Former US Marine Logan on discipline, routine and breakout trading

0:00I have a statistical edge. It's shown a lot of success and I've only been trading just over a year and I've already had few months where I'm hitting six figures. I think it cost me overall probably around $1,500. Okay. And I turned it into $55,000. If you've ever wondered whether trading can actually change your life. Today's guest is living proof that it can. Meet Logan. He's a former military contractor turned student of the markets to now being a mentor.

0:18If something doesn't work out, it's fine. I'm used to a job where if you're having a bad day, it's a lot more drastic. I have a bad day in Afghanistan. That kind of explains itself. I have a bad day on the market, lost a little bit of money. You can find a good strategy and if you followed that edge, for the most part, you would think you would do well.

0:35But I can confidently say that trading is 90% successful. He's made over $500,000 in the last 18 months of his career and he's already up six figures in the first 4 months of 2026. And I will always tell beginners and even intermediate and advanced traders, stick to the props. Why would you want to switch from it? It doesn't make sense logically.

0:55Ideally, I try and tell everybody if you can, New York open. I think anybody who wants to disagree that New York open isn't the best time frame, you're wrong. So my strategy, my trading is very, very simple. With my setup is we literally look for he live streams his trading daily and shares the entire process with his audience. In today's episode, we talk about the importance of discipline and routines as part of your day. And most interestingly, he shares what it's really like to make an entire year salary in a single month.

1:18You have to understand the market conditions are always different. Right now we have some combative situations going on overseas or you might have tariffs or you might have anything an election going on. So it's very difficult to back test because the market is always changing. So that's why I always say you need to front test as well.

1:34The difference is let's get into it. What's up everyone? Welcome back to the prop firm trader podcast. The number one podcast in the world for funded traders. I'm Sanjief. I'm the host of this show and I'm here to take you inside the mine and onto the charts with some of the most profitable prop firm traders there are.

1:50Now, on this show, we like to do things a little bit differently. We don't just talk payouts and numbers. We like to understand the mindset, the process, the habits that it takes to achieve consistency in this space. Now, when it comes to guests of the show, I don't think there's anybody better to talk about discipline than our guest today. He has gone from being a military contractor to a student of the markets to now a mentor. They have completely transformed their life in a short space of time.

2:18and I'm interested to figure out how that's been done. They've been able to take an old yearly salary and make that in just one month. I'm really interested to hear more about their story and what it takes to achieve that level of transformation. And I'm sure there's something we're all going to learn from this. It is my pleasure to introduce Logan.

2:40Sajie, how you doing? I'm very well. How are you? Good. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you being here. Absolutely. I want to get stuck straight into conversation. There is something about your journey which intrigues me a lot and that is if you look at the trading space especially the retail trading space there is a lot of negativity on courses mentorships buying these sorts of things but you're someone that's kind of been through that life cycle and actually you've completely shifted and transformed the path of your life.

3:03There are many people that are taking or aspiring to want to do the same thing but have not been able to make it and achieve the same level of success as you. What do you think that you've done differently that other people could be learning from? I'm going to be honest with you. Um I was lucky. Um if you look at unfortunately the industry that we're in, there is a lot of scammers. There's a lot of hurus. Um, we'll go a little bit more into my background, but when I was contracting overseas, I saw this guy on the internet.

3:34Uh, and he was a veteran like me, was killing it in trading, and I didn't really know much about I said, "You know what? Let me look into it." We know him as Big Daddy Max. And I happened to jump into some of his free stuff that he had online, some options, and uh, made a $800 uh, Tesla play, and I ended up making Yeah, 800 bucks. I was pretty happy about it. And then he was talking about he was going to start a futures course.

3:59And fortunately for me, Max has been my one and only mentor. And obviously, it's shown a lot of success for myself and many other students. But as we know in the industry, a lot of people don't have that luck, right? Where they might go through multiple mentors and scammers and furus and stuff that end up, you know, screwing them over.

4:18Fortunately for me, the one guy that I ended up learning from was not the case and he ended up teaching me a lot. Do do you think a lot of that is because of the structure that was set up inside of the course or do you think part of that is also about you the mindset the approach that you had to to make it work? The thing for me is um you know when I when I hear veteran I instantly know it's a no [ __ ] thing and when you hear even Max on the internet and in his in his in his roles and when he was doing just his basic free YouTube classes he had this no [ __ ] no fake you know persona behind it.

4:51told you how it was. And he had students in that class and he would call them out like, you know, hey, idiot. What are you talking about? What are you doing? That's not how it is. And from someone with a military background, that's the type of type of structure that we need. Somebody to call you out on it. Somebody to say, this is how it is. This is how it should be.

5:08You know, I'm not going to beat around the bush. Here are the losses. Here are the wins. It's not all rainbows and butterflies. It's going to be rough around the edges sometimes, too. And when I heard that, saw that, I said, "Okay, this is somebody who's going to tell me how it is, not try and fluff it up as it is." And uh that's someone who you can learn to trust a lot quicker.

5:27I like that. You mentioned obviously the military background. How do you think that shaped you? Both mindset, habits, routines in terms of coming into a very different field. Do you think it's been beneficial? Do you think there have been certain things that have held you back? Absolutely. So in the military the whole the whole point of joining especially the military and myself as a marine is we go into even just basic training and the whole concept of it is breaking you down and building you into this structured discipline emotionless robot essentially and the best way to incorporate that as we know in the markets is they say don't be an emotional trader right don't go on tilt don't get too excited don't get too upset you go into the market conditions thinking the same way and I was able to incorporate a lot of that same training that I had in the military and put it into the market as well.

