that is a 50000 dollar position. Think in terms of the chart, not the money.
The traders who fall into deep drawdown are the ones who over risk. If you use proper position sizing it may take longer to pass, but you keep the account, because the good habits you built on the challenge carry into the funded stage.
When they do lose a trade, they go back to their journal, see what went wrong and fix it. That is why they rarely go into major drawdown. They risk so little that one wrong trade is easy to recover from.
If you trade with steady risk and want a firm whose conditions and rules actually suit that style, let Propvator AI, our Prop Firm Matcher, point you to one that fits how you trade.
Once you know how you want to trade, compare prop firms on Propvator and find one with fair conditions and rules that reward discipline.