Trader Yush on order flow and the rules that keep him funded

0:00They are approaching $2 million in prop firm payouts. No small numbers by any feat. When I was started with props, I was just thinking about, oh my god, I can make 20, $30,000 risking 2,000. I wasn't even thinking about risk. I'm averaging 100k in payouts right now for the past 5 months. A lot of prop traders don't blow accounts because of risk. They blow them because of expectations. That's the belief of today's guest, Trader Yash. He's closing in on $2 million in prop firm payouts with half of that being done in 2025 alone.

0:24No matter what you do in trading, like trade your personal money or props, if you don't have rules, you might get payouts, but you might give all that money that you made in payouts right back. Another rule that I have is only spend the x amount in firm fees. So, I try to keep my spending between like 56. What is one rule that has saved you the most money? What I would say, he actually started 2026 making $300,000 of just a $5,000 spend.

0:49What stands out in today's day and age is he's done it with public receipts. Full transparency is something that he really prides himself on. I trade one firm at a time and I focus on one or two prop firm for the day. I just set a risk parameters for that prop firm based on how much buffer I have. There is a huge thing going on social media for I almost 2 years now where a lot of people copy trade like five six prop firms together.

1:10It's great when it works. What happens when it doesn't work? You lose money on all those accounts. Me personally if I if I see that I'm like oh no. He actually shifted away from ICT concepts to focus on order flow. By the end of this episode, you're going to understand why managing your expectations and not necessarily risk might be the real key to staying funded in the long run. If I have a red day with a particular proper, I don't trade that prop for a week.

1:34Interesting. My mindset, the way I think about it is I want to kick off. I want to get straight into it if you don't mind. Okay, of course. Let's do I I have something noted down which is something that I believe you tweeted uh maybe not too long ago and you said um most prop traders don't fail from risk, they fail from expectations. Why are so many people falling into this trap? is because like the persona you see online of uh the the traders that have been in the game that have been trading props for I would say like more than one year.

2:11Um they've been through like the trials and tribulations of you know learning how to trade props with the draw downs they provide but then you just see the success. So when you're new to props you just look at okay I can spend $50 and make like 5,000 that's crazy return on your investment. um they're great opportunities, but there's a learning curve that you'd go through with. You shouldn't use all the leverage that they provide you.

2:40It's like a I call it a trap, right? So, for a 50k account, for example, you can do five uh minis or 50 micros and they give you 2k draw down. If you put that on a live account and you try that, you get I bet you like on an INQ, you'd get liquidated within like minutes. So, you need to learn like, okay, you got X amount of draw down for 50K, 2K, like uh $2,000 of max draw down.

3:05You have to learn to trade small first. And once you build a buffer, that's when you can really scale the account. Um, and that's a lot of people come in with expectation back to what you're saying was, I'm going to make money really quickly. That's not how props are designed. Um, and honestly, like how I've been able to find success is when I start an account, I start with um, micros and then once I build a good buffer once I get over the trailing um, and then I uh, size like for every 1,00 I add one contract.

3:34So I have like this rule that I follow and if it's a A+ setup um, which don't have doesn't happen every day, that's when I will size like I guess not overlever just risk like 20%. I like this because it's a it's actually a very mechanical process in terms of how you manage this which I think is something that not a lot of people do. They they manage a lot of risk based on how they feel or how they think that they're feeling during the day and that's what tends to set them off on a wrong path.

3:59I and um so when I first started trading uh I read this book trading in the zones and it talks about setting rules for yourself and I was like nah I'm not gonna no like no I would just trade when I first started I would just come in the day and just be like okay I want to I'm just going to trade like based on whatever right but for the past few years what's really helped me is setting rules for myself not just props by trading like okay I'm only going to take max uh two three trades so right now I average two three trades in a day and that knowing that and saying that if I don't overtrade um I'm just waiting for that setup and if I just wait I'm just wait I'm getting a high high probability setup part of my system and I'm done like within the first few hours instead of like me overtrading not having a plan before the trade um it just leads me to overtrade and with props it's so easy to overtrade there's nothing stopping you got to have a point like in your like in your rules like I mentioned where you're like okay I'm only going to trade x amount of time like a time frame uh like a set like a

5:08certain session um x amount of trades and then x amount of losing trades. So for me what keeps me uh from blowing accounts is I know my stopping point. It's in my rules and I follow it no matter what. Like if I have two three losing trades I'm done. It's usually my DL like my personal DLL. If I that's just how I've uh size on my trades where if I have like two three losing trades I'm forced to stop in a way.