6:07What specifically are you doing in terms of habits and routines each day to kind of set you up for that consistency though? So when it first started um so I I was in the Marine Corps, did four years active duty and then I was also a military contractor. So I lived in Afghanistan for four years.

6:27I was in Iraq, Qatar, other places. Um but I was in you know some combat zones for a long period of time. Y and in those situations you make one wrong decision. You get too emotional about anything. It could cost you your life and your brothers and sisters around you. So, when I got into trading, um, quickly you start to realize, and I think this goes for everybody who ever gets into trading, is you quickly start to see some traits of yourself that you haven't seen in a while or you're not aware of.

6:44And when I got into trading, I instantly started to get emotional about something. You know, when I would catch a loss or something, I said, "Whoa, okay, Logan, let's focus on what you know and how you were trained." So, I started to incorporate it the same way is try and remove as much emotions, keep yourself disciplined, follow a process, and expect the expectations of whatever it's going to be, right? If you follow your rules, you follow the structure, ideally it should go in your direction.

7:10If it doesn't, don't get emotional. Just stick to that process. And that's what I incorporated in training as well. Nice. I like that. So, it sounds like obviously the background that you had has been actually something that served you really well to work in a probabilistic environment, right? An environment that's really set up for uncertainty. And I think that's something that a lot of people in that come from a normal traditional everyday the job that they go down. I think that's something that not a lot of people are prepared for.

7:42The uncertainty of not knowing what today's outcome is going to bring. And I think obviously the downside is when you have a bad day, you don't just come home and everything is normal. A bad day as a trader is you lose money, right? And that's something that a lot of people carry with them into the next day. How do you cope with the idea of the ups and downs in this game and leaving the performance from yesterday in the past and focusing on the present moment?

8:08The way that I am and this is also kind of instilled in the military and it's and I'm not perfect about it. I think the way that I approach it now is a little bit more in a way beneficial. So if something doesn't work out, it's fine, right? I'm used to a job where if you're having a bad day, you know, it's a lot more drastic. If I have a bad day in Afghanistan, you know, I I think that kind of explains itself.

8:28If I have a bad day on the market, got it. Lost a little bit of money, right? So, incorporating that and not being so upset about it, moving on from it, and taking it into the next day, but also being able to take notes of it, journal it, uh, you know, adapt and overcome is a big saying that we have in the military and figure out what was the issue, why did you fail at that trade, why didn't it work out?

8:47And so, what I do now is a lot of the times I follow a process. I'll build a statistical edge, you know, high win rate, good RR, but if I start to see a consistent loss or low R, what I'll do is again adapt and overcome. Let me get back, let me do some back testing. Let me understand what was the process and why it didn't work. A lot of people instead, they just go on tilt and they full port it and go it over and over and over again.

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11:32testing. Some people only like the idea of doing it forward testing. I like both. You like both? Yes. So, I always say this. So, I say this in a lot of situations. Uh recently I've come up with a essentially a breakout strategy that has to go almost right into the New York open. Some people might call it gambling.

11:47That's fine. I have a statistical edge has shown a lot of success. uh recently in 8 days from starting a Apex funded account legacy I got $55,000 8 days after it was funded. So right off the rip it ended up working out for me. Um and with that what I told my students is when we looked into it is we you can do the back testing but here's my concern with back testing is you can only look so far back right because you have to understand the market conditions are always different.

12:07right now you know we have some combative situations going on overseas you know or you might have tariffs or you might have anything an election going on so it's very difficult to back test because the market is always changing so that's why I always say you need to front test as well right the difference is is I can back test and I can look through trade of a trading view or any other platform and you might have some type of movement but it's different when you're actually doing it live with an account that you put your own money into when the psychological risk is involved that's why I always recommend yes front testing as well what what have you found as part of your journey is maybe the more difficult part of trading.

12:43Did you think it was finding the strategy in and of itself or actually developing the mindset to be consistent in applying it? I think anybody could learn a good strategy if you end up having good mentors like uh Max or Llama or others you can find a good strategy and if you follow that edge for the most part you would think you would do well but I can confidently say that trading is 90% psychology.

13:02I think that anybody can learn any edge you have. You know, there's a reason the ICT group is there's a lot of successful traders. You've got Max the orb traders as well. You know, I do a lot of ORB. It's the strategies do well, but that's not going to make you profitable. It's how well can you focus on your psychology and your discipline? How consistent can you stay with your psychology and your discipline?

13:26How long can you stay without getting greedy or going on tilt? Those are the situations that I think take the most amount of time and practice and and building a foundation on. Yeah. What would you say to the person that has jumping from one strategy to another looking for the perfect holy grail but not actually looking in the mirror? Like how do you get them to take that level of accountability to actually figure out it's not the strategy that's the problem, it's them?

13:51So I try and say this a lot is in our community we have a lot of students um that'll have a lot of success and they end up failing to understand if they have a bad day, week or even a month is they don't really internalize and think okay well why did I have a bad day, week or month? Is it the strategy? Is it the market or is it myself? And what often they do more than often is they'll switch to another strategy.

14:10And I have some students of mine and it's very funny because they'll have immediate success, almost immediate success when they start for about a month and then the market conditions won't work out or maybe my strategy isn't working at that time. I'll be honest, my strategy doesn't work 100%. Of course not, right? I wouldn't be talking here right now on an island somewhere. And in that case, what happens is they end up switching to another strategy. They end up getting, you know, paralysis by analysis, too many strategies.

