Proprietary Trading Chronicles - [r]Evolution of a trader

Happy new 2025 and yes we are back with PTC series of articles unveiling the ultimate world of prop trading. Today we will discuss a topic requested by our poll in December - The [r]Evolution of a Trader. This article will be more "Funky" written as we are getting into things that need a high degree of critical thinking, self-awareness, imagination and market read.

So why I call this the [R]Evolution instead of Trader development and/or some other more common description? Why we are going into a dystopian topic of the "Matrix" series? Why the path to successful and consistent trading is so blurred ?

Get your weekend coffee, sit down and lets begin.

First of all I would like to emphasize that trading and investing is probably the most sophisticated game in the world that requires a wide range of skills, knowledge, information and capabilities from a human being. Because of this, traders are often compared to professional athletes as this is a high performant job that unveils all the strengths and weaknesses of a human being.

Secondly, a clear path into a trader career does not exist. We all have our own starting points, mental strengths and weaknesses. Our experience of past can drag us into situations when we have to admit that we don't know what we don't know. The journey to success in this business is a lonely one, that is why we believe that trading can not be taught, it can be mastered with a help of a team or a mentor, but the main steps should be done by the individual himself.

Last but not the least - most of us fall into Jungian Psychology Theory of a Hero architype that is very well represented by a trader profession, when an individual can goes through sophisticated obstacles and resurrect into a winner, hero, professional trader.

Jimmy - The trader

Lets take an example of a character named "Jimmy". He is highly motivated, young, ambitious individual, capable to learn all the technicals, educated enough to understand the forces of the markets and connect the dots between global macro, sectors, cycles, earnings, risks and execution. Jimmy managed to get into a small prop-firm and is starting trading a 250k account. Despite all his perfect profile, good mentorship from peers, a clear strategy, Jimmy is still struggling after the first 3 months. He is not losing money, but he does not make either. His enthusiasm and ability to operate slowly fall, until he decides to change his approach.

[this is a common style drift problem for a lot of traders that do not have strong discipline and confidence in their system]

After the new adjustments, Jimmy has a few good months but then he is starting to give back his gains slowly, and then again, the approach is updated. Jimmy does a post trade analysis and identifies that if he had been with his initial strategy he would have been 75k in profits on month 7 but because he kept drifting he is only 20k in positive territory. Jimmy has to pay the bills, Jimmy is sad and frustrated.

The moral of the story:

1. If you are given a strategy that works in certain market environments, learn when you should be aggressive with it and when to step down.
2. Do not strategy drift.
3. Adjust the strategy to your personality.

Why [r]EVOLUTION?

• The moment the trader decides that he is done doing mistakes going in circles, style drift, overtrade.
• The moment he no longer wants to be a rookie.
• The moment he starts to take this activity like his life depends on it.
• The moment when its not a fun game but a serious operational business.

These are moments when the trader has its own internal REVOLUTION and this is when the true growth starts.

Trader development at Wealth Mill :

The first 3 months are for training purposes, both in terms of information and strategy absorption. This does include trading a real account with small risk.

The month 3-6 is the period when the trader starts to see how his approach works in a wider market environments given a few earnings seasons and market short term cycles.

Month 6-12 is then the trader understands when to be aggressive and when to keep its path in Prius Mode (slow and steady) preserving capital and managing risk.

The real cash-flow and growth starts from month +/- 13 when the trader comes to a point when he is ready for his own REVOLUTION.

At this point, his growth is exponential, the risks are increased from $50-$250-$1000+ per trade. The level of discipline and accountability is at 100%. The level of market read and action based on market alignment and strategy sinch is consistently high.

Many of us want to trade, but very few, truly take it as a mechanism to create wealth. That is another revelation of the Revolution phase. Some traders come to this sooner than later, some are prepared from the start and have a very PnL focused thinking.

Concluding this small article I want to ask a question:

WHY ARE YOU TRADING?

[you can answer in the comments below]

Y.K.