5:32About you. virtue. There's a there's a quote and I can't remember if it came from trading in the zone, but it definitely applies to everything that's written inside that book. And it's this whole paradox for traders where we trade for freedom. Yeah. But in order to have that freedom, we have to instill rules. Yeah. And so it creates this real mindset shift which most people struggle to overcome, but something that you've really embraced. That's the thing about trading.

5:56There's no rules. Like with everything we do in life, there's rules. Like there's like boundaries, right? With trading, you had to create your own boundaries and it just trials and errors, like I said, like what rules uh fit you the best. But if you don't have rules, you're designed to fail in a way. Yeah. Yeah. I I like the way you put that. So, on the topic of rules, talk to me about firstly the reason why you started to create them. Did you feel like you were falling into a lot of these traps and mistakes that most traders are probably making now?

6:23Right. So what I've uh early on uh so I learned trading trading my personal capital. So I started in options um props when I started there was only like two options. So I I was very early in the futures prop space. Um but what I so what I started to realize is I would have winning days, right?

6:48Like I would go on streaks of I don't know a week or two and then there would be one day where I I would have a red trade and I would just keep trading and that one day I would

6:59be giving back like a week or that whole like two week stretch where I'm just my P like my uh account balance just like goes up and then one day it's like gone. It's gone. Yeah. So seeing that like happening it happened multiple times. I'm like okay I'm doing something wrong here. I have to create rules to prevent this from happening. And just like in a stock chart, right?

7:21If you're looking at a uh trend like a bullish trend, there's it doesn't go in a straight line like in an equity any equity name, it doesn't there's pullbacks. So that red day, that loss is just a pullback. But how do you make it just a pullback, not just a like a freaking start of a downtrend, like a spiral down, right? So that's when you know those type of things like I'm like okay let's think about it like the equity like your account equity balance as a stock chart.

7:47How do we prevent these just being a pull pullback to go to new highs? Yeah I like that. Uh that's how I kind of think of it, right? And that's the way I I mean trading in a way it's a game in my in my point in my perspective. It's like but the edge is what gives you the higher probability of success and then the setting the rules the mental game is the second part and I think that is bigger and I there's something else I say on Twitter so frequently is the mental side of trading is I would say 80% of trading because if you can have the you can trade any strategy in my opinion and as long as you have it depends on your strategy like okay the win rate the R like RR factor but if your mental is not right no matter what strategy you use you're not going to be successful 100% 100%.

8:27I I think people often overlook that and I mean I've been guilty of this in the past. The reason I got into coaching traders as a performance coach was purely because mindset was my biggest battle as well. Yeah. And I think the problem is in today's day and age, I don't know if this is a narrative from social media. I don't know if this is people just coming in with completely the wrong expectations and not doing their own homework. But I think most people are stuck in this idea that all of the answers I need are on the charts and if I simply spend more time doing this and if I'm more active, I will be able to find the answers that I'm looking for.

9:03Yeah. And eventually it all seems to end the same way. Exactly what you've said, exactly the experience that I've been through is you start to realize that once you get past the point of having some kind of rules or plan that gets you in and out of the market, Yeah. the rest of the game is really mental.

9:21Exactly. It's your ability to be able to juggle and manage that on a day-to-day basis to find and and get the outcomes that you're looking for. So, what would you say has been your biggest or most difficult challenge in terms of the mental game that you had to overcome? So, look, the biggest thing was fear of losing. Um because in the early stages, I would I I've traded the same for um since I started trading. I just added a few things to refine the system and make it more simple.

9:51Um, so I'm not looking at too many things, right? That's that's another thing. Looking at too many things and you end up missing it because in tra in day trading, you have to be so quick with your decisions or you miss the trade. In my especially as a scalper, in my personality, the way I trade, you have to be really quick with your decisions. Like I'm saying, you got to execute in seconds.

10:09Um but fear like fear of losing like I would the ear the biggest struggle was uh I would be in a trade and I would be looking at the P&L one that's a hor never look at the P&L um two it was I don't know just that I would get anxiety even though I I've followed the process I'm like okay I've seen this play out back testing um and I'll just get but what really got me through so that was what was the issue the biggest issue I've had and then what got me through was um realizing like I can't win every trade.

10:38Yeah. The only thing I can manage is my risk. How much I'm going to lose in uh in a day. So now and what I've been doing is before I even start trading, I know exactly what I'm risking. So my mind has already accepted okay I'm so I'm trading the this profit account. I'm going to risk this much on this prof. Worst case that's what happens. I've accepted it. I'm not coming into every day thinking I'm going to win. Okay, let's take a quick break here and I want to tell you about a prop firm that's actually trusted and proven to pay their traders.