14:34And then they come running back full circle. Hey, I'm using your stuff again and it's working out. Yeah. And I try and tell people a lot of the times is if you're going through especially some of the courses and the people that I associate with, these guys are successful for a reason. Their [ __ ] works, you know, and to try and stay consistent with that and follow through with it.

14:50If it doesn't work for your personality, fine, you know, then you can rotate. But give it a chance. Understand that the market conditions are always changing and see if it's either a you thing or if it actually is a strategy thing. I like it's very systematic, which doesn't surprise me given your background and stuff, but that makes a lot of sense. There

15:08is one thing about your journey as well that also intrigues me a lot and again I think will provide a lot of value for people that are watching this which is the transformation that you've had in a relatively short space of time. Something that I've ended up touching a lot on during the podcast is the idea that especially in the prop space it's very easy for your account size to scale quickly and the the amount of money that you're managing and trading to scale very quickly.

15:28But your mind's ability to actually be able to manage that is a very different thing. You've gone to a place where, as you described it, you've been in a place where you've made an entire year's salary in a month. How do you manage the psychology and like the shift between those moments? The funny thing is is is that's something that even I can admit is something that I am still working on. Okay. Um last month I had a well over six figure month in multiple props payouts.

15:56um which was amazing and I did it also in November and I've had it here and there from months to months here and I've only been trading just over a year and I've already had you know a few months where I'm hitting six figures which is insane you know in combat zone in Afghanistan you know working 12 hours a day seven days a week getting shot at all the time I was able to accomplish it in within a month but I can confidently say also is that getting that when you make that big of an adjustment it's it's difficult sometimes there's been more often than not there's been times when and I've had these giant giant payouts and you're on such a high that you need I'm I'm still trying to figure out what do I need to do to relax on that high.

16:38Um there's been times so Apex for example I hit a $55,000 payout within two weeks I was about to get another $55,000 payout. Greed got to me wanted a little bit more and you know ended up cooking some of them and it happens. I understand it's part of the process. So making that big move um is something that I'm personally still working on is being able to humble myself a bit. Um, I now know that it's capable and I can consistently hit these six figure uh months, which is insane, right?

17:03I'm not I'm not knocking that. It's still insane to me. Um, but being able to say that, Logan, that you're not always going to do this, and if you do do it, you have to understand that there are losses and part of the process. Yeah. Is there any part of you, and again, I say this with perspective of time, I think, is mainly the main thing. Is there any part of you because the success has happened in such a short space of time that is worried that I'm going through a lucky streak rather than all the time all the time.

17:23I was actually talking about it with even my students and I was talking about with my students and some uh and Javi my co-host of the power hour show is I said that there was days and this actually happened after um last month is I was going through um the what do we call it um imposttor syndrome and I was like you know I I'll go on these hot streaks and these hot streaks and I I remember I did it for I think I was on a fiveweek streak and I had like maybe one or two losses and I was just absolutely killing the markets and payout payout payout.

17:59Uh we had one of the uh CEOs uh not the CEO the COO of one of the props coming says yeah Logan's getting a payout every three days from us and uh hearing that also and then I'll catch a loss or maybe go on tilt right it's I'm I'm human it happens and instantly I think Logan maybe you're not a good trader maybe you're just you know you're just getting lucky but then I remind myself you know hey you've been following the process this is how it works right you're still a new trader but you look at the statistics I have multiple months now where I'll have a month where I'm dominating a month that's not as well.

18:27Um, but at least I'm staying profitable and the numbers are a lot bigger than the losses. Um, but I do understand that, you know, it's a part of the process. But yeah, I definitely go through that imposter syndrome where I think maybe I'm just lucky. Um, and I think that'll take time. I think that I just as long as I continue to follow my process, I'll start to really continue to believe in myself and the mentors and people who taught me as well.

18:44Yeah. Would you advocate prop firms to a new trader coming into the game or would you advocate they start anything differently? I think anybody who would say otherwise is is not thinking logically. Um I went into the market. So when I first started trading before I even took the courses. Um I ended up going in and I I honestly I blew $20,000 saved up from when I was in the Middle East all on prop firms.

19:10Now imagine if that was a cash account, right? It would have gone much quicker and I wouldn't have known any better. The prop firm industry, it just makes sense, right? I've done it multiple times. We think about, you know, the uh the Apex accounts that I put money into. I think it cost me overall probably around $1,500. Okay. And I turned it into $55,000. Yeah. It's just simple things like that where your risk isn't as significant. And like myself, there's been now two occasions when I ran up an account up to $50,000 in profits, rinsed them, right?

19:40It's happened twice now. Now, imagine if that was a cash account where I went through $50,000 twice. $100,000 gone down the drain. Now, I'm okay with losing the $300 that it started with to 50,000 as opposed to a $50,000 gone. Yeah. And so, that's something that I'm fully aware of and I will always tell beginners and even at intermediate and advanced traders, stick to the props. Why would you want to switch from it?

20:07It doesn't make sense logically. You know that at some point in time, you will eventually go on Tilt and Pop them. Now, I understand the advanced traders say, "Take that money, put it into a personal account. Take the money, put it into a personal account." But I think that comes with a certain level of confidence and consistency where you're not having those big tilted days which for some might take years and years and years.

