Why you don't need a High Win Rate to be Profitable in the Financial Markets
Are you on the brink of profitability? Do you have a back-tested trading strategy you can follow with discipline? Can you stick to sensible risk management?
Well if you have all of the above, you’ll be pleased to read that you don’t even need a high win-rate to be profitable in trading. Here’s one of our fully funded UK traders showing you that the proof is in the pudding…
Table of Contents
Prop Trader Statistics
The first thing to note is that Sandip Kandel purchased the smallest of our funded trading programs. This program is often chosen by traders who want to get a feel for prop trading. But as you can see it did limit his trading. On the evaluation he took his time and traded up to the 10% target over 21 days.
The graph shows how he had a slight dip around day 12 and how his drawdown reduced for a short while. This is a normal part of trading. His win rate is very high at 87.92%, but he may do slightly better if he could lower his average losing trade size.
Main takeaways from the stats above are:
- Trading risk-reward is positive with an Average Winning Trade of $2,245 and Average Losing Trade of $936, which is just over 2R per trade. An excellent reward if this trader can stay consistent. Many traders have unrealistic expectations on return on risk but with sensible position sizing and consistent 2R trades, one can become incredibly profitable in trading.
- A solid 65% strike rate across 81 positions, this shows discipline and consistency which can both take a toll on the traders psychology.
Our Prop Trader Interview
Please list any funded trading programs you have tried from other trading providers?
FTMO & The Funded Trader
Why did you pick Funded Trading Plus?
FT+ interested me due to its unique set of rules and structure compared to other firms, I also think for me the way the challenges are set up help traders and in some cases maybe even improve them.
Please give us a short history of your trading. We would like to know: how long have you been trading; how long did it take you to become successful?
I have messed around in the markets since university (around 2016) but in terms of taking it seriously it would have been January 2020. I did take a few breaks over the 2 years or so but I think that’s what has helped me to get to a decent point with trading. Sometimes revisiting with a fresh mind brings different thoughts and perspectives so for me it was realising things about how I was trading and myself, doing more analysis of how I was trading prior etc.
How would you describe yourself as a trader? (short term, long term, fundamental, technical, etc)
I am a day/swing trader, I use fundamentals as a bias for directions and use technical analysis to mark up charts and find entries.
Why did you originally start trading and what are your future goals?
I think like most people, it is to get some extra income and get to the point where there isn’t a reliance on a 9-5. I just aim to build a steady income from trading in order to invest in further things, making my money work further but also supporting my family.
What has been your biggest trading success?
I would just say getting to the point where I can say that I am able to see success from hard work, the long hours etc. That I didn’t give up where it would have been very easy to, I had a few friends at the start of my journey joining me, they’ve since given up and moved on. It’s not really an answer to do with the markets or how much money I made but I would say that is my biggest trading success.
What has been your worst trading experience?
Probably towards the beginning when I didn’t understand things properly, I invested a couple thousand pounds into various CFDs thinking they were stocks on an investment account, there was a big crash, I am sure you can imagine what happened after…
Can you describe a typical trading day
I tend to do most of my preparation after work / evening/ Asian session, have a look at where price is, mark up areas of interest, set a few alerts if necessary, probably only take about 10-20 mins on that. The day, I check the markets when I can for entries or for trade management, with day to day commitments I can’t afford to stay on the charts all day so I will miss a trade here or there but that’s the game.
What advice would you give to an aspiring new trader?
Have patience in all aspects, the learning, building a strategy, wanting to use your capital etc. Rushing any elements of this only hinders you.
What are your top 3 tips for passing a funded trading test?
- You don’t need to pass in one day, take your time, find your setups and grind your way to the profit target. There’s definitely no rush when it comes to FT+ so remain calm.
- If you lose around half of the daily DD, take the rest of the day off. Reflect on your trades at some point during the day but take your mind off it otherwise, reset and go again the next day or whenever the next time your next great setup occurs.
- Only take the test/challenge when you are ready, have a system/plan you are confident in ready. It’ll only mess you up psychologically, if you jump in too soon and anything starts to remotely go against you.