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12:28I personally think regardless of whether you trade futures or crypto, Tradeify is the move to make. Now, make sure you use the code PFT at checkout to make sure that you get the best deal available. Links in the description below. And I I think that's a big difference for a lot of traders because I think most at least struggling or aspiring traders that I'll speak to, they actually come in with the opposite mindset.

12:47They come in expecting every day that they're going to win. No. And that's what sets them up on the wrong path. In this run that I've been on, it's I'm not really looking to make payouts. I'm just trading my system. Mhm. And so I started posting like every day like my I guess I treat my X page like my journal like I post whatever like however I do what accounts I trade proper accounts I trade. Um and then a lot of people were interested about how I'm trading like actual trading strategy.

13:16So I'm like okay let's again no when I started this I'm like all right this could be like a something to keep me public like public accountability right and then it's turned into like people are interested in the strategy now so I created a discord where I show people exactly how I trade like live streams I'm live executing I'm okay I'm in um and then when I'm not live streaming I have a commentary channel okay there's big trade like big sell orders here um it's you're seeing absorption order flow uh pattern And I'm like, "Okay, this is a point of interest.

13:49I'm saying what I'm risking and stuff, right?" And people are like, "Oh my god." But the goal is never like making like payouts in when I go into a trade. It's like I'm not going to try to make 300 for a flip day, for example, for a payout. It's like whatever I whatever I see, I'm going to take, right? It's just and that's so common in just profing. It's like people don't think about losing. So that also leads to overspending because they're already looking, they're buying an account and they're already thinking, I'm going to make this much money, but they're not looking at how hard it is to actually get to the payout.

14:17The

14:26stats, like if you look at a stat, any prop like like the amount of traders they have, I bet you it's like less than 5% make it to a payout, right? So obviously um there's a large sample size there, right? But 5%. 100%. I I want to backtrack for a second because there's something that you mentioned uh not too long ago which really stood out for me. Okay. And it was you mentioned that your biggest issue at or at least at the beginning was you had this fear of losing.

14:54Yeah. Right. Did you find that the fear of loss was an attachment to money or being wrong? Because I find that these are two very different things and you fix them in very different ways. So, I'm interested to know which one you were more attached to. It was being wrong. I I just uh it was more so Well, I think it's a mixture of both, honestly, cuz I was fixated to the P&L. Yeah. Right. And that again, fear of losing the money as well, but also being wrong be like, okay, I I feel like early on I was in under expectation I'm going to be winning a lot like almost every trade, which is just not possible.

15:35There's too much uncertainty in the markets and we don't have us retail traders, we don't have the money to control that, right? So, it was it was I would say it's a mixture of both for sure. And what do you think actually got you over that? Like was there a specific moment in time? Was there a situation? Was it a mindset shift that you made? Like how did you actually start to create that detachment away? Right. So, um it was really just accepting I'm not going to win every trade.

16:03Okay. and really factoring in, okay, I'm gonna like like I spoke about coming into the day being like, I'm gonna worst case I'm going to lose this much. So then I would risk based on how much I set myself like, okay, worst case I'm going to lose like 500. So if I'm only going to risk 500 today, I'm going to trade uh micros like less than five micros. So basing it off like that it really helped because first you set like a I guess where the max loss the risk management and then you base your sizing off that.

16:34Got you. So once you get clear on exactly what you're really fearful of then actually fixing the problem becomes quite logical because then you can work backwards. You can start your day by saying this is how much I'm willing to lose and comfortable in doing so and then you can position size accordingly. But I I think that's definitely a big takeaway for a lot of people because again I think a lot of people think about it from the opposite narrative which is I want to make X amount and to do that I need to risk this amount to make that one to two one to three worth it for for what I want to make.

17:09And that that was me early on too when I when I started with props I was just thinking about oh my god I can make 20 $30,000 risking 2,000. Yeah. I wasn't even thinking about risk how hard how hard it is to actually do it. You got it. Like at the time it was just Apex. That was the only prop firm in the space when I started with props and they have like the harder trailing where it trails you live like B like your live P&L.

17:32Didn't even didn't even care about that. I'm like, "Oh my god, you can have 20 accounts. You can you can you can make a 20 30k payout. That's crazy." Um yeah, I I mean it's it's definitely a trap, right? I I think a lot of being able to do well in the the prop firm space is is really understanding how to play the game well. Yeah. And one thing that we started off today's conversation on and I I really want to dive into and I I know it's something that you mentioned I think before we started shooting that you were quite keen on is this idea of longevity.