20:22You know, I don't know when that point's going to stop for me and I'm aware of that. Yeah. Yeah. I love the fact that you own the fact that we are all imperfect as part of this game and it's something that you kind of have to accept but better you have to learn to manage. I think the more and more that I've sat down and had conversations with people that have made a large amount of money in whatever time frame from the markets, they all come to the same or similar consensus, which is it's not that emotions ever really disappear and you become this perfect human being that doesn't experience anger, frustration, revenge, whatever it is.

20:58It's more about just learning how to recognize those moments and then manage them. Right. Absolutely. What's what's your process of one building that awareness of your patterns and then two maybe how you're working on trying to disrupt those in the future because I presume that's something that you're working on improving at some point. Absolutely. So I I said earlier before is how the biggest thing in trading is psychology and I think that I can confidently say is that my military background is led to a lot of my success.

21:17I think it's the psychology, the discipline and the emotional control. Yeah, but then you're thinking, well, Logan, you just talked about how multiple times you've gone on tilt and popped your accounts, right? Yes, because I also do know that I am human. That is part of the process. But it's how consistently are you doing that and how well are you adapting and adjusting from that? So, I might have popped, you know, two, three, four accounts that were up, you know, 20, 30, 40, $50,000.

21:45Got it. But how many times was I holding it and getting payouts from it and doing it consistently, not popping it, right? And I think as as long as you cannot build as long as you don't build a bad habit to where it's so consistent that it's like okay you're just a tilt trader, you're just a gambler.

22:04As long as you can manage that and be aware of those situations, what's triggering it? And what I try and tell all my students and this has happened for me is every time I've got into a situation where I have blown $50,000 in profits. Why? And nine times out of 10, there's something personal going on. And a lot of people don't realize that if you're going on tilt and you're popping your accounts and something else is going on, think from the outside. What is going on?

22:28Do you have something going on in your personal life, your financial life, your home life, you know, anything like that, take that and put it into when you're trading. And so I try and tell a lot of people, I'm not a therapist. I'm not a psychologist, of course, but I try and tell people before you get on the charts, think about what's going on in your life right now before you do.

22:41Because nine times out of 10, if you're in a bad place, you're going to trade in a bad place. Let me ask you something. Are you actually improving as a trader or are you just making the same mistakes over and over again? I find most traders think that more screen time equals better results. Here's a news flash. It doesn't. What actually does improve your trading is feedback.

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24:07thought about a way of how to get back to that point of like what I like to call equilibrium? Because I think like you said there are factors and variables that influence the person. They have nothing to do with the market but they will completely change how you perform. So do you have any sort of like methodology or things that you've experienced which better allow you to get back to a place of just being level-headed so that you can do what you need to do on the markets.

24:28Routine and structure. Routine and structure. Um it's what we had in the military. Wake up at the same time every day. Eat breakfast same time of day. PT, whatever you need to do. And it's funny, um, I was on a very, very hot streak. Um, and then I kind of just started trading poorly and I was sick and I went on a trip and my mentor Max called me out on it. Says, Logan, he goes, "Get your [ __ ] together."

24:55I was like, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "I can tell that you're not doing what you used to be doing. You're not on your structured routine." Like, you're absolutely right. He said, "Get it back together." Got back on my routine. Got back on my structure. Smooth sailing again. And that's what it comes down to. And I think that has to do with everything in life.

25:08If you can maintain your structure and routine, nothing can beat you. It's when you fall off of it that things start to fall apart. What do you think is the biggest part of your structure? Like are there particular things that you are doing on a daily basis outside of the chart work that are keeping you like kind of grounded? I think it I think this goes with everything in life with your work, your relationships and everything is sleep well, eat healthy, get to the gym.

25:28you know, if you have faith or anything like that or you build strong relationships with your friends, family, whoever, I think as long as all of those are doing well, you ideally should be doing well in anything in life. I think as you're constantly growing yourself, your relationships, your health, your fitness, there's nothing can stop you. Nice. I like that, man. Um, talk to me a little bit about your approach actually trading, right?

25:52Because from what I understand, you started off doing all the things that you learned in the course and the mentorship and now you've built your own kind of style and approach. Tell me a little bit about that. So, um, Max, uh, Big Daddy Max, as we know, is he's the the orb king and he opening range breakout and at the time when I originally was starting it, I was still in the Middle East and I was a new trader and the opening range, it wasn't really um, convenient for me because where I was, okay, so I wanted to try and figure out how I could approach it and find different ways to build that strategy.

26:20So I ended up looking at volume and pockets and seeing areas of interest where there were potential support and resistance levels and statistical breakouts on top side or bottom side. So I started with that and ended up having a lot of success and eventually we ended up building a power hour orb and now we have the power hour show as a result. Uh with that I wanted to look into more of orb trades and seeing and avoiding false breakouts.

26:45So I started paying attention to pivot points and were certain areas where there were bouncing and I ended up coming up with also an indicator called the pivot hunter pro and off of that is we know one of two things these highlevel pivots are either going to bounce and reject or if there's a strong enough break and continuation you can enter and catch a significant amount of moves. Um but where it all started originally was when I was taking the mastermind is I started focusing on ATM strategies.

27:10What do you mean by that? So the it's automatic trade management. Okay. So, if you look at certain platforms, you have ways where you can manage your trades. Talked about it before in psychology. How often uh does somebody get into a trade and they see a little bit of red and they panic, right? And they'll maybe adjust their stop loss or their TP or they see a little bit of green and they close it out early.