18:06Right. Right. One thing that I see often from traders in the prop space specifically is they are very used to this idea of being able to hit reset, starting all over again. And it's it's just become a very cheap and affordable thing to do. Now, as you'll know, as I'm sure many people watching will know, outside of the prop space, that doesn't exist. Yeah. Personal accounts, investor capital, whichever route that people are aspiring to go down, that option is is not a real thing.

18:36So actually what you're prioritizing here and the message that you send across to a lot of people about longevity is actually a skill that I think most people need to hone. Yeah. Was this something that again you you were naturally quite good at in coming into trading or is it something that you had to learn the hard way? Well um before props again I was doing personal personal account. So I traded um options personal account and then I also did futures personal account.

18:55So I went through losing large bits of money learning I call it market tuition. Nice. Nice. Learning um learning how to trade. And with props, it's so easy to just turn accounts like constantly. You can just reset. It's $100. Keep going. But what people don't realize is you're just creating bad habits doing that. And those bad habits that you you do trying to pass evaluation quickly,

19:23they transfer over into the funded account. Yeah. And many don't realize that. Many people are like, I just want to be funded so quickly so I can start making money. Well, this is I think it goes back to what you said at the very beginning about expectations, which is I think most people fool themselves into thinking the moment they get funded, life will change.

19:36Yeah. It'll be private jets and, you know, fancy watches. It's that way. I I always try and check a lot of people and say, look, the goal is not to get funded. The goal is to become consistently profitable. It's it's to execute your edge. As long as you do that, making money, getting funded, getting your payouts, they all just become a healthy byproduct of what you do.

19:57But you have to have the right mental model to begin with. And I think that's a part that most people miss. So, specifically when it comes to longevity, how do you how do you approach the market or prop firms in a specific way that prioritizes that? Whether it's in terms of your expectations going in, whether it's in terms of your risk management, whether it's in terms of how you actually trade. What does that look like for you?

20:22Well, first thing I don't copy trade. There's a there's a big uh we'll copy trade across firms. There is a huge thing going on social media for I think almost two years now where a lot of people copy trade like five six pro firms together. And for me when I look at that I I look at I'm looking at traders doing that and I'm like okay cool. It's great when it works but again one of the things when what what happens when it doesn't work?

20:47Yeah. The habits that you form. So, it's like you lose all your capital or that loss, you lose money on all those accounts. How is it going to make you feel psychology? Is it going to make you go on tilt? Me personally, if I if I see that, I'm like, "Oh, no." Like, you're just you're going back and you're just you're on the back of the eval. It's it's a stressful process, right? So, I don't copy trade um across firms like cross copy trade firms. Um so I trade one firm at a time and I don't trade every like prop firm like different like different profit accounts I want.

21:19I focus on one or two prof firm for the day and I just set a risk parameters for that prop firm based on how much buffer I have. And another thing I do is um so if I have a red day with a particular proper I don't trade that prop for a week. Interesting. Because I'm my mindset the way I think about it is okay I had a red day.

21:38I'm going to get I'm more likely to get emotional with these accounts because I had a red day. So, let me take a break from these accounts. And I can't stress the importance of breaks. I've had streaks where I I've been red for a week. I take a you need to clear your mind, you know? People don't People don't take breaks and that's how they lose more money. They go back in right away spending money on evals and the mindset is just not there.

22:03You're not you're it's all your trading performance is telling you, hey, slow down. You need to take a break. If you don't want to take a break, just do one one account. Don't copy trade sets of five. 100%. I think it's such an important point and I I tend to find that we as retail traders Yeah. are the worst at taking time off. We we seem to think like, you know, on average 252 trading days in a year, I need to be trading every single one of those.

22:27It's, you know, it's it's a mentality that I think needs to stop. And actually, not that I advocate for this a lot. If people think back to what life is like in a normal 9 to5 job, in a lot of places, you're required to have mandatory time off, right? You have to take a minimum amount of days because they understand it has an impact on performance. Exactly. And so, I think we as retail traders, the problem is, and going back to what you touched on earlier, there's no rules.

22:53There's no boss. There's no contracts. There's no limitations. You have to be the one that's strong enough, bold enough, smart enough to get out of your own way and to understand that actually there's a limitation on how much my mind can handle. It doesn't matter how good the setup is. Maybe I need to prioritize taking that step back and you know Yeah. doing things in a more sustainable way. Exactly.

23:17And few other thing other things I do, right? So there's certain market environments. So I've been trading I've been trading NQ and ES. Even when I was doing options, I was looking at ESN and NQ because all the equity names I traded like I would trade Apple options and Nvidia options, they're all heavily weighted on both the indexes. So I I was still watching ES and NQ. So sometimes when they're slower, the volatility is not there, that's when I don't even trade the funded accounts.