27:30It's a big psychological issue, right? So, what I ended up developing were these ATM settings where if you go into a buy or a sell, you click and you set it and forget it. And I have an automatic system where you trim profits at a certain number, contracts will move to break even and autotra. So you can essentially see a play setting up, click buy, click sell, and walk away.

27:46The emotions are gone. You don't have to manage your trade anymore. And this has led to a significant increase in my profitability because I was able to remove the emotions and psychology. You can't get emotional about being in a trade because you see it played out. You clicked buy, you click sell, now you have to let it do what it does. And that has had a lot of success plus adding the pivot levels in the indicator. And um, of course, I've learned from Max Orb.

28:08So, I have a very very successful uh breakout strategy based off of the or plays as well. And um I'm always going to be a momentum breakout trader. I've tried some of these longer trade setups. Uh but this is what I like to do most. Uh and we make jokes with Max L and everybody that uh Logan teaches everybody about the orb and one and done, but no, of course, I learned that from my mentor Max. And uh doing orb one and done, getting in, getting out is the best way to be uh profitable with the trade strategies that we use.

28:34And do you think you'll ever take any of these approaches and work to try and apply them to a personal account at some point? Absolutely. I think so at some point in time. Um I have some I want to say personal but maybe egotistical goals with the individual props and see how far and payouts and maybe some records and live accounts things like that.

28:55I think once I do achieve a certain level of you know confidence and consistency again I've only been trading for just over a year. So I think once I do hit that certain level on maybe if I'm live accounts with multiple of them then at that point in time if I'm having a consistent profitability off of live accounts through multiple props then it only makes sense for me to just start migrating into just a personal cash account.

29:18What what do you think like I mean something that we've touched on a lot today is the

29:26relatively large success in a short sample size of time. You've clearly thought ahead with this because when I asked about the personal accounts, you already kind of have a game plan. You have a map of what you want to achieve specifically from the prop space. What's the overall goal for you? Like what are you working towards? Is there a big vision, dream, ambition that you're working towards making happen at some point in time or is it something that you're taking day by day?

29:44It's it's a combination of both. Um I'm always looking in the future. I'm always seeing where can I set myself up to better myself and make more money, more become financially stable and free. Um, one of the biggest things that I talk about a lot is the idea behind fulfillment. I've now put myself in a financial I don't have, you know, the luxury stuff or anything like that. Do I want to get in the near future?

30:09Absolutely. But I think for me right now, what I'm enjoying the most um is we have the largest veteran and first responder community at Max Options Trading and that is awesome to me. Um, being able to consistently help these people out and help them become profitable situations like myself where, you know, because I learned how to trade, I don't have to go into combat zones anymore.

30:28And being able to help these other guys that I know that are, you know, going into these war zones or these, you know, cops, teachers, nurses, people who are struggling with their financial situation, want some way to kind of adjust and have a side gig. That is really fulfilling. And be able to continue to grow and expand that is is really fulfilling and awesome. But if I talk from just a personal standpoint, I don't really have anything set. I think it's just kind of continuing to focus and building my own uh structure and routine and kind of the discipline.

30:59I think that there's always levels of how strong your discipline can be. And I think that as that stays consistent, you know, the pretty things, the money, and all that's just a byproduct. And I think that'll come with it. I think that's the one of the beautiful things about trading because at least from my experience. I've never found a top of the mountain. It it's always a journey of personal development and I think that's what makes it such a beautiful journey to climb.

31:18But also why I think that so many people struggle and fail as part of this journey as well because there's not a lot of people that are willing to go through the introspection, the accountability, the reflection periods that are needed to probably find that level of growth. Is that something that you'd agree with?

31:35Yeah, absolutely. I think I think I agree with you on that on one thing is that there's never there is no top to this mountain. Yeah. I think for anybody and that just comes with as you grow with trading and business adventures and finances or anything like that. There is no peak that you're going to reach. You know, even Elon Musk, he just finds more ways to do more stuff, right?

31:53It's never going to stop. But I think the issue is with a lot of new traders is that they think I can get halfway up to that mountain tomorrow. And that's a big issue that a lot of them are having is they're in this rush where I need to make the money now. I need to do it. I need to do it. And it's going to constantly slow them down because again, if you need to do it, if I can make this money tomorrow, what gets involved?

32:11Your emotions. Now it's slowing them down. Um, but with where I'm at now, you know, I'm just I'm riding the wave and I've built now the confidence in my trading and strategies and everything like that is, you know, I might wipe out here and there, but I know how to get back on the board. It's not a problem. Do you do you think the idea of overnight success in trading is a real thing, though?

32:29And and I'm saying this from the perspective that you've had such a quick transformation with it as well. I know other traders that have been in this game for months, years without seeing the level of success that you have. Do you think it's possible for everyone? I think anybody can do it. I don't think that I have I I don't think trading requires a certain level of intelligence. I think it's I think it more or less just has to do with how strong your discipline is and um how well can you follow a strategy and keep your psychology on point.

32:55I don't think I'm anybody special. I don't. And my manage my success, I had a lot of benefiting factors. One, I had a great mentor. Two, I had a little bit saved up from uh my contracting and I ended up blowing that pretty quick and ended up working three jobs at the time to sustain my trading. But I think anybody can do it. I think it all depends on your psychology, your discipline, and how much you can push yourself to have that success.