23:45I will go and eval even though I have those funded accounts. I'm not because the environment is not right to be trading them for that day or that week. So that's when I build I guess reserves people call it. Um I was like okay it's like practice in a way but back to what the reason I brought that up is you mentioned not trading every day right so I'm like risk down what I still want to be exposed to the market and learn because I'm constantly learning every every time I'm watching the markets at the end of the day I'm reviewing that's one of my rules I have to do it else I feel like if I don't review I'm going to miss an important piece of information that I can um with order flow right that's I'm looking at the order book seeing what's going on at if there's a big seller positioned what if it comes back tested that if I don't review I might miss it the next day.

24:32So that's another important thing reviewing um what happened even my main session I trade is just from 9:30 to like 12 cuz what's the point of staying on the computer it's

24:45like a nine toive job 100% I'm trade for freedom right and to really uh set my me and my family up for the future and I don't want to be at the desk like working like a nineto-ive job. Yeah, I mean it's completely fair point. The the thing that you mentioned about reviewing Yeah. Massive. And I think the the part that again a lot of traders lack is actually having the data to sit down and review it.

25:09But what does that look like for you? Do you keep a journal throughout your day? Do you is this something that you're doing end of day and then going through a reflection process? Like what does that reflection look like for you? Yeah. So I just use I use notion. Uh so I just look at so how I traded. That's number one. the the first thing I look at is how um win or loss doesn't matter.

25:29Review that and be like, "Okay, what did I miss? What could I have missed?" And I and a lot of order flow I can't really back test. So, it's just like looking at it real market, noting it down. So, that when I'm trading real life, I I actually have a journal be like, "Okay, this is what I see." Cuz sometimes um what I've noticed is I have a bias or like, "Okay, this is looking long."

25:48But then if you look at something for too long, that could change. It's like if you look at chop for too long, it starts to look good. True. So, what's helped me is I have a journal, right? I'm just writing out, okay, this is chop. This is chop. So, I'm just looking at it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. This is chop. This is not trending right now. It's just in this range stuck in as I'm writing out.

26:09Okay, this is stuck in this range. Do not get involved in this range. So, that's it helps me exercise patience of just waiting, right? And that's another important skill is creating a plan and just waiting. M that's where my that's that's a big part of my edge is I know that there's big buyer seller at this level I'm just waiting if it doesn't come back fine I'm watching the markets maybe another level developed if it doesn't I'm not going to trade yeah there was this uh there was a really good graphic that was shared by a trader on social media I think he had it as his uh banner on X and it was basically a graphic that says um this is your plan this is where you execute and then Everything in the middle is where you screw it up basically because people just don't have that ability to sit on their hands.

26:48You you need to that's so again I guess not really a rule but what I told you what I do I just have a journal writing like inner like what I'm thinking in the moment really not just in my head you got to get that on a piece of paper or something right I just use notes to put all that information so I know cuz sometimes if you look at something for too long it starts to look good when it's not when it's not.

27:07Yeah 100%. The the the problem is the human mind is wired in a way that you will find whatever you're looking for. Yeah. If your if your inner belief is that I'm a trader and I need to be in the markets today, doesn't matter what the price action is doing, you will find a way to justify a trade. Yeah. And so I think you have to come in with the right mindset to begin with. And again goes, this is going completely full circle to where we started today's conversation, which is expectations.

27:37And I actually think the better expectation for most people is to tell yourself that actually your job is not to trade today. It's to observe. Once you've lost all logical reason to sit on the sidelines and do nothing, then you should be getting involved. It was a lesson that I took away early into my journey. I didn't come up with this idea. I definitely wasn't smart enough to do so. Um, but it's it's something that stuck with me a lot and I think a lot of traders would would benefit from the the same mindset as as well as that.

28:08Um, so talk to me a little bit about orderflow because you've mentioned this a few

28:14times throughout today. It's not something that I'm familiar with in how I trade. Yeah. Um, how does it give you an edge in the market? How do you use it on a day-to-day basis? Yeah. So, for me or what so what really how I really got an order flow when so I've always traded support and resistance um going back to when I started with options um and looking for momentum plays there. But the the part that was always missing is so I I could draw area or zone but that confirmation factor okay was missing.

28:42It's like okay when price comes back to that level or like I'm just expecting to reject a buyer or seller doesn't have to come at that level. It's like it happened in the past. So using the past to really make the decision no I want to be able to see what's happening in the moment. And with order flow you can really dive in actually see the transactions happening at that level.