33:25Anybody can do it, I think, in a short period of time. Some people might take longer, but if you do take longer, don't think that it's a you issue. Think about your situation, your life situation might be different than that person who had nothing to stress about and why they got success in trading so quick. Yeah. I I think the problem is a lot of the time that people compare themselves to others, it's it's the highlight reel of social media and that doesn't always either paint a a full or real picture of what reality is like.

33:42And sometimes in this day and age, it's just completely false. Yeah. Right. Right. And I think that's a a big part of what makes the trading space sometimes quite difficult to navigate. I I'm keen to understand a little

34:03bit going back to the the strategy side of things. What's your take on having a a simple or a complex strategy? Because I've I've spoken to people from both backgrounds. Some people to break down their strategy, it can take them hours and hours to kind of explain what it needs. For some people, it's it's a very simple thing.

34:20And again, I don't know a lot about the opening range breakout, but it sounds fairly simplistic. Is that a light way to put it or is it's it's the way that I would explain the way that I've learned and the way that I teach also in my set way of the strategies is Barney style is what we call it. Barney style and kiss. Keep it simple stupid. Okay. Barney style is is just another if you think about literally Barney purple dinosaur, right?

34:50It's Barney style and trying to you want to be able to take what you know and teach it to a 5-year-old. Yeah. And that's how I go and approach it with everything is I like I said, I don't find myself to be the most intelligent or eloquent person out there. Um I think that I just have a way to be able to grasp something and if I can find that way and give it to others, it's the same process.

35:05Yeah. Um so my strategy, my trading is very very simple. M it's it's gotten to the point now where I constantly find ways to even make it more dumbed down is we essentially with my setup is we literally look for based off of a certain time line is literally a break and then a signal for a continuation. Okay, like that simple of a movement you're just watching the momentum, paying attention to volume. It's nothing super complex. And the idea behind it is I have this I happen I guess where the structure and the complexity of it comes down to is your discipline.

35:47I have a set amount of this is the percentage of your account you're going to risk. This is the certain amount of contracts you're going to risk and that's it. And if somebody can follow that and stick to that rule and stick to the breaking continuation of whatever particular strategy I'm using, there is a large amount of success capable there. I have a lot of students who've had already been doing very very well as long as they stick to the discipline.

36:06I don't think trading needs to be complicated. I see all these people with a hundred different indicators and they use all these crazy high tech stuff that are used all over the world and I just don't think it's necessary. I I learned originally from AX is we almost don't like to use any indicators. So we try and limit it.

36:24Now if you're using one or two, we have some solid indicators also. Absolutely. Why not? I use one myself. But I think you want to try and keep the trading style as basic as possible because the problem is is if you go into a chart and you have to think about too many steps, it's going to over complicate it. And again, let's see what your emotions are like and now you have to think about extra processes.

36:41It's going to slow down everything. Yeah. And I'm a quick momentum breakout trader. I don't want to have to think about a hundred things at once. I want to say, okay, I see the break. I see the continuation. I'm in ATM settings. I can walk away. I come back. TP hit. Cool. Done. What what do you think uh even with the simplicity of your strategy, what do you think are the biggest psychological barriers that maybe you're still trying to work through aside from the scaling up of money?

36:57Because I know that's one that you've touched on already. The biggest thing too is you see so the biggest struggle that I would say still focusing on it is understanding the market conditions. It's always adapting. It's always changing. There are certain points right now and everybody knows this is when you're looking at the market is one day we're flat and nothing's going on. For me as a volume momentum breakout trader, you're like, "Dude, I'm come on."

37:31And I don't want to spend a lot of time on the charts because everybody knows the more time you spend on the charts, the higher probability you're going to do something stupid. And then you have these days where it's insane and it's nuts and it's perfect. And I think that's where for my trading style, it's a little bit more difficult is those days when it's flat when you have some major economic news coming up and nothing is presenting itself.

37:47And being able to get on the charts, noticing that, recognizing it, and walking away and saying, you know what, this is just going to be a day I'm not going to take a trade. And I think that for myself and even some of my students is is definitely the more difficult part of my strategy. Yeah. I I think the part of trading that nobody or rarely people start to prepare you for is especially with a simplistic approach in my opinion is boredom.

38:10Right? I I always frame this as it's the silent performance killer that nobody really talks about but it's the thing that just gives you a very itchy trigger finger when you're sitting there you start creating these opportunities that don't really occur. Right. Right. How do you deal with that? Because obviously you have this set window of time. you have these other things that you want to do with your day, but do you find the trading ever just lingers in your mind and that's what kind of gets you to those periods of tilt?

38:33Well, the the issue also is is that so I have the most I have two essential strategies is one is based off of the opening range breakout um but I also have a strategy and I don't know if I unfortunately is the right word but it gives you opportunities throughout the entire day. Okay. And so that can tend to be a problem is because a lot of the times people will force them.

38:52Yeah. And so that's an issue that we have as well is some people will just wait all day for that opportunity when that volume spike happens forcing trades and doing something they're not supposed to. So it's kind of a mixed bag and it comes down to those situations where I try and teach everybody is saying set a time for yourself.

39:10Ideally I try and tell everybody if you can New York open. I think anybody who wants to disagree that New York open isn't the best time frame you're wrong. Try and get in from 9:30 to 10:30 11 at most. See if you can catch something. If not, call it. Yes. Does my setup have opportunities throughout the rest of the day? Of course. But you want to try and limit that because again, the more time you spend on the charts, higher probability you're going to do something stupid.