28:58And with futures, all the orders come through one exchange, CME. So all that gets aggregated into one exchange. So you can see real time what orders are taking place. And you can actually see, okay, I have this level. They're defending. There's a thousand, sorry, thousand lots on ES for example, hitting the bid. So that's an aggressive seller at this point. And then I'm using tools like Delta Profile that shows you absorption. So absorption is uh pretty much so let's just say there's a big buy order, right?

29:28So on the orders and the offer there's like 100 200 lots coming in on NQ but price is not moving it's just stuck. So that means there is a passive seller in the market observing those orders, right? So and market moves based on who's aggressive. If no, there's not aggressive buyer or seller, we're just stuck in chop or balance. So once that once you can in order flow, you can actually see which side is being aggressive and find a way to join the trend.

29:56Or if it's in a balance state, you can look at where the edges of value are and see how it reacts. A lot of the times when markets are in balance, this is where retail traders get trapped. They try to anticipate the move of a breakout. Why not just stick to what the market is telling you? The market is telling you it wants to stay in balance. Trade the edges of the range. If it's trending, stay patient and wait for a pullback with a good riskreward.

30:18Why are you looking for the top? Why are you looking for the reversal? And with prop firms, you I feel like the you have to look for high probability setups with the limited amount of draw down you get. Yeah. And re if you're a reversal trader, you're going to have uh lower win rate. That's just how the stats are. If you're trading actual like RR uh risk reward, you're going to have a lower and but so how are you I feel like as a reversal trader, like if you're doing counter trends, how are you going to manage the losses to keep them small compared to the wins when you have limited draw down when you start out a prop account?

30:50M. So that is another big edge that I think like if you just stick to what the market's telling you. If it's a bounce, stick with the like trading the edges and seeing if there's trapped buyers or sellers and playing it back into the range or the opposite side of the uh value or if it's trending, wait for a pullback and get in on the pullback.

31:10That's what I kind of emphasizes a lot on Twitter on Discord is just we just have to be patient and see how the market

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31:45You can add playbooks, trade replay, full back testing, all in one single tool. By using Tradezella, you'll not only understand all of your trading data, but you'll get feedback on exactly what's working and what isn't. Use code PFT for 20% off the yearly subscription or PFT10 for 10% off the monthly. Try it out and watch your trading transform. I think there's a lot that you've shared there.

32:10And whether you know it consciously or not, I think you're demonstrating a lot of the benefit of having rules, a lot of the benefit of having, you know, experiences that you haven't necessarily enjoyed and you've had to learn from them. Um, and it's it's something that I think a lot of new traders, they really lack. And I I like the idea of being able to give traders some wisdom and guidance so that they don't have to make the same mistakes that we necessarily did.

32:37Um, is there something that you would say to a new trader that hasn't been through those painful experiences yet, that doesn't yet have the rules in place as to why it's so important for you to be able to do that? Okay. So, if you don't have rules, I don't you're setting yourself up to fail. That's number one, right? And no matter what you do in trading, like trade your personal money or props, if you don't have rules, you might get payouts, but you might give all that money that you made in payouts right back.

33:01Cuz anyone can get a payout. In my opinion, it's about how can you do it consistently. Yeah. Over months, a year, cuz it's like when you go to a casino, right? If you hit, this is a um if you hit the slots x amount of times, you're going to hit one time. Just like with payouts, right? If you keep doing churning accounts, you're eventually going to hit. Yeah. But at the end of the day, how much did you spend to get that payout?

33:32That's the important part. Yeah. And but I mean, that's the uh the side of social media that not a lot of people really see. Everyone focuses on the payouts. They're not understanding what went into actually making that payout. So, when I do my uh monthly recaps, I talk about payouts and how much I spent because I want to be as transparent as possible. This is if I make if I get like 20k payout and I spend 20k like I'm not proud of that.

33:56Yeah. Like why am I going to try to sell that? Like no I'm I'm break even. That sucks. I just wasted all that time. True. True. It it's become very clear that transparency online is is a big part of what you do. So it is definitely that's one of the reasons another reason I I would say other than like sharing like having a public journal is I was just I was trading quietly. It was it was so boring honestly. I was trading quietly the same way for years trading props like like I said I was I was in early on Apex and back then top was like a two-step program.

34:34There weren't many options around. It was just like the CFD firms dominating back then. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I've been trading for I've I've just seen what's been going on social media and I'm like some of the stuff you see is not realistic. It creates false image of what's out there. And my journey I started out small. I was trading one account back.

34:56Well, when I actually learned the first I made the same mistake as everyone be like, "Oh my god, you can get 20 accounts. Let me buy five 10 accounts not even caring about the rules." Like the consistency I didn't even know. I'm like, "Okay, yeah, you can spend 500 bucks, make 10,000. That's crazy. Let me do that. But that's not how that's not how props are structured. Yeah. And no one really talks about how much they spend to get the payout.

35:17That's another thing. So that's I want to kind of emphasize that and be as transparent as possible because not many people are doing it. 100%. I I agree. And I I think the space definitely needs a lot more of it because I mean I've been trading for a while. Yeah. And the one thing I have found is the statistics for becoming profitable, I don't think they've really changed over time.

35:39If anything, they've probably gotten worse. And when I when I first started, I think my first hurdle was I need to find the right information, right? Where where do I go to? Because back then there was nobody on YouTube. There was no courses. There were no social media gurus. There was none of that. So back then it was

36:01about where do you find the right information. In today's day and age, I would actually argue and I agree with some of our guests take on this is I think there's almost too much information. Yeah. And maybe to put it more specifically, too much misinformation. Yeah. And that creates a lot of the wrong expectations. That is what sets people up to fail long before they've even started, which is, you know, never a path that you you really want to go down whatsoever.

36:20So, I think what you're doing is great. I think more people need to follow in those footsteps and just share the true highs and lows. Yeah. And forget the fact that, you know, social media doesn't necessarily have to be this highlight reel of just the glamorous moments and, you know, the ones that people generally like to share. Um, I want to talk a little bit about payouts. Yes. But not specifically about the amounts. Okay. Just primarily about the the mindset behind them and why I think most people are are struggling with this.

36:49Because at least from a general perspective from my side and again please feel free to tell me if you have a different view on this I find that most traders are either struggling to even make their first payout and if they do it's gone and they never make it to the second one. Yeah. What is it do you what do you find that most people are doing wrong in that situation that's stopping them from achieving the thing that we're trying to get across here which is longevity in this game?

37:13Well, I don't think many people don't think they're short-term mindset is what I would say in one if I had to say one word, it's they're not leaving enough buffer in the account. That's what I see. They're just looking at a payout and they're like, "Oh my god, I bait it. Let me take this payout. I did I'm I did x amount of ROI, but they don't think about if you take the second third payout, that ROI grows exponentially." Yeah. Right. And that's that's where the real money is made.

37:47the second to third payout. The first payout should be like a setup where you build the buffer and you if if possible take not the max payout you got to set yourself to have a red day. Most people when they take the max payout they can and they don't have a little buffer that red day means a blow up and it starts like a tilt cycle because now they're they didn't think about that outcome.

38:08They're like, "Oh my god, I blew the account. I got to go to Eva." So they just they get their credit card out, debit card out back on that turn cycle to get funded real quick. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a big problem for a lot of people and I I like the idea of the way that you frame that. It's very businessoriented, right? Thinking about it in terms of money going in versus money coming out. Exactly. Um and again, I think it's it's something that a lot of people need to put more emphasis and focus on.

38:32And another thing I think about is look, if I'm always in the mindset of how can I transfer what I'm learning here like with prop firms into a live environment like not just strategy but like the risk management settings where some props you should enforce a personal DL. they don't require one. But in a personal account with futures, you can lose you can get a margin call in a day if you don't have a personal DL, right?

38:54Or lose everything you have, right? Um prop, it's great that props are around, but what about the future? If let's just say a lot of the props, I hope it doesn't happen, but a lot of them like if some new regulation comes along and some some props there will be le what if there's less options in the space, right? So, and then you're kind of forced to trade personal. But what if your strategy that you've developed is just a sim sim funded?

39:20It doesn't transfer to the live market strategy. Yeah. And there's a lot of traders like that, I find. Yeah. And I mean, I'll say it here. My goal this year is to really show that part trading not just um live like my personal account, but really no one cares about a live account at a prop firm right now. There's some good programs, but I think I want to really emphasize that.

39:42And there's certain prop firms that give you the same leverage. And there's a good argument for the traders and I agree that some prop firms they

39:51just take away your leverage. The whole point of profirms is you get cheap leverage compared to you would in a personal account, right? So you can pay like way less and get get crazy leverage. But most don't I guess respect the leverage because they size in with that leverage too early. Yeah. But if you build a buffer and if you get good volatility day and it's part of your system and you have that buffer built, that's when you can size in.

40:14And that's when the big days come. That's how my big days come because I have the buffer built and there's a days where you get two 300 point volatility or NQ. You can capture like right now as we're recording this crazy volatility. Um metals are going crazy. Um Bitcoin is going crazy, crypto, all the markets are moving right now like huge ranges and it's a great time to capitalize 100%. There's um I I think what you've kind of summarized here though, it goes back to the previous point that you made really well, which is I think most traders just lack that long-term perspective when it comes to what they do.