39:32Yeah. Why is it that you think that the markets are so attractive in that way? Like it seems to trap everyone in the exact same way. We always know logically what we should be doing, but physically when it comes down to taking that step back, walking away, it traps so many people. We're greedy creatures by nature. All of us are greedy creatures by nature. There's never enough. We always want more. We always want more. We always can think we can get more. I have this problem now where my ego has gotten to me is because I've hit uh multiple max allocation maximum payouts is now in my head I expect that all the time.

40:04And I have to remind myself that this isn't a consistent thing that you can do all the time. And so for even me told I was at $54,000 out of a $55,000 payout. I needed out of two accounts to make 500 bucks each. I could have walked away, cashed out the 54K. No, we got to get the maximum payout. Why? And I ended up throwing it away. And it's one of those things that a lot of times is people are greedy and they can make two three $400 and they say, "Well, there might be another opportunity and I can make that, you know, $7, $800."

40:35And that's a problem. Yeah. There is so much about your story that I find fascinating. Not just even just from the timeline, but from the background to the student to now the mentor. Do you feel like you're in a stage where you almost believe it yourself? Like do you ever have those pinch me moments? I know you mentioned like you struggled with imposter syndrome a few times. How are you dealing with this like such radical shift in such a short space of time? It at first um so I recently moved to Florida 6 months ago and I remember probably like three months ago I was driving in my brand new custom truck that I have and I was on the highway and I was like you're actually [ __ ] doing this.

41:11this is crazy. You're actually doing this. This is insane. Now it's gotten to the point where it's becoming more and more consistent to it's not as much like surreal for me. Um I think it's becoming more of a consistent thing. But now again it's it's one of those things where it's like okay what's the next step? Yeah. Right. What's the next step of surrealism? Right. How much how far can I go now? What's the next step on this unending mountain that I'll be like holy [ __ ] now I'm here.

41:40That's the thing that I'm trying to find out and approach. Um, I've I think it's already sunk in. I'm in Florida, you know, I'm out of the combat zones. I'm making a good amount of money. I think that's kind of a normal routine for me now. But now it's like, okay, what's the next step? And I haven't really figured out what that's going to be yet.

41:56There there's a a lot in what you've described today about your success, about the transformation, which has been due to or at least played a big part of the energy of the people around you. Right. I'm a big believer in energy playing a big role. Talk to me about

42:13your experience with this and why it's important to be surrounded by the right people. I've I've thought about this for a while. Um my success has been only when I surround myself with the people that are going to help me grow as a person, whether it's, you know, mentally, financially, whatever it is. Uh you need to surround yourself with people that are only going to better you. You can't surround yourself.

42:35I grew up in a town where people everybody was doing well but it was their parents and families and I was around for lack of better words a bunch of bums and they stayed at home or they were just negative they weren't around they weren't the good people and when I started doing well in trading the first thing that Max told me he says you need to come down to Florida he's like you need to come down to Florida you know build your growth your opportunity I said absolutely I'll be near Llama I'll be near max two very profitable traders who have a lot of success and doing really well I said I need to be around these guys and I've actually you know I've cut off everybody from home um you know people that aren't adding any value to me as a person.

43:08I only want to surround myself with people that I know are going to better than me. I have essentially three people that I hang out with and it's it's my my girlfriend and them two and that's the only people I need to surround myself with. It's people that are going to better me um and not make me a lesser of a person. I'm trying to see how far I can go continue to grow financially, personally, everything like that.

43:26You talk about Max as my mentor who taught me how to trade, but he's also we made jokes about it, but it is true. He's also like my life mentor. Hey Logan, you're being a dumbass. What are you doing? Right. And it's not just with trading, it's anything else and making the adjustments. And these are the type of people you need to help you become a better person.

43:39Uh not just in the markets, but just in life. Yeah. I I have always found a huge connection between the people around you, the energy that you're letting in. And I find even that energy can be coming from places like social media. I have a lot of conversations with people about like the type of content that they are consuming and whether it's pushing them to do good things or bad things. And I think the blessing and the curse that we have in today's day and age is we have an unlimited access to information.

44:06You're obviously someone that from what I see you're building up on social media as well. How do you go about navigating that sort of space whilst maintaining the right energy and mental clarity to continue on a positive path? It's [ __ ] difficult. It's difficult. Uh so obviously my military background in contracting is we didn't do anything with social media.

44:28It's not our thing, right? We're just I lived in the desert and there was just the internet wasn't good there or anything like that. And now I'm in this world of social media and the internet and I have a problem right now where if any every there's there's so many the problem is is that the industry that we're in is there's so many scammers and foolers and everything like that and as soon as you start trading or if you have a course you're doing anything you're instantly associated with them no matter what or you're just not a legitimate trader.

44:51I had these guys who do so well at trolling me and my Marine Corps anger comes out every time where I had one guy he said, you know, "Oh, your Apex payout's not legit." So I said, "Okay." I said, "Come and watch the show." He watched the show. I went in, I logged in, shown everything, showed my bank statement, showed everything.

45:11He says, "That could be fake, too." And it's just no matter what you do, there's always going to be people who are just not going to believe in you, who are going to dig under your skin. And it's all over social media. And I I get the comments and there was one day I spent all day arguing with people and I you know I get told all the time stop.

45:29You're wasting your energy, wasting your time. This is a normal thing. It's a part of the world you're in. And it's tough because you have you know with my background and where I came from to where I am now is I'm proud of myself and all the success I had. And then you have these losers online who are going to hate on you. Um and it's not necessarily their fault. It's these other fake traders and these these guys who ruin it for everybody else.