40:44They look at either the money in their accounts at the moment. They don't think about the second, third, fourth, fifth payout in terms of ROI. And it has a big impact on their their whole psychology going forward. And again, it just sets them up on a path to not really thrive. And I wanted to bring this up early. I just I just forgot. Um, another rule that I have is only spending X amount in uh proferm fees like for EVO cost.

41:15Um, so I try to keep my spending between like five, six, but I'm averaging 100K in payouts right now for the past five months. So I try to keep the spend low like that ratio. Um, and if you have that rule then cuz right now if you don't have that rule like cuz we we're talking about rules here you don't know how much you're spending until cuz you're just going you're just in that tilt mindset and you're just like okay fail again reset reset reset.

41:42You're not seeing it. You're not you have no value in that moment of how much you're spending. But if you keep track of that you're like okay whoa I'm spending a lot. I still have I had this limit and there's still two weeks to go before the end of the month. Let me slow down for today. It kind of helps you slow down. be like, "Okay, today's not the day. I only have x amount of money left that for as part of my rules.

42:00Let me stop." Yeah, 100%. And but you know, and again, I think a lot of our conversation is cycling back to previous things that we have said, which is a beautiful thing, by the way, but it goes back to this idea of treating props like a business, right? There are certain times where if you were to run a business, maybe it's optimal to spend money and certain times where it's good to scale back. It's managing a budget, right? And it's it's something that not a lot of people learn how to do from the get- go, right?

42:26I think and again an overarching message that I'm most definitely taking away from this conversation is you have to be looking at props like a business, having a plan, having a budget, understanding how to manage risk and capital on a day-to-day basis. And this is the kind of infrastructure that sets you up to succeed in the long run. Would you agree? Yeah. 100%. All right. Awesome. Um, okay. Uh, Yush, I wanna I want to start winding things down a little bit.

42:52I have a couple of things that I like to do with every guest towards the very end of the show. The first one starts with a few quickfire questions. Okay. Um, nothing crazy, nothing taxing, nothing you need to be worried about. Um,

43:08just literally I got three questions I want to run by you. Um, the first one, I'm actually super keen on this because we've talked about this a lot today. Um, what is one rule that has saved you the most money? Uh, DLL. Nice. Okay. Um, what's one setup you'd keep if you could only trade one? Uh, I call it look above and fail, which is like a false breakout or false breakdown. Nice. Um, one reason most funded traders fail.

43:36Um, ex Well, one reason you said, right? One reason. M false expectations. Nice. I like that. Um one that I want to add on that I think maybe you'll give some good insight to is um favorite book. Favorite book. Um can I give two there's two I really like. So Trading in the Zone really good book and uh the best losers win. Tom Hugot. Great book. Yeah. Both very psychology focused but both amazing books. Love that. Um, okay. Last part of the show that I want to run by with you.

44:11Uh, we're doing a little bit of a segment with which we're calling confessions of a trader. Okay. So, at some point in the future, these are going to be real confessions that are submitted by our audience. But for now, I'm coming up with these scenarios that I want to run by each of our guests, and I want you to give me your raw insights, your thoughts, your feedback, your advice from somebody that is stuck in this specific position. Okay. So today's confession is I had a super profitable 2025.

44:38I got 800K in funding capital and then I lost it all in December's terrible price action. I'm feeling lost right now. I don't know what to do. Okay. So, what I would say I think definitely take like a week or two off cuz it will help you reset and uh once you feel I would say kind of refreshed or you're forgetting about like that dark time I would say um get back to trading but really start small maybe one or two accounts uh get that confidence back and then uh get those get to funded get a payout and use some of the portion of that payout to buy more evals.

45:19Nice practical but very very good advice. I like it, man. Yush, it's been a pleasure speaking to you today. Thank you so much for being here, man. Yeah, no problem. Awesome. All right, guys and girls, it is that time of the episode again. What were your thoughts on today? What was your biggest takeaway and what was your biggest perspective shift as a result of today's conversation? Let us know in the comments below. We're going to be reading every single message, and I want to know how this is going to impact your trading career going forward.

45:42If you'd like to participate in these shows, you've seen from the trader confessions, we are open to taking submissions. So, check the description box below, submit your confession to us, and we will be reading it out to a future guest going forward. As always, if you've enjoyed this conversation, make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel, and check out some of the other episodes on the screen in front of you. I'll see you guys in the next one.