45:46Um, but it's it's something that I'm adjusting to and I'm learning hopefully sooner rather than later to just ignore the noise, just focus on what I'm doing and continue the process. Yeah. I I heard this great analogy a few years ago and it was based off of the idea like this cup filled with liquid, it can be water or poison, but it doesn't make the cup bad.

46:13Regardless of what's inside of it, it's nothing to do with the cup. It's everything to do with the content that you fill it with. And I always had a a mixed feeling about social media. For a long time, I thought social media was like toxic. It was this place full of negativity until you realize like that's the stuff that I'm pouring into it. Right. You don't realize that.

46:33There's a great documentary on um Netflix called The Social Dilemma. I don't know if you've ever heard it or watched it. I've heard of it. Yeah. It's it basically sits down with a lot of the biggest creators of the main social media platforms, the Instagrams, the Facebooks, and it it sits down and it shows you that actually they've built these platforms to be addictive. As a result of that, the platforms will feed you more of whatever you give time or energy to. And so I've always seen that where whereas if I now log into social media and I'm seeing something that I don't like, it's projecting that out me to test me to say, are you going to engage with this?

47:05Are you going to like it? Are you going to share it? Are you going to comment on it? It doesn't care whether it's good or bad for you. It's going to feed more of it back at you. And this is something I've tried to be very conscious about going forward because much like yourself, like I try and use social media as a tool for business and productive things. It's very hard in this space to kind of find that balance of, you know, doing the using it in a productive way and not having it use me to get me in a a poor or a bad mental state.

47:36So, yeah, I think even for mine now in my social medias, I've I've limited significantly who and what I follow. Yeah. If it's the same thing on on how I try and associate it with is like the people you surround yourself with, like we were talking about before. Yeah. is I want to surround myself if I'm on social media all the time because of work, business, whatever it is, I want to make sure that I'm surrounding myself on social media with something that's going to benefit me.

47:57And obviously, it takes time to learn that, hey, watching this idiot is just going to make me say or do something dumb. I'm not going to follow them anymore. I don't want to associate with it. I'd rather follow this account or what this has to offer instead. Yeah, fair. Fair. Um, Logan, I want to start to wind things down very slowly. I

48:19have a couple of segments that I like to do at the end of every episode. One of them is pretty straightforward, some quickfire questions that we like to throw out to a lot of guests. Um, the second one is called confessions of a trader. Uh, I will explain a little bit more about that when we get into it. I'll start with the quickfire ones if you're cool with this. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So, few questions to throw your way.

48:38Um, what's one rule that you will never break as a trader? One rule that I'll never break as a trader. Um, I don't know what this is. The first thing that came to my head. Don't reset a funded account. Interesting. Reset emails. Don't reset a funded account. If you need to reset a funded account, you don't have the discipline to go through the process of an email again. Interesting. I like that one. Um, what do you think is one habit that improved your trading the most?

49:05Um, accepting that I don't need the money right now. Nice. I like that. Uh, what do you think is one mistake that every new trader is making? rushing the process, thinking that they need the money right now and that if I pass this evil right now, I'll slow it down when I go to the funded phase. Habit carries over. Absolutely. Nice. I like that. Uh, last one for you. Did you have any beliefs coming into trading that you found out weren't really true? Yeah.

49:32Thought I was going to be a millionaire day one. Nice. Still working on it. Yeah. Um, okay. Final segment for the day. Like I said, we call these uh confessions of a trader. I want you to think of this as you've got a student, an aspiring trader that's coming to you and confessing something about their journey or story. And I want to hear your honest and raw take on maybe what you would advise them to overcome or work through this situation. This one's fairly short and sweet.

50:01This trader confesses, "I have no issues in making money. I have all the issues with keeping it. Whenever I lose money, I can't stop until I fix it. How do I break this cycle?" and finally become more disciplined. Have you ever made this much money before is the first question I would ask. Right? A lot of people don't realize and it's hard because when you see it online, you see it in your account, you see three, four, five, $600 and you see it as just a number.

50:24A lot of people don't realize is that where in the world are you going to be making that much in a day? Most people that are making that much in a day are not focusing on trading. And I think a lot of people fail to understand that is you have that number, you've done really well, you've made a ton of money. Why are you wasting it and throwing it away? Take it, leave it how it is. There's a lot of great features now in these new prop platforms where they have the opportunity to lock out.

50:49And as soon as you see a number that's more than you would ever make before, three, four, five, $600, which a lot of people don't think is is a lot, and the problem is they're also comparing themselves to others. Yeah. Is but when you see that large number, lock it. Lock your account. Walk away. Turn off your computer. Go touch grass. I like that. I like that. Again, very processorientated using the the options and platforms available. I like it. Logan, it's been an absolute pleasure.

51:17Um, it's been great hearing about your story. I think there's loads of nuggets and gems in there that again, not just myself, but a lot of the viewers are going to be able to take away as something positive to help transform their approach. So, very appreciative of your time, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Guys and girls, that is a wrap on another episode. As always, we want to hear your feedback. Was there something specific that Logan said today that helped transform the way you think, your perspective, and the way that you approach the market?

51:47If there is, let us know in the comments below. We'll be reading every single one, and we want to know how you're going to become a better trader off the back of this episode. As always, if you enjoyed this, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and check out some of the other episodes on screen. I'll see you guys in the next one. Take care. Welcome to the Propirm Trader YouTube channel, the number one channel in the world for funded traders